When I opened my eyes again, the light was soft no longer the violent, burning sky I'd fallen under.
For a moment, I thought I had woken back in the lab in Kyoto. The faint hum of energy, the sterile scent of ozone... but then, the walls curved like glass petals, breathing with faint veins of light.
A hand extended toward me. Kael's.
"Easy, traveler," he said in that melodic language that was slowly beginning to make sense in my head. "You're safe now. Welcome to Elaris."
Elaris.
The word thrummed through me like a forgotten melody.
I sat up, clutching the thin, iridescent sheet that covered me. My body still ached from the energy pulse that had ripped me from my world, but I felt... lighter. My heart was racing.
Through the translucent walls, I could see the city rising like a dream made solid — towers of glass and metal interlaced with what looked like living vines, bioluminescent threads pulsing gently along their surfaces. The air shimmered faintly with particles that moved in organized patterns, almost like digital fireflies.
"I... I'm alive," I murmured.
Kael's lips curved slightly. "You are fortunate. The Rift rarely spares its victims."
"The Rift?"
He glanced toward the panoramic opening, where energy lines converged into the horizon. "What you called the portal... our world calls it the Rift. A wound in space. A promise, and a curse."
My pulse quickened. A wound.
We'd opened it no, i had helped open it. That experiment in Kyoto, the resonance field, the cascade reaction when the stabilizer failed. I remembered shouting "yamete!" as the surge built... and then light, noise, oblivion.
Now here I was. Somewhere impossible.
"Kael-san," I said softly, testing the name on my tongue. "Why... why did you save me?"
He looked at me for a long moment. His eyes silvery, almost metallic reflected faint currents of emotion. "Because you appeared at the edge of the Shield. No living being should survive that. Yet you did."
He paused, his expression unreadable. "The Council will want to know why."
He turned away, motioning for me to follow.
We walked through corridors that curved like living arteries, light rippling beneath our feet. My scientist's instincts were screaming this place was alive, yet engineered. Bio-synthetic architecture, maybe a fusion of organic matter and nanotech. Every wall pulsed faintly in rhythm with something deep underground.
"Everything here... it feels connected," I said, unable to hide my awe.
Kael inclined his head. "Elaris breathes. The city core distributes energy through living conduits. It sustains us, and we sustain it. You'll see soon enough."
As we emerged into daylight, I gasped.
The city was a tapestry of wonder. Suspended walkways stretched between floating spires; gardens bloomed upside down from hovering platforms. People in flowing garments of light-woven fabric moved with grace, their skin reflecting faint hues like refracted light.
But what caught my breath most were the children playing near the plaza. One of them laughed a sound pure and innocent and then leapt into the air, momentarily hovering as energy currents danced beneath her feet.
"Sugee..." I whispered. "They can manipulate gravity?"
Kael smiled faintly. "A gift of the Core. To you, it may look like technology. To us, it is harmony with the Aether."
The scientist in me bristled. Harmony or not, this was energy manipulation possibly quantum or gravitational wave control. The implications were staggering.
But another thought pulsed beneath it:
If they could do this... could they also open portals? Could they send me home?
The Council Hall rose in the distance an enormous crystalline dome shimmering with symbols that rearranged themselves like living language. As we approached, Kael's demeanor shifted.
"You must speak carefully," he murmured. "The Council does not easily trust outsiders. Especially those who fall from the Rift."
I nodded, trying to steady my nerves. "Got it. Be polite, don't panic, and definitely don't mention that I helped create a Rift on my own world."
Kael almost smiled. "Wise advice."
As we entered the hall, a low hum filled the air. Figures stood in a circle eight of them their forms draped in garments that glowed with the same bioluminescent script as the walls. The light from the dome filtered through them, painting their faces in ethereal hues.
One of them, a woman with eyes like molten gold, stepped forward.
"So... the anomaly lives."
I felt every gaze fall upon me. My throat tightened.
Kael bowed his head. "Councilor Lyra, she survived the Rift breach. I brought her before you as ordered."
Lyra's gaze scanned me from head to toe. "Another world's child, bound to the same wound that threatens ours." She tilted her head. "Tell us your name."
I swallowed hard. "Akiya. Akiya Tanaka."
She repeated it softly, the syllables strange in her mouth. "Akiya... the Rift whispers your arrival was not chance."
Her words sent a chill through me.
"What do you mean?" I asked.
Lyra's expression didn't change. "The Rift opened on its own this time. No device, no ceremony. It reacted as if called."
My heart skipped. "That's impossible. Rifts don't just... open."
"Then perhaps you are the impossibility," she said quietly.
The room fell silent.
Kael shifted beside me, his jaw tense. "Councilor, she is disoriented. She may not understand what....."
Lyra raised a hand, silencing him. "Enough. The Core has spoken. She will stay under your watch, Kael. Until we learn the truth."
He hesitated, then bowed. "As you command."
As they turned away, I exhaled shakily. The Council's stares lingered like heat on my skin.
Outside the hall, I finally let myself breathe. "What was that about? They looked at me like I'm some kind of threat."
Kael glanced toward the sky. "Because you might be. If your arrival weakened the Rift, Elaris could fall."
"Fall?"
"The energy from the Rift sustains our world's balance. When it surges out of control, it devours the Core and everything with it." He looked at me, his expression grim. "If that happens again, we won't survive."
I stared at him, numb. My experiment... my failure... had followed me here.
For a moment, I wanted to scream. To deny it. But then I saw the faint flicker of light in Kael's eyes not coldness, but something else. Pity? Or hope?
I turned toward the horizon, where the Rift shimmered faintly above distant mountains like a wound in the sky.
"I didn't mean for this to happen," I whispered. "I just wanted to prove it was possible... to connect worlds."
Kael's voice softened. "Perhaps it was not a mistake, Akiya. Perhaps the Rift chose you for that reason."
I looked at him, confused. "Chose me?"
He met my gaze steadily. "Our prophecies speak of a 'Wanderer from the Shattered Gate' one who bridges the dying light and the living flame."
I almost laughed. "Prophecies? I'm a physicist, not some chosen hero."
Kael smiled faintly. "Then perhaps the universe has a sense of humor."
Despite everything, I smiled too.
The wind shifted, carrying faint echoes of song through the city not electronic, not mechanical, but alive, resonant. And for a heartbeat, I felt something stir inside me like the same hum that powered Elaris pulsed beneath my own skin.
I looked down at my palm, where faint traces of blue light flickered between my veins.
"Kael..." I said softly. "What's happening to me?"
His expression darkened, eyes flicking to the glow beneath my skin. "That... is what we must find out."
I woke to the low hum of energy pulsing through the room soft, rhythmic, like a heartbeat echoing beneath glass. For a moment, I forgot where I was. Then the smell of metal and ozone brought it all rushing back.
Elaris. The Rift. The Council. Kael.
And the faint glow still threading through my veins.
I sat up and stared at my palm. The faint blue light flickered in time with the city's hum. It didn't hurt, but I could feel it the way you feel your own pulse after running too hard.
"Damn it..." I muttered. "What did I do to myself?"
A soft knock at the door.
"Enter," I said, though my voice trembled.
Kael stepped in, dressed in a form-fitting silver uniform that shimmered like woven light. "You're awake."
I nodded, rubbing my arm self-consciously. "Barely."
He glanced at the faint glow beneath my skin. "It's spreading faster than I expected."
"Nani? Spreading?" I blurted. "You make it sound like a virus!"
He tilted his head, clearly not understanding the word, but his expression said enough. "The Aether within you responds to the Core's rhythm. That should be impossible for an offworlder."
Aether again. I'd heard the word before when he'd talked about gravity, energy, life.
"You mean that energy field thing?" I asked.
"Yes. The life-breath of Elaris."
I exhaled sharply. "And now it's inside me."
Kael hesitated. "The Council wishes to test that."
I frowned. "Test?"
He nodded. "The Core Resonance Chamber. It measures one's alignment with the Aether. If you can harmonize with it without dying... then perhaps you truly are what the prophecies speak of."
"Wow. Comforting." I stood, tugging at the hem of my borrowed tunic. "And if I can't?"
He looked away. "Then the Core will reject you."
"Reject me how?"
He didn't answer.
The Resonance Chamber was nothing like I'd imagined.
It wasn't a machine, not exactly. The chamber walls rippled like translucent silk, filled with liquid light. In the center floated a crystalline sphere, glowing faintly the same shade of blue that now pulsed in my veins.
Councilor Lyra stood beside it, her golden eyes unreadable. "You are certain?" she asked Kael.
He bowed. "She must understand what she carries."
Lyra's gaze flicked to me. "Then let us see if she is truth... or threat."
Two guards placed their hands on the sphere, murmuring in that melodic language. Symbols blossomed across its surface mathematical, geometric, alive.
I stepped forward, heart pounding. Every instinct screamed at me to run, but curiosity the same reckless curiosity that led to the experiment back home burned stronger.
If this energy was connected to my body, I had to understand it.
I reached out.
The moment my fingertips brushed the surface, a shockwave rippled through the chamber.
Light exploded.
I gasped, stumbling back but my hand was stuck, fused to the sphere by a web of blue lightning. I could feel it not burning, but resonating. It was inside my head, inside my chest, thrumming with my heartbeat.
Images flashed the Kyoto lab, my friends shouting, the Rift tearing open, the sky splitting. Then a new image, this world, Elaris, rising from ruins, the Rift above it pulsing like a wounded heart.
And beneath it all... something watching.
The light deepened, turning violet. The air thickened with pressure. I heard voices whispers, not in any language I knew, but they spoke to me.
「...Kimi wa... kagi da...」
(You are... the key...)
I gasped. "Who's there?"
Lyra's voice was distant. "Her readings impossible! The Core recognizes her!"
The ground trembled.
Kael shouted something , but his voice was drowned out by the roar of the energy field bursting outward. I screamed as the light enveloped me then darkness.
When I came to, the room was in chaos. Fractures glowed in the crystal walls, and energy still hissed faintly in the air. Kael knelt beside me, gripping my shoulders.
"Akiya! Can you hear me?"
I groaned. "I think so. Ow... everything hurts."
He exhaled, visibly relieved. Around us, the Council whispered in alarm. Lyra stared at me as though seeing a ghost.
"She didn't just survive," Lyra murmured. "She stabilized the Core. The resonance field is stronger than before."
Kael looked at me, astonished. "You..restored balance."
I blinked. "Wait..... I did what now?"
Lyra approached slowly. "You have done what no native could. The Core obeyed you."
"That wasn't obedience," I muttered. "It was like it knew me."
Lyra studied me in silence for a long moment, then said quietly, "The Rift calls across worlds. Perhaps it found its reflection in you."
Her gaze turned sharp. "But this power will draw attention,not all of it friendly. The Aetherborn will sense the shift."
Kael stiffened. "The Aetherborn? They're extinct."
Lyra's eyes darkened. "So we believed."
I looked between them, frustrated. "Okay, someone explain before my brain implodes who or what are the Aetherborn?"
Kael's voice lowered. "They were once like us — children of Elaris. But when they tried to consume the Core's energy instead of harmonizing with it, they became something else. Their bodies twisted, their souls bound to hunger."
I shivered. "And you think they'll come for me?"
Lyra's expression was grim. "If they sense a new resonance strong enough to heal the Core, they will not ignore it."
Silence fell.
Then Kael straightened, his hand resting lightly on his weapon. "Then I will keep her safe."
Lyra's gaze hardened. "That is not a request, Kael. It is your duty now."
That night, Elaris glowed softer, almost mournful.
From the balcony outside my quarters, I could see the faint shimmer of the Rift far in the distance. It pulsed like a heartbeat in the sky, casting the horizon in shades of violet and silver.
Kael stood beside me, silent.
"So... prophecy girl, huh?" I said quietly. "I didn't exactly sign up for this."
He smiled faintly. "Few ever do."
I leaned on the railing, the faint Aether-glow still visible under my skin. "Back home, I wanted to prove that parallel worlds existed. Now I'm standing in one, and I have no idea how to get back."
Kael's eyes softened. "Do you truly wish to go back?"
The question hit harder than I expected.
"I..." I hesitated. "I don't know. There's nothing waiting for me there except a failed experiment and a destroyed lab."
"Then perhaps the Rift brought you here for a reason."
I sighed, watching the stars shimmer. "You talk like fate is real."
He looked at me, the faintest smile touching his lips. "In Elaris, fate is simply energy, it flows where it must. You cannot destroy it. Only follow its current."
For a moment, neither of us spoke. The wind whispered between us, carrying the faint scent of glowing blossoms from the gardens below.
Then, far beyond the city walls, a tremor of energy rolled through the air ,. deep, resonant, wrong.
Kael's head snapped up. "That's not the Core..."
Before I could ask, the horizon rippled and something dark surged through the Rift's light, like a shadow clawing its way out of the sky.
The alarms of Elaris began to howl.
Kael's hand found mine, firm and warm.
"Stay close, Akiya. They've found you."
...to be continued....