The journey to the City of Glass took three long days across barren plains that shimmered under the Riftlight. Each step felt heavier than the last, as if the air itself was pressing down on us. The horizon glowed faintly, a mirage of crystal towers rising from mist, beautiful and haunting.
Ren was the first to speak that morning. "So, this place… anyone know what we're walking into?"
Lyra, her robe fluttering softly behind her, looked ahead with unreadable calm. "The City of Glass was once the heart of the Astral Order. It was built to reflect the light of both sun and star. Now it reflects only what remains of us."
Kael's hand rested near his sword. "Sounds like you're saying it's haunted."
"It remembers," she said simply.
The wind carried her words away, but they lingered in my mind. I could feel something pulling at me the closer we came a resonance like an invisible song that matched the rhythm of my pulse.
When we finally reached the city's edge, I stopped breathing for a moment. The ruins were made entirely of translucent crystal, like frozen water shaped by a dream. Sunlight passed through the buildings and scattered across the streets in rainbow fragments. Pools of light shimmered across the ground, reflecting a thousand colors.
"It's beautiful," I whispered.
Ren crouched beside a cracked pillar, running his fingers along the etched markings. "Beautiful and impossible. These structures are fused at the molecular level. No tool could have made this."
Lyra's voice grew quiet. "It wasn't built. It was grown."
We moved deeper into the city. The streets were eerily empty, except for faint echoes voices that weren't quite there, laughter carried on the wind. I caught glimpses of movement in the reflections, but whenever I turned, there was nothing.
"Kael," I said softly, "do you hear that?"
He nodded. "Voices. But they're not alive."
Before I could respond, a low hum filled the air. The crystal towers around us began to glow faintly, as if awakening. Then, from one of the side streets, a shadow emerged.
"Don't move," Ren said, his hand on his tool.
The figure stepped into the light, revealing a tall man dressed in worn armor made of shining glass fragments. His hair was silver, streaked with pale blue, and his eyes glowed faintly not with magic, but with knowledge.
"I knew someone would come," he said, voice calm but cautious. "The city whispered your arrival three days ago."
Lyra bowed slightly. "You are one of the Keepers."
The man's gaze softened. "Once. Now I am only Soren, last of the Archivists of the Glass Vault." He looked at each of us, lingering on me. "And you… you carry the Rift inside you."
I hesitated. "You can sense it?"
Soren nodded. "The light bends around your presence. The Rift knows you as its creator."
Kael stepped forward defensively. "She's not its creator. She's trying to fix what went wrong."
A faint smile touched Soren's lips. "Then perhaps you are the one the Vault has been waiting for."
Ren folded his arms. "You're talking like this city is alive."
"It is," Soren replied. "Everything here breathes through light. The Vault's core still pulses beneath the Hall of Mirrors, though it grows weaker every year. If it dies, this city will shatter completely."
Lyra took a small step forward. "You kept the Vault running all this time?"
Soren nodded. "It is all that remains of the Order's knowledge the records of the Gate, the Riftlight, and every soul who crossed between worlds."
At that, my heart skipped. "You have records of the Gate?"
"Yes," he said quietly. "But they are incomplete. Fragments lost to time and interference. Still, perhaps you can restore them."
He led us through winding corridors of crystal, their walls glowing faintly with our reflections. Sometimes, I could see strange visions in the glass images of other worlds, distant stars, faces I didn't know. Once, I thought I saw my mother's eyes staring back at me before fading into the shimmer.
We finally reached the Vault. It was vast, a circular chamber filled with towering pillars of light. In its center floated a sphere of molten glass that pulsed like a living heart. Its glow reflected across our faces, painting us in shifting color.
Soren approached the sphere and touched its surface. "This is the city's memory. Every thought, every life that once walked here still echoes inside. But it's decaying. The Rift's corruption seeps into the structure."
I stepped closer, drawn by an irresistible pull. My device began to hum, syncing to the frequency around us. "I think I can stabilize it," I whispered. "If I align the resonance field, maybe it'll....."
The Vault suddenly flared bright white.
Ren cursed under his breath and shielded his eyes. Kael pulled me back as waves of light rippled outward. And then voices. Thousands of them, whispering, crying, calling names. The air grew thick with energy, every sound vibrating through my bones.
Lyra's hand gripped her pendant. "They're memories. The Vault is showing us what it remembers."
Images filled the chamber flashes of cities burning, people screaming as the Rift tore the sky apart. I saw a figure in a white coat standing before a collapsing portal. My heart froze. It was me. Or someone who looked exactly like me.
The light dimmed, leaving silence.
Soren exhaled slowly. "So it is true. The Gateborn return in every cycle. The world resets, and the same soul crosses again and again."
I stared at the fading sphere, my thoughts spinning. "You're saying I've done this before?"
Lyra's expression was sorrowful. "You carry echoes of every Gateborn before you. Perhaps this time, the pattern can be broken."
Ren rubbed his temples. "So we're stuck in a cosmic loop with no off switch. Great."
Soren turned to me. "There may still be hope. There is another Vault, hidden beneath the floating city of Aurin. Its data core may hold the original Gate sequence. If you can find it, you might finally end the cycle."
Kael nodded. "Then we go to Aurin."
Soren hesitated. "It is not that simple. The city floats within the Riftlight storm. No one who entered has ever returned. Still…" He paused, looking at me. "If you go, I will go with you. I have guarded memories long enough. It is time to protect the living."
Lyra smiled faintly. "Then our path grows stronger."
As we left the Vault, the city's glow dimmed behind us, but I could still feel its pulse within me — as if the City of Glass had whispered its secret into my soul.
That night, while the others rested, I gazed at the endless field of stars above. The reflections of the city shimmered below like a second sky.
Kael joined me quietly, his voice low. "Do you believe what he said? That you've lived this before?"
I looked at my hands, faintly glowing under the Riftlight. "If it's true… then I need to end it. Not just for this world, but for all the others I failed."
He took a breath, his eyes gentle. "Then I'll follow you through every world until you do."
The wind stirred the glass towers, and they sang a soft, fragile melody the sound of a city remembering what it once was.
And above it all, the Rift shimmered, vast and waiting..
.."to be continued..."