When we reached the Altai border, the sky—normally that clear blue that lets me open my chest and breathe freely—had darkened in a way I had never seen before. The sun seemed to have pulled its light back; or maybe the shadows were climbing over it. The air was getting heavier. Even Harper's air energy was trembling as she breathed.
You didn't need to be a prophecy expert to know this was a bad sign.
Harper leaned over the wheel. "Jess? This place… it's like nowhere I've ever been."
"Yeah," I said. My voice was cold. But inside… something had begun to stir. The metallic taste crawling up my throat was my Earth power's way of warning me.
It's coming.
Something is coming.
The caravan's engine suddenly lost its voice. It died with a collapse-like silence.
Harper slapped the steering wheel. "No no no, not now, please—"
"Stop."
Harper fell silent. Because I only use that tone in moments like this. Cold, sharp, unbreakable.
I opened the door. The moment my feet touched the ground, the power inside me stretched like a beast waking from a long sleep. The earth breathed. Or maybe it was me.
The Siberian wind hit my cheeks. It was cold, but not threatening.
The real threat was beneath the ground.
When Harper came to my side, her hair was trembling slightly. The air element was reacting involuntarily—she always did this when a massive surge of energy approached.
"Jess," she said. "Do you feel something?"
I did.
It was so strong that swallowing, even breathing, became harder.
"There's a gate below," I said. "And it's waking because we're close."
"The Sky Gate?"
I did not answer. Because I knew only something connected to gates could be this ancient, this wild, this… powerful.
Harper bit her lip. "Could the spirit shift from the prophecy be about this?"
"I don't know. But if it's going to happen, it'll happen here."
At that moment, the ground beneath my feet took a deep breath. I could hear it.
The earth rippled.
Harper grabbed my arm by reflex. "Jess—"
"Don't let go."
"Is it that terrifying?"
"Worse."
Harper's eyes widened. "What?"
"This time, it's awake beforehand."
The ground trembled again. Faster this time. More rhythmic. Like a heartbeat.
And then—
The ground did not collapse.
The ground called us.
All the physics I knew shattered; the world didn't fall away beneath us—it opened upward. As if the fabric of the earth parted, the crust pulled aside, and it took us in.
Harper screamed.
I didn't.
But every part of me was screaming.
Suddenly, all colors died.
Sound vanished.
The world shrank into a single point.
The darkness wasn't like sinking into water.
It wasn't like falling.
It was worse:It was separating from yourself.
My muscles betrayed me for the first time.
My bones echoed.
My soul… shifted out of place.
And then—
I broke away.
***
I no longer had a body.
Or I did, but… it was far from me.I felt as if I'd been peeled out of my shell, like a fossil pulled from stone—both what I was and not at all.
Harper's voice echoed from somewhere:
"Jessica! Where are you?!"
I tried to turn, but turning wasn't movement in the physical sense. It was like shifting direction with thought… slippery, boundaryless.
All at once—I hit something solid.
But that something… smelled like air.
"Jess! Jess, is that you? Please don't say no because I don't even know which way is up right now!"
Harper's soul was nothing but a silver vibration writhing like wind—but I still knew her. Her panic, her slightly nonsensical energy, that frantic yet warm pulsing inside her.
"Harper," I said, not even knowing how my voice took shape. "I'm here."
"Hallelujah! Because I just collided with something and I thought it was you, but then it wasn't you, and then I—"
"Harper."I sharpened my voice. Even in this spiritual darkness, it worked."Focus. Where are we?"
Harper's color flickered. "This feels like a dark well… but also… Jessica, there's no air current."
"No air," I whispered. "Which means… this isn't a "place.""
Harper's vibration shivered. "Nowhere?"
"No. The In-Between."
The region mentioned in the prophecy—where souls leak through, where elements clash, where time splits…
Sky Gate.
We had fallen here once before, but that time… we were unconscious. It had been foggy, abstract, nearly impossible to remember.
Now?It was much clearer.And much more threatening.
The darkness wasn't like emptiness. It was as if it was watching.As if it was waiting.
Harper's voice trembled. "Jess? Why are we here this time?"
"There's something pulling us," I said. "The gate beneath the Altai… it's waking. And we—our souls—touched it."
The moment I said it, the darkness around us rippled.Like a giant shadow passing beneath the surface of water.
Harper pressed closer—spiritually, at least. "Jess. Jess, please tell me… what is that thing?"
"I can't."I truly didn't know.
But the Earth element inside me… was afraid.
And at that moment, I understood what it feared.
The darkness split apart like a wall.
No… it wasn't a wall.It was a face.A head.A dimension.A being.
Two enormous golden eyes opened from within the void. The movement of their lids alone held the power to shove continents aside. The light inside them… glowed like the death of a star. Not warm, not cold—just absolute.
Harper's soul practically froze. "Jess… is that… a dragon?"
No.It was more.Older.
"I think... it's a guard" I whispered.I knew it in that moment. Instinct, not logic, told me. The deepest root of my Earth element.
This thing is from an era when people were afraid. From the time when the elements first awakened. When the first gates opened.
The Guardian did not speak. Yet its voice stabbed into the walls of my mind.
—BALANCE HAS BEEN BROKEN.
Harper's soul gasped. "Jess, it talked. But it didn't talk. But it totally talked."
I signaled her to stay quiet—even if only as a spiritual gesture.
—EARTH AWOKE.—AIR TREMBLED.—THE GATE CALLED.
The Guardian wasn't addressing us, but everything.It knew us.It knew our souls.
Then the darkness pulled back further.
And the Guardian revealed itself.
I had never seen anything this massive.A mountain-sized being… yet its shape shifted. Sometimes it stretched like a serpent; sometimes its wings unfolded wide as a sky. Half its body was shadow, half stone. Its eyes… were made of gold and something unknowable.
And it was looking at us.
Harper's voice thinned to a whisper. "Why… why is it looking at us?"
"Because we… touched the gate."My throat tightened.And now I could feel the true reason:
"And the gate recognized us."
The Guardian's voice slammed into my mind again.
—THE KEY AND THE WIND.—TWO INCOMPLETE PIECES.
Harper's voice broke into a tiny scream. "Key?! Jess, you're the key—I'm the wind—this is really bad!"
I couldn't answer.
Because the Guardian had moved closer.Its eye was so near that our souls trembled.
—BEFORE THE GATE OPENS…BALANCE MUST BE RESTORED.
"Balance?" I said. "What balance?"
This time the answer hit harder.
—THE BALANCE OF POWERS.THE WHOLENESS OF SOULS.OR ELSE… EVERYTHING WILL BURN.
Harper's soul fluttered wildly. "I don't want to burn!"
"Harper! Hold steady!"
But then… the Guardian inhaled.
Like a mountain breathing.
And its breath… pulled us in.
Harper was torn from me.I was torn from Harper.Our souls screamed as they were thrown apart.
The Guardian's eyes expanded their light in an instant.
And the world opened.
***
The wind had gone completely silent.
Even the sound of Harper's element found no echo in this dark void. Jessica buried her fingers into the ghostlike texture of the ground as she watched the enormous, blood-red Dragon Gate materialize across Orinlaf's twisted skies. This wasn't soil—it was a memory… not stone, but pain preserved.
And at that moment…the Gate opened.
It was as if a breath weighing thousands of tons suddenly filled the entire world at once.
Harper took a step back."This… this can't be made for us. Right? Please say 'no.'"
Jessica didn't blink. Her eyes stayed fixed forward."On the contrary, Harper. This gate is looking at us."
From within the Gate, a shadow of flame drifted out—a creature shaped like a dragon, but with exhaustion in its eyes that felt terribly human. Its wings looked broken; with every beat, pieces of darkness crumbled to the ground, only to be drawn back into its body.
It had the aura of something that had both created and burned everything it ever touched.
And that aura shoved itself hard against Jessica's chest.The earth trembled.A hum moved through her veins.
The dragon didn't speak, but its thought cracked through their minds like a fracture:
"Earth-child… you are incomplete."
Harper leapt forward instantly."Hey! The only thing incomplete here is my courage, not hers!"
Jessica raised a hand, stopping her."Let it speak."
The draconic being stepped closer. With each step, the ground collapsed and reformed with a bone-deep rumble.
"You suppressed the fury of the earth. The earth no longer recognizes you."
Jessica's face stayed cold, but Harper noticed her fingers tremble.
Slowly, Jessica said,"I didn't suppress my fury."A deep breath."I imprisoned it."
The dragon tilted its head as if amused."The thing you imprisoned has imprisoned you.And now… it must be broken."
A moment of silence.
Then the ground beneath Jessica split open.
Harper screamed,"JESSICA!"
But Jessica wasn't falling.The earth was rising toward her.
As if all of Orinlaf had turned inside out toward the darkness within the girl. The sky cracked. In the distance, colossal pillars of earth turned into dragon bones, then melted back into soil.
The shadow-dragon extended a claw toward Jessica's heart—not touching her, but its shadow grasped her heart.
A memory exploded in her mind.
—Young Jessica, hands covered in blood and dirt, her mother's screams, a collapsing mass of earth drowning out the truth—
Harper felt the memory's impact and recoiled."Don't touch her memory! Jessica isn't allowing—"
The dragon growled,"She does not need to allow it. The truth is already hers."
Jessica's breath faltered.Another long-buried scene struck her:
—Adult Jessica, face buried in work, the moment she first met Harper, Harper's frightened yet startlingly clear wind-energy… and her own still, stone-solid heart—
The shadow-dragon spoke:
"You know the earth never stops speaking.You simply chose not to hear."
Jessica's knees buckled.Harper ran forward to catch her, but the wind slapped Harper back and kept her from touching Jessica.
"Hey! That's—THAT'S UNFAIR!"
Jessica finally opened her eyes.They glowed like smoldering embers.
"Who cares, Harper…"She inhaled deeply."…the earth is speaking."
Harper's eyes widened."Ooo-kay. I don't like this part. What's it saying?"
Jessica opened her palms.The ground rose like a new heartbeat.The entire land began breathing in rhythm with Jessica's pulse.
"It says…"She stared at the dragon."…my fear is my power."
For the first time, the dragon stepped back.
Jessica took a step forward.The ground cracked.Earth briefly formed a living armor around her body, then dissolved again.
The dragon asked:"Do you accept it?Your inner darkness—the true voice of the earth?"
Jessica smiled—a hard, angled, dangerous smile.
"Yes. Because that darkness… is my truth."
The earth erupted.
Harper shouted,"JESS? JESS, THAT'S SUPER COOL BUT ALSO A LITTLE TERRIFYING!"
For a moment, it looked as if dust flowed from Jessica's eyes.The dragon bowed its head.
"Then the Earth Awakening is complete."
The wind shifted.It spiraled around Harper.
The dragon looked at her next:"And you, wind-child… you are still running."
Harper's eyes blew wide open."Me? Running? I'm not—okay, maybe a little—okay, fine, yes, I run a lot!"
The dragon spread its wings.Black light seeped from the cracks.
"If you stop running,the wind will be yours."
A gust sliced across Harper's face.Her eyes filled with tears.Jessica turned to her with a stern but gentle expression:
"Harper… this time, don't run."
Harper clenched her fists.Her breath shook."Okay… okay, okay. I'll do it."
The wind lifted her foot off the ground.
The dragon exhaled toward her.
But that wind was not deadly—it was the purest form of Harper's own element.
And Harper…for the first time, did not flee.
She stepped boldly into the wind.Her eyes closed.A moment of stillness fell.
Then a barely visible wing of air formed behind her.Her feet left the ground as if carried by the breeze itself.
Jessica whispered in awe,"There it is…"
The dragon looked at both girls:
"Earth and Wind may have awakened here…but your bodies are calling you back."
Jessica stiffened."What?"
The ground began collapsing again.Harper panicked:
"NO—NO! I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS LEFT! WHO AM I?! WHY ARE WE LIKE THIS?! WHY DO YOU LOOK KIND OF LIKE—YOU KNOW WHAT, NEVER MIND—"
The dragon gave them one last look and whispered:
"The answers lie beyond the gate.And the gate… will open again."
The ground completely gave way.
Jessica and Harper fell into the darkness.Everything shrank—
All that remained were their heartbeats.
BOOM.BOOM.
Suddenly they opened their eyes—
And slammed back into the real world, onto Altai's slick ground.
Harper spoke first:"Br–ea–… breathing… I can't breathe but also I feel very windy! Is that normal?!"
Jessica inhaled deeply.The earth beneath her was steady.Her eyes still held a dark shimmer.
"Harper…" she said, calm and chilling."The gate will return."
Harper swallowed."Yeah… and we'll be there too. Because… it's not like we have a choice, right?"
Jessica shrugged."Calmly accepted: yes.But next time… we'll be ready."
Harper glanced sideways."When you say 'we,' do you mean me, us, or… the newly crowned 'dark queen of earth' version of you?"
Jessica let the faintest smile appear."Whichever one scares you more."
Harper hiccuped."Great. Perfect. Super reassuring."
The sky glowed red. Altai's wind roared.
And the chapter closed with Jessica's cold, resolute whisper:
"When the Sky Gate… opens again, this time we will go with our bodies to where we belong. To Orinlafec."