The forest’s silence felt heavier since the woman vanished. The air had a metallic taste, and even the leaves seemed to be watching. Kael could still feel the bearer’s gaze, as if something within him had been activated by her presence.

  — “She saw me…” — he murmured, more to himself than to Nim.

  — “She saw more than that. She saw the Rune. I’ve heard some bearers can sense awakening fragments, even from afar.”

  — “And you?”

  — “I’m not like her,” Nim replied, looking away. “But I feel when the world shifts. And today… something shifted.”

  Kael ran a hand along his left arm. The rune pulsed slowly, as if it were breathing. Tiny bluish sparks danced beneath his skin, as if something inside him was learning to move.

  — “You can hear it now, can’t you?”

  The familiar voice came like warm breeze against the back of his neck.

  — “The mist is thinning. And where there is mist... there is path.”

  Kael closed his eyes. Zephyr. He was there again — stronger, more present.

  — “Who are you?” he asked in a low voice.

  Nim turned to him, confused.

  — “Did you say something?”

  — “No. Just… thinking out loud.”

  Elsewhere on the continent, the Guardians of the Veil gathered around a crystalline spring, encircled by glowing runes.

  — “The Fifth Rune stirs,” said one of the mages.

  — “If he encounters another bearer before understanding it… the Veil may falter,” warned another.

  — “He already did,” replied a woman with pale eyes. “She saw him. And left the mark.”

  The waters of the spring rippled, revealing Kael’s silhouette, shrouded in mist. Then another image surfaced — Elira, lying in the forest, wounded and wrapped in makeshift bandages.

  — “She hasn’t completed her mission,” said an older voice, “but the bond remains. As long as she wishes to find her sister, she’s still ours.”

  — “She knows the only path to the truth lies here,” added another figure. “She may try to escape. But the Order… runs in her blood now.”

  This narrative has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. If you see it on Amazon, please report it.

  — “And her sister…” — murmured the quietest of the group — “remains a shadow we don’t want her to unveil.”

  The spring glowed. The image vanished.

  Elira took a deep breath, tasting the bitterness of damp earth. She was weak, muscles sore, body wrapped in improvised bandages. The pain was constant, but smaller than the emptiness in her chest.

  In her mind, the same scene played over and over: fire all around, screams in the smoke, and the silhouette of a young girl ahead. Always with her back turned. Always protecting.

  She tried to remember her sister’s face. But it was like trying to grasp mist with bare fingers. All that remained was the feeling — the warmth of an embrace, the tone of a voice that seemed to echo from another life, and that final moment.

  Her sister stepping in front. Protecting. And then… gone.

  Elira clenched her fists.

  — “You saved me. And vanished. But I won’t stop until I find you.”

  But there was something more.

  The Order knew. They knew something they never told her.

  And as long as those answers remained hidden, she knew she couldn’t sever her ties with the Guardians of the Veil. Not yet.

  — “You promised me answers…” — she murmured to the wind. — “And until I have them… I still belong to you.”

  She closed her eyes. The mist around her seemed to watch. And for a moment, a whisper traveled through the high branches, like a forgotten name murmured between worlds.

  In the forest, Kael stumbled and fell to his knees. His breathing grew heavy. The Rune burned — but it wasn’t pain. It was expansion.

  Visions crossed his mind — broken fragments of something greater: a tower made of glass floating in the sky… the sound of a song no one else could hear… eyes watching him through shattered mirrors.

  He gasped.

  — “Kael!” Nim rushed to him, gripping his shoulders. — “What did you see?”

  — “The Veil… is opening.”

  And somewhere between worlds, Zephyr smiled.