The Veil did not simply tear.
It opened.
The wound in the sky above the fractured tier widened slowly, like a great unseen hand pulling apart the thin fabric between worlds. Mist poured from the opening in thick spirals, spilling downward like smoke from an ancient fire that had burned far too long beneath the surface of reality.
Everyone on the broken platform felt it.
The air grew heavier.
Older.
As if something forgotten had just taken its first breath in centuries.
Aria could barely move.
The anchored fire inside her chest pulsed violently now, reacting to the widening breach. The embers no longer felt restless, they felt aware, as though the Veil itself had turned its attention toward her.
The Veilborn stood before her, massive and silent.
Its body of living mist shifted slo
