The Last Light

Echoes through the veil

Falling felt endless.The world spun around Novera like fragments of glass, shimmering with memories — her mother’s smile, Tavros’s laughter, Veyra’s bright eyes, and Arlo’s trembling voice calling her name. The pendant burned against her skin, pulsing wildly, as if caught between two heartbeats — hers and another’s.She hit the ground softly, like a feather landing on water.Only, it wasn’t ground at all — it was a reflection. She was standing on the sky, the horizon folding in on itself, blue bleeding into silver. Around her, the world was made of mirrors, each showing a different version of her life. One showed her laughing with Veyra at school; another, weak and pale in a hospital bed. Yet another showed Tavros as a boy, standing in a church doorway, holding the same pendant that now burned in her hand.“Where am I?” she whispered.The Veil answered in whispers that rippled like wind:“Between.”Then she heard it again — faint, fragile — Arlo’s voice.“Novera! Please… answer me!”She turned toward the sound, eyes darting across the fractured horizon. Through one of the mirrors, she saw him — Arlo kneeling in a ruined clearing on the other side, the pendant’s twin shard glowing in his palm. Veyra stood beside him, chanting the words they’d found in Miss Shirley’s notes.“Arlo?” Novera pressed her hand to the mirror. “I can hear you!”The reflection quivered — the surface of the Veil rippled where her fingers met the glass.Arlo gasped as if he’d felt it. “She’s there! I can feel her—she’s trying to break through!”Veyra’s voice was steady but strained. “The seal is unstable. If you force it open, you could both—”“I don’t care!” Arlo snapped, eyes glowing faintly with the same light as Novera’s pendant. “She’s alone in there.”Novera could barely breathe. Her hands trembled as she pressed harder against the mirror. “Arlo, you shouldn’t—”But before she could finish, the Veil began to stir.The mirrored world darkened as shadows crawled across the sky. They whispered in thousands of voices — pleading, crying, accusing. One voice, familiar yet distant, made her blood run cold.“Tavros…”His figure appeared beyond the mirrors, pale and flickering, eyes full of sorrow. “Novera, you shouldn’t have come,” he said, his voice breaking. “You can’t save me without losing yourself.”“I don’t care,” she said, stepping closer. “You’re my brother. I’m not leaving you here.”He shook his head slowly. “That’s not what the Veil wants.”The ground beneath her cracked open, revealing light swirling below. The pendant vibrated violently against her chest.Suddenly, another vision burst through her mind — Miss Shirley’s face, younger, smiling softly as she handed her father the glowing crystal. Her words echoed like a memory returning home:“Every bond has a cost, every light a shadow.”Then Arlo’s voice pierced through it all.“Novera! Focus on me!”She lifted her gaze. Through the mirror, Arlo’s hand was reaching — not through glass, but through light itself. His outline flickered, his expression desperate.The pendant in her hand and the shard he held began to resonate, glowing brighter with each heartbeat. The reflections around her shattered like glass struck by thunder.A torrent of light poured between them — blue, white, gold. It roared with energy, shaking the Veil apart.For a moment, she saw everything.Miss Shirley as a young guardian, cradling Tavros on the church steps.Her father whispering a prayer as he sealed the Veil.And Arlo — standing at the edge of it all, his soul burning with the same light as hers.He wasn’t just connected to her by fate. He was part of the binding.When the Veil fractured years ago, two souls had been chosen to anchor it — one born from the human world, one bound to the ancient light within it. Her soul had found balance only because his existed nearby. That’s why his visions felt like déjà vu. He had lived her memories before she even knew them.Tears blurred Novera’s eyes. “Arlo… you were meant to find me.”He gritted his teeth, his hand trembling in the light. “And I’ll never let you go.”The Veil screamed — a thousand voices merging into one. The world cracked.Suddenly Tavros appeared beside her, his face pale and frightened. “Novera! The seal is collapsing! If it breaks, you’ll both be lost forever!”“I don’t care!” she shouted. “We end this together!”She grabbed Tavros’s hand and reached toward Arlo’s reflection. Their pendants flared, light spiraling between them.For a heartbeat, the world stilled.Then the light exploded.Novera was thrown backward into the air, weightless, surrounded by shattered reflections of her own face. She heard Arlo’s scream through the cracks, and Tavros’s name echoed endlessly. The pieces of the Veil spun around her, each one reflecting fragments of her life — joy, pain, laughter, tears — all fading like mist.As the light dimmed, she found herself floating again in darkness. Only faint whispers remained — one belonging to Miss Shirley.“The light was never meant to be destroyed, only understood.”Then Arlo’s voice — faint, trembling, but real.“Novera… I’m not leaving you.”She smiled weakly into the void. “You already found me once. You’ll do it again.”The last of the light sank into her pendant. The world folded into silence.And then — nothing.Only the faint hum of two pendants pulsing in rhythm, somewhere between worlds.