Part 3: The Shattered Path
1356 Words
They fell.
Selene’s scream tore from her throat, lost in the roar of shattering stone and collapsing echoes. Her body spun through endless black, through shards of worlds breaking like glass around her. Fragments of memories—laughter, cries, faces she had never seen—flashed past, each one trying to pull her in.
Don’t let go!
The voice wasn’t hers. It was Eryon’s, fierce and commanding, cutting through the chaos. She tightened her grip on his hand with everything she had. If she lost him, she knew she’d be lost too.
Then—impact.
They hit the ground hard. Stone cracked beneath them, but somehow Selene was whole, breath ragged but body unbroken. She blinked, disoriented, as the world around her steadied into shape.
This place was different.
The shattered fragments had landed here too, scattering across a jagged pathway suspended in nothingness. The path wound forward into an endless horizon, bridges of broken light arching between pieces of land. Above, there was no sky, only a swirling abyss of black and silver mist.
Selene pushed herself up on trembling arms. “Where… are we now?”
“The Shattered Path,” Eryon said, rising to his feet, shadows curling off him like smoke. His blade was still in his hand, though it pulsed faintly, as if weakened. “The deepest passage of the Veil. Few who walk it ever return.”
Selene’s stomach knotted. “And we’re supposed to get through that?”
His gaze swept across the fractured bridges. “It’s the only way forward.”
She followed his line of sight and felt her heart sink. The bridges weren’t steady—they swayed, cracked, sometimes fading into nothing entirely before flickering back. Walking them would be like treading across a dying heartbeat.
Eryon extended a hand. “Stay close. The Veil wants to scatter us. It will try.”
Her fingers slipped into his, and he pulled her forward.
---
They began walking.
Every step felt like defiance. The ground beneath her feet wasn’t solid stone but something that shifted—like memories condensed into matter. Sometimes, she swore she was stepping on grass. Other times, on glass. Once, for the span of two steps, it felt like the warm wooden floors of her childhood home.
She nearly stumbled.
“You see it too, don’t you?” she whispered.
Eryon didn’t answer right away. When he did, his voice was grim. “Yes. The Veil knows your heart. It bends the path to tempt you into surrender. Don’t believe it. None of it is real.”
But as he said it, Selene caught the way his eyes flicked briefly toward the mist—like something there called to him, too.
“What do you see?” she asked softly.
His jaw tightened. “Nothing that matters.”
They kept moving.
The silence stretched, broken only by the sound of their footsteps on the flickering bridges. Selene’s mind swirled with questions, but one burned hotter than the rest.
“Eryon,” she said finally. “Why me? Why did the Veil want me? And why are you the one who… who keeps being tied to me?”
He didn’t look at her, but his hand tightened on hers. “Because your soul carries light,” he said quietly. “The kind of light the Veil hungers for. The kind of light I…” He stopped, words catching like thorns in his throat.
“You what?”
He exhaled sharply. “The kind of light I can’t touch. And yet, here I am, bound to it.”
Her chest ached at the rawness in his tone. She wanted to press him, to make him explain, but before she could, the bridge ahead of them shook violently.
A fissure split across its length.
“Run!” Eryon barked, yanking her forward.
They sprinted, the bridge collapsing behind them in cascading shards of glowing glass. Selene’s breath tore at her lungs, fear propelling her legs faster than she thought possible. Just as the final piece of bridge crumbled into the abyss, they leapt, landing hard on the next fragment of path.
Selene’s knees slammed into the stone, pain jolting through her, but she forced herself up. Her heart pounded so loudly she thought the Veil itself might hear it.
“That was too close,” she whispered.
Eryon’s eyes scanned the shifting void around them. “It won’t be the last.”
---
They continued, but the Veil wasn’t finished testing them.
Shadows began to form in the mist, shapes that twisted into figures. Selene froze as one stepped onto the bridge before them—her mother.
Not a shade, not a ghost, but her mother as she remembered her. Warm eyes. Gentle smile.
“Selene,” the figure whispered, reaching out. “Come home, my child. You don’t belong in this place. Let me take you back.”
Her throat tightened, tears stinging her eyes. “M-Mother?”
Eryon’s voice snapped sharp as a blade. “Don’t listen!”
She turned on him, fury sparking. “How can you say that? She’s right there!”
“It’s not her!” His tone was brutal, unyielding. “It’s the Veil. It will wear any face to claim you.”
Her mother stepped closer, and Selene’s heart twisted. She could feel her—smell the faint lavender perfume, hear the cadence of her voice. It was impossible. And yet… it was everything she longed for.
“I… I just want to see her again,” Selene whispered, tears slipping free.
Eryon moved in front of her, shadows coiling around him like armor. His voice dropped low, edged with something dangerous. “If you go to her, you’ll never leave this place. And I won’t let that happen.”
The false mother’s smile faltered, twisting into something hollow. Her eyes turned black, her body stretching unnaturally as the illusion melted into shadow. With a shriek, it lunged.
Eryon’s blade was faster. The creature split apart in a spray of ash, its scream dissolving into the mist.
Selene stumbled back, horrified. Her hands shook violently. “It looked so real…”
“That’s the trap,” Eryon said, his voice softer now but still firm. “The Veil knows what you crave most. That’s what it will weaponize.”
She nodded shakily, wiping at her eyes. But deep inside, the ache only grew sharper.
---
Hours—or minutes, time was meaningless—passed before the path widened into a platform of broken stone. At its center stood a gate, massive and wrought from dark silver, its surface etched with runes that pulsed faintly with power.
Selene stared at it, breath caught in her throat. “Is that… the way out?”
Eryon studied it carefully. “The threshold. Beyond it lies either escape… or deeper entrapment. It depends on if you can withstand the test.”
Her stomach sank. “Test?”
He turned to her, his expression grave but unwavering. “The Veil won’t let you pass without knowing who you truly are. It will strip your soul bare. You’ll face yourself—and if you falter, it will consume you.”
Selene swallowed hard. Her body trembled, but she forced herself to meet his eyes. “And if I don’t go through?”
“Then you’ll never leave.”
The choice hung heavy in the air.
Selene looked at the gate, then at him. His shadows seemed darker here, heavier, as if the Veil clung to him with chains. Yet his eyes, burning like embers, were fixed entirely on her.
“I’ll go,” she whispered.
For the first time since they entered this realm, Eryon’s features softened. Not a smile—he never smiled—but something gentler, a flicker of pride. He squeezed her hand once, grounding her.
“Then face it without fear.”
Selene stepped forward, the runes on the gate flaring brighter as if recognizing her presence.
Her heart hammered, but she didn’t look back.
Because if she did, she wasn’t sure she’d be able to let go of his hand.
- Writer
