The Fall
The world did not shatter all at once.
It folded.
Light imploded. Sound stretched into silence. Gravity vanished like breath pulled from a dying flame. Eirena screamed, but she didn’t hear it, because her voice dissolved into the void, swallowing her whole.
Kael’s hand was the only thing she felt.
Warm. Solid. Terrified.
Then even that slipped.
“Eirena!” His voice tore through the collapsing reality.
Her fingers clutched his wrist, nails digging into skin.
But the rift took them anyway.
Her hand slid from his.
Darkness swallowed everything.
The Realm Between
Eirena hit the ground hard enough that stars burst behind her eyes.
Cold stone.
A metallic taste in her mouth.
A distant hum, low, resonant, ancient like the sound of a universe groaning in its sleep.
She trie
