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“The Architect’s awakening cracked something open,” Kai explained. “A barrier between what is and what was. The memories are leaking through, but they’re incomplete, fragmented like the Architect itself.”

“I don’t understand,” I whispered, frustration building. “What does any of this mean? Who is the Architect? What is Cindersea really?”

Kai’s form flickered, like a candle guttering in the wind. “I don’t have much time,” he said urgently. “The connection is tenuous. I need you to listen carefully.”

I stepped closer, hanging on his every word.

“The Architect was once a god, silenced by those who needed the people of Cindersea to forget. The orb we saw at Ivros Hollow was all that remains of him, his existence all but erased. If Boromia had gotten the fragment… well, let’s just say you and I wouldn’t be standing here right now.

” He paused for only a moment, placing a hand on my shoulder.

“It was my final act to stop him. And to shatter the fragment.”

My eyes went wide. “The beam of light we saw…”

Kai nodded. “Yes. The shattering levelled the temple and sent the shards shooting all across Cindersea. In pieces the Architect is safe from evil hands. But not forever.” He pulled me close, his glowing eyes boring into mine.

“That’s why I need you to find them Oliver, to reunite the shards.

Once you do, the truth will be revealed and everyone in Cindersea will have a choice to make. ”

“What choice?” I asked, my voice barely a whisper. The cosmic void seemed to pulse around us, stars dimming and brightening in rhythm with Kai’s luminescent form.

“Whether to stay or to remember,” Kai said, his expression grave. “But I can’t tell you more. Knowledge without understanding is dangerous. You need to discover it yourself, piece by piece. Start with the summoners and then find your own way.”

I reached for him, my fingers passing through his arm like mist. “Kai, please. Don’t leave us. We need you.”

His smile turned sad. “I’m not completely gone, Oliver. Part of me is bound to the Architect now, scattered across Cindersea with the fragments. Find them and you’ll find me.” He looked up suddenly, as if hearing something beyond my perception. “I have to go. The connection is breaking.”

“Wait!” I cried, desperation clawing at my chest. “How do we find the fragments? Where do we start?”

Kai’s form began to fade, becoming translucent. “Trust the Twilight,” he said, his voice growing distant. “You were chosen for a reason. And Oliver...” He paused, his eyes meeting mine one last time. “Take care of them. They’ll follow your lead now.”

“I can’t lead them!” I protested. “I’m not you!”

“You don’t need to be me,” Kai’s voice echoed as his form dissolved into particles of light. “Just be yourself. That’s always been enough.”

The starry void began to collapse around me, the cosmic expanse folding in on itself like paper crumpling in a fist. The flowering tree shed its blossoms, each petal transforming into a shard of obsidian that spiraled away into the darkness.

“Kai!” I screamed, reaching out as the cliff beneath my feet crumbled.

I fell through darkness, tumbling through emptiness until?—

I jolted awake with a gasp, my heart hammering against my ribs. Rain pattered softly against the leaves above us, a gentle shower rather than the storm we’d feared. Sky was curled beside me, his breathing deep and even, one arm draped protectively across my chest.

Carefully, I extricated myself from his embrace and sat up, pressing my palms against my eyes.

The dream, no, not a dream, felt seared into my mind.

Kai was alive, but not alive. The Architect was shattered but needed to be whole again.

And somehow, I was supposed to lead our broken group on this impossible quest .

“Oliver?” Sky’s voice was thick with sleep, his blue eyes blinking open in the pre-dawn light. “What’s wrong?”

I looked down at him, my eyes always going to that scar across his throat that marked how close I’d come to losing him too. Could I ask him to follow me into more danger? Could I ask any of them?

“I saw Kai,” I whispered, my voice trembling. “In a dream that I think wasn’t just a dream.”

Sky sat up immediately, ears perked forward, all traces of sleep vanishing from his face. “What do you mean? What did you see?”

I described the cosmic void, the endless waterfall, the flowering tree shedding obsidian petals. As I spoke, Sky’s expression grew increasingly intense, his tail twitching with agitation.

“He told me the Architect’s fragment was shattered,” I continued, keeping my voice low to avoid waking the others. “The light we saw... that was Kai breaking it into pieces and scattering them across Cindersea. He wants us to find them.”

“Why?” Sky asked, his brow furrowed. “If he sacrificed himself to destroy it, why would he want us to put it back together?”

I shook my head. “He said the truth about Cindersea is hidden from us. That none of us are who we think we are.” I clutched Sky’s hand. “The memories we’ve been seeing, he said they’re leaking through a cracked barrier of some kind.”

Sky’s ears flattened against his head. “That sounds... dangerous.”

“It is,” I agreed. “But he said I was chosen for a reason. That I need to lead everyone now.”

A soft, incredulous laugh escaped Sky. “You? Lead?”

I flinched at his reaction, pulling my hand away. “I know, it’s ridiculous.”

“No,” Sky said quickly, recapturing my hand. “That’s not what I meant. It’s just...” He paused, searching for words. “You’ve always been so reluctant to take charge. You defer to others, even when you have the better idea.”

“I’m not a leader,” I muttered. “I’m a healer. I fix things after they’re broken, I don’t?—”

“Stop,” Sky interrupted, his voice gentle but firm. “You’re more than that, and you know it. When Boromia had me at knifepoint, when everyone else froze, you acted. You found a way.” His fingers traced the scar on his own throat. “You saved me when there was no hope left.”

I swallowed hard, remembering the forbidden magic that had flowed through me, the life I had stolen to restore his. “That was different.”

“Was it?” Sky challenged. “Leaders make the hard choices when no one else can. They bear burdens so others don’t have to.

” His blue eyes locked with mine. “That’s exactly what you did.

And what I know you can do again.” He placed a hand on my shoulder just like Kai had, leaning close.

“I believe in you, Oliver. I always have.”

I was about to respond, about to tell him how he was wrong, when a glint of purple caught my eye. My gaze drifted down to my left hand sitting in my lap. There, in the center of my palm, was what looked to be a broken piece of glass.

“What’s that?” Sky asked, his gaze following mine.

I lifted it up, turning it so that the facets caught the firelight.

The shard gleamed with an inner light, pulsing faintly in time with my heartbeat.

It was no bigger than a coin, jagged along its edges where it had broken from a larger whole.

Deep within its obsidian depths, purple energy swirled like captured starlight.

“It’s a shard,” I whispered, my voice barely audible over the pattering rain. “From the Architect’s orb.”

Sky’s ears twitched forward in alarm. “How did you get that? It wasn’t there when we fell asleep.”

I stared at the shard, memories of my dream flooding back. The flowering tree shedding petals that transformed into obsidian fragments. “Kai sent it to me. Somehow.”

Carefully, I closed my fingers around the shard, expecting it to cut into my skin, but it felt warm and smooth against my palm. A tingling sensation spread up my arm, not unpleasant but strange, like the whisper of a voice just beyond hearing.

“Maybe… Maybe you really did see him,” Sky said softly, a tone of disbelief in his voice.

“Maybe I did,” I said, opening my palm again to study the shard. Even in a world full of magic, it seemed impossible.

Sky’s eyes narrowed as he leaned closer, his wolf ears twitching forward with curiosity. “How many are there?”

“He didn’t say.” I turned the fragment over, feeling its weight. It was heavier than it looked, as if it contained more than just obsidian and light. “Just that we need to find them all.”

I closed my fingers around the shard again, feeling that strange tingle of energy.

It was such an odd feeling. A piece of broken glass shouldn’t have been so comforting or so heavy with possibility.

But there it was, little more than a coin in my hand, but carried within it the weight of the entire future of Cindersea.

It was almost too much to bear and yet, I couldn’t bring myself to let it go.

The rain had stopped, leaving behind a fresh, earthy scent that mingled with the smoke from our dying fire.

Dawn was breaking through the trees, painting the clearing in soft gold.

Soon the others would wake, and I would have to tell them about my dream, about the shard, about the impossible task that lay before us.

“We should wake them,” Sky said, nodding toward our sleeping companions.

“Let them sleep,” I replied, leaning my head against his chest.

He wrapped his arms around me instinctively, pulling me close.

Both of us stared out toward the horizon slowly growing golden with each passing moment.

The first rays of sunlight filtered through the trees as the birds began to sing.

The glass shard in my hand pulsed, warm and comforting against my skin, reminding me of the impossible task that lay before us all.

“Do you think the others will believe me?” I asked, my voice small against the growing chorus of birdsong. “About Kai, the shard, all of it?”

Sky’s tail curled around my ankle, a gesture that had become his way of offering comfort when words failed. “They might not want to at first. But they trusted Kai with their lives. And they trust you too.”

I nodded, allowing myself to be swept up in the comfort of Sky’s words and the warmth of his body against mine. I just hoped I didn’t let him down. Or any of them for that matter.

My head swam for a moment, sudden flashes of memory coursing through me again as I squeezed the shard. However, instead of slipping away like they normally did, the memory crystallized in my mind. I sat up suddenly, startling a gasp out of Sky.

“What?!” he asked, his ears alert. “What’s wrong?”

I turned to face him, my mouth hanging open. “I…” I paused for a moment, trying to gather my thoughts. “I remember what a video game is.”

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