Artur Greymantle's Arc

Chapter 8 of 12

Artur carried the platform to his daughter's room and set it on the floor beside her bed. The apparatus sat on the workbench against the wall—wire frames, obsidian fragments, and the coin from her eighth birthday, still warm from being pulled across the bridge three days ago. He lifted the ritual platform and placed it beneath the bed, then connected it to the apparatus with copper wire threaded through the obsidian pieces. The firebird bond pulsed in his chest as he worked, responding to his intention. When he finished, he reached through the bond and felt for his daughter's suspended state—the same technique he'd used on the coin, but stronger now, anchored by Xidan's platform. The air above her bed shimmered. Colors bled through—violet, blue, then a flicker of warm gold at the edges. Her form appeared faintly, translucent and shifting between states, neither fully present nor fully gone. Artur held his breath. The bridge was forming. Then the colors steadied. The violet and blue stopped bleeding into each other and held their shapes. Her face became clearer—not solid, but no longer dissolving. Artur pulled a crystal from his pocket and held it near the shimmering outline. The gem caught the light bleeding from her suspended form and began to glow, recording the stabilization. The bridge wasn't strong enough to pull her back yet, but it was holding her in place for the first time in years. She wasn't slipping further away. Artur set the glowing crystal on the altar stone beside her bed and stepped back. The apparatus hummed quietly, maintaining the connection. His daughter remained suspended, visible now in her dual state—caught between, but no longer fading. He had proven the bridge could form and hold. The next test would be whether it could carry her weight all the way across, but that would require more than the apparatus could give alone. He would need the firebird itself, not just the bond. And that meant risking everything he'd built to pull her the rest of the way home.