Tae's Arc

Chapter 4 of 5

Tae stood in the ruins of his home. Wind cut through the broken shell. Below, dark cracks spread from the dead creature toward every tower in sight. The cracked blue core lay dead in his palm. He needed a place to rest, somewhere quiet, somewhere the dark could not find him. But his walls were gone, and more creatures were coming. The copper-haired woman pulled at his sleeve. "They track power," she said. "Standing here, you might as well ring a bell." Tae looked at his ruined couch. He looked at the shattered game screen. He dropped the dead core. It rolled off the edge and fell to the street. "Then I'll go somewhere they can't reach," he said. He walked to the open edge and looked at the city. Every tower held people. Every tower was a target now. He could not rest near any of them. He had one way out. He would tear a hole between realms and step through, the way the woman had first come to him. He raised one hand. Air split before him. A ring of light opened, wide as a door, humming low. The woman stepped back from it. "Where does that go?" she asked. "Somewhere empty," Tae said. But something waited inside the light. A figure stepped through toward him. Tall. Golden hair fell past its shoulders. White marks glowed across its arms and face. Its dark robe carried lines of pale light that moved like water. The room seemed to shrink around it. Even Tae went still. The woman dropped to one knee. "A Seer," she whispered. "They see every thread. Every path." The Seer looked at Tae with cold eyes. It held out one hand. In its palm sat a core far larger than the blue one, silver and gold, its center a burning white spiral. "You killed one of the dark," the Seer said. Its voice filled the broken room. "Now they hunt you across every realm. There is no quiet place left. I have seen it." Tae's jaw tightened. "I only want to sleep." "Then take this," the Seer said. "With it, you end them. Without it, they end you in your sleep." Tae stared at the glowing core. He wanted no weapon. He wanted his couch. But the dark cracks below were already climbing the towers. He had no walls, no quiet, and no time to argue. He reached out and took the core. It burned warm against his skin, alive and endless. The portal behind the Seer flared bright. "Come," the Seer said. "There is a war, and now you are inside it." Tae looked back once at the wreck of his home. Then he stepped through the light. The portal sealed behind him and left the ruined tower empty in the wind.