“SEE?! I’m telling you! This isn’t some weird stuff your daughter is drawing or hearing! I was there… I saw this! Ariel, engulfed in fire, teleporting around like a fu…freakin superhero and beating the crap out of someone who had me believe they were my girlfriend! And, her clothes… that can’t be a coincidence…

  ….right?”

  The air thinned as they neared the rim of the Volcanic Wastes, every step carrying them closer to the endless void that ringed the island. The ground beneath their boots had long since cooled from molten heat to obsidian crust, fractured and glassy, gleaming faintly beneath a fading sun. The horizon ended abruptly ahead of them—a chasm where the earth simply ceased, giving way to boundless sky.

  Ariel slowed as the edge came into view. Beyond it, the next island hung suspended in the distance like a mirage. Once, it had been nothing but a rolling ocean of blue, shimmering under clouds. Now it loomed as a dark mass of stone and mist, its lower reaches draped in veils of vapor that caught what little light the sun had left. Spires jutted from the fog like the ribs of some colossal creature.

  She stopped at the brink, wind whipping strands of red hair across her face. The scent of cooling rock still lingered in the air, tinged with metal and salt.

  “That’s not what we saw before,” she murmured. “It was all water.”

  Fornaskr stepped up beside her, the faint glow of the molten veins behind them glinting in his silver eyes. He reached into his pack and pulled out a small brass telescope.

  “Here,” he said, offering it to her.

  Ariel took it carefully and pressed it to her eye. The lens caught the faraway island in sharp detail. What she saw made her pulse quicken.

  The surface was damp and marshy, glistening under diffuse light. Shallow pools reflected the dim sky, while reeds and long grasses bent under the slow exhale of mist. Half-buried ruins broke through the bog: arches, columns, shattered domes, all carved in an unfamiliar style. The stone was dark, heavy, etched with runes so eroded they looked more like scars than words.

  “It looks drowned,” Ariel whispered, adjusting the focus. “Like the ocean pulled back and left its bones behind.”

  Fornaskr frowned. “No Sylari hands shaped that. The lines are wrong. Too sharp. Too cold.”

  Ariel lowered the telescope. The fog beyond the chasm swirled slowly, concealing and revealing the ruins like a heartbeat. Shika peered over the edge, tail flicking, her masked face tilted in curiosity. Ariel smiled faintly and crouched down to scratch behind her ears.

  “Careful, little one,” she said. “That’s a long way down.”

  The red panda chirped softly, pressing her head against Ariel’s palm before retreating back toward solid ground.

  Ariel stood and unfastened her seed pouch. “We’re not going to get there staring at it,” she said. “Time to build our bridge.”

  She walked to the cliff’s edge, knelt, and pressed a handful of seeds into the cracks of the cooled basalt. Her staff floated before her, humming faintly as she closed her eyes and began to focus. The air trembled with the low, resonant thrum of Chloromancy.

  Stolen story; please report.

  Light spread from her palms—green veins of energy threading through the rock. The seeds pulsed once, twice, then burst to life. Thick vines erupted from the ground, twisting through the air like serpents seeking purchase. They met in the middle, braiding themselves together, forming a bridge that spanned the chasm between islands. The glow of life shimmered along its length, soft and rhythmic, like a beating heart suspended in the void.

  Fornaskr watched in reverent silence. The reflection of the vines danced across his armor. Shika chittered nervously and backed away as the bridge settled into place with a deep, living creak. The sound echoed across the endless sky.

  When the magic quieted, Ariel let out a slow breath and lowered herself into a seated position near the edge. Her hands trembled faintly, but she was far from spent. The rhythm of her power pulsed gently beneath her skin, steady and controlled. She smiled faintly, resting her hands on her knees.

  Fornaskr knelt beside her, his tone even. “You’ve grown stronger.”

  Ariel gave a small, tired laugh. “Or maybe just more used to falling apart.”

  He huffed softly through his nose, but there was pride in his eyes. Shika curled against Ariel’s thigh, her small body warm and soft against the cool air. For a long moment, the three of them sat together in silence, the only sound the faint rustle of wind moving through the vines.

  Finally, Fornaskr spoke. “You were gone a long time, Ariel. Longer than I’d ever want to see again.”

  She didn’t answer at first. Her gaze stayed fixed on the horizon. When she did speak, her voice was quiet. “I saw her. Holly. She was alive, happy… but it wasn’t real. None of it was. And when I burned the illusion away, it felt like I was killing her.” She swallowed hard, shaking her head. “I can’t stop thinking that maybe she felt it too. That Tyna found a way to make her see it… to make her feel it.”

  Fornaskr rested his elbows on his knees, listening. The orange light from the fading lava painted half his face in shadow. “If love can reach across the veil,” he said softly, “so can strength. If she felt your pain, then she also feels your resolve. The bond between you hasn’t broken. It endures because it must.”

  Ariel turned to him, tears welling in her eyes. “That’s what I’m afraid of. That she’s hurting because of me.”

  “Then make that pain mean something,” he said. “Use it. Fight your way back to her.”

  Her lips quivered, but she nodded. “Yeah,” she whispered. “Until then.”

  For a time, neither spoke. The air between them was filled with the deep hum of the living bridge, a sound that was comforting in a world on the brink of death.

  When Ariel finally rose, her knees ached but her heart felt steadier. She brushed dust from her skirt and tightened her grip on her staff.

  “Let’s go,” she said.

  Fornaskr tested the bridge first, placing one heavy boot onto the vines. They flexed but held firm. Shika bounded after him, tail flicking through the air, leaving small prints in her wake.

  Ariel stood at the cliff’s edge, staring down into the vast open sky below. The void pulsed with drifting motes of pale light, like a reflection of stars beneath her feet. She took one long, steadying breath and stepped forward.

  The bridge creaked softly beneath her as she followed. Wind rushed past her ears, whispering faintly in a language she couldn’t quite hear. Ahead, the veil of mist thickened, swallowing the world in silvery haze.

  Halfway across, something flickered at the edge of her vision. A fracture—small, sharp, almost imperceptible—split the air near the far end of the bridge. It shimmered for only an instant before vanishing, leaving behind a cold ripple that raised the hairs on her arms.

  Ariel stopped, breath catching in her throat. She didn’t need to speak it aloud, but the words formed all the same.

  She’s here.

  Fornaskr glanced back. She met his gaze, eyes wide with quiet certainty. “Tyna’s on that island,” she said.

  He nodded once, grimly, and turned forward again.

  They continued in silence, the living bridge groaning softly under their feet as they stepped toward the shrouded island.

  Whatever waited beyond that veil of mist, it had been dreaming a long time.

  And now... it was time to wake it.