Caelorum

The sun had already set over the Walden fragment, and the dense fog that always enveloped the place made it difficult to distinguish between sky and earth. For Tarrik, this was just another night on the job. He was a watchman, and his only responsibility was to ensure that the fragment’s platforms remained stable, that the portals functioned properly, and that no beast did anything stupid enough to cause a tragedy.

Mara, also a watchman and Tarrik’s companion, let out an audible sigh. Work on the fragment platforms was relatively quiet, which caused excessive sleepiness and an exacerbated amount of boredom.

Mara shook the dimly glowing lamp and felt her body shiver from an icy breeze.

“There’s something moving up there,” Mara said, looking at the fragment behind them.

Tarrik paused, frowning. “Fragments don’t move. They float, they don’t change places.”

“Look for yourself,” Mara insisted, pointing.

Reluctantly, Tarrik looked up. At first, he saw nothing but the shadow of the fragment floating on the platform, as always. Fragments of ancient worlds, suspended in the sky. Some said they were pieces of shattered gods; others believed they were what remained from the time before the great divide. Either way, they never moved.

Except... this one was.

The fragment trembled, as if it were about to fall. It was subtle at first, a slight oscillation that Tarrik almost didn’t notice. But as he watched, the oscillation became more pronounced. It wasn’t just the fragment that was moving—it was the mist around it that seemed to be... alive.

“This can’t be good,” Tarrik muttered, despairing.

Mara lowered the lamp, squinting to see better. “Is it... cracking? Can you see that?”

Tarrik held his breath. The fragment, as solid as it had always been, now appeared to be split in half, a winding crack opening up in its center. From within the crack, a strange, pulsing light emanated, illuminating the mist around it.

“That’s impossible...” Mara stammered, taking a step back. “The fragments never... they never break.”

Tarrik knew she was right. It was impossible. The fragments had been there for millennia, unchanging. But what he was seeing could not be ignored. The crack in the fragment was growing, and the light within it was intensifying.

“We must alert someone,” Tarrik said, his voice tense. “This could mean something... dangerous.”

Before Mara could respond, a silent explosion, like a dying star, rippled through the air. The cracked fragment finally gave way, and a piece of it crumbled away, falling into the void below. The light emanating from within the crack became blinding for a moment, illuminating the sky, and then... it disappeared.

Mara gasped, taking a few more steps back. “What was that? What came out of there?”

Tarrik, his heart pounding, shook his head. He didn’t know. But as the mist slowly began to dissipate, he saw something emerge from the crack. It wasn’t light. It wasn’t rock. It was something else.

“They’re coming back,” said a voice behind them.

Mara and Tarrik turned, but the mist had already begun to engulf everything around them. There was no one there. Only the sound of the earth itself shaking beneath their feet.

“What... who said that?” Mara asked, but Tarrik didn’t answer.

Whoever had spoken knew something that neither Tarrik nor Mara could comprehend. And whatever was returning from the crack was not something good.