Eclipsed Horizon — Chapter 47: "The Edge of the Aether Sea"
(From Cael's POV)
The sky wasn't blue anymore.
It was a whirlpool of violet glass, swallowing the horizon whole. The stars above Zephyr twisted like liquid reflections—each one a false memory shimmering in the vast mirror of the world. The Aether Sea had breached again, and this time, it was no simulation.
Cael stood at the prow of the carrier ship Seraphiel, eyes fixed on the rift spiraling open beyond the storm line. Every pulse of the anomaly vibrated against his chest—the same rhythm that lived in his Pulseband, the same one that echoed through Lyra's link.
She was down there. Somewhere beyond the veil.
Jax adjusted the stabilizers beside him, hands shaking as the console screamed with static warnings. "Pressure surge at 200%! The Sea's reacting to us."
"Hold it steady," Cael ordered, though his own pulse was a drumbeat of fear.
Lyra's last transmission had been cut short by a flash of Resonance interference. But he'd felt her then—her voice, her presence—like a heartbeat woven into the noise.
> "Cael… if you can hear me… don't follow the light. Follow the echo."
Now, the light ahead was all that remained. A tower of inverted sky, bending space like molten glass.
Mireen emerged from the corridor, her armor half-sealed, the faint glow of her Resonance Core visible through the cracks. "Command wants us to retreat," she said flatly. "The Council thinks this breach connects directly to the Null Zone."
Cael's jaw tightened. "Then that's where we go."
Her eyes softened, a rare flicker of fear crossing her usual poise. "If you step into that storm, you might not come back. None of us might."
Cael turned toward her, his reflection splitting across the mirrored floor. "We crossed that line the moment Zephyr fell from the sky."
The ship lurched. Every monitor on the bridge blinked to black, replaced by one symbol—two interlocked rings, glowing white.
The same symbol on Cael's Pulseband.
The same one that appeared when he and Lyra first Resonated.
Jax shouted, "Cael! That's her signal!"
He didn't hesitate. The carrier's forward hatch opened to the roaring Aether winds, every molecule screaming in color.
He stepped out, the force of the energy nearly tearing his suit apart. "Lyra!" he called into the storm. "I'm here!"
The void answered with a pulse—one so deep it bypassed sound and struck straight through his mind. For an instant, he wasn't on the ship anymore. He was in the Sea, drifting weightless among fragments of cities, faces, and voices that didn't belong to any world he knew.
> "Cael…"
Her voice again. Fainter, but real.
He reached out, and from the currents of light, a hand reached back. Lyra's hand.
Their fingers touched—and the storm collapsed inward.
Reality shattered like glass.
Cael gasped as he found himself standing in a quiet field under a single, unmoving sun. The air smelled like dust and rain that never fell. Lyra was there, only a few steps away, her figure flickering between solid and spectral.
"Lyra…" he whispered.
She smiled, tears in her eyes. "You found me again."
He tried to move closer, but his body felt like lead. "Where are we?"
She looked up at the cracked sun. "Between worlds. Between the past and the one you forgot."
Before he could answer, a shadow passed over them—a figure descending through the light, wings fractured like shards of glass.
It was Seraphine Aurel.
Her voice resonated across the field, serene yet sorrowful. "You were never meant to cross the Aether Sea, Cael Drayen. But since you have…"
She extended her hand toward him, the air fracturing around her fingertips.
"…then it's time you remembered what you buried."
And the sky split open again.