We walked in silence for a long time. Beneath our feet was a thin thread of light that stretched forward into the mist. Liz walked beside me, her sword still glowing in her hand. The light from it shone faintly, casting shadows on the misty ground. She did not look back, not even once.
I wanted to ask her so many things. The silence around us felt heavy, pressing and suffocating. Every step echoed softly, as though the ground itself was listening.
"Where does this path lead?" I asked at last, my voice sounding small in the vast quiet.
Liz didn't answer right away. Her eyes stayed fixed ahead, watching the twisting glow of the path. Finally, she said softly, "To the cracks."
"The cracks?" I frowned. "What are those?"
"The wounds," she said. "The wounds in this Border. They tear it apart. If left open, the Hunters pour through them."
I stared at her. The Border, the cracks, the Hunters, it all sounded strange, unreal.
"And we're going there?" I asked.
"Yes," she said. "To fulfill your purpose, we need to find the other unbound. The cracks is the only way through to reach them."
"Unbound," I repeated. The word felt strange in my mouth. "The Watcher said that before. What does it mean?"
Liz glanced at me. For a moment, her gray eyes softened. "It means you are not tied," she said. "You are not held by this world or by the one you came from."
Her words made me uneasy. I looked down at my hands. They looked normal, but somehow I could not feel the faint pulse that used to beat beneath the skin. My heart was silent. My chest was hollow, as if something vital had been taken away.
"Why me?" I asked quietly. "Why this path? Are there no other ways to get there?"
Liz's lips curved into the smallest smile.
"No soul ever chooses," she said. "But the Border does."
And there are no other paths, this is the only way through.
I didn't understand what she meant. But before I could ask, the ground beneath our feet changed. The thin line of glowing thread suddenly bent and split into two.
We stopped.
To the left, the path dipped into a thick darkness. It wasn't just shadows—it was alive. The air there moved like smoke, twisting and whispering.
To the right, the path grew brighter. The light shimmered so strongly it hurt my eyes.
"Which way do we go?" I asked, my voice trembling.
Liz's face grew still. "The Border is watching," she said. "It wants you to decide."
"Me?"
She nodded. "This is your call."
I looked at both paths again. The dark one seemed to breathe, and the light one burned my eyes. Neither looked safe. My body wanted to step toward the light, but something deeper, a strange strong energy pulled me the other way.
I moved and stepped forward toward the darker path.
Liz's gray eyes widened. "Bold," she said softly, but she followed without question.
The light behind us faded as we walked. Soon, we were swallowed by the dark. Only the faint runes beneath our feet glowed enough to see by.
The air grew colder. The silence changed, it was not empty now. It was filled with faint words.
They came so faintly at first, I could barely hear them. Then they grew stronger.
Turn back.
You don't belong here.
Fade with us…
Their voices were soft and sad, but they cut deep into my mind. I could almost see shapes moving in the shadows. Faces that stretched and melted into the mist.
I clenched my fists. "Not again," I muttered.
Liz's voice came sharp and clear. "Ignore them."
The glow of her sword flared, and for a moment the whispers faded.
I saw her face in the light, cold and focused.
But there was something in her eyes, a quiet sadness, maybe.
We kept walking until the path widened into a cavern.
I froze.
The ground here was torn open by a huge crack that split the earth in two. From it spilled a strange pale light, flickering, almost sickly. It was not the same glow as Liz's sword. This one bent the air around it, warping everything near it like heat over sand.
Liz raised her sword higher. "We're here," she said.
I stared at the crack. It was wide enough to swallow a man whole. The edges pulsed like a wound trying to heal but never closing. The air above it shone with strange colors, twisting in slow, uneasy waves.
"What is it?" I whispered.
Liz's voice was low. "A wound in the Border. It's where the two sides bleed into each other."
I didn't understand, but I didn't have time to ask. Because something was moving inside the crack.
At first, I thought it was the light shifting. Then I saw the shapes—thin, crawling things pulling themselves through the gap.
Eyes. Teeth. Too many of both.
The Hunters.
Their bodies were black and slick, like they were made of tar and bone. Their movements were quick and wrong, as if they were trying to remember how to move like humans but couldn't.
I stumbled back, my stomach twisting. "Liz"
"I see them," she said, stepping forward. Her sword blazed white, its light cutting across the cavern. "Stay behind me."
The Hunters hissed at the light. The sound was awful, like metal grinding on stone. But even as I watched them, something strange pulled at me.
The crack.
It was calling.
Not with words, but with a feeling, a deep, magnetic pull that went straight into my hollow chest.
I took a small step closer.
"Stop," Liz said sharply. "Don't move."
But I couldn't help it. The light from the crack flickered like a heartbeat.
one I could almost feel echoing in my empty chest.
"I can hear it," I said softly. "It's… calling to me."
Liz's sword hummed. "That's not a call," she said. "That's the Border testing you. Don't answer."
But the sound grew stronger. I could feel whispers rising again, not in the air this time, but inside my head.
You are one of us.
You fell once. You can fall again.
Come closer. Remember.
I pressed my hands to my ears, but the whispers didn't stop. They were inside me, twisting through the hollow space where my heartbeat should have been.
"Liz!" I gasped. "It's"
"I know!" she shouted. Her sword flared brighter as the Hunters lunged forward.
The first one leaped, its claws shining. Liz swung her blade, slicing through it in one clean motion. The creature dissolved into black mist, but two more crawled from the crack.
"Run!" she yelled.
I didn't move. My eyes stayed fixed on the wound in the earth. The light spilling from it was changing. It wasn't pale anymore, it was glowing the same color as the symbols beneath my feet.
The runes.
They flashed faster, matching the rhythm of my breath.
The light from the crack flashed with them.
And then, for the first time since I woke in this strange place, I felt something inside me move. Not pain. Not fear. Something deeper. Like a spark in a long-dead flame.
I reached out.
Liz saw it. "No!" she screamed. She struck down another Hunter and ran toward me, but she was too late.
My fingers touched the edge of the crack.
The world exploded in light.
For a moment, I couldn't breathe. I couldn't see. The light filled everything—my eyes, my mind, my chest. It was like falling and floating at the same time.
Then I heard it.
A sound.
A single glowbeat.
Mine.
It thudded once then again. Weak, but real.
When the light faded, I was lying on the ground. The cavern was quiet. The crack still glowed faintly, but the light no longer flickered. The Hunters were gone dissolved into dust and shadow.
Liz stood nearby, her sword dim now, her face pale.
She stared at me with something like shock. "You touched it," she whispered.
"I…" My voice shook. "It called me."
She stepped closer, her boots crunching softly over the stone. "The Border shouldn't have let you do that," she said. "It should have burned you away."
"It didn't," I said. "It… gave me something."
Liz's eyes dropped to my chest. "Your chest, there is a glowbeat, a replacement for your heart."
"No one has ever had that here".
"You really are chosen". She said quietly.
"You feel it again, don't you?"
I nodded. The pulse was faint, but steady. It felt strange, like a borrowed thing that wasn't truly mine.
"What does it mean?" I asked.
Liz sheathed her sword slowly. "It means the Border has chosen you for something greater. But it also means you are marked."
"Marked?"
She nodded. "The cracks recognize you now. They will call to you again."
I didn't know if that was a gift or a curse.
We stood in silence for a long time, the faint hum of the runes was the only sound. Then Liz turned away. "We need to move," she said. "More Hunters will come."
I got to my feet, still unsteady. The light beneath us glowed brighter now, as if it knew what had happened.
As we walked, I glanced back at the crack one last time. The light from it shimmered faintly, almost alive, like it was watching me leave.
And deep inside, beneath the rhythm of my new glowbeat, I heard the faintest whisper.
"We will meet again".
The path narrowed once more as we continued, and the air grew warmer. The whispers faded behind us, replaced by the quiet hum of the Border itself.
I looked at Liz. "Were you afraid?" I asked softly.
She didn't answer right away. Then she said, "Fear is not the same here. The Border takes it, twists it, feeds on it. I learned long ago to stop giving it what it wants."
I thought about that. "And me?"
"You're still learning," she said. "But you did well. Most souls turn toward the light. You walked into the dark. That's not easy."
I tried to smile. "I didn't feel brave."
"You don't have to," she said. "You just have to walk."
Her words stayed with me as we went deeper into the Border.
Behind us, the crack closed slowly, its light dimming into nothing. But in my chest, my glowbeat kept beating slow, uneven, alive.
And somewhere far ahead, beyond the mist and the runes and the silence, I felt other presences waiting. "The other unbound souls".
Whatever waited for us at the end of this path, I knew one thing for certain now.
"The Border had chosen me, and it would not let me go".