He floated in a place that did not look like any sky he knew. Colors moved in slow waves around him. Purple, gold, and deep blue twisted like living clouds. The space felt wide, quiet, and unreal.
He looked at his hands. They glowed with a faint light and stretched in strange ways, as if they had no clear shape. Confusion hit fast. A moment ago, he had been on his house. He remembered fire. He remembered dragging his uncle away as the roof gave way. He remembered the weight on his back and the sharp pain that followed.
Then nothing.
Now this.
A sudden pull snapped through the bright void. The calm broke. His body dropped as if a hole had opened under him.
Wind wrapped around him. The colors stretched into long streaks as he fell. His limbs blurred, then turned transparent. He saw his bones form first, each piece locking into place. Dark roots and thick strands of mass grew over them. Flesh covered everything in a slow ripple. He felt every layer settle, warm and strange, like someone was building him from the inside out.
He had no words for it. He only knew it was real.
The colors faded.
He fell fast.
The wind hit hard and tore at him. Light broke around him in bright arcs, as if he was a burning star dropped from some far place. Heat pushed against his skin. His ears rang. His vision shook.
The void thinned. A pale mist rose under him. Then he burst through a thick layer of clouds. For a moment the world spun in wide circles. Cold air filled his lungs. The sky opened.
Below him stood a tree so large it made everything else look small. Its trunk rose like a golden wall. Branches spread in long curves and carried a soft glow. They climbed past the clouds and stabbed through them like blades of light. The sight hit him hard. It felt ancient. Alive. Wrong and right at the same time.
He kept falling.
The land below grew clearer. Hills rolled out in broken shapes. Ruins dotted the fields. A long river twisted like a silver line. Small lights flickered here and there, too faint to name.
Wind slammed into him again and spun him sideways. His stomach turned. His arms flailed. The ground rushed up. His throat tightened. He tried to brace for the hit, but the force dragged him down faster.
The tree stayed in his view. Huge. Silent. Watching.
He hit the last cloud layer. The drop sharpened. The air tore past his face. The ground now felt close enough to touch.
"FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKKK!!!!!!"
...
Far from the falling streak, Melina sat on an old stone step. A small fire burned beside her, quiet and steady. She watched the horizon the way she always did: not through sharp detail, but through the soft traces of Grace that drifted across the land.
Then something pulled her attention.
A thin flash cut through the sky. It left a trail of light that bent in a way she did not recognize. It was not a sign from the Erdtree. It was not a rune burst. It felt foreign, rough, and sudden.
She rose at once.
The air shook. The tremor rolled through the ground and passed under her boots. Her breath held for a moment as she felt Grace shift, as if a new thread had been forced into the weave.
She turned toward the distant fields. The fading glow in the sky traced the path of whatever had fallen.
This was no simple sign.This was arrival.
A stranger had crossed into the Lands Between, dragged in by a force she did not know. His presence moved like a spark pressed against dry grass — bright, unstable, and ready to change something.
Melina narrowed her eyes.
"…A new Tarnished?" she whispered to herself.
She set out toward the point where the light had struck. The ground still shook in faint pulses. Whatever had fallen was not done crashing through the world.
The world slammed into him.
He didn't hit stone or dirt. He hit something soft that broke apart under the force. Mud burst around him. Wet grass pressed against his face. His body sunk deep into the ground as if he had been tossed from a catapult.
For a long moment he couldn't move. His breath rasped in short bursts. Every bone felt heavy. His vision swam. The sky above him spun in slow circles.
He stared up at it, chest rising and falling. The wind had quieted. The heat around his skin faded. Only cold air and the distant glow of the great tree remained.
Pain crept in next. A sharp ache ran down his back. His arms shook when he tried to push himself up. His fingers dug into the soil, but he slipped and fell again.
He swallowed hard.
Nothing looked familiar. Not the trees. Not the air. Not the sky.
And not the golden light that washed over everything.
Alley forced a grunt from his chest as he rolled to his side. His clothes were half-burned, half-mended by whatever had rebuilt him. Steam rose off his skin.
He tried again to stand. His legs buckled once, then held. He breathed slow and looked around. The field felt empty. The wind moved through tall grass that brushed his knees.
Then he heard it.
A soft, steady step.
Someone was walking toward him.
He turned, throat tight, ready to run or fight even though he could barely stay upright.
A figure approached through the grass. Hooded. Light-footed. Calm.The glow of Grace clung to her like a faint outline.
She stopped a short distance away. Her voice carried clear and even.
"You fell from far beyond this land."
He stared at her, still trying to catch his breath.
She studied him with quiet care, as if she already understood more than he did.
"You are hurt," she said. "But alive. That alone is unusual."
He couldn't speak. His mind still spun.
Melina tilted her head, eyes steady on him.
"Tell me… do you know where you are?"