The fall through the silvery radiance seemed endless. Liara felt her body simultaneously dissolving and reassembling—a strange sensation that nonetheless felt painfully familiar. She held tightly to Kairos's hand, clinging to the only constant in this stream of shimmering light.

  And then it was over. Suddenly, like a heartbeat.

  They stood on a rocky shore, surrounded by an endless sea with water the color of molten silver. The moonlight—but was it the same moon?—reflected in the waves, creating the illusion that eternity itself lapped at their feet. The air was saturated with a strange, tart aroma—salt, exotic spices, and something elusive that Liara couldn't name.

  "Where are we?" she asked, not letting go of Kairos's hand.

  "In a place they call the Borderlands," he answered, looking around. "It's not quite a world, more like... a space between worlds."

  Liara looked around more carefully. Behind them rose bizarre rock formations resembling crystal shards, shimmering in the moonlight. Some of them bore strange symbols that seemed burned directly into the stone. In the distance, above the horizon, the sky was painted in unnatural colors—purple, emerald, indigo—transitioning into one another like in a magical dance.

  "Is this... safe?" Liara felt a strange pulsation inside her artificial body, as if something within her was responding to this place.

  "Relatively," Kairos finally released her hand and turned to face her. In the moonlight, his eyes appeared almost black. "The Keepers won't find us here, at least not right away. They have no access to the Borderlands."

  "But you do," it wasn't a question, but a statement.

  Kairos smiled slightly.

  "I have many skills that the Keepers would prefer to consider lost."

  He took a small crystal from his pocket and threw it to the ground. The crystal scattered into sparkling dust, which began to gather, forming something like a path leading up to the rocks.

  "We need to reach the shelter before dawn," said Kairos. "The Borderlands have their own rules, and night here is much safer than day."

  "Why?"

  "Because during the day, the boundary between worlds becomes thinner, and... visitors from other realities can seep through. Not all of them are friendly."

  Liara felt a chill down her spine—a strange sensation for a body that, theoretically, shouldn't feel temperature. Kairos went forward along the glowing path, and she followed him.

  As they climbed, the landscape became increasingly surrealistic. The rocks took on shapes resembling frozen figures of people and creatures that Liara couldn't even imagine. Some of them seemed to turn their heads, watching the travelers. The sky above them gradually changed, becoming a canvas of colorful nebulae and stars of unseen colors.

  "You promised to tell me the truth," Liara finally broke the silence. "About who I am."

  Kairos slowed his pace but didn't turn around.

  "The truth... is more complicated than you can imagine," he said after a pause. "And more dangerous than you think."

  "I have the right to know," there was steel in her voice. "If I've really lived multiple lives, if I'm really... a goddess, or whatever the priests were talking about, I need to understand what's happening to me."

  Kairos stopped and turned to her. His face was now serious, without the trace of mockery she had seen earlier.

  "You're not a goddess, Liara. But you're not an ordinary human either. You are..." he hesitated, choosing his words, "you are a shard. A fragment of something greater, ancient, and powerful. Something that was shattered long ago and scattered across different worlds."

  He started walking again, and now Liara noticed that the path had led them to a narrow passage between two massive rocks resembling a gateway.

  "The Order of Keepers didn't lie to you completely," Kairos continued, passing between the rocks. "Five centuries ago, the Catastrophe did occur. The Veil between worlds was torn, and forces that no one could control poured into your world."

  "Your world?" Liara noted. "You speak as if you're not from Alkarion."

  Kairos gave her a quick glance over his shoulder.

  "I haven't considered any world my home for a long time," he answered evasively.

  Beyond the narrow passage opened a wide valley, hidden from the outside world by rocks. In its center stood a strange structure—not quite a house, but not a temple either. It looked as if it had grown directly from the earth, with smooth organic lines and surfaces that seemed to glow slightly from within.

  "This is the shelter," said Kairos. "One of the few safe places in the Borderlands."

  As they approached the structure, part of the wall simply melted away, forming an entrance. Inside it was warm and dry, and most surprisingly—the space seemed much larger than one could assume from the outside. The room resembled a mixture of a library and an alchemical laboratory: bookshelves neighbored strange devices, and on tables lay maps, scrolls, and artifacts whose purpose Liara couldn't even guess.

  "Do you live here?" she asked, looking around with undisguised curiosity.

  "Sometimes," Kairos removed his dark jacket and threw it over the back of a carved chair. "When I need to research something related to the Borderlands or the worlds beyond them."

  He approached one of the tables and lit several candles with blue flames. In their light, Liara noticed something strange—on the inside of his right wrist was a symbol similar to those that were burned into the rocks outside.

  "You said I'm a shard," Liara reminded, approaching the table. "A shard of what?"

  Kairos sighed and turned to her.

  "Of an ancient being that some called Eon. It was... not quite a god, but something similar. A being capable of traveling between worlds and changing reality itself. During the Catastrophe, Eon was destroyed, shattered into many shards that scattered across different worlds."

  He walked to a bookshelf and took out an old volume in a worn leather binding.

  "Each shard retained part of Eon's essence but lost memory of the whole. In each new world, the shards incarnated in local beings—most often in humans—living lives without knowing their true nature."

  He opened the book and showed Liara an illustration—a strange being composed of light and shadow, with a form that was difficult to describe in words.

  "Is this... Eon?"

  "An artistic representation," Kairos clarified. "No one knows what he actually looked like. Perhaps he had no fixed form."

  Liara carefully touched the page. Something about this image evoked a strange response within her, as if part of her recognized... herself?

  "You're saying I'm one of these shards," she said slowly. "And the priests somehow extracted me from another incarnation and placed me in this body?"

  Kairos put the book aside and looked directly into her eyes.

  "Not exactly. The Keepers have been tracking Eon's shards for centuries. They believe that if they gather enough shards together, they can recreate a semblance of the original being and use its power."

  He approached a strange device resembling an astrolabe and turned one of the discs. A glowing projection appeared in the air above it—a map of constellations, but not like the ones Liara had seen in Alkarion's sky.

  "Three months ago, they found a woman possessing a particularly strong shard—you, or rather, your previous incarnation. They brought her to the temple under the pretext of helping her control her unusual abilities. And then they conducted a ritual that was supposed to extract the shard and place it in a prepared golem body."

  Liara felt everything inside her grow cold.

  "What happened to that woman? To my previous incarnation?"

  Kairos looked away, and this gesture told her more than any words.

  "They... they killed her?" Liara exhaled.

  "The extraction ritual doesn't presume the survival of the host," Kairos answered quietly. "For them, she was merely a vessel for more valuable contents."

  Liara recoiled, feeling a strange combination of horror and anger. She sank into the nearest chair, trying to comprehend what she'd heard. The priests hadn't just created a body for her—they had killed a person to extract part of her essence.

  "But why?" she asked, raising her eyes to Kairos. "Why do they need this?"

  "Officially—to save the world from the Withering. They believe that only a restored Eon can close the cracks in the Veil." Kairos approached and knelt before her chair, looking into her eyes. "But the reality is more complex. The Order of Keepers has accumulated knowledge about the worlds beyond the Veil for centuries. They crave these worlds, crave the power hidden there. And they see in you—in Eon—the key that will open the way for them."

  Liara shook her head, trying to process all this in her mind.

  "But if I'm really a shard of this... Eon, why don't I remember anything? Why don't I feel this power?"

  "Because you're not just a shard," Kairos said quietly. "You're a shard of a shard. Part of you is still in other worlds, in other incarnations. What the Keepers extracted is just a fragment of your true essence."

  He rose and went to one of the cabinets, from which he took a small box made of dark wood.

  "There's something I need to show you."

  He opened the box and took out a strange object—a pendant on a chain. The pendant was made of a material resembling both metal and crystal, with an intricate symbol engraved on its surface.

  "What is this?" asked Liara when Kairos extended the pendant to her.

  "This is a means that can help you remember," he answered. "An Echo-stone. It resonates with Eon's shards, strengthening the connection between scattered parts."

  Liara carefully took the pendant. It was warm to the touch, as if it lived its own life. The symbol on it seemed vaguely familiar, like writing in a long-forgotten language.

  "How does it work?"

  "Just put it on," said Kairos. "And let the memories come on their own."

  Liara looked at the pendant with doubt but then resolutely put it around her neck. For several seconds, nothing happened. And then...

  The world around began to change. Not suddenly, as when using the Eye of Memory in the temple, but slowly, gradually. At first, they were just separate images flickering at the edge of consciousness. Then—sounds, voices pronouncing words in languages she had never heard but somehow understood.

  And finally—feelings. Love, loss, hope, despair—a cascade of emotions belonging to lives she never remembered but somehow had lived.

  And then all of this merged into one clear vision:

  She stood atop a tower, under a starry sky that belonged to no world known to her. Beside her was a man—tall, with dark hair and eyes glowing with emerald light. She knew his name—Daren. Not just knew—loved him with her entire being.

  "We can't wait any longer," he said, looking at the horizon where dark clouds were gathering. "The eclipse is approaching. When it comes, the barrier will be at its thinnest."

  "But what if the Keepers are right?" she asked. "What if breaking through the Veil really destroys this world?"

  Daren turned to her, his eyes burning with determination and pain.

  "This world is already doomed, Liara. You've seen the signs just as I have. The Withering has already begun. The only way to save anyone is to find a path to other worlds."

  He took her hands, and his touch was warm, alive, real.

  "Think of the other shards, scattered among countless realities. Of parts of you waiting for reunification. Together, we can fix what was destroyed. Restore the balance."

  She felt his sincerity, his faith. And yet something deep inside her resisted.

  "What if we're wrong?" she whispered. "What if what was shattered shouldn't be restored?"

  Daren released her hands, a shadow of pain flickering in his gaze.

  "Then we'll accept the consequences together. As always."

  He turned to a table on which lay a strange device—something between an astrolabe and a musical instrument, with crystals instead of strings.

  "The ritual is ready. All that's needed is your blood... and determination."

  She looked at the device, then at the dark clouds approaching from the horizon. Time was running out. And as always, the choice was hers alone.

  The vision faded, leaving Liara trembling and confused. She sat in the chair, gripping the pendant tightly in her hand.

  "You saw something," said Kairos. It wasn't a question.

  "I saw... him. Daren. The Black Duke." Liara raised her eyes to Kairos. "We were preparing for some ritual. Something related to breaking through the Veil."

  She looked at him carefully.

  "You're not surprised."

  Kairos looked away.

  "I... knew some details of what happened five centuries ago. The story of Daren and Liara is a legend known to those who study the Veil and the worlds beyond it."

  "But in my vision... we weren't enemies, as the priests said. We were..."

  "Lovers," Kairos finished quietly. "Allies. And ultimately—the cause of the Catastrophe that destroyed the Veil and shattered Eon into fragments."

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  He approached the window—strange, but only now did Liara notice that inside the shelter there were windows, although from the outside they weren't visible. Beyond the glass stretched the silvery sea they had seen upon arrival, but now it was restless, with high waves crashing against the rocks.

  "The Keepers tell the story in their own way," Kairos continued. "In their version, Daren was a villain seeking power, and Liara was a heroine who sacrificed herself to stop him. But the truth... is much more complex."

  He turned to her, and in the light of the blue candles, his face seemed older, with shadows she hadn't noticed before.

  "Daren and Liara together sought a way to prevent a catastrophe that, as they believed, was to destroy their world. They discovered that beyond the Veil existed other realities, other versions of their world where the catastrophe didn't happen or was prevented. They decided to find a path there."

  Kairos returned to the table and took the book he had shown earlier.

  "But this required enormous power. Power they didn't possess. Liara was a Watcher—one of those who could see through the Veil but not pass through it. Daren was a Magister of Resonance, capable of manipulating energies at the border of worlds. Together they developed a ritual which, in their opinion, should have temporarily opened a passage."

  He turned a page in the book, showing an illustration of a tower against a starry sky—exactly the same as Liara had seen in her vision.

  "But something went wrong. Instead of a controlled passage, they created a rift that began to grow, consuming the energy of their world. And when it became clear that catastrophe was inevitable, Liara made a decision..."

  "What decision?" asked Liara when Kairos fell silent.

  He closed the book and placed it on the table.

  "She decided to sacrifice herself. But not as the Keepers tell it. She didn't just seal the rift—she merged with it. Became a bridge between worlds, dividing her essence into many shards, each of which went to a separate reality."

  Kairos came closer, his gaze fixed unwaveringly on Liara.

  "In a sense, she did become a goddess—a being simultaneously existing in multiple worlds. But the price was the loss of integrity, loss of memory... and the loss of Daren."

  Liara felt understanding growing within her—not only from Kairos's story but from her own memories that began to seep into her consciousness after contact with the Echo-stone.

  "And what happened to Daren?" she asked quietly.

  Kairos turned away, his shoulders tensing.

  "He didn't accept her decision. Tried to stop her but couldn't. And when it was all over, when Liara dissolved into the rift and Eon's shards scattered across worlds... Daren vowed to find a way to gather them together. To bring her back."

  He looked at Liara again, and now there was something in his gaze that made her breath catch.

  "He spent centuries traveling between worlds, tracking shards, studying them. Sometimes he managed to find them, sometimes not. Sometimes he came too late, and the shard had already passed into a new incarnation. It was... an endless chase."

  Liara rose from the chair, her thoughts feverishly working, piecing together the puzzle.

  "Kairos," she said slowly, not taking her eyes off him. "Who are you?"

  He was silent for a long minute, just looking at her. And then he raised his hand to his face and drew his palm from top to bottom, as if removing a mask.

  And his eyes changed. From dark brown, they became emerald, glowing with an inner light.

  "I think you already know the answer," he said quietly.

  Liara felt everything inside her freeze.

  "Daren," she whispered. "You're Daren Vultar. The Black Duke."

  He nodded, his gaze not leaving her face.

  "Yes. Though I haven't used that name for a very long time."

  "But how? It's been five centuries..."

  "Time flows differently in different worlds," answered Daren-Kairos. "And there are ways... to extend existence. Especially when you have access to energies at the border of worlds."

  He took a step toward her but stopped, seeing the confusion on her face.

  "I know this is too much for you to take in at once. You don't remember our past—not fully. You don't remember... us."

  There was such longing in his voice that Liara's heart contracted with an unclear, reflected pain.

  "Why did you hide your identity?" she asked. "Why didn't you tell me right away who you are?"

  "Because I didn't know how much the Keepers had changed you," he answered. "How completely they control your artificial body. I couldn't risk it."

  He approached the table and took a small scroll from a drawer.

  "Besides, after so many years of chasing your shards, I've learned caution. Not every incarnation of yours is happy to see me."

  "What do you mean?"

  Daren unrolled the scroll, which showed a map with many glowing points connected by lines.

  "Over these centuries, I've found twelve of your shards in different worlds. Some of them remembered me—or at least part of our history. Others remembered nothing. And some..." he paused, choosing his words, "some remembered only that I was the cause of the Catastrophe. And tried to kill me."

  Liara shook her head, trying to comprehend the scale of everything she had learned.

  "And what now?" she asked. "What do you want from me?"

  Daren raised his head, his green eyes meeting hers.

  "I want to help you remember who you really are. Not the story the Keepers tell, not my memories—your own truth. And then..." he paused, "I want to offer you a choice. The same choice I've offered each shard I've found."

  "What choice?"

  He rolled up the map and set it aside.

  "The choice between continuing the cycle of rebirths—life after life, in different worlds, as part of something greater... or attempting to reunite with other shards. Returning what was shattered."

  Liara sank back into the chair, feeling the weight of everything she'd heard pressing on her.

  "But if I'm only part of a shard, as you said, is the rest still in some other body? In another world?"

  Daren nodded.

  "That's exactly why the Keepers didn't achieve full success with you. You remember less than they expected. You react differently than they planned. You're not a whole shard, just a part of it."

  He knelt before her chair, coming to the level of her eyes.

  "The Keepers don't know this feature of the shards. They think each shard is a unified whole that can simply be extracted and used. But the truth is that each shard exists simultaneously in multiple worlds, connected by thin threads to each of its incarnations."

  "And what does that mean for me?" asked Liara. "I can't be whole without... other mes?"

  "You can exist," Daren said gently. "Live, think, feel. But you'll never possess the full power of a shard until you reunite with your other parts."

  He reached out his hand but stopped a millimeter from her cheek, not touching.

  "Or until you choose to release this connection completely and become... just Liara. Not a shard of an ancient being, not part of something greater, but yourself."

  Liara felt lost among all this information. Shards, worlds, rebirths... It was too much to fully comprehend. And yet, part of her felt the truth in Daren's words, resonated with them on a level she couldn't explain.

  "What happens if I choose reunification?" she asked. "With other parts of me?"

  Daren rose to his feet and walked to the window.

  "I don't know for certain," he answered honestly. "Theoretically, you would become more whole, gain more memories, more power. But the price might be the loss of your current personality, your 'self'."

  He turned to her.

  "That's why I offer you a choice, rather than trying to impose a decision. It must be your decision. Always."

  Liara touched the Echo-stone on her neck, feeling its warm pulsation.

  "What about the Keepers? Will they look for me?"

  "Undoubtedly," Daren nodded. "You're too valuable to them. They spent decades preparing the ritual that was supposed to make you their weapon against the Withering. They won't abandon this plan so easily."

  He approached a strange device in the corner of the room, resembling a telescope but aimed not at the sky but at some point in space.

  "But we have an advantage. They don't know about my existence—at least, they don't know that I'm still alive and active. They consider Daren Vultar long dead, and Kairos to them is just an unknown agent, possibly connected to other factions."

  He turned some lever on the device, and an image appeared in the air—the Keepers' temple, seen as if from a great height. Around it scurried small figures resembling ants.

  "They're in panic," Daren stated. "Your disappearance has disrupted their plans. Now they're trying to figure out where you went and who helped you."

  He turned off the device and turned to Liara.

  "We have time, but not infinite. Sooner or later, they'll find a way to track you. Especially if you start using the shard's powers."

  Liara stood from the chair and walked around the room, examining the strange artifacts and books.

  "You talk about powers, but I don't even know what powers I might have. I don't feel anything special in myself."

  "Because your artificial body restrains them," Daren explained. "The Keepers created the golem in such a way as to control you. They would gradually 'allow' you access to powers as you proved your loyalty to them."

  He approached a cabinet and took out a small crystal similar to the one he had used to create the glowing path.

  "But there are ways to bypass these limitations. To show you who you really are."

  He held out the crystal to Liara.

  "Break it," he said. "And let the energy flow through you."

  Liara took the crystal with doubt. It was warm to the touch and seemed to pulse in sync with the Echo-stone on her neck.

  "Is it safe?"

  "No," Daren answered honestly. "But life is rarely safe, especially for ones like us."

  Liara looked at the crystal, then at Daren. In his green eyes, she saw expectation, hope... and something else that made her heart beat faster.

  Do I trust him? she thought. There was no answer. But there was a feeling—deep, instinctive—that this man was connected to her more strongly than anyone else. That their stories were intertwined on a level she was only beginning to understand.

  Liara squeezed the crystal in her palm and suddenly compressed it. It cracked with a quiet ring, and bright light burst between her fingers, enveloping her hand, rising higher, encompassing her entire body.

  And the world exploded.

  Visions—hundreds, thousands of visions—flooded into her consciousness. But this time, they weren't blurry or fragmentary. They were crystal clear, vivid, full of details:

  She in the body of a young girl, running through a forest, branches lashing at her face, cries of pursuers heard from behind... She—an elderly woman, sitting in a chair by a window, watching the sunset, feeling the approach of the end... She—a warrior, with a sword in hand, standing in the center of a battlefield, bodies of the fallen around, and the sky overhead splitting into pieces... She—a healer, bent over a wounded child, her hands glowing with a soft golden light, taking away the pain...

  Lives—dozens of lives—flashed before her inner vision. And in each of them was a moment—sometimes fleeting, sometimes prolonged—when he appeared. Daren. In different guises, under different names, but always with the same green eyes. Sometimes as a friend, sometimes as an enemy, sometimes as a random passerby. But always—part of her story.

  And behind all these lives, all these stories, Liara felt something else—deeper, more ancient. The being whose part she was. Eon. She sensed it as a distant presence, like the echo of a song she once knew but had forgotten.

  When the visions finally receded, Liara found herself lying on the floor, with Daren leaning over her, his face distorted with concern.

  "Liara?" his voice sounded as if from far away. "Can you hear me?"

  She blinked, trying to focus her gaze. The world around seemed brighter, more distinct, each color more intense. She felt energy pulsating around her, saw threads of light connecting objects, sensed the flow of time as an almost physical presence.

  "I see... everything," she whispered. "Too much of everything."

  Daren helped her sit up, his hands warm and confident.

  "It will pass," he said. "Your consciousness is adapting to the new perception. This always happens when a shard begins to awaken."

  Liara looked at her hands and saw that they were glowing slightly from within, her skin becoming almost transparent, with luminous lines pulsing beneath it, resembling blood vessels but filled not with blood but with pure energy.

  "What's happening to me?" she asked, raising her eyes to Daren.

  "Your true nature is beginning to manifest," he answered. "The golem was created to contain the shard's energy, but now that you've released part of it... the body is adapting."

  Liara rose to her feet, feeling a strange lightness. She approached a mirror on the wall and gasped. Her eyes had changed—from silvery-blue they had become like the night sky, with twinkling points of light like stars. The seams on her skin, which were barely noticeable before, now glowed with the same light as the lines inside.

  "I look..."

  "Beautiful," Daren said quietly, approaching from behind. In the mirror, their reflections stood side by side—she with eyes full of stars, he with eyes the color of emerald. "You've always been beautiful, in every incarnation, in every world."

  Liara turned to him.

  "I remember... so much," she said. "Lives, worlds, events. But it's all like a dream—vivid in the moment of waking, but quickly fading."

  "That's normal," Daren nodded. "The human mind—even the mind of a golem created in the likeness of a human—cannot hold everything at once. Memories will come and go, becoming clearer with time."

  He walked to the table and took from a drawer a small vial with a dark liquid.

  "Drink this," he said, extending the vial to Liara. "It will help stabilize your condition. Right now, you're overflowing with energy, and this can attract the attention of... unwanted beings."

  Liara took the vial but didn't hurry to open it.

  "What do you mean by 'unwanted beings'?"

  Daren glanced at the window, beyond which the sky had begun to change, acquiring a strange purple hue.

  "The Borderlands are inhabited not only by us. There are beings here that feed on the energy of shards. Soul Hunters, as some call them. Usually, they're not a problem, but when a shard actively manifests itself..."

  He didn't finish the phrase, but Liara understood. She uncapped the vial and drank its contents. The liquid was bitter with a metallic aftertaste, but immediately after she swallowed it, Liara felt the heat inside her subside, and the glow of her skin dim to a barely noticeable radiance.

  "Better?" asked Daren.

  Liara nodded, although part of her missed that sensation of boundless power she had experienced a moment ago.

  "What now?" she asked. "We can't just stay here, right? The Keepers will find a way to reach the Borderlands."

  Daren shook his head.

  "Not so quickly. The Borderlands are protected from ordinary ways of moving between worlds. To get here, you need special artifacts or... special abilities."

  He approached a large map on the wall—strange, unlike any map Liara had seen before. It depicted not continents and seas, but spheres of different sizes connected by lines and spirals.

  "This is a map of the worlds known to me," Daren explained. "Each sphere is a separate reality, with its own laws, its own history. The lines between them are possible transition paths."

  He pointed to one of the spheres, colored in a bluish hue.

  "This is Alkarion, the world we came from. And this..." his finger moved to a small sphere in the center of the map, surrounded by many lines, "the Borderlands. Not quite a world, more like... a crossroads between worlds."

  Liara came closer, studying the map with growing interest.

  "And in each of these worlds, there's... a part of me?"

  "Not in all," Daren replied. "Eon's shards flew far, but not infinitely. I've found your traces in twelve worlds. In some, you've already lived your life and moved on. In others—you still exist."

  He pointed to several spheres marked with special symbols.

  "Here, here, and here, I found parts of you that remembered their true origin. They helped me understand more about the nature of shards and how they can be... reunited."

  Liara noticed that one of the symbols on the map exactly matched the engraving on the Echo-stone that hung around her neck.

  "And this one?" she pointed to a sphere colored dark red, with a symbol resembling a disintegrating star.

  Daren's face became tense.

  "That's Veyrin, a world where I found you... the last time. You were a priestess there, a guardian of an ancient temple. You remembered me, remembered our history. And decided to go with me in search of other shards."

  His voice grew quieter.

  "But when we tried to open a portal to the next world, something went wrong. You were... torn apart. Part of your essence disappeared, and part..." he ran his hand through his hair, "part moved to Alkarion, where it was eventually found by the Keepers."

  Liara felt a strange echo of pain—not physical, but some deeper kind, relating to an event she couldn't remember but somehow felt.

  "That's why you said I'm a shard of a shard," she said slowly. "Part of me is still in that world, in Veyrin?"

  Daren nodded.

  "I believe so. After that... incident, I lost your trail there. But the logic of shards suggests that if part transferred to Alkarion, then another part must have remained in Veyrin or moved to some third world."

  He looked at Liara with an expression she couldn't precisely define—a mixture of hope, guilt, and something else, deeper.

  "That's why I offer you a choice, Liara. We can try to find the rest of you, gather them together. Or you can choose to remain as you are—part of a greater whole, but with your own will, your decisions."

  Liara turned away from the map and approached the window. Beyond the glass, the purple sky had begun to darken, taking on an almost black hue, against which appeared stars of strange, unearthly colors.

  "And what do you want, Daren?" she asked, not turning around. "After so many centuries of searching... what do you hope to find?"

  She heard his footsteps behind her—he came closer, but not so close as to violate her personal space.

  "I seek completion," he answered quietly. "Fulfillment of a promise I gave you five centuries ago when you dissolved into the Veil's rift. I vowed to find a way to fix what we broke. To restore balance."

  His voice became even quieter, almost a whisper.

  "And yes, part of me hopes to bring back the Liara I knew. Whom I... loved. But I've long understood that this may be impossible. That each shard is not just a fragment of the former you, but a new personality, with its own will, its own desires. And I must respect that."

  Liara turned and looked into his eyes.

  "But you still continue to search."

  "Yes," he simply replied. "It's the only thing I have left."

  At that moment, something changed in the shelter's atmosphere. The air seemed to thicken, tense, as before a storm. Daren sharply turned his head toward the door, his eyes narrowing.

  "Something's wrong," he said, quickly approaching the strange device in the corner of the room. "Something's approaching."

  He turned a lever, and an image appeared in the air showing the surroundings of the shelter. Liara saw strange figures moving along the rocky shore where they had recently stood—tall, thin, with unnaturally long limbs. Their bodies seemed to consist of darkness and silvery glimmers, resembling stars.

  "What are they?" she asked, feeling an inexplicable fear growing inside her.

  "Hunters," Daren answered grimly. "I feared this. The release of your energy attracted their attention, even despite the stabilization potion."

  He quickly went to a cabinet and took out a strange weapon—something between a sword and a staff, with a crystal at the end that pulsed with the same green light as his eyes.

  "We need to leave," he said. "Right now. As soon as they find the shelter, they won't stop until they get to you."

  "Why are they hunting me?" asked Liara, feeling the power beginning to pulse inside her again, responding to the danger.

  "Because Eon's shards contain pure creative energy," Daren replied, quickly gathering some items into a small bag. "For beings like the Hunters, this energy is the greatest delicacy. They can exist for centuries after consuming even a small fragment of a shard."

  He handed Liara a small knife with a silver blade adorned with strange symbols.

  "Take this. It won't kill them, but it can give you time if they reach you."

  Liara took the knife, surprised at how naturally it fit in her hand.

  "Where will we go?"

  Daren took from his pocket the same silver key he had used to open the portal in the temple.

  "To the next world," he answered. "A place where we might find another one of your shards. Perhaps it will help us understand what to do next."

  He turned to the door, behind which strange rustling sounds could already be heard, as if something was scratching outside.

  "Ready?" he asked, looking at Liara.

  She gripped the knife tighter and nodded.

  "Ready."

  Daren raised the key, and in the air before them, a silvery line appeared again, which began to expand, forming a portal. But unlike the previous one, this one glowed not with silver but with a deep blue light.

  "Hold onto me," said Daren, extending his hand.

  Liara took his hand, feeling the warmth of his fingers squeezing her palm. At that moment, the door shuddered from a powerful blow, and a crack appeared in its center, through which extended a long, thin limb ending in something that only remotely resembled a hand.

  "Now!" shouted Daren, and together they stepped into the portal.

  The last thing Liara saw before the blue glow engulfed them was a creature bursting into the room—a tall figure with a body of darkness and eyes glowing with a hungry silvery light.

  And then the world disappeared again in a whirl of colors and sensations, and Liara felt her essence dissolving, preparing to reassemble in a new, unknown place.

  This is where my real journey begins, she thought. A journey to myself.