Eris slumped against the cold stone, Kaylah curled close by, their two wounded companions breathing shallowly beside them. The cave was empty now, the wolves gone, the glass-back’s carcass picked nearly clean.

  Worn by exhaustion, Eris and Kaylah surrendered to it. And at once, the dream took them both. Beneath Eris’ feet, the ground was not earth but liquid silver, rippling like a living thing.

  A silver glow spiraled up, coiling like living smoke, until it took shape. A woman stood before them, luminous as moonlight on still water. Her hair fell in flowing strands that shimmered with tiny stars, a maiden woven from light and shadow, her eyes twin spirals of starlight.

  She moved without sound, her bare feet hovering above the silver sea as if gravity dared not touch her.

  she whispered, and her voice was the sigh of the wind through ruins.

  He tried to speak, but was muted by the weight of her presence. The maiden smiled, sad and knowing, as if she had waited lifetimes for this moment.

   essence.

  Eris’s breath caught. He looked down at his hands, faint light pulsed from his skin, from the silver-threaded lines that now seemed to pulse more fiercely than ever.

  The maiden tilted her head, her form a living spiral of light.

  Her hand drifted upward, fingers unfurling. Light shimmered into a great, coiled shape; a spiral descending into the depths of the earth, glowing veins threading outward like roots.

  she said.

  She gestured to the ground, and a web of cold silver light, the same light that had saved them, spread out.

  "The glass-back beast was one of them. It was not born, but made, a creature misshapen by silver."

  she said, tracing a finger along his arm,

  She touched his wrist, and his veins flared like liquid fire; then, the visions began.

  Eris stood in a forest of silver leaves, the trees twisted into hideous figures, their branches like grasping hands. He saw beasts with too many eyes, their bodies fused with metal. He saw men with silver veins like his own, but some were disfigured, their minds unraveling as the fragments whispered madness into their blood.

  The vision faded, and another formed.

  He saw the sea rise in fury, and from its depths loomed a drowned city. Towers twisted into grotesque forms of black steel and glass, warped by a fragment’s power. At its center, a throne of fused stone, and on it, a king draped in rags. Silver crept up his body like vines devouring a tree, his crown nothing but ruin.

  the maiden whispered.

  Eris felt the weight of the king’s gaze, hollow and endless. But beside him, Kaylah’s breath caught. She did not see only the king. She saw the faces of those kneeling before him—hollow-eyed people, chanting in despair. Their blood shimmered faintly with silver, enslaved by his fragment.

  she murmured, voice trembling within the dream,

  The vision shifted.

  Now the wasteland stretched wide, lifeless but for the towering Glass Spire, its surface fractured yet pulsing with dying light. Beneath it, circuits sparked like veins, twitching with the ghost of old power.

  the maiden said.

  Eris felt its pulse echo in his chest, steady and ominous.

  Kaylah’s eyes widened. Her sight was not drawn to the spire itself, but to the shadows moving within its glassy depths. She glimpsed distorted shapes—machines that had not died, only slumbered. Their forms were wrong, twisted, as though half-flesh, half-metal.

  she whispered.

  Again, the dream swirled.

  A mist-drowned valley appeared, and there a mutant clan roared around an altar half-buried in earth. A fragment pulsed atop it, warping their bodies with every breath. Their cries were half-victory, half-agony.

  the maiden said.

  Eris recoiled at their forms, twisted beyond recognition.

  But Kaylah pressed her palm to her chest. She felt their pain, their confusion. She saw children among them, born with silver already in their veins.

  she said softly

  Then the shadows rose, devouring light.

  Cloaked figures stepped forth, faceless, their whispers like knives. A fragment hovered amid them, wreathed in black fire.

  Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  the maiden intoned, sorrow in her voice.

  Eris stiffened at their nearness. But Kaylah gasped, clutching her temples.

  She saw more—threads of silver stretching from the Shadows into the waking world. They had already spread their tendrils into Haven Below, lurking, listening, waiting.

  she hissed.

  the maiden continued, whispering.

  The maiden turned her face toward both of them. Her gaze, fierce and sorrowful, bore into them like fire into stone.

  she whispered, her voice pleading.

  Her hand brushed Kaylah’s brow, and her own veins glowed faintly, though softer, gentler than Eris’.

  the maiden said,

  The dream world began to fade, the silver light dissolving into a swirling vortex of energy. But before it all dissolved, Kaylah caught one last glimpse—a shard hidden in stone, glimmering faintly in the very cave where they slept.

  Her eyes snapped open. Eris awoke at the same instant, breath ragged, the taste of silver still burning in his mouth. He opened his eyes to the reality of the cold, dark cave. The wind howled outside, a constant reminder of the world’s fury.

  ***

  The cave seemed to hum around them, the weight of the Spiral’s charge pressing into their very bones.

  Kaylah’s fingers twitched at her side, her silver veins flickering like distant lightning. She had woken with the dream still clinging to her, the maiden’s vision a knot in her chest.

  Kaylah’s hand brushed his, trembling. “You saw her, too, in your dream.”

  His breath caught. “Celestia.”

  “She didn't just fall; she was a cosmic entity, a fragment of a dying star, a force of creation and destruction,” Kaylah said. “Her form was a consciousness of light and energy.”

  Eris’s mind reeled. The images from his dream returned, the Spiral’s fall, her body shattering, silver flooding into the earth. The way she had spoken of purpose, and of corruption.

  “She was a meteor of pure energy that, when she struck, shattered into pieces,” Eris murmured. “The explosion imprinted her consciousness. Her silver blood melded into the planet's very core, changing it forever. Her heart’s fragments, the core fragments, were scattered across the world.”

  “Yes,” Kaylah nodded slowly, eyes wide in the half-light. “She came to me, not as a stranger. She’d always been watching. Her words… they were clear, Eris. She said her core was shattered into seven great fragments. And that you…” Her gaze softened. “That we must find them.”

  Eris swallowed. “Seven great core fragments…”

  “She said… she was meant to raise this world,” Eris murmured his understanding. His voice trembled, not with fear but with anger. “To strengthen its spirit, bind man and earth together. But men twisted the gift. They waged war. They tore the sky with fire and burned their own cities with weapons of sun and storm. They killed the old world… and the silver only made their fury stronger.”

  He felt a sense of anguish at how foolish the humans were. “It was greed,” he finally said. “They coveted the celestial power that could have been a gift to our planet. They thought that they would become the master of this world once they had them all. And now, this is what we got at last, a ruined planet.”

  Kaylah’s eyes glistened. “That is the wound we live in, Eris. The reason the tribes fear the old ruins is that the wastes crawl with beasts that should not exist. The silver did not die with the perished; it lived on. In the earth. In blood. In you.”

  Eris felt the shape of the road before him; not only survival, but a quest that would carry them into the heart of ruin and legend alike. His hands were shaking, not from fear, but from the realization that his life was no longer his own. His purpose was to find the fragments of the core and restore it.

  “There were smaller shards, splinters, scattered like stars on the earth. They could strengthen us. We must find them too.”

  Eris lowered his head, torn between relief and dread. Again, he questioned, “Why us? Why not someone stronger? Wiser?”

  Kaylah’s fingers tightened. “Because you are already marked and have a pure heart. You were not corrupted, though you carry her essence in your blood, and she also chose me because of you.”

  Kaylah leaned closer, pressed his hand, “I am with you… When your silver threatens to burn you hollow, I can hold you steady. And I can guide you when the way darkens, to gather the seven fragments, to gather the shards. To restore her. Only then will the silver and the shattered cores stop spilling madness into the world. We can do it together; we must do it. Not just for ourselves, but for the ruined world we live in.”

  Her hand trembled again, but this time, it was not only fear. “Eris. She gave me a gift of sight. I can glimpse the paths ahead… and more.”

  He turned. “What do you mean?”

  Kaylah’s eyes fluttered shut. For a heartbeat, her body tensed, and then she spoke, “I can feel even the smallest shards nearby; one lies here.” Pressing her palm to the cold stone, she murmured, “Not one of the seven. It is just a shard, but it is calling.”

  “In the dark beneath stone and bone in this cave. It is why the beast came, why the wolves lingered, why even you were drawn. Not only that, there were others as well. They feel its presence, too.”

  Her eyes snapped open again, breath ragged. Eris caught her shoulders.

  “You saw it? Here? In this cave?”

  Kaylah nodded, pale but resolute. “Yes. Buried deep, hidden where death nestles. A shard lies here. We are not alone in knowing it. The glass-back beast had been drawn to this place, too. It hadn’t been fleeing. It had been searching. And others watch still.”

  Her voice lowered. “Elder Ruvio and the Shadows. They follow from afar. They knew there was something strange in here. But they were confused; they thought it was you they sensed.”

  Eris’s chest tightened. The image of Elder Ruvio’s shadowed eyes rose unbidden, the way the man seemed to stand outside storms and yet command them.

  Eris shifted uneasily, scanning the jagged walls. He could still feel the pull of the Spiral in his chest, faint but insistent, like a thread tugging him deeper into the stone.

  Eris crouched, running his fingers across the damp rock. “The Spiral’s voice hasn’t left me. It’s like… she’s pointing, but the path twists.”

  Kaylah’s hand brushed his. “It’s here. Beneath us, or behind. I saw it in the dream; the silver was burning like a star, hidden under layers of dark.”

  The two wounded hunters lay near the dug-out, their breaths steady but shallow. Eris didn’t want to leave them, but Kaylah was right; the shard couldn’t wait. Beasts and those who sought it would find their way later if they did not take it now.

  They pressed deeper into the cave. The ground sloped unevenly, forcing them to crawl between jutting teeth of stone. In one narrow passage, Kaylah nearly slipped into a fissure that breathed cold wind from below. Eris caught her wrist just in time, his veins glowing faintly with the strain.

  The feeling grew stranger the farther they went, as though the cave itself pulsed. Eris’ heartbeat faltered in rhythm with it.

  Kaylah touched her temple with a wince, “This is where it hides,” she whispered. “The shard is close.”

  They followed the pull of it, deeper into the cave, where the dark pressed in like a living thing. The passage narrowed, the walls slick with moisture, until Kaylah stopped abruptly. Her breath hitched.

  "Here."

  ***