Chapter 1

Elara used to love the rain.

It reminded her of simpler times-mornings curled in her reading nook with an old paperback, the hum of old

Earth coffee machines, and the comforting scent of ozone drifting in through half-open windows. Back then,

she didn't fear the sky. She didn't wonder if every rumble was the sound of a world ending a little more.

Back then, Earth hadn't fractured.

She had lived in a dome city then-Korr Vale, named after some long-forgotten investor whose credits had

bought clean air and concrete towers. The dome was supposed to be eternal, a self-sustaining marvel. It had

glowing trees imported from gene labs, artificial rivers programmed to flow like Earth's ancient streams, and

cloud generators to make the wealthy feel nostalgic for weather. Elara never cared for the opulence. She

preferred the corners-library annexes, botanical walls, the service ducts beneath the skylanes where the hum of

turbines whispered secrets only lonely people ever heard.

Her work was simple. She catalogued anomalies-genetic irregularities in imported flora and fauna. Officially,

she was a biologist. In reality, she was a paid observer of failure. Creatures warped by atmosphere, by

radiation pockets, by things they'd pulled from rift zones. She wrote reports no one read and tagged samples

no one would use.

The world outside the domes had already been in decline. Arid wastelands stretched for miles. Blight storms

swallowed entire caravans. But Korr Vale had pretended they were safe. That no corruption could pierce the No one truly knows what caused it. A power overload? A breach in the atmosphere scrubbers? Some say it

was sabotage. Others whisper of something ancient-something buried that had awakened in the poisoned earth.

All Elara knew was that the lights died at 03:12 local time. She remembered the moment with vivid

precision-the sudden silence as fans stopped spinning, the flickering decay of city-wide holograms, and the

eerie realization that the dome's artificial night had turned to true blackness.

Then came the sounds. Screams. Sirens. Glass breaking, far too close. Something pounding from within the

walls-not outside, but within.

Her building shuddered. A vibration that passed through her bones like a frequency not meant for human

hearing. She had stumbled through her tiny flat, grabbing only her rucksack and the old data slate her mother

had given her. It wasn't courage that pushed her out the emergency hatch. It was instinct. The same primal

reflex that made deer flee the thunder.

Outside, Korr Vale burned. The dome cracked like eggshell. Lights sparked and fell like dying stars. Whatever

had emerged from the lower sectors wasn't human. She only caught glimpses-glittering bone, spindly limbs,

mouths in impossible places. One of them screamed, and the sound made her vision go white. The bio-alarm

in her neural interface shorted out. She tore the implant from her temple with shaking hands and bled into the

ash.

She ran.

Past scorched playgrounds and shattered synth-glass towers. Past bodies-some still twitching-lying in

symmetrical patterns, as if placed intentionally. No one chased her. But she felt watched. As if something was

choosing to let her go. Something curious.

Three days she walked without food. Without clean water. Past the ruins of other domes. Cities she'd never seen, now empty and draped in vines with leaves like razors. Once, she saw another survivor. A man,

bloodied, eyes wild. He rushed at her with a broken pipe and shouted gibberish. She ducked. He screamed

about voices in the wind and clawed his own face before collapsing.

She didn't stop to help. That guilt would stay with her.

By the seventh day, her legs gave out in a burnt field surrounded by blackened trees that still whispered when

the wind passed through. She lay there, expecting to die. But instead of death, came a shadow.

Not human. Not machine. Not anything she had studied.

It stood on two legs, but that was where the similarities ended. Its skin was a matte black that shimmered

faintly, like insect shell over deep oil. Elongated arms bent backward at the joints. Its head-long, smooth,

eyeless-tilted as it studied her. No mouth. No nose. Just a row of shifting slits that expanded and contracted

like breathing gills. Around its spine were glowing nodes that pulsed in time with some invisible rhythm. She

would later come to know those lights well. In that moment, she didn't scream. She was too far gone for fear. Instead, she whispered the only word that

made sense: "Please."

And the thing... paused.

Then, slowly, it knelt beside her. It tilted its head again. Reached forward with long, clawed fingers-and

touched the corner of her slate. A moment passed. The screen lit up, then flickered violently and shut off.

Still kneeling, it lowered its head, placing its forehead against hers. A strange warmth seeped into her skull-not

pain, but a deep vibration, like thunder through stone. Her breath caught in her chest. Images flooded her mind. Fragmented shapes. A world not hers. Towering obsidian spires. Creatures moving in impossible ways.

Pain. Loss. And a wordless sense of searching.

Then it was gone.

She woke hours later in a hollowed cave, her wounds dressed with thick green paste that smelled like copper

and crushed leaves. The creature was there, watching. She called it Xavion.

She didn't know why. The name had no origin she could place. It just... felt right. It felt like his.

They did not speak, not at first. But he stayed. Watched. Brought her water from a stream that tasted faintly of

minerals and salt. Brought her dried meat that smelled strange but sustained her. When she tried to leave, he

blocked the way-gently, not threateningly. He would point to the sky and make a low clicking sound. A

warning.

Eventually, she began to understand that the world had changed in ways she could not yet see. Not just the

collapse of cities. But something deeper. The rules were different. Creatures moved in ways that defied

biology. Plants grew in geometric patterns. And time-at least in some places-seemed to stutter.

She dreamed of Xavion even when he slept at the far edge of the cave. Dreams of vast structures that pulsed

with life. Of being inside something living, ancient, and watching the stars fall like rain. Each time she

dreamed, she woke with something new-minor changes. Heightened senses. Her cuts closed faster. Her eyes

adjusted to dark in seconds.

Xavion would tilt his head at her in these moments, humming deep, echoing notes from within his chest

cavity. She realized they weren't random. They were language. Not verbal, but rhythmic. Emotional.

Resonant. She began to mimic him. Touched objects and repeated words. He followed. Slowly, painfully, they built a

bridge between them.

But outside, the world kept shifting. Sometimes they heard distant howls. Sometimes the ground trembled.

Once, ash fell like snow for hours, and Elara wept at the memory of real seasons.

One night, as she sat beside a small fire, she asked aloud, "What are we now?"