Chapter 1 of Volume 2 — Shards in the Rain

The rain had not stopped for three days.It was the kind of rain that blurred the edges of the world — a cold, grey curtain that dissolved the horizon into shifting ghosts. Every drop struck the earth like a whispered accusation, carrying with it the smell of stone and rust.
Mira stood at the edge of the landing platform, her boots sinking slightly into the wet metal grates, watching the clouds coil over the ruined city. The skeletal outlines of towers clawed upward in the distance, their blackened steel frames jutting out of the mist like broken ribs. Somewhere down below, in the streets they could no longer see, water pooled in abandoned squares and trickled through cracked windows into hollow homes.
Akarui emerged from the Lightrover behind her, his jacket dripping from the short sprint across the platform. He didn’t speak at first; he just came to stand beside her, gazing at the storm as if it might part on its own. His right hand rested absently on the hilt of his blade, fingers curling and uncurling with restless tension.
“You’ve been out here since dawn,” he said at last, voice quiet but edged.
Mira’s gaze didn’t shift. “I couldn’t sleep.”
“You mean you didn’t try.”
She almost smiled, but it didn’t reach her eyes. “I saw him again, Akarui. In the same way as before. The mask… the empty stare. But this time, I think he saw me too.”
The sound of the rain filled the silence that followed. Somewhere beneath them, the ship’s engines hummed faintly, held at idle in case they had to leave quickly.
Akarui exhaled slowly. “We don’t know it’s him.”
“I know,” she said, her voice a thread. “But my instincts… they’ve never been wrong about him.”
Behind them, Yûna stepped onto the platform, a blanket still around her shoulders. She looked between the two of them, sensing the gravity in the air before they even turned to face her.
“You’re talking about going back,” Yûna said, more statement than question.
Mira didn’t deny it. “The Envers isn’t finished with us. We left something—someone—behind.”
Yûna’s eyes darkened. “You mean him. The one who nearly tore the ship apart last time.”
Mira’s hands clenched at her sides. “That wasn’t him. Not completely.”
Akarui rubbed his temple, as if the conversation was a weight pressing inward. “If we go back, we’re walking into its domain again. It will twist everything. Every sight, every sound, every thought we have. You remember what it did to us.”
“I remember,” Mira said. “I also remember that we didn’t break. That’s why it wants us gone — we’re the only ones who can pull him out.”
Akarui stared at her for a long moment. The rain beaded and rolled down his face, unheeded. “And what if the one you want to save doesn’t want to be saved?”
“Then I’ll make him remember why he should.”
There was no bravado in her tone, no stubborn defiance. Just a steady certainty that made both men and storms think twice.



Later, inside the ship’s central chamber, the three of them gathered around the projection table. The holomap above it glowed with fractured data from their last incursion into the Envers — incomplete terrain scans, pulsing anomalies, vast swaths marked only as UNKNOWN.
Mira traced a hand over a section of dark fog near the Arkheion’s coordinates. “The wall I saw in my vision… it’s here. Just beyond this field. If we can breach it, we’ll reach the light I felt — and maybe him.”
Yûna crossed her arms. “And what about Elloran? He won’t just let us wander around his territory.”
Akarui’s jaw tightened. “He’s not just guarding it. He’s baiting us. Everything about that wall is a trap.”
“That’s why we can’t wait for the perfect moment,” Mira replied. “The longer we hesitate, the stronger his hold becomes.”
A heavy silence fell, broken only by the slow drip of water from Akarui’s coat onto the metal floor. He hated that she was right.
Finally, Yûna sighed and threw her blanket onto the nearest chair. “Fine. But when we go in, we go in together. No more lone hero moves.”
Mira’s lips twitched into the faintest smile. “Deal.”
Akarui remained silent, but when he finally spoke, his voice was low and final.“We leave at first light.”
The rain outside did not ease.
Somewhere beyond the storm, the Envers was waiting.