Ashland Vale hadn't known silence
could feel so loud.
The Vault had quieted. The thrumming
power of the Throne of Broken Memory had faded to a pulse beneath his feet,
slow and steady like a second heartbeat. The sky above was no longer the
formless dark it once was; faint stars shimmered now, like cracked memories
stitching themselves back together.
But it was what he felt beneath the
silence that unsettled him.
A pull, deep and distant.
A gate had opened.
And it wasn't supposed to.
He rose from the throne's base,
brushing dried dust from his coat. Iriis was already waiting. Her stance wasn't
tense, but alert, her helm tilted slightly as if listening to something he
couldn't hear. Xeravon remained at the far edge of the Vault, resting beside a
collapsed obelisk, his many eyes closed but far from asleep.
"You both felt that too, didn't you?"
Ash asked quietly.
Iriis turned to him.
"Yes. Something foreign breached the
Realm."
"Another Trial?" he asked.
"No," she said. "Something… older."
Xeravon rumbled faintly in agreement,
rising and stretching his wings once before padding toward them.
Ash didn't need the System's
confirmation to know something was wrong, but it gave it anyway.
[SYSTEM WARNING – UNSCHEDULED GATE
DETECTED]
A rift has manifested within your
Influence Radius.
Classification: Unstable
Origin: Non-Systemic
Coordinates: Hollow Verge – West
Fringe
Priority Override: Immediate
Investigation Required
Note: This Gate is not part of the
Ascension Trial.
Ash narrowed his eyes.
"Not part of the Trial…"
He exchanged a glance with Iriis.
"Is that even possible?"
She was quiet for a moment.
"The System wasn't always the only
power in this world," she said. "There are echoes of older realms… things
sealed beneath the architecture of these Trials. Some Gates lead to Tests."
"Some lead to traps."
Ash nodded, already moving.
"Then we find it before someone else
does."
The journey to the Hollow Verge took
nearly an hour. The terrain had changed since the last shift — hills now
cracked with glowing runes, rivers of stilled starlight winding through
skeletal forests. The Trial Realm was reconfiguring itself around Ash's
influence, like clay shifting beneath a sculptor's touch.
It recognized his Court now.
And that meant everything near it
began to change.
They found the Broken Gate at the edge
of a shattered basin, where the ground gave way to a wide depression filled
with dead trees and long-rotted summon stones. Obsidian spires ringed the
perimeter like jagged teeth, and in the center, a Gate hovered — torn, ragged,
bleeding violet energy from its seams.
It was wrong.
Even from a distance, Ash could feel
it. System Gates were clean, organized, managed by the interface itself. This
one was raw. Unbound. Not created — but torn open.
Iriis drew her blade without a word.
Xeravon growled deeply, wings rising
as his hackles bristled.
Ash stepped forward slowly.
The Gate pulsed once, sending a ripple
through the earth.
"It's… unstable," he murmured. "But
not collapsing."
He reached out with his Bond, feeling
the pressure from the Gate like wind through open wounds. His mark burned. Not
from pain — but from recognition.
There was something alive in there.
Something waiting.
Suddenly, a shape fell through the
Gate.
Ash's body moved on instinct —
summoning a half-circle of protective binding threads to catch the falling
figure before it slammed into the stone. The impact blew dust into the air,
sending cracks across the platform.
He lowered his arms and stepped
closer.
It was a girl.
Young — maybe fifteen or sixteen —
dressed in layered robes marked with half-burned glyphs, her arms scarred with
Binding inscriptions that flickered like dying circuits. Her eyes were wide,
glowing faintly gold, and her breathing was erratic.
Ash knelt beside her.
"Hey—can you hear me? You're safe."
She blinked up at him, disoriented,
lips trembling.
"Where… where is this?"
"You're in the Trial Realm," Ash said
gently. "You came through an unscheduled Gate. You're not supposed to be here,
are you?"
The girl stared past him — her
expression twisting into fear.
"They're coming," she whispered. "They
followed me—through the Gate. They want to consume everything."
Iriis appeared beside him in an
instant.
"Ash—something's crossing behind her."
Xeravon roared.
The Gate behind them shredded open,
vomiting a spray of corrupt mana into the sky. Three figures emerged — not
human. Not summon. Twisted forms — like broken Binders, all spines and hollow
eyes, with chains grafted into their limbs and mouths sealed shut by wire.
One stepped forward.
It didn't speak.
But Ash felt the command.
RETURN THE STOLEN MEMORY.
Ash stood between them and the girl.
"She's not yours."
The creature raised a hand, and black
threads erupted from its palm, reaching toward her.
Ash's own mark flared in answer — and so
did his summons.
Iriis vanished in a flicker of shadow,
intercepting the first thread midair with her blade, severing it with a clash
of violet sparks. Xeravon lunged into the second attacker, slamming it into the
ground with a deafening crunch that shattered stone and bone.
Ash's own power surged in tandem.
He raised his hand — and the Court
Sigil ignited behind him, casting a ring of starlight across the battlefield.
[COURT ABILITY UNLOCKED –
Starbound Ward
]
Summoner and companions resist forced
bindings, memory effects, and corruption-type magic within aura range.
Area secured.
The lead abomination recoiled
slightly. It looked directly at Ash for the first time — and though its eyes
were hollow, something within them recognized him.
Not as prey.
As opposite.
The thing turned sharply and retreated
— its body folding into shadow before vanishing into the broken Gate.
The others followed.
The Gate pulsed once more…
And collapsed.
Silence returned.
Ash turned to the girl again.
Her eyes fluttered, and then she lost
consciousness.
They returned to the Throne that
night.
The girl was placed in a recovery
alcove carved near the base of the Vault — a space that hadn't existed until
Ash's Realm Anchor had been forged.
Now, it did.
The Court was growing.
And so were its mysteries.
Ash stood at the edge of the platform
beneath the Throne, looking up at the stars.
Iriis approached quietly.
"That Gate was never meant to exist,"
she said.
"Not by this world."
Ash nodded.
"They were looking for her."
"Or what's inside her," Iriis added.
"She's bound to something fragmented.
Possibly ancient."
Ash turned toward her, voice low.
"Like you?"
Iriis didn't answer immediately.
Then:
"No. Older."
Ash's jaw tightened.
"Then someone opened that Gate for
her."
"Which means…"
"Someone's trying to get in."
[SYSTEM NOTICE – UNAUTHORIZED REALM
BREACH]
Security Protocols Engaged.
Entity "Ashland Vale" granted
provisional Sentinel Authority.
Trial Override Warning Issued.
Ascension is no longer just a
challenge.
It is now a defense.
Ash turned toward the sleeping girl.
Then toward the sky.
"I think the real Trial just started."