Kael's boots crunched on the wasteland's cracked earth, each step kicking up ash that clung to their tattered cloak. The glow of Dusthaven's holo-lights had faded behind them, swallowed by the night's oppressive black. Ahead, the ruins of a pre-Collapse city loomed—jagged spires of concrete and steel, half-buried in sand, lit by the eerie violet pulse of a rift zone. Kael's arm still stung from the shadeclaw's corrosive graze, a dull burn under their patched sleeve. The lumium shard in their satchel felt heavier now, like it carried the weight of what they'd done. That shadow burst—whatever it was—hadn't just saved them. It had marked them.The wasteland was quiet, save for the distant hum of the rift, a low thrum that sank into Kael's bones. They needed food, water, maybe a working plasma cell if they were lucky. Enforcers would be scouring the roads by now, Varkas's goons hunting the scavenger who'd lit up their outpost with forbidden power. Kael's fingers brushed the rusty knife at their thigh. Useless against a shadeclaw. Probably useless against whatever else was out here. They pushed the thought down and kept moving, eyes scanning for salvage.A memory flickered, unbidden, sparked by the desolation. Kael was ten, trailing Jessa through a junkyard under a blood-red sky. Their mentor, wiry and sharp-eyed, taught them to spot lumium's faint glow in piles of scrap. "The world's broken, kid," Jessa had said, tossing Kael a cracked data-pad. "But it's got secrets. Void's one of 'em. Old stories say it birthed the Collapse—ate the world and spat it back wrong." Kael had laughed, thinking it a tale to scare kids. Jessa's eyes hadn't laughed. "If it calls you, run." Kael shook off the memory, heart twisting. Jessa was gone—lost to raiders three years back. But her words lingered, heavy as the rift's hum.A glint caught Kael's eye—a pile of debris near a toppled comms tower, half-buried in sand. A rusted hover-bike, its lumium core cracked but glowing faintly. Worth a shot. They knelt, prying at the casing with their knife, when the air shifted. A high-pitched whine, like shattered glass singing, cut through the silence. Kael froze. The rift's pulse quickened, and something moved in the shadows—a figure, humanoid but wrong, its body a mosaic of fractured crystal that shimmered with violet light. A glintwraith.Kael's breath caught. They'd heard of these rift-born things—ghosts of the Collapse, their bodies woven from rift energy, disorienting anyone who got close. This one was seven feet tall, its limbs jagged and reflective, like a broken mirror. Its face, if it had one, was a void of swirling light, and each step sent out a pulse that made Kael's vision blur, their thoughts sluggish. The glintwraith's arm extended, shards shifting to form a blade-like claw, and it glided forward, silent but for that piercing whine.Kael scrambled back, heart pounding. No cover, no time. The glintwraith's pulse hit again, a wave of dizziness that nearly dropped them. They gripped their knife, useless against crystal, and felt that same inner string from the shadeclaw fight—the void's call. The creature lunged, its claw slicing the air. Kael dove, rolling across sharp stones, and focused on that pull. Darkness surged through their veins, and this time, it wasn't a burst. Shadows coiled from their hands, tendrils of black mist that lashed out like whips.The glintwraith staggered as the tendrils struck, its crystal body cracking with a sound like fracturing ice. Kael's pulse raced—fear, yes, but also exhilaration. They could control it. The tendrils snapped again, wrapping the creature's arm, but the glintwraith countered, emitting a pulse that shattered the shadows and sent Kael sprawling. Their head throbbed, vision doubling, but they pushed up, gritting their teeth. Jessa's voice echoed: "If it calls you, run." Not today.Kael reached for the void again, deeper this time. The tendrils returned, thicker, faster, weaving around the glintwraith's pulses. They struck its chest, cracking the crystal core where its light burned brightest. The creature shrieked, a sound that clawed at Kael's ears, and charged, shards flying like shrapnel. Kael ducked, tendrils lashing out, and drove them into the core. The glintwraith froze, its light flaring, then collapsed into a pile of glowing fragments. A single rift crystal, fist-sized and etched with a jagged spiral, pulsed among the wreckage.Kael panted, knees weak, shadows fading from their hands. The crystal's spiral matched the shadeclaw's symbol—another clue, another question. They tucked it into their satchel, next to the lumium shard, and glanced around. The wasteland was still, but a shadow moved on a distant ridge—a figure, cloaked, watching. Ally? Enemy? Kael's gut twisted. They weren't alone out here, and the void's secrets were drawing more than just creatures.The ruins beckoned, the rift zone's glow brighter now. Kael adjusted their satchel and ran, Jessa's warning ringing in their ears. The truth was out there, buried in the wasteland's bones. They'd find it—or it would find them.
