The air inside the tower tightened.
Not just tense controlled.
Like something had decided the rules had changed.
The Warden stepped forward, slow and deliberate, silver armor catching faint reflections that didn't quite match its movement.
Liora steadied herself, her hand still pressed around the shard.
"You saw it," the Warden said.
Its voice echoed, layered and hollow.
Liora didn't answer.
"You weren't meant to."
"I'm starting to hear that a lot," she muttered.
The Warden raised its hand.
Glass responded instantly.
Not chaotic like before.
Not wild like the broken district.
This was precise.
Calculated.
Thin shards lifted from the walls, the floor, even the air itself—forming sharp, floating lines that surrounded her in a tightening circle.
Liora's pulse spiked.
"Okay," she whispered, "not ideal."
Focus, the voice urged.
"I am focused," she whispered back.
No, it said. You're afraid.
"Well, yeah, look at this!"
The circle of glass tightened.
The Warden didn't rush.
Didn't attack.
Just waited.
Watching her.
Testing her.
"You don't understand what you're interfering with," it said.
"Then explain it," Liora shot back.
A pause.
Then....
"No."
"Figures."
The shards twitched closer.
Liora inhaled sharply.
You already know enough, the voice said.
Her grip tightened.
"I saw what happened," she whispered. "The fire. The people"
"You saw fragments," the Warden cut in.
Its tone didn't change.
But something underneath it did.
Something sharper.
"Fragments don't make truth," it continued. "They distort it."
Liora's chest tightened.
"…Then tell me the truth."
Another pause.
Then....
"We saved what we could."
Liora's jaw clenched.
"You left them."
The words came out sharper than she expected.
The Warden stilled.
For just a fraction of a second.
But Liora saw it.
"You think survival is simple," it said. "You think every choice is clean."
"I think you let people die," she snapped.
The shards surged closer.
Her breath caught...
Now, the voice said.
Liora moved.
Not away...
Forward.
She stepped into the circle of glass.
And pushed.
The shard in her hand flared, light bursting outward in a sharp pulse. The floating shards shuddered, caught between two forces again the Warden's control and hers.
But this time....
She didn't hesitate.
"I'm not leaving," she said.
Her voice didn't shake.
Not this time.
The glass trembled harder.
The Warden tilted its head.
"Interesting."
Liora felt it again that connection.
The web.
Every shard, every reflection, every piece of glass in the tower tied together.
And now....
So was she.
She lifted her hand slowly.
The glass followed.
Not perfectly.
Not easily.
But enough.
The circle around her widened slightly, giving her space to breathe.
The Warden stepped closer.
"You don't understand what that power is," it said.
"Then I'll learn," she replied.
"That power destroyed this city."
Liora's heart skipped.
"No," she said. "Something used it to destroy the city."
The Warden didn't respond.
And that silence....
That was the answer.
"You're hiding it," Liora said, her voice low. "All of it."
The shard pulsed.
Stronger now.
Encouraging.
The glass around her steadied, no longer trembling as violently.
The Warden's voice dropped slightly.
"You should not have come here."
"Too late."
The air shifted again.
But this time.....
Not just from the Warden.
Something deeper in the tower responded.
The pillar behind her pulsed faintly.
Liora felt it through the floor.
Through the glass.
Through the shard.
"What is this place?" she demanded.
The Warden didn't answer.
But something else did.
The tower itself.
A low hum spread through the structure, subtle but undeniable. The walls shimmered, reflections bending unnaturally again.
And suddenly....
Liora wasn't the only one controlling the glass.
The shards around her shifted.
Not toward her.
Not toward the Warden.
But toward the pillar.
Like it was calling them back.
The Warden stiffened.
"No," it said.
For the first time...
There was urgency in its voice.
"You will stop."
Liora frowned.
"Stop what?"
But she already knew.
The memory.
The truth.
The thing hidden inside the pillar.
The shard burned in her hand.
Finish it, the voice urged.
"Finish what?" she whispered.
What was started.
The pillar cracked.
A thin line splitting across its dark surface.
Light leaked through.
Not soft.
Not warm.
Bright.
Sharp.
Unstable.
The Warden moved instantly.
Faster than before.
A single step and it was right in front of her.
"Step away," it commanded.
Liora didn't.
"Why?" she asked.
The Warden's voice dropped, quieter now.
"Because some things," it said, "should remain buried."
Liora's grip tightened.
"Then you shouldn't have left them there."
The words hit.
Harder than she expected.
The Warden froze.
Just for a second.
But it was enough.
Liora pushed forward.
Her hand slammed against the pillar.
The shard flared.
And the crack spread.
Light exploded outward.
The tower shattered not physically, but in perception, in reality itself bending and breaking into fragments of memory and truth.
Liora was pulled in again.
But this time.....
She wasn't alone.
The Warden was pulled with her.
Fire.
Screams.
The city burning again.
But clearer now.
Sharper.
More real.
Liora stood in the middle of it.
And so did the Warden.
Not as armor.
Not as a faceless figure.
But as a person.
A human.
A memory.
And Liora turned....
Searching.
For Kael.....
END OF CHAPTER 11.....
Enjoying the story?You can read ahead on my Patreon:
patreon.Beatrixia Novelah
Thank you for your support—it means everything.