The night wind howled across the Waiting Grounds as the Wanderers gathered near the fading firelight. Tension clung to the air like a second skin. Ever since the Singularity Map had revealed Earth’s impending threshold, unease had festered among us, each silence heavier than the last.
It was Kael—the quietest among us—who broke first. His eyes had been restless for days, darting toward the glowing Gates as if they whispered promises only he could hear. I had thought it was fear. Now, watching him step closer to the Map Keeper with a strange calmness, I realized it was hunger—an ambition gnawing at the edges of his soul.
The betrayal came without warning. One moment, Kael stood among us; the next, the Map Keeper lay on the ground, her crystal artifact torn from her grasp. Kael’s hand trembled as he raised it high, the Map glowing wild and furious in his grip.
But his eyes—those were not his anymore. A shadow rippled across them, like ink spilling through clear water. The Gates responded at once, their surfaces cracking with lightning as if recognizing a new master. Kael’s voice was not entirely his when he spoke.
“Power… knowledge… all of it waits beyond,” he whispered, yet the words slithered like serpents, carrying the cadence of another will. That was when I understood: Kael had not only betrayed us. Something—someone—had reached through the Gates and taken him.
The firelight snapped in the wind. Kael turned toward the largest Gate, the Map blazing in his grip, and I felt the first tremor underfoot. Whatever controlled him was about to open a path none of us had chosen.
