Sleep no longer brought rest. It came instead like a storm of broken glass, sharp fragments of dreams cutting through the edges of my mind. Every time I closed my eyes, the same vision returned—flashes of collapsing Gates, rivers of light spilling across empty skies, and behind it all… a single Window glowing at the center of a dark horizon.
The Primordial Window.
I did not know how I recognized it. No memory told me its name. Yet each dream carried the same pull, as though the Window itself called to me across the ruins of time.
Some nights the visions came softly: the Window hanging alone in a silent void, its frame carved with symbols that felt older than language. Other nights the dreams turned violent—worlds tearing apart around it, Custodians falling in fire and shadow, voices shouting words I could not understand.
Always, I woke before the ending.
I began writing the pieces down, sketching the shapes that burned in my mind. Circles within circles. Lines folding into themselves. At first they made no sense, but slowly I realized the symbols matched the ruins we had seen after the attacks. The same marks scorched into the walls where Gates had fallen.
Something was connecting my dreams to the war outside.
I told no one. The Custodians already looked at me with suspicion since the betrayals began. If they knew the visions inside my head echoed the attacks tearing their Order apart, I feared they would no longer see me as an ally… but as a threat.
Yet the dreams grew stronger after every strike. When the Hidden Faction destroyed another outpost, the visions sharpened, as if the falling Gates shook memories loose inside me. I started to hear fragments of voices—pleading, commanding, warning—all speaking through the cracks of my mind.
One voice rose clearer than the rest.
Find the Window before they do.
I did not know who spoke, or whether it came from the past or the future. All I knew was that the Primordial Window was real. The dreams wanted me to reach it.
And with each passing night, I felt the distance between vision and reality collapsing… just like the Gates themselves.
