The clocktower stood silent, its brass gears resting like slumbering beasts. Outside, the village of Ravin seemed frozen in a moment suspended between dreams and reality. The air was thick with anticipation, the quiet before a storm that no one could hear but those who dreamed.
Lior sat cross-legged on the stone floor, the shard of black glass cradled in his palm. Its pulsing heartbeat seemed to echo his own — faint, uneven, yet stubbornly alive. Mira and Rhéa watched him with quiet intensity, waiting for the moment the memories would come.
---
He closed his eyes.
And suddenly, he was somewhere else.
Not Ravin. Not the clocktower.
---
He found himself in a world woven of light and shadow — shifting patterns that folded into one another like the delicate wings of a moth.
He was in a vast hall, endless and shimmering, filled with stars suspended in mist. The walls hummed with quiet voices — whispers of forgotten dreams and the fading echoes of hope.
In the center of the hall, a woman stood alone.
She was tall, slender, and radiant, with hair like liquid silver and eyes that shimmered like galaxies. She wore a cloak woven from stardust and sorrow.
Her name was Elara.
---
Elara's hands moved gracefully through the air, tracing arcs of glowing thread that wove the very fabric of this dream-world. Her fingers shaped the stars, her breath breathed life into the void. She was the First Dreamer — the architect of all that was, is, and could be.
But there was a sadness in her eyes, a weariness etched deep into her soul.
Lior watched her from the shadows, invisible and silent.
---
A voice echoed in the vastness, soft and trembling.
"Elara…"
She turned, eyes meeting his for a moment — ancient eyes filled with both kindness and regret.
"You've come."
Lior wanted to speak, but his voice was caught in the weight of a thousand dreams.
Elara smiled gently. "You carry the weight of the broken dreams — fragments of my creation. You are the hope I left behind… and the mistake I cannot undo."
---
Elara reached out, her hand passing through him like a breeze. Then, she spoke again, her voice a fragile thread.
"I was afraid. Afraid to wake. Afraid that if I opened my eyes, the world I dreamed would shatter into nothingness. So I remained — trapped in my own dream, weaving a cage from hope and fear."
Lior's heart clenched.
"Why?"
"Because creation is pain," she said. "Because every world born from a dream carries its own darkness. And I could not face the emptiness beyond."
She paused, her gaze distant.
"But the longer I stayed, the more the dream began to rot. Fractures formed — cracks in the fabric. And from those cracks, the Bleeding One was born."
---
"The Bleeding One?"
"Yes. The shadow of all I feared — my own despair given form. It hungers to end the cycle, to silence the dreams forever."
Lior swallowed hard. "But if you're the First Dreamer... why didn't you fight it?"
Elara's eyes glistened with tears that seemed to shimmer like starlight.
"I tried. Over and over, through endless loops of dreams and waking. But each time, I failed. The Bleeding One grows stronger with every cycle."
She looked at him, fierce and fragile all at once.
"You are the last chance — the final dreamer who can end this. But you cannot do it alone."
---
Suddenly, the shimmering world around them began to tremble, the stars flickering like dying candles.
"Elara!" a voice called out, urgent and raw.
A figure emerged from the shadows — a young man with eyes like Lior's own, but filled with cold emptiness.
The shadow-boy.
"Elara, you've kept us trapped long enough," he said, voice like broken glass.
She stepped forward, unwavering.
"The cycle will end with me," she said softly.
---
The stars shattered.
Light exploded and faded.
---
Lior jolted awake, gasping for breath.
He was back in the clocktower, Mira and Rhéa watching anxiously.
"What did you see?" Mira asked.
"Her story," Lior said, voice trembling. "Elara... the First Dreamer. She trapped herself in the dream to protect it. But it became a prison."
Rhéa nodded. "And the Bleeding One... is her despair. Your despair. The part of you that wants to give up."
Lior clenched his fists. "I won't let it win."
Mira smiled faintly. "Then it's time to find Elara. To wake her. And to finally break the cycle."
---
The clocktower bell tolled midnight.
A new dream was beginning.
And this time, Lior would fight for more than just his world.
He would fight for all worlds.