Chapter 202

*Elora*

The world blurred the second the aetherstone sliced open the plane. My fingers, wrapped tight around its hilt, burned like I’d dipped them in molten silver. Not hot. Not cold. Just… wrong. Like holding grief. Like pressing your palm to the place where a life had once been.

The realm didn’t crack open—it wilted. Petal by petal, color by color, until the world I stood in bled into somethin