Far from the shores where Elias sat in his quiet cottage, a hooded figure peered into a swirling crystal sphere. Its surface was shifting like liquid silver. Within its depths, Elias’s home flickered into view, surrounded by the endless waves.
But something was wrong. The cottage itself was blurred, as though wrapped in an unseen veil. The figure scowled, its inhuman lips curling in frustration.
Some kind of barrier blocked the spell—a protection ward. Clever thought the figure but not invincible.
Suddenly, sphere registered a movement. A shadow slipped from the cottage—Dorian Kael.
The hooded figure’s grip on the crystal sphere tightened. “Damn that boy for letting him inside the house.” The words were a low, guttural rasp, not entirely human.
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But then, after a long pause, a slow, cruel smile formed beneath the hood. It didn’t matter. There was still time. The figure knew "whenever emotion goes up intelligence comes down" as it had watched downfall of so many plans just because humans couldn't keep their emotions in check.
Satisfied with what he saw, the figure turned, its cloak rippling like liquid darkness. It strode toward the wall farthest from him in the dimly lit chamber. The wall looked old and had irregular crack patterns on it as if it had withstood the blows of time.
The figure raised a gloved hand, pressing its palm against the surface, and whispered something in a language lost to time. The wall pulsed, not like stone, but like something alive—a shifting, breathing membrane stretched across reality itself. The cracks seemed to come alive like the blood vessels running across an organism.
At once, the membrane shuddered, rippling outward as if recoiling from the touch. Then, with a wet, unnatural tear, it began to split apart, peeling open into a dark, mysterious portal. Without hesitation, the figure stepped through, vanishing into the void beyond.
The membrane sealed itself shut, the last traces of the opening melting away, leaving behind nothing but an unbroken wall, as if the passage had never existed at all.
