The shard pulsed again in my hand, its deep purple glow brightening the room just a little too much. My fingers tightened around it, but it was less an act of control and more of a reflex.
Whatever this thing was, I wasn't sure I understood it. I could feel its energy buzzing through me, its power seeping into my bones, and I still wasn't sure whether it was helping or making everything worse.
I had just unlocked the memory from the fourth fragment.
It had hit me like a freight train.
One moment, I was standing in the throne room, still reeling from the aftermath of the previous fragments.
The next, I was pulled into it. Pulled into the memory itself, like being dragged under the surface of some vast ocean, my senses overwhelmed by the sudden weight of it.
The landscape was desolate, an endless stretch of cracked earth. There were no trees, no grass, no signs of life at all.
It was barren. Dead.
