The world did not end with Solaris's fall.
In the moment she shattered, a blinding light erupted across creation—so vast and pure that the Void itself recoiled. It was not destruction that followed, but transformation. Her luminous form fractured into countless shards, scattering like stars across the heavens and the earth below. Each shard carried a fragment of her essence: light to oppose the rising dark, hope to counter despair.
The Void Walkers watched from afar, their faces cast in shadow. They had turned their backs on the world, and yet, they could not look away.
---
**Oras** lingered the longest, his massive frame kneeling on the edge of creation where the Void met matter. Before him stretched the mountains he had carved, now blanketed in eerie silence. The rivers no longer hummed with life but ran sluggish, stained with dark veins that crept outward like ink on parchment. He pressed his hands to the ground, trying to feel the heartbeat of the world he had shaped.
Nothing. Only fragments.
"She is gone," he murmured, his voice trembling like the earth beneath him.
"No," said Selca, emerging from the mist. Her form shimmered faintly, her light dimmed by grief. "She is not gone. She is *everywhere.*"
Oras raised his head. Above them, the sky was no longer whole. The light of Solaris had become scattered jewels, casting cold radiance across the land. It was beautiful in a way Oras could not put into words, and yet wrong—hollow, like a melody missing its chorus.
"Her shards will sustain it," Selca said, though her voice quavered. She stepped past Oras and knelt, her fingers grazing the grass. It responded to her touch, springing back into life—green and trembling—but its roots were shallow, its vitality fleeting. "Do you see? There is still balance. Imperfect, but balance nonetheless."
Oras exhaled heavily, rising to his feet. "And the corruption? Will it stay hidden forever?"
Selca didn't answer. She couldn't.
---
In the valleys of the world, where humans had barely begun to carve their place, the fall of Solaris was felt as an apocalypse. The light seared through the skies, turning night to day and day to fire. Men and women fell to the ground, shielding their eyes as the heavens fractured.
For days afterward, no sun rose. Darkness loomed thick over the land, punctuated only by strange bursts of radiance as shards of Solaris fell like meteors. Wherever they landed, the earth trembled, and something *changed.*
In one such village, a boy named **Talin** watched as the sky wept fire. His family's fields had turned black beneath the strange glow, the crops curling inward as though afraid. The boy was no more than twelve, his hands calloused from tilling soil, his heart beating fast with the innocence of those who know nothing beyond their small world.
When the shard landed, it struck the forest beyond the village with a sound like bells ringing—clear and pure, yet unsettling. Talin saw the light from his window, bathing the trees in silver flame. For a long moment, the world was silent, as though the earth itself held its breath.
Then the forest screamed.
Talin's father grabbed his arm, pulling him away from the window. "Stay inside!" the man barked, his voice lined with a terror Talin had never heard before. Outside, the villagers gathered with weapons—crude blades, pitchforks, anything they could find. From the edge of the forest came shadows that did not belong, shapes that twisted and oozed like tar.
The shard had changed something.
---
Where Solaris's shards brought light, they also brought chaos. Not all who touched her essence remained whole. The Void's taint, though pushed back, still clung to the edges of creation, and it latched onto her fragments like a predator seeking prey.
From the depths of the earth, demons crawled into being—creatures of darkness made flesh, their forms twisted mockeries of life. They surged forth wherever the corruption pooled, drawn to the shards as moths to flame.
One such demon, **Malakar**, rose from beneath a ruined forest. His form was humanoid but stretched unnaturally, his limbs too long, his eyes pits of swirling black. He emerged into a clearing where a shard of Solaris blazed, its light carving patterns into the grass.
Malakar hissed, recoiling, yet he could not look away. The light burned him, yes—but it also called to him. It was a challenge, an adversary. He slunk forward, his clawed fingers outstretched, and as he reached toward the shard, the light dimmed slightly, corrupted by his touch.
The demons did not destroy Solaris's fragments. They fed on them, warped them, made them *theirs.*
---
Not all who encountered the shards fell to darkness. Among mortals, some survived their touch and emerged changed. They became known as the **Shard-Blessed**—humans who carried Solaris's light within their bodies, their souls fused with her fractured essence.
Some of the Shard-Blessed became healers, capable of pulling life from barren ground. Others became warriors, their strength unmatched, their weapons glowing with fire that burned demons to ash. And some… some carried gifts they could neither understand nor control.
In a remote village, a woman named **Alyen** awoke after three days of fevered sleep. The shard had struck her home, embedding itself in her chest like a star fallen from the sky. Her skin glowed faintly, her eyes now a molten gold. When she touched the earth, flowers bloomed in her wake, but when her grief overcame her, the flowers turned black, their petals crumbling to ash.
"What am I?" she whispered, staring at her hands.
Her people called her a miracle. Others called her a curse.
---
From the Void, the Walkers watched as the world found its fragile rhythm. Selca's hope proved true: Solaris's shards had held creation together, preventing its collapse. But the cost was written in the scars of the earth, the cries of the demons, and the fractured souls of mortals.
Vyris, ever restless, paced along the edge of the Void, his golden eyes flickering like lightning. "This is madness," he snarled. "We should have destroyed it all. A clean slate."
Kaelen stood beside him, unmoving. "Destruction would have been cowardice. We gave them a chance."
"A chance?" Vyris spat, turning on him. "Look at them! They stumble in the dark, wielding powers they do not understand. The corruption grows stronger by the day. What chance do they have?"
Kaelen's gaze did not waver. "Enough to fight."
From the edge of their council, Selca whispered, "And enough to hope."
---
In the centuries that followed, Solaris's fall became legend. The mortals called it the **Day of Fracture**, a moment when the heavens broke and light bled into the earth. They spoke of the Shard-Blessed as heroes and monsters, of demons who crawled from the depths, and of celestial wars fought in realms beyond mortal sight.
But in the shadows, something darker stirred.
The shards of Solaris were not eternal. Some grew dim, consumed by the Void's taint. Others vanished, their light extinguished as mortals or demons alike took them for their own gain. And deep in the earth, where no light could reach, whispers spread of a power that hungered for the fragments—a being who sought to consume what remained of Solaris and claim her place.
The balance Selca had clung to was delicate. It would not last forever.
And so, the world waited, caught between light and dark, hope and despair. It was a fragile peace, the kind that shatters with a single misstep.