The mist thickened, coiling around us like living tendrils.
Shapes moved within it... distorted, flickering, as if they were broken reflections of something once human.
"Wraiths," Lira said, her voice low but steady.
She raised her blade, the weapon humming with energy.
"Don't let them touch you."
The nearest figure lurched forward, its form shifting with every step.
One moment it had limbs, the next it was little more than a writhing shadow.
Its face, if it could be called that, was a smear of anguish, its eyes glowing with a sickly, unnatural light.
My grip tightened around the fragment.
The shard pulsed in response, its warmth surging through my arm like a living heartbeat.
"Focus!" Lira shouted, slicing through a Wraith that had come too close.
The creature let out a piercing wail before dissolving into mist.
I raised the fragment, willing it to do something, anything.
A beam of light erupted from its core, but my aim was off, and the blast scorched the ground several feet away from the Wraiths.
The island shook from the force, cracks splintering outward.
"Are you trying to kill us both?" Lira snapped, leaping toward me.
She grabbed my arm and dragged me back as another Wraith lunged where I'd been standing.
"I'm trying!" I shouted, panic rising in my chest.
The fragment was humming louder now, its energy chaotic and unstable in my hands.
"You're not trying hard enough!" she retorted, her blade slashing through another Wraith.
"Control it, or it will control you!"
Before I could respond, one of the Wraiths darted forward with unnatural speed, its clawed hand brushing against my shoulder.
The world tilted.
For a split second, I wasn't on the island anymore. I was somewhere else somewhere cold and familiar.
A sharp voice cut through the haze.
"You never listen, Kay! You think you can just walk away from this?"
I turned, but the face was blurred, the details slipping through my grasp like sand.
"I didn't mean—" I started, but the words caught in my throat.
The figure turned away, disappearing into the shadows of my mind.
The vision shattered like glass, and I was back on the island, the air knocked out of me as I hit the ground.
"Kay!" Lira's voice snapped me out of the daze.
She hauled me to my feet, her expression tight with frustration.
"You can't let them get into your head!"
"I- I saw something," I stammered, the vision still vivid in my mind.
"A memory, maybe. I don't know."
"Of course you did," she said sharply.
"That's what they do. They feed on your past, twist it, and use it to weaken you."
Another Wraith lunged at us, its twisted form almost transparent.
Lira stepped forward, her blade flashing as she dispatched it in a single, fluid motion.
"You need to fight back," she said, turning to me.
"The fragment, it's your weapon. But if you can't control it, it'll tear you apart."
I gritted my teeth, raising the fragment again.
Its energy felt wild, untamed, but I forced myself to focus, to push past the chaos.
I imagined the energy as a thread, and I willed it to straighten, to align.
The shard responded, its pulsing light steadying.
I aimed carefully and released the energy in a concentrated beam.
The light struck one of the Wraiths, dissolving it instantly.
Lira gave a sharp nod.
"Better. Now, keep going!"
With her guidance, I managed to channel the fragment's power again and again, each blast more controlled than the last.
The Wraiths began to retreat, their distorted forms vanishing into the mist.
When the final Wraith dissolved, the silence was almost deafening.
I sank to my knees, the fragment dimming in my hand.
My entire body trembled, exhaustion threatening to pull me under.
Lira stood over me, her expression unreadable.
"Not bad," she said finally. "For someone who has no idea what they're doing."
I glared at her, too drained to come up with a retort.
She extended a hand, helping me to my feet.
"We need to keep moving. The Wraiths were just the beginning."
I hesitated. "What were those things?"
"Corrupted memories," she said. "Fragments of emotions and thoughts that lost their anchors. They're drawn to people like you people with unresolved pasts."
Her words sent a chill through me.
The vision I'd seen lingered in my mind, the voice echoing faintly.
"Why did it show me that? The memory… it felt real."
"Because it was," she said simply. "But if you want answers, you'll have to reach the Nexus. It's the only place where your memories and this world intersect."
I frowned. "And what happens if I don't get there?"
She didn't answer, her gaze shifting to the horizon.
"Let's go," she said finally. "The longer we stay here, the more dangerous it gets."
As we prepared to leave, the fragment in my hand began to glow brighter, its light pulsing like a frantic heartbeat.
Lira's expression darkened. "Something's wrong."
The ground beneath us trembled, and the mist began to thicken again, this time swirling with an unnatural intensity.
I tightened my grip on the fragment, my pulse racing as the island quaked.
Whatever was coming, it was bigger, and far more dangerous...
Than the Wraiths.