Lysander ran.
His body still hummed with residual resonance sickness, but adrenaline proved a powerful antidote. Elysia moved ahead with impossible grace, her luminescent skin casting faint prismatic patterns on the crystalline corridor walls.
"What exactly are we running from?" he gasped, ducking as another tremor sent crystal shards raining from above.
"Void Harbingers," Elysia called back without slowing. "Think of them as antibodies. The multiverse detects unnatural crossings and sends them to... correct the anomaly."
"By 'correct,' you mean—"
"Erase you from existence," she finished matter-of-factly. "Nothing personal. Just cosmic immune response."
They're gaining, Zephyr's voice echoed in Lysander's mind, the creature bounding alongside them. Three, maybe four. Large ones.
The corridor opened into a vast atrium where crystal spires stretched upward, disappearing into a misty ceiling. Multiple pathways branched outward like the spokes of a wheel. Lysander's physics-trained mind registered the perfect mathematical symmetry of the architecture despite the chaos of the moment.
Elysia halted, her eyes rapidly shifting color patterns. "Decision point. The Wayfinder Sanctum is closest, but heavily warded. The Transit Hub offers more escape routes but less protection."
Before Lysander could ask what either of those things were, a soul-chilling howl echoed through the atrium. He turned to see shadows pouring from the corridor they'd just exited—not merely dark, but absence-of-light entities that seemed to devour illumination as they moved.
"Sanctum," he decided instantly.
"Smart Otherworlder," Elysia nodded, veering toward a narrow archway carved with intricate symbols. "Keep up and don't touch anything."
They sprinted across the atrium, the void entities gaining with each passing second. Up close, Lysander could see they weren't entirely formless—each had a core of swirling anti-light surrounded by tendrils that whipped and stretched with predatory intent.
They've caught your resonance pattern, Zephyr warned. They won't stop.
Lysander risked a glance back. "They're after me specifically?"
"You're the anomaly," Elysia confirmed, reaching the archway. She pressed her palm against one of the symbols, which flared with inner light. "Stand behind me. This will be... unpleasant."
The leading Harbinger surged forward, crossing half the remaining distance in an eyeblink. Lysander stumbled backward, tripping over his own feet as primal fear overrode rational thought.
Elysia didn't retreat. Instead, she planted her feet firmly and raised both hands. The air around her fingers distorted as if heat were rising from them.
"By right of Wayfinder and authority of the Axiom Council, I command you—return to discord!"
The final words resonated with such force that Lysander felt them in his bones. A visible shockwave of sound erupted from Elysia's outstretched hands, manifesting as concentric rings of light that slammed into the approaching Harbingers.
The entities shrieked—a sound like glass being crushed and metal being torn simultaneously. The two nearest seemed to collapse inward before dispersing into wisps of darkness that faded into nothingness. The third recoiled, its tendrils writhing in apparent agony.
Elysia swayed, suddenly pale. "Behind me, now!" she commanded, her voice strained.
Lysander didn't need to be told twice. He scrambled to his feet and ducked behind her as the remaining Harbinger regrouped and charged again, more cautiously this time.
Elysia touched another symbol on the archway, which glowed white-hot beneath her fingers. "Sanctum, recognize Elysia Nightwhisper, Wayfinder Third Rank. Emergency protocols, immediate passage!"
The archway's carved symbols illuminated in sequence, creating a cascading circle of light. The remaining Harbinger lunged desperately, one shadowy tendril lashing forward to wrap around Lysander's ankle.
Cold unlike anything he'd ever felt shot up his leg—not the absence of heat, but the absence of *existence itself*. Lysander screamed as his foot began to lose cohesion, his atoms destabilizing under the Harbinger's touch.
Zephyr leapt, tiny jaws clamping down on the shadowy tendril. There was a flash of blue-white light, and the connection broke. The archway flared blindingly bright, and Lysander felt himself being pulled backward through a membrane of resistance.
Then they were through, falling onto polished stone flooring as the archway sealed itself with a thunderous boom.
Lysander lay gasping, examining his foot with frantic hands. It appeared solid again, though numbness lingered where the Harbinger had touched him.
"What... was that?" he panted.
"That," said a new voice, deep and resonant, "was a most irregular entrance."
Lysander looked up to find they had arrived in what appeared to be a grand library. Shelves stretched dozens of meters upward, filled not with books but with glowing crystals of various sizes and colors. And standing over them was a tall figure in flowing robes of midnight blue.
Unlike Elysia, this being appeared entirely human save for eyes that were solid silver, with no visible pupils or irises.
"Archivast Thorne," Elysia said, pushing herself to a kneeling position. "Forgive the disruption. We had Harbingers in pursuit."
"So I observed," the man replied, his silver gaze fixed on Lysander. "Another Otherworlder? That makes four this cycle. The patterns accelerate."
Lysander struggled to his feet, wincing at the lingering numbness in his ankle. "Look, I don't know what's happening, but I need to get home. My name is Lysander—"
"Thorn," the Archivast finished for him. "Yes, I know."
Lysander blinked in confusion. "How does everyone here know my name?"
The Archivast's expression remained impassive. "Because I am also Thorne. Or rather, we share a resonance pattern across the multiverse. In some worlds, I am Elias Thorne, Archivast of the Wayfinder Sanctum. In yours, I suppose, I am... related to you somehow?"
"That's impossible," Lysander said automatically, though he found himself studying the man's features. There was something familiar in the high cheekbones and angular jaw, like looking at an older version of his father.
"Many impossible things are merely improbable," the Archivast replied. "The multiverse is vast beyond comprehension."
Elysia had recovered her composure and now stood with Zephyr perched on her shoulder. "The Harbingers tracked his resonance pattern specifically, Archivast. No confusion, no hesitation. Four directly after him."
"Concerning," Thorne murmured. He gestured, and a nearby crystal floated from its shelf, hovering before him. "May I?"
It took Lysander a moment to realize the question was directed at him. "May you what?"
"Scan your resonance pattern. It will be painless, but I need your consent. Interdimensional law is quite strict about such things."
Lysander laughed bitterly. "Interdimensional law? Sure, why not. Go ahead."
The Archivast nodded and made a subtle motion with his fingers. The crystal rotated slowly, then emitted a soft lavender light that washed over Lysander. He felt a gentle tingling, like static electricity dancing across his skin.
The crystal's color shifted from white to deep purple, then pulsed with an inner light that formed complex patterns within its structure.
Archivast Thorne's silver eyes widened fractionally—the first real emotion he'd displayed. "Fascinating."
"What is it?" Elysia asked, stepping closer to examine the crystal.
"His resonance pattern contains harmonic frequencies I've never seen before," Thorne said. "Almost as if..."
"As if what?" Lysander demanded, his scientific curiosity momentarily overriding his fear.
The Archivast studied him with new intensity. "As if you've been artificially synchronized with multiple realities simultaneously. Did you, by chance, build some sort of... frequency modulator before your transition?"
Lysander's jaw dropped. "My quantum frequency oscillator. It was supposed to detect cross-dimensional frequencies, not... not create them."
"Yet here you are," Thorne observed dryly. "And your arrival has attracted unusual attention from the Void. This requires Council notification."
Elysia shook her head. "The Harbingers will be regrouping. They'll bring reinforcements, especially once they analyze the resonance disruption I caused. We need to move him somewhere more secure."
"Agreed." The Archivast gestured, and the crystal returned to its shelf. "The eastern meditation chambers have the strongest wards. We'll sequester him there while I contact the Council."
"Excuse me," Lysander interrupted, "but I'm standing right here. I don't need to be 'sequestered' anywhere. I need to figure out how to get home."
Archivast Thorne turned those unsettling silver eyes on him again. "Young man, the Veil between worlds isn't a subway system with scheduled departures. You've managed something extraordinarily rare and dangerous—a self-initiated crossing. Until we understand how and why, and what consequences might follow, you absolutely need to be sequestered."
"But my parents, my school—"
"Time flows differently between dimensions," Elysia said, her voice gentler now. "A day here might be seconds there, or vice versa. There's no way to know for certain."
Lysander felt a fresh wave of panic rising. "So I could return home to find decades have passed? Or everyone I know might be long dead?"
"Or you might return five minutes after you left," the Archivast countered. "The point is, rushing blindly back would be foolish without understanding what you've done."
Before Lysander could argue further, a low vibration hummed through the Sanctum. Crystals throughout the library resonated in response, creating an otherworldly chiming.
"Proximity alert," Thorne said sharply. "The wards are being tested."
Elysia's expression darkened. "That was fast, even for Harbingers."
"Because they're not alone," came a new voice from behind a nearby shelf. A figure stepped into view—humanoid but clearly not human, with skin the dark blue of twilight and hair that moved as if underwater despite the still air. "The Harbingers have Discordants with them."
Archivast Thorne's composed façade cracked slightly. "Impossible. Discordants can't track resonance patterns."
"Yet there are at least three approaching the eastern perimeter," the blue-skinned newcomer said. "I've already activated the secondary wards, but they won't hold long."
"Lysander, this is Kaito Marestorm, my fellow Wayfinder," Elysia said quickly. "Kaito, this is—"
"Our newest problem, clearly," Kaito finished, giving Lysander an appraising look. "Unusual resonance?"
"Unprecedented," Thorne confirmed. "And apparently of great interest to both Void entities and Discordants, which should be impossible."
"Today seems full of impossible things," Lysander said, struggling to keep his voice steady. "Would someone please explain what Discordants are and why they're worse than the shadow monsters that just tried to erase me from existence?"
"Harbingers are natural phenomena—part of the multiverse's immune system," Kaito explained. "Discordants are sentient beings who've learned to manipulate resonance patterns for their own purposes. Think of them as interdimensional terrorists."
"They normally can't detect individual resonance signatures," Elysia added. "Which means either they've developed new abilities, or..."
"Or they were already looking for someone with my particular pattern," Lysander finished, his mind racing ahead. "But that makes no sense. I was nobody special until about an hour ago."
Archivast Thorne stared at the young man with sudden intensity. "Unless you were always meant to cross. Unless your creation of this 'oscillator' was itself part of a larger pattern."
Another, stronger vibration shook the Sanctum. Several crystals tumbled from their shelves, shattering upon impact with the floor and releasing bursts of colored light.
"Philosophy later," Kaito said, drawing what appeared to be a short metal baton from his belt. With a flick of his wrist, it extended into a staff etched with glowing symbols. "We need to move. The eastern chambers are compromised."
"The Resonance Vault," Thorne decided. "It's our most secure location."
Elysia looked alarmed. "The Vault isn't meant for living beings. The harmonic density could damage his neural pathways."
"Better damaged than erased," Kaito countered. "And if his pattern is as unusual as you say, he might actually stabilize the Vault's fluctuations."
Lysander held up his hands. "Whoa, I'm not being used as some kind of human tuning fork for your vault."
The Archivast fixed him with that silver stare. "Young man, at this moment you have exactly two choices. Risk temporary discomfort in the Vault, or face entities that will unmake your very existence. Which will it be?"
A tremendous crash echoed from somewhere nearby, followed by alarms that manifested as pulsing waves of sound and light throughout the Sanctum.
"Perimeter breach," Kaito announced unnecessarily. "Decision time, Otherworlder."
Lysander thought of his quiet life back home—his parents who never quite understood him, classmates who avoided him, teachers who tolerated his obsessions. Nothing had prepared him for this moment of crisis in a world operating on principles he'd only theorized about.
And yet, some part of him—the part that had built the quantum oscillator in the first place—felt a thrill of validation beneath the terror. He'd been right all along. Reality was more complex, more fascinating than anyone had imagined.
"The Vault," he decided. "But I want answers afterward. Real ones."
"If there is an afterward," Kaito muttered, but was silenced by a sharp look from Elysia.
"This way," Archivast Thorne said, moving toward the back of the library with surprising speed for one who appeared so dignified. "And whatever you do, don't stop moving. The Discordants can track stationary resonance patterns more easily than moving ones."
As they hurried deeper into the Sanctum, Lysander couldn't help wondering if his high school physics teacher had noticed his absence yet, or if—as Elysia suggested—time was flowing differently between worlds. Either way, it seemed the science fair project was permanently on hold.
He'd wanted to make scientific history. Instead, he'd become part of something far stranger—a human frequency detector caught between harmonic worlds and the discordant forces that threatened them both.
In the distance behind them, he heard the unmistakable howl of Void Harbingers, accompanied now by something new: a high-pitched keening that made his teeth ache and his vision blur. The sound of different realities being forced unnaturally together.
The sound of Discordants, coming for him.