The Void Between Worlds. Aldric's POV.
The portal swallowed him.
Aldric fell through darkness—tumbling, spinning, weightless. No ground beneath his feet. No sky above his head. No light to guide him. He was falling through the space between worlds, through the place where time had no meaning and distance had no measure.
He had been here before. Moments ago. Hours ago. He couldn't tell.
The cold pressed against him from all sides. The silence was absolute. He couldn't hear his own breath, his own heartbeat, his own thoughts. He was falling, falling, falling.
Then the light came.
It was pale, hungry, illuminating nothing. He was still falling, but now he could see—the void stretching in every direction, endless and empty. No walls. No floor. No ceiling. Just darkness and falling.
He was not at Vorlag's world yet. He was in-between.
The voice came from everywhere and nowhere.
You're almost here, child. I can feel you.
Aldric kept falling.
---
The memory surfaced unbidden.
He was standing before Vorlag. Not falling—standing. The figure was tall—taller than a man—its body a mass of shadow and light, shifting, changing, never still. Its face was a mask of pale skin, featureless except for its eyes—red, burning, hungry. It was wearing a vessel. A human shape. A temporary home.
"You have conditions," Vorlag had said.
Aldric had nodded. "My friends live. The portal closes. The creatures stop coming." He had met its eyes. "And you leave this world. Forever."
Vorlag had been quiet for a moment. Then he had nodded slowly. "Agreed."
Aldric had taken a breath. "Then I accept."
Vorlag had smiled. He had reached out, placed his hand on Aldric's chest. The touch was cold, smooth, like stone. Then warmth had spread through him—heat, power, healing. His wounds had closed. His leg had straightened. His scars had faded.
The portal to your world is closed, Vorlag had said. But I can open it again. Whenever I want. Whenever you displease me.
Aldric had felt the weight of the threat. The cage closing around him.
Don't test me, child.
---
The memory faded.
Aldric fell through the darkness. The void pressed against him, cold and hungry. Vorlag's presence was ahead—he could feel it, pulsing, waiting.
He thought about Grog. About the man who had come back from death to warn him, who had trained him, who had believed in him when no one else did.
He thought about Lira. About the scout who had never given up, who had fought beside him, who had bled beside him, who had always watched his back.
He thought about Mirena. About the mage who had given up everything to help them, who had studied and fought and healed and never asked for anything in return.
He thought about William. About the prince who had become a soldier, who had learned to fall and stand and fight, who had put himself between Aldric and death.
He thought about Ken. About the stranger who had been hunting alone, who had found something to believe in, who had chosen to stand with them.
He closed his eyes as he fell.
---
You're hesitating.
Vorlag's voice was soft, almost kind. Aldric could feel him pressing against his mind, his soul, his self. Waiting. Patient.
You made a promise. Your friends live. The portal closes. The creatures stop coming. A pause. I have kept my end of the bargain.
Aldric fell through the darkness. "I know."
Then come. Let me in. Let me be you.
Aldric opened his eyes.
"I have one more request."
What is it?
"Let me say goodbye."
---
Silence.
The room held its breath. Vorlag's presence pressed against him, curious, assessing.
To whom?
"To them. My friends. Grog. Lira. Mirena. William. Ken." Aldric's voice was steady. "Let me step back through the portal. Just for a moment. Just long enough to say goodbye."
And if I refuse?
Aldric was quiet for a moment. "Then you'll have a vessel who hates you. Who will fight you every moment of every day. Who will find a way to destroy you, even if it means destroying himself."
Vorlag was silent for a long moment.
You have courage, child. I'll give you that.
The darkness shifted. The path ahead shimmered, and Aldric could see the portal—the one back to the canyon, back to his friends, back to the world he was leaving. He wasn't falling anymore. He was standing on something solid—a platform of light, a bridge between worlds.
Go. Say your goodbyes. Then come back.
Aldric walked toward the portal.
And Aldric?
He paused.
If you try to run—if you try to break our bargain—I will open the portal again. I will send every creature I have through it. I will burn your world to ash.
Aldric nodded. "I know."
He stepped through.
---
The canyon was before him.
Grog. Lira. Mirena. William. Ken. Their faces, their voices, their presence. He said goodbye. He stepped back through the portal.
The darkness closed around him again.
He was falling.
Good, Vorlag said. Now come.
Aldric was getting closer to the exit,closer to Vorlag.
---
He fell for what felt like hours.
The void was endless, empty, cold. Vorlag's presence grew stronger with every moment—a pulsing, hungry thing waiting at the edge of the darkness. He could see it now—a glow, a light, the portal to Vorlag's world.
He thought about the threat. I can open it again. Whenever I want.
Vorlag held the leash. The portal to Grog's world could be opened again. The creatures could be sent again. His friends were safe—for now. But not forever.
Unless the connection was broken.
Not closed. Not sealed. Broken.
Aldric stopped falling.
He hung in the void, suspended between worlds, weightless and still.
---
He reached inside himself.
Not for the voice—the voice was already there, waiting, pressing. He reached deeper. Past the fear, past the doubt, past the years of carrying something that didn't belong to him.
He found the power.
It was his. Not Vorlag's. Not the voice's. His. Buried beneath years of fear and doubt and the weight of what he had been told he was.
A hero. A vessel. A key.
He was more than that.
He was Aldric.
He pulled.
---
The power surged.
It was bright—brighter than anything he had ever felt, brighter than the sun, brighter than the void. It filled him, overflowed him, poured out of him in waves of light and heat and something that felt like the opposite of Vorlag's cold.
He focused it—all of it—on the connection between worlds. On the thread that linked him to Vorlag. On the thing that let Vorlag open the portal to his world.
He pushed.
---
The connection shattered.
He felt it break—the link between worlds, the thread that Vorlag had used to send creatures through, to open the portal, to threaten his friends. It was gone. Destroyed. Broken.
The portal to Vorlag's world—the one he had been falling toward—exploded in front of him.
Light erupted—white and gold and terrible—pushing outward in every direction. The shock wave tore through the void, through Vorlag's world, through the space between worlds.
Aldric was thrown back.
He didn't feel it. He was already fading, dissolving, falling through the space between worlds, through the place where time had no meaning and distance had no measure.
He was trapped. In-between.
Not dead. Not alive.
---
On Vorlag's side, the explosion was blinding.
Vorlag raised his hand to shield his eyes. The hunters screamed. The portal—the doorway to Aldric's world—collapsed in front of them, sending a shock wave through the room that knocked them off their feet.
Vorlag tried to open it again.
Nothing.
The connection was gone. The link was broken. He could open portals—to other worlds, other realms, other realities. But not to that one. Not anymore.
The creatures couldn't be sent. The chaos couldn't continue.
Vorlag stared at the space where the portal had been.
"What have you done?" it whispered.
There was no answer.