Obsidian Shards Novels & Stories

“The shard, use it! It’s tied to the beast!” I fumbled with the pouch, my fingers trembling as I pulled out the obsidian shard. Its surface was hotter now, almost scalding, the red veins flaring with a hunger that made my skin crawl. I’d studied relics like this for years, piecing together their secrets in quiet libraries, but this was no dusty artifact.

"What are you talking about?" Varin's gaze fell across the assembled warriors. "The shards. The way to power that can destroy the Void—is in the rubble beyond. But without destroying it, you will. You will have to break. Break. The way of the past, or darkness shall devour your world." Diva's breath caught. She shared a protracted, questioning glance with Derek, who moved his head slowly. They shared a glance of understanding in a wordless dialogue of hope and fear. The road ahead was a hair's breadth—every step would require sacrifice and push them to their limits.

“Aelys, now!” Aelys channels the group’s auras—Cassia’s fire, Renn’s loyalty, Maddox’s hope, Sylvara’s resolve, Lysara’s redemption, Zorath’s spark, Valthor’s unity, Lirien’s defiance, Zynara’s resolve—into the relics, her voice a crescendo. “Veil, Overveil, unite!” The relics surge, starlight and void flooding the array, the shard’s pulse weakening. The mechanism flares, a containment field encircling the shard, rifts dimming, wraiths dissolving.

This is where I knew the energy in the room was shifting—answering something else beyond us. I looked at the baby. “She opened the door. Can she close it?” Aerik’s breath caught. “You don’t close a shard, Damien. You enter it. Or it enters you.” A chill rolled down my spine. “What is, exactly, the hell is a shard?” “A shard of the world,” he called it. “Not time. Not memory. Something else. “At least something Jasmine stashed when she couldn’t kill it. “And now it’s waking up,” Elara spoke quietly. “Because of Nyra.” Aerik nodded. “She’s a tether. She binds echoes to breath.”

The Shardlands were unlike any place Aria had ever seen. Shards of crystal jutted from the cracked earth like the spines of a great beast, each one refracting not just light, but memory. Beneath a sky of fractured moons and bleeding clouds, the landscape shimmered with a thousand versions of itself—past, present, and future folding into one. It was a place where time bled, and the truth shattered. Aria stepped forward cautiously, Kael by her side, Lena and Tarek trailing close behind. Their Rootbound allies had refused to come this far. Even the flame-warded scouts had turned back at the edge of the crystal border.

The room was simple but elegant, decorated in soft, calming colors—pale blues and whites that reminded her of the ocean. She turned her head slightly, her body aching with the effort, and saw that the room was spacious, with a high ceiling and large windows that overlooked a pristine beach. The sight of the rolling waves and the endless horizon filled her with a sense of peace she hadn’t felt in what seemed like an eternity. It was as if the world itself had been reborn, cleansed of the darkness and pain that had plagued her life.

Lana's POV My hands started to shake. The box was light, but its contents felt like they carried the weight of burdens. I blinked, hard, sure my eyes were deceiving me. Inside the box, nestled on the silk, wasn’t just anything. Wrapped in delicate silver wire to hold them together, were three jagged, obsidian-like fragments. They were dull in the morning light, but I knew them. I felt them. A low, resonant hum seemed to vibrate up through the block into my bones. Shards of the Holy Grail.

The cost was too visible, etched into the very soil of the North. Kaelen approached us, her boots crunching through the fine white powder that had settled on the stone. She held out a piece of the shattered null-glass we had seen forming during the clash. "The miners are calling it 'Saint-Shard,'" she said, her expression grim. "It’s draining the magic from anything it touches. We can’t let the pack stay out in the valley for long. Their internal fire will be snuffed out by the sheer proximity to this waste."

“ You said these things killed everyone in the palace. What if they’re here for that same reason?” His eyes met mine, sharp and serious. “ They won’t touch you, Liora. I won’t let them.” The way he said it made something twist in my chest, but fear kept me moving. We ran between tents, my feet slipping in the dirt as shadows swirled around us. I could feel the chill of them on my skin, like ice sliding through my veins. We stopped when we reached a line of tall glowing crystals embedded deep in the ground. Their light flickered weakly, but still managed to form a barrier that the shadows hesitated to cross.

And everything would unravel. The first students stepped forward, one after another. Silver stones rang softly against the summoning circle, each student greeted by a rush of light or smoke. Most got shimmering wraith-hawks with wings like fractured glass, spectral vulpes that purred like fire, or miniature drakes that snapped and curled like loyal guard dogs. A few ended up with stranger manifestations—elementals made of bark or ice, small shadowcats, a clever storm-fox whose lightning tail snapped against the air. Each reveal was followed by gasps, murmurs, applause.