Peering Through the Crack

Elorae stood at the edge of her workspace, the crack pulsing faintly in the dim beige glow. It had widened since she last checked, its edges shimmering with an eerie light that didn’t belong in her world. She swallowed hard, fingers curling into her palms. She knew she had to act quickly, before someone else noticed.

Vaelith’s threats lingered in her mind like a stain she couldn’t scrub away. He knew. He had always been clever, always watching, waiting for an opportunity. And she had given him the perfect one. Now, he had leverage. He hadn’t told her exactly what he wanted yet, only that she would comply when the time came. And she had **** but to obey.

The crack hummed softly. Elorae exhaled, steadying herself. She reached out, sending a thread of power through, searching for what had become of her experiment. It had gone somewhere; another place, another realm. Cracks like these could be found in her world by those who knew how to look. People like Elorae, generators, creators, could see and sense in ways that many could not. Her idea, her experiment, had it not spilled into the crack, would have never been noticed by anyone. It would have been simply absorbed into Elorae's dreams, or perhaps faded back into the ether. She hadn't put enough of herself into the experiment for it to do any real damage. Yes, it had the seed, and if nurtured it could grow, but in her workspace that could have never occurred.

But it was no longer in her workspace.

There.

She could feel it. She had found it. Elorae closed her eyes and felt through the crack, allowing a tiny bit more power to give her a deeper awareness.

It had landed in a strange world, alien to Elorae in so many ways. Images flashed in her mind, things she did not and could not understand, not from this side of the crack. But her creation had found a home in a being, that she knew for sure. It had taken root, and it had begun to grow. She spread out her power for a moment. There were ripples of his world being affected, but nothing dangerous, nothing threatening.

And so, like a scientist who studied rare wild animals, Elorae sent one more brief burst of power through, tagging the being that held her experiment. Chances were that it would naturally fade away, erasing all evidence of its existence—something she hoped for, as it would free her from Vaelith's machinations. But if it didn't, she wanted to be able to keep track of it. Not only did she want to prevent any damage from occurring to the other realm, but there were things to learn from an untethered idea. The information she could collect would be invaluable.

As long as it remained undiscovered.

Drawing back, she **** herself to breathe. For now, she had done all she could. The only thing left was to wait, to watch, and to hope—hope that whatever she had created wouldn’t lead to her undoing.