The Eternal Garden was changing.
After the appearance of the One Who Guards Balance, the world seemed to freeze in place, balancing on a thin edge between being and non-being. The air felt heavier, the silver trees no longer swayed in the wind, and the earth no longer breathed as it once did. The fabric of time, which they had recently expanded, now seemed stretched to the breaking point.
Emiren could feel it in every fiber of his being. Something in the depths of this world was not right.
The One Who Guards Balance stood in the middle of a space that had not yet decided what it should be. His figure remained blurred, as if the world itself could not determine to which time or reality he belonged. His eyes glowed with an icy light, but not with anger—rather, with absolute neutrality.
“You have opened doors that should have remained closed,” he said, and his voice was both quiet and thunderous, echoing in every corner of this place. “And now the consequences are beginning to take shape.”
Emiren glanced at Ardalys. He seemed paler than usual, and that was understandable—none of them had anticipated that their actions would lead to this. They thought that the Unspoken would simply become part of the world, that they would find their place. But instead, they had caused an imbalance, creating something that was never meant to exist.
“Can we fix this?” Ardalys finally spoke.
“Fixing implies a mistake,” the One Who Guards Balance shook his head. “But everything that has been done is merely the consequence of your choice. And consequences cannot simply be erased.”
Emiren felt his fingers clench into a fist.
“Then what do you suggest?”
The One Who Guards Balance extended his hand. In the air, something strange appeared—shadows slowly leaking from invisible fractures in reality. They resembled imprints, ghostly traces of those who had wandered between worlds. These were not the Unspoken, but something else—fragments of time that had failed to find their place.
“You gave them a chance to be,” he said. “But you did not give them limits. And if there are no limits, they will continue to expand, dissolving the very fabric of time.”
“So what do we do?” Ardalys asked again, this time with a note of despair.
“Establish a boundary,” the One Who Guards Balance replied. “But that is impossible without a sacrifice.”
Emiren met his gaze.
“What kind of sacrifice?”
The shadows stirred. They were no longer mere fragments—now they sought to fill the void. They were taking shape, resembling black winged creatures, and the more they changed, the more the world around them began to tremble.
“They must be returned,” the voice of the One Who Guards Balance remained calm. “They do not belong to this world. Their nature is non-being. They must return to where they came from.”
But how could they return something that had already been given the chance to exist?
Emiren understood it. He could not simply destroy what they had created. But the One Who Guards Balance was not proposing destruction. He was proposing… absorption.
“If they cannot be erased…” Emiren whispered, “then they can be accepted.”
The One Who Guards Balance nodded.
“Exactly.”
But what did that mean?
Ardalys looked at him in disbelief.
“You want… to take them into yourself?”
“Not just take them,” the One Who Guards Balance said. “You must become part of the balance. Absorb them so that they become part of you. Then they will no longer destroy the world—they will become part of it, but under your control.”
Emiren closed his eyes.
This meant changing. This meant never being the same again.
He remembered the silver tree he had created. He remembered how it trembled when the boundary between the possible and the impossible was erased.
“I am ready,” he finally said.
Ardalys looked at him, then sighed and nodded.
“So am I.”
The shadows stirred. The black creatures, which only a moment ago had been seeking an escape, now moved toward them.
Emiren felt them touch his skin—cold, light, like memories that had never been his. They passed through him, and he could feel them becoming part of his essence.
It was not painful. It was… strange.
They were no longer a threat. They had become part of the balance.
When it was over, he opened his eyes.
The world no longer trembled. The fabric of time was whole again.
The One Who Guards Balance watched them.
“You have made your choice,” he said. “Now you are a part of this world more than ever before.”
Emiren could feel it. Something within him had changed.
But it was not a loss.
It was the birth of something new.