A shadow cast by all we make
The colossal chamber hummed with an electric energy that seemed to seep into their very skin. The anomaly inside the massive glass encasing pulsed violently, casting an eerie glow of purples and blues that painted the intricate network of gears, pipes, and conduits surrounding it.
Lux stepped closer. “This... this is beyond anything I’ve ever seen,” she whispered, her voice trembling.
Ekko’s eyes traced the mechanism—a mesmerizing tangle of moving parts. Metal gears rotated with mechanical precision, pistons hissed rhythmically, and coils of glowing wire pulsed like veins. At the center of it all, embedded within the mechanism, stood a cylindrical chamber. Its glass window revealed an unassuming lever inside.
Powder moved to stand beside Ekko, her lips parted in awe. “It’s... beautiful,” she said softly, her voice caught between wonder and dread. Her eyes lingered on the chamber and the lever within. “What do you think it does?”
“I don’t know,” Ekko replied, his brow furrowed as he studied the intricate contraption. “But something like this... it’s not just here for show. Someone built this with a purpose. And if it’s tied to that”—he gestured to the anomaly, which pulsed menacingly—“then I’m guessing it’s nothing good.”
Lux took a step back, gripping her staff tightly. “It feels... alive. Like it’s watching us. Or waiting for us to make a move.”
A heavy silence fell over the trio, broken only by the steady whir of the mechanism and the faint hum of arcane energy.
Then Powder pointed toward the far corner of the room, her voice quiet but sharp. “What’s that?”
They turned in unison, their gazes locking onto a small chamber tucked away in a corner. It was inconspicuous, almost as if it were meant to be overlooked.
“That’s not part of the main mechanism,” Ekko muttered, narrowing his eyes. “Why would it be over there?”
Lux stepped forward cautiously, her breath hitching. “I don’t know. But... I think we need to see what’s inside.”
Together, they approached the chamber, their footsteps echoing faintly on the cold, metallic floor. The air grew heavier as they neared it, as if the very room were holding its breath.
The door to the chamber was simple—smooth steel with no visible handle or markings. Ekko leaned closer, squinting at the edges. “It looks sealed,” he muttered, his fingers brushing the surface. “Probably locked—”
But before he could finish, Powder reached out and gave the door a gentle push. It swung open with ease.
“Not locked,” Powder whispered, her voice barely audible.
Lux took a cautious step back, her grip tightening on her staff. “That’s... not a good sign.”
Ekko’s jaw clenched as he peered into the dimly lit room. “Whatever’s in there, someone wanted it to be found. Or they were too confident no one would get this far.”
Powder exhaled shakily, glancing at the others. “Do we... go in?”
Ekko exchanged a look with Lux and Powder, his stomach knotting with unease. “We’ve come this far,” he said grimly. “Whatever’s in there might be the key to understanding all of this.”
With a shared nod, they stepped forward. The open door revealed a chamber bathed in the same steady brightness as the clearing outside.
Without a word, Ekko stepped inside, his breath catching as the hum in the air deepened, resonating in his chest. Powder followed close behind, her wide eyes darting around the room.
Lux lingered for a moment, her knuckles white around her staff. “This place...” she whispered, before finally stepping in.
The room was unassuming—small, plain, and unremarkable, with cold metallic walls and a sterile, artificial light that cast sharp shadows. There was no grand machinery or ominous glowing artifact, just a single desk pressed against the far wall and a chair positioned neatly in front of it.
Ekko’s footsteps slowed as they entered, his brow furrowing. “This... doesn’t make sense,” he muttered, glancing around.
Powder stepped beside him, her gaze falling to the desk. “It’s so... normal,” she whispered, her voice tinged with unease.
As they moved closer, the faint glint of something on the desk caught their attention. Tiny, makeshift figurines stood in a careful line across the surface—small sculptures crafted with an almost childlike precision. Their shapes were hauntingly familiar.
Powder’s breath hitched. “No way...”
There they were: figurines of Ekko, Powder, Vi, Vander, Silco, Benzo, Mylo, and Claggor, each one eerily detailed, each one unmistakable. Their tiny forms were posed as if frozen in time, some with joyful expressions, others somber. Mixed in with them were a few figures they didn’t recognize—strangers whose significance was a mystery, and one of those figurines was of Ahri- the nine tailed Vastaya woman.
Ekko’s eyes locked on the figurine of Benzo, a sharp pang of grief and nostalgia striking him as memories of his childhood surfaced. Powder reached out hesitantly, her trembling fingers brushing against the figure of Vander.
“Who... who made these?” she whispered, her voice cracking.
But before anyone could answer, Ekko’s gaze shifted to the center of the desk, where something else gleamed under the light. His heart skipped a beat.
There it was—a necklace.
Ekko's fingers brushed against the necklace, and his heart skipped a beat.
The thin, silver chain gleamed faintly under the light, and at its center hung a small, stylized blue rose pendant. The delicate petals of the rose were textured, giving it a sense of depth, and the subtle shine of the charm exuded a quiet elegance. It was unmistakable.
This was the necklace he had crafted for Powder in another universe—a simple yet profound symbol of their bond, of shared innocence and hope for a better future. A gift that had once bridged the chasm of pain and loss between them, now impossibly present in this unfamiliar place.
Ekko’s hands trembled as he held it, his breath shallow. “No way...” he whispered to himself, his chest tightening with disbelief.
“Ekko?” Powder’s voice cut through the silence, soft but uncertain. She stepped closer, her wide eyes flicking between him and the necklace. “Do you... know something about that?”
He hesitated, his voice faltering as he replied, “I don’t know.” His gaze remained fixed on the blue rose pendant, his mind racing. Could it truly be the same necklace? Or was this some cruel twist of fate?
The room felt stifling, the only sound the low hum of the machinery as the trio stood frozen before the desk, as a book lied untouched. Powder’s fingers hovered near the cover, but she hesitated, the weight of the moment pressing down on her.
Lux was the first to break the silence, her voice cutting through the tension. “Ekko, we need to open the book.” Her tone was sharper than before, trying to snap him out of his dazed trance. “This... this might be what we’ve been looking for.”
Ekko, still lost in the glint of the necklace in his hands, blinked at Lux, his mind struggling to shift focus. He had been so consumed by the pendant—a relic from a world that shouldn’t even exist—that he hadn’t realized the urgency of the moment.
Lux’s voice was more insistent now. “Ekko. Focus.”
Ekko slowly looked toward Lux, his eyes clearing as he met her gaze. He exhaled sharply, as if he’d just come back from some distant place, and gently set the necklace down on the desk. The glimmer of the pendant lingered in his mind, but his attention was now drawn back to the book.
Powder, sensing the moment, flipped open the cover, her fingers trembling as she revealed the first page. The room seemed to hold its breath, the soft rustling of paper filling the silence as her eyes scanned the words.
Then she stopped. The words on the page were chilling, unsettling—utterly impossible.
She read aloud, her voice trembling with disbelief as the words pierced the air:
“If you’re reading this, then it means you’ve unlocked the blood seal. Which means—either you somehow possess my blood... or...”
Her breath caught, her fingers trembling as she read the next line aloud, barely able to process what she was saying.
“...you are me.”
The words hung in the air like a storm ready to break. Lux’s heart skipped a beat, her eyes wide with shock. She couldn't breathe. “Wait, what? That—That can't be right!” Her voice was sharp with a mix of confusion and disbelief.
But Powder was still reading, consumed by the words on the page.
“My name is Powder,” she read aloud, her voice trembling with disbelief. “I came from a different world... I arrived here... approx. 800 years too early. Too early from the birth of the Powder you know.”
The words seemed to reverberate in the silence, each one sinking deeper into their minds, unraveling the fabric of what they understood to be true. Powder’s breath caught as she stared at the book, her hands shaking as the impossible reality set in.
The silence in the room felt suffocating as Powder held the book, her eyes tracing the words, her voice barely above a whisper as she read aloud:
“I am writing this logbook... which might help you in some way,” Powder began, her voice steady, but there was a tremor beneath it, a crack that betrayed the deep emotions she was struggling to contain. “It all started after I met Ekko... but he was not my Ekko. He was Ekko, but from a different world. I helped him get back to his world, but in the process... we introduced Hextech to my world.”
The weight of those words settled over the room like a fog. Ekko stood still, the realization hitting him like a thunderclap. His heart raced, and he felt his pulse quicken as the pieces of a puzzle he didn’t even know existed began to fall into place.
The necklace.
The one Powder and he had found together during their bug hunt in the forest. The one that looked exactly like Powder’s mother’s necklace—except it wasn’t the one that belonged to this world. It was the necklace of the Powder from the other world.
The figurines on the desk
The makeshift little creations that Powder had lovingly crafted—those too were eerily familiar. Ekko could see it now: they were like the figurine Powder from the other world had made for Vi, the one kept in her memorial.
The necklace on the desk
It was indeed the same necklace. The one that Powder from this world could never have known. The one that tied Ekko irrevocably to another version of her, to a version of their shared history that was now impossible to ignore. The necklace had crossed the boundaries of worlds, and with it, the proof that their destinies were more intertwined than he could have ever imagined.
Ekko’s heart clenched, his chest tightening with each passing moment. It was as if the very air around them had shifted, as if the weight of something far bigger than their world was pressing down on them. The connections were undeniable now—pieces of a life he had never lived, threads of a different world, all coming together in ways he couldn't fully comprehend.
The silence in the room felt suffocating as he watched Powder’s hands tremble, her fingers frozen on the first page. She couldn’t bring herself to turn it.
Powder’s eyes glazed over the words, her breath catching in her throat. The shock of it all seemed to weigh her down, pulling her deeper into the impossible reality they had just unlocked. She was lost in the revelation, struggling to process the enormity of what was unfolding before them.
Slowly, with a shaky breath, Powder’s fingers moved. She turned the page, her movements hesitant, as though the act itself carried some profound weight.
Her eyes landed on the handwritten words now revealed. She read aloud, her voice fragile, trembling with emotion. “Before we begin with my logs, I wanted to write a poem from a long time ago. I am well past my seventy, and I don’t know how much longer I have. So, I’m putting this at the beginning.”
Her voice faltered, barely a whisper now as she read aloud, each word carrying the weight of a lifetime of loss, love, and regret. "I’ve lived more years than I care to count. And the world feels as if it’s slipping away from me. But in the moments I have left, I want to leave something behind. A truth. A piece of me. So, I’m writing this for whoever is left. For whoever needs to know what came before.”
A thread spun thin in the loom of night,
Worn by hands that craved the light.
The spindle sang, the pattern grew,
Yet every knot unbound too soon.
A cradle carved of autumn mist,
Held empty whispers, a fleeting kiss.
Each leaf that fell, a spark unborn,
Each winter’s breath a silent thorn.
A lantern glowed in a hollow tree,
Its flame a prisoner, yearning free.
The shadows danced, the branches creaked,
A world remade, a promise breached.
I slept beneath a frozen tide,
While rivers carried years denied.
The tide withdrew, but left behind
A world in ruin, a fractured mind.
In echoes carved from broken stone,
I saw reflections, not my own.
A fleeting face, a trace of air,
A ghost that lingers everywhere.
So I gathered ash and borrowed stars,
And forged a key to forgotten doors.
Through tangled roots and splintered skies,
I chased the echoes, the hollow cries.
The clocks I shattered sang no tune,
The suns I silenced brought no boon.
Each turn I made, each path I tore,
Led me back to nevermore.
And now I stand where time unspools,
A seamstress bound by her own rules.
I stitched the void, I pierced the veil,
But found no thread that could prevail.
For love, it seems, is not a thread,
But morning light we cannot shed.
It lingers soft, though hearts may break,
A shadow cast by all we make.
A shadow cast by all we make.
-------------- ACT II ENDS HERE--------------
Thank you for sticking with me through Act 2! Now that we’ve reached the end of this part of the story, I can only hope that it has kept you engaged, and maybe even surprised you along the way. If you’ve enjoyed the twists and turns, I’d be thrilled if you could follow, like, and share the story as much as possible—your support means a lot!
I’d also love to hear from you—how did you feel about Act 2? How was it compared to Act 1? How was the revelation that the artifact that Swain was looking for was created by Powder from the alternate universe? But are you wondering how Powder came to this world, and that too in distant past? Then make sure to follow me.
I’ll be taking a break before diving into Act 3- the final Act, but your feedback during this break will be incredibly valuable in shaping the next chapter of the story.
Thank you again for reading, and I can’t wait to hear what you think!