Introduction: "I was meant to die.I had died鈥擨 could feel it. In the warmth lost of his hands. In the silence that should have followed. Silence deep enough to darken sorrow. Silence that never arrived.The time for choice has passed. The hunt has already begun.To endure the grudge of life, fettered to the heels of a will that never tires. Racing toward an end that never comes."In Elsewhere, the world bears a wound. The Bruise. A cycle of decay and regrowth that touches all life, though few recognize its presence. Humanity has endured its quiet rhythms since time immemorial, blind to the rot blooming beneath them until the cost of ignorance comes due鈥攁nd the world remembers what they will not. Wund. Bloom. Weep. Fester. Always on the verge of healing, always failing.Maline and Midra are one soul divided across timelines, each drawn from opposing ends of the cycle鈥檚 drift. Their meeting was never meant to be鈥攎erely a series of events cobbled together for the Bruise's own wayward ends. Now, their fusion threatens to fracture a world already crumbling under the weight of its own wounds. And for what?As one, they must navigate dying lands while discovering themselves, as old cycles of sorrow and renewal collapse into something neither death nor rebirth. In a dying world, to live may be the final cruelty.What to Expect:? A slow-burn dark fantasy story with heavy themes of death, futility, and endurance.? Limited exposition; much is revealed through tone and event.? Character-driven tension instead of action-focused pacing.Updates Saturdays (Except Writathons!)Participant in the Royal Road Writathon challenge....