The world was too quiet after the cliffs' judgment.
Not peaceful.....
restrained.
Like the entire coastline had clenched its jaw and was waiting for the next fracture to appear.
Aurelianth stood frozen on the altar, heart hammering. The silhouette rising from the sea did not move closer, but its presence was overwhelming....like a shadow given intent. Its hollowness was louder than sound.
Lioren's nails dug into his sleeve as she pulled him back.
"Aurelianth....don't look at it!"
He couldn't help it.
The figure's shape was wrong.
Not unfinished like the half-born creatures.
Not shifting like the flicker-isles.
Not glitching like the unstable world.
It was deliberately hollow.....
a humanoid outline carved out of night.....
And the absence inside it had weight.
Aurelianth's veins pulsed.
The silhouette acknowledged him with a tilt of its head.
His runes flared in answer.
The elders behind him screamed prayers into their lanterns. Some collapsed to their knees. The matriarch raised her staff but hesitated... fighting terror and instinct in equal measure.
Lioren tugged his arm harder. "We have to go. NOW."
Aurelianth stumbled backward, breath shallow. But the moment he tried to leave the altar....
click.
The sound hit him inside his chest like a fist from the inside out.
He froze.
"Not again," he whispered, clutching his sternum. "Not....don't...don't sync with me…"
But the heartbeat-click did not belong to his body.
It belonged to the thing in the sea.
click....
...THUMP
clickclick..
...THUMP
clickTHUMP
clickTHUMP
clickTHUMP
Lioren paled. "It's calling you...."
A shockwave of cold wind burst upward from the Shadow Sea, rushing toward the cliff summit with impossible speed.
"DOWN!" the matriarch shouted.
Aurelianth pulled Lioren to the ground as the blast washed over them. The world blurred..... sound muffled....light fractured...and a ringing pressure built in Aurelianth's skull like someone was knocking behind his forehead.
The cold receded.
Aurelianth lifted his head, dizzy.
The silhouette was gone.
But the sea boiled where it had stood.
And the clicking heartbeat inside his bones did not stop.
The Descent Into Panic
"What was that?" Aurelianth gasped.
"The Hollow Pulse," the matriarch said breathlessly. "It manifested. Directly. Not just in water. Not just in whispers. In form."
Lioren pressed a shaking hand to her chest. "It shouldn't be possible. The Pulse only takes shape during collapse."
"Or when it sees something it wants," murmured an elder.
Their eyes all turned to Aurelianth.
He swallowed.
"Me," he whispered. "It came for me."
"No," the matriarch corrected sharply. "It didn't come for you."
She looked at the glowing sigil beneath his feet.
"It came to recognize you."
Aurelianth's skin crawled.
His runes shifted like restless wings.
His veins throbbed with too-bright light.
"What does that mean?"
"It means," the matriarch said darkly, "that the world's greatest predator has noticed your existence."
"And that it thinks you are part of its unfinished feast."
Lioren shuddered.
One elder muttered through pale lips, "It sees the Deviation as kin."
"No."
The matriarch corrected again...harder, colder.
"It sees the Deviation as opportunity."
Aurelianth sat back, overwhelmed.
In the span of a day, he had: died and then.... awakened in another body....destabilized a village.....summoned half-born creatures..... triggered ancient runes.....been judged as Deviation....and now…called by the parasite eating the world
The cliffs around him still glowed with residual silver-black light.
"We have to get him out of here," Lioren said urgently. "Before the Pulse returns."
The matriarch nodded.
"Aurelianth. Follow me. Slowly. Carefully. And do not let your feet touch any unstable stone."
Aurelianth tried to stand....
But the world tilted.
Hard.
His vision warped....
sky bending,
sea twisting,
cliffs rearranging themselves around his perception.
He stumbled, nearly collapsing.
"Aurelianth!" Lioren grabbed him. "What's happening?"
He couldn't speak.
His throat had tightened around nothing.
His veins were glowing too brightly....not just light, but heat.
White fire beneath skin.
The matriarch hissed. "He's resonating. The Pulse left a mark."
"What kind of mark?" Lioren cried.
The matriarch's fearful whisper chilled the air.
"A recognition mark."
Aurelianth looked up, bewildered and frightened.
"What does that mean?" he managed through shuddering breath.
"It means the Pulse knows you now," she said.
"And it will call you again."
The clicking heartbeat throbbed violently in agreement.
Leaving the Summit
They descended the cliff summit with the urgency of prey fleeing the attention of a predator.
Elders rushed ahead, clearing unstable paths. Lioren supported Aurelianth's arm as the world around him glitched...stone flickering to water,air trembling like stretched fabric,his shadow lagging behind him by a heartbeat.
Every glitch made villagers murmur in fear.
"He's destabilizing the cliff."
"No....he's stabilizing it....look, the runes brighten when he steps!"
"He's a threat."
"He's a blessing."
"He's both."
"He's neither."
"He's Deviation."
The word spread through the village like wildfire. A new kind of whisper.
Aurelianth felt every gaze like a weight on his skin.
They reached the ritual chamber from earlier. The basin of shadow-water inside it trembled and formed a spiral shape as they passed.
Lioren paused. "It's reacting again…"
"No," the matriarch said, jaw tight. "It's warning us."
"Warning us about what?"
The matriarch stared directly at Aurelianth.
"That the Pulse will return tonight."
Aurelianth flinched. "Tonight? But why?"
"Because you stood upon the altar," she said. "Because you touched the sigil. Because the cliffs declared what you were."
Aurelianth's pulse raced.
"Deviation," he whispered bitterly. "The thing that shouldn't exist."
"No."
Lioren stopped him, turning him to face her.
Her eyes were fierce.
"Deviation.....the thing the world couldn't predict."
He blinked.
"That means," she said, voice strong, "you are the one thing the Pulse cannot foresee."
The matriarch inhaled sharply, realization striking her.
"…That is why it called you."
Aurelianth tensed.
"Why?"
"Because," the matriarch whispered, "you are a blind spot. A gap. A hole in its vision. You are something it cannot calculate."
She stepped closer.
"And predators desire what they cannot understand."
Aurelianth shivered violently.
His runes fluttered.
His veins pulsed.
His breath trembled.
Lioren squeezed his hand.
"You're not alone," she whispered.
He didn't know if that was true.
Night Falls Wrongly
When night finally draped Umbralune, it did not come softly.
It arrived like a door slamming.
The moon brightened unnaturally.
The sea quieted too quickly.
The cliffs held their breath.
Aurelianth lay in the kelp-bed chamber Lioren had given him the night before.
Sleep wouldn't come.
The clicking wouldn't stop.
The world felt poised....like a bowstring drawn back.
Lioren entered quietly, lantern in hand.
"You're awake," she whispered.
"I can't sleep."
"I know."
She sat beside him on the bed.
"I can feel it too. Something is watching the village."
Aurelianth swallowed.
"What if the Pulse comes inside?"
"It won't."
"How do you know?"
She hesitated.
"…I don't."
Silence.
Heavy.
Close.
Shared.
Aurelianth exhaled shakily.
"Lioren… what if the cliffs were right? What if I don't belong here? What if this world is trying to....."
A sound cut him off.
A sound that wasn't from the sea.
Wasn't from the cliffs.
Wasn't from wind or world.
A sound from inside the very walls of the chamber.....
click.
Lioren stiffened. "Aurelianth....."
The lantern dimmed.
The runes on the walls flickered.
Aurelianth's veins ignited with silver fire.
The clicking grew louder.....
click… click… clickTHUMP
The shadow-water in the bowl near his bed vibrated. Ripples formed from no touch.
And then....
A voice spoke.
Not from the sea.
Not from outside.
From inside the chamber.
A voice shaped like hunger wearing the shape of a whisper.
"Aurelianth."
Lioren grabbed his hand, terrified.
Aurelianth stood slowly, breath shaking.
Moonlight from the lantern split, distorted.... coiling into a shape in the center of the room.
A silhouette.
The same hollow outline from the sea.
But this time.....
it was closer.
More solid.
More aware.
Its head tilted.
Aurelianth's veins pulsed.
The voice came again.
"Deviation…"
Lioren trembled. "Aurelianth....don't....don't answer it...."
He didn't.
But the Hollow Pulse didn't care.
It leaned closer.
"You belong to me."
Aurelianth felt something inside him snap....
panic, anger, fear, destiny...he didn't know.
He stepped backward.
"No," he whispered.
The Hollow Pulse stilled.
Lioren squeezed his hand harder.
Aurelianth's runes flared white-hot.
"I don't belong to you."
The silhouette twitched.
The entire cliff shivered.
And then the Hollow Pulse whispered something new.
Something that made Aurelianth's heart nearly stop.
"Not yet."