The air felt wrong when the Hollow Pulse vanished.
Not safer.
Not calmer.
Just…charged, like a storm waiting for the next strike.
Lioren's hands stayed on Aurelianth's face for a long moment, her breath trembling against his own. Only when she was certain the breach wouldn't reopen did she pull away, lantern-light flickering across her worried expression.
"We have to tell the elders," she whispered.
Aurelianth nodded weakly. "Before the Pulse tries again?"
"No," she said softly. "Before someone in the village does."
He blinked. "What?"
But she didn't answer yet.
She helped him to his feet, supporting him when his knees buckled. His runes had dimmed to a faint, trembling silver; his veins no longer glowed like burning rivers, but the warmth in them still pulsed unnaturally, echoing with the Pulse's aftermath.
Step by step, they left the chamber and stepped into a village that was holding its breath.
The Watching Eyes
The cliff corridors were full of people.
Ebonecho villagers leaned out of doorways, lanterns trembling in their hands. Children peered from behind walls. Elders whispered frantic prayers. Hunters gripped bone-blades as if expecting shadows to leap from the stone.
But all eyes...every single pair....fixed on Aurelianth as he passed.
Whispers slithered between the torch-lit walls:
"He shook the cliff again."
"The sea screamed."
"My lantern shattered."
"He called the Pulse...."
"No, the Pulse called him...."
"I saw shadows moving without wind..."
"He should leave...."
"He should be protected...."
"He should be feared...."
"He should be watched..."
"He should be kept..."
"He should be…"
"Deviation."
That word split the crowd like a blade.
Aurelianth forced his breath steady.
He wasn't sure whether the stares were worship, terror, or hunger for answers he didn't have.
Lioren stayed close, guiding him toward the council chamber, her hand curled protectively around his wrist.
"He's destabilizing the entire cliff!" someone shouted.
"No....he's holding it together," someone else fired back.
"Both," whispered a third.
And then a voice rose above them all....
The matriarch.
"CLEAR THE PATH!"
The villagers parted instantly.
Aurelianth and Lioren stepped into the council hall.
The Elders' Fracture
The elders waited in a tense circle, lanterns casting long shadows across the bowl of shadow-water at the room's center. The basin was vibrating....rippling as if remembering the Pulse's presence.
The matriarch studied them with cold authority.
But her eyes softened...fractionally...when she saw Lioren holding Aurelianth up.
"You survived," she said.
Aurelianth swallowed. "Barely."
"What happened?" demanded Elder Therrin, gripping his staff so tightly his knuckles were bone-white. "Tell us everything."
Aurelianth began, voice trembling but clear:
"It came inside my chamber."
Gasps broke across the room.
"It manifested. In full shape."
A lantern cracked under its bearer's grip.
"It opened a breach," Aurelianth continued. "It created… something. A hollow version of me."
Lioren added, voice shaking, "It tried to pull him into it. Tried to make it his vessel."
The elders recoiled.
"Impossible...."
"No...the Pulse hasn't done that since the First Fracture...."
"It seeks to replicate him?"
"No...it seeks to consume him..."
"It seeks to partner with him...."
"It seeks to erase him...."
"It seeks..."
"ENOUGH!"
The matriarch silenced them with one word.
Her gaze pierced Aurelianth.
"It formed a second version of you?" she asked slowly.
He nodded.
"And you destroyed it?"
"No," Lioren said firmly. "I did."
She lifted her lantern, its cracked glass still humming with moonlight.
Aurelianth looked at her in shock.
"You saved me....twice."
Lioren didn't look at him.
Her hands were shaking too violently.
The matriarch exhaled. "This changes everything."
Aurelianth frowned. "How....?"
"Because it means," the matriarch whispered, "that the Hollow Pulse does not simply hunger for you…"
She stepped closer, lowering her voice.
"…it sees you as potential."
The room froze.
"Potential?" Aurelianth repeated.
"Yes," the matriarch said. "It sees you as something unfinished....like itself. Something it could devour or merge with."
Aurelianth's stomach twisted.
"I don't want to merge with it."
"Neither do we," Elder Therrin said dryly.
"But it will try again," the matriarch said.
The air thickened, as if every stone held its breath.
Aurelianth looked between them.
"Then what do I do?" he asked.
"You do not sleep alone again," the matriarch said. "You do not walk alone. You do not remain unshielded."
"Shielded how?" Aurelianth asked.
Elder Vesen lifted his lantern-staff.
"With us."
The elders formed a circle around Aurelianth.
And began to chant.
The Circle of Moonlight
Runes flared around the basin.
Light spiraled upward like white smoke.
Lanterns intensified, glowing with stored moonlight.
Lioren stepped back, giving Aurelianth space, though her hand lingered in the air as if ready to reach for him.
The matriarch spoke:
"We will bind you to this village. Not as prisoner. Not as god. But as protected one."
The light spiraled tighter.
Elders lifted their staffs.
Aurelianth's runes responded...glowing faintly, then brighter,matching the chant's rhythm.
He felt warmth seep into his bones....
comforting, ancient, steady.
Like the world was wrapping him in a cloak woven from history and hope.
But then...the warmth flickered.
Aurelianth gasped.
The silver glow in his veins twisted....jerked....
distorted.
The matriarch's eyes widened.
"Stop!"
The chant broke.
Elder Vesen stumbled.
Shadows sputtered.
Lanterns flickered.
Aurelianth fell to one knee.
Lioren rushed forward. "Aurelianth!"
He clutched his chest, gasping.
"The Pulse...." he choked. "It's....it's pushing back....against the binding...."
The matriarch cursed.
Elder Therrin slammed his staff into the floor.
"We cannot bind him."
"Why not?" Lioren cried.
"Because the Pulse has already marked him!" Therrin shouted. "His veins carry its echo....its rhythm....its recognition."
Aurelianth's veins pulsed painfully.
Lioren shook her head, horrified. "No...no...
then he's vulnerable...."
"Not vulnerable," the matriarch said grimly.
"Claimed."
Aurelianth felt the word in his blood.
His heartbeat stuttered.
The clicking inside him purred.
He forced out: "I don't want to be claimed."
"Then resist it," the matriarch snapped.
"How?" Aurelianth cried.
The matriarch turned slowly toward the basin.
The shadow-water inside it shivered showing a faint shape beneath its surface.
Lioren gasped.
Aurelianth froze.
It was a silhouette.
The Hollow Pulse.
Watching.
Patient.
Waiting.
Elder Vesen pressed a trembling hand over the bowl.
"It never left," he whispered. "It is watching us. Watching you."
Aurelianth's breath shook.
Lioren grabbed his shoulders.
"You're not alone. You're not. You're not."
He tried to believe her.
But the Pulse's lingering whisper slid through his veins:
click.
The Village Divides
The matriarch turned to the elders.
"We must protect him. And prepare."
"For what?" Elder Therrin demanded.
"For the second attempt," she said.
"Second?" Aurelianth echoed.
The matriarch looked directly at him.
"The Pulse will try again soon. It always tries at least three times when it marks something."
Aurelianth's heart froze.
"Three?" he repeated weakly. "Then how did the first Aurelianth survive?"
Silence swept the chamber like a blade cutting breath.
Lioren's face turned pale.
The matriarch lowered her eyes.
"He didn't," she said softly.
Aurelianth went cold.
"He resisted twice," she continued. "And on the third attempt...."
"He was taken," Elder Vesen whispered.
Aurelianth's knees almost buckled.
Lioren's arms wrapped around him instantly, grounding him.
"No," she whispered fiercely. "You are not him. You are Deviation. You are not predictable."
Elder Therrin scoffed. "Deviation can be destroyed just as easily as destiny."
"Or saved," Lioren shot back.
The matriarch raised her staff sharply.
"Enough."
Her gaze fell on Aurelianth.
"You survived something the first Aurelianth could not," she said. "Which means you already differ."
Aurelianth swallowed.
"I didn't survive because I'm stronger," he whispered. "I survived because Lioren was there."
Lioren flushed but didn't look away.
Elder Vesen frowned.
"That may be important."
Therrin sneered. "Attachment? Is that his weapon?"
"No," the matriarch said quietly.
"Connection."
Everyone turned to her.
"The Pulse isolates before it consumes. It removes support. It dismantles bonds. It leaves nothing around its target but itself."
She touched Aurelianth's shoulder.
"You resisted because you weren't alone."
Lioren squeezed his hand.
Aurelianth felt heat rise in his cheeks....but also strength.
Real strength.
But it lasted only a second.
The matriarch took a deep breath.
"We must decide now," she said. "For the safety of the village, for our future, and for his survival."
"Decide what?" Aurelianth asked.
The matriarch met his eyes with a solemnity that felt like fate.
"Whether we hide you.…"
"Or send you away."
Lioren gasped.
Aurelianth's breath left him.
The Hollow Pulse whispered through his blood...
click…