Night crept over Umbralune like ink poured from the sky slow, heavy, expectant.
But this night didn't feel like the others.
It pressed against the cliffside homes.
It thickened the air.
It dimmed every lantern a fraction too much.
Aurelianth knew why.
The Hollow Pulse was near.
Not in body.
Not in breach.
But in intent.
It had watched him train.
It had touched his shadow.
It had whispered its desire.
And tonight....it would move again.
The Lantern That Wouldn't Burn
Aurelianth sat on the woven kelp-bed, fingers trembling against the lantern Lioren crafted for him.
It glowed faintly.
Too faintly.
He shook it gently.
The glow sputtered and dimmed.
"Come on…" he whispered. "Not now."
But the lantern refused to brighten.
Its light was afraid.
He looked out the shell-carved window.
The moon was swollen...round and bright as an unblinking eye.
The Shadow Sea was unnaturally still.
Lioren had insisted on staying with him again, but the matriarch demanded she sleep. "He must learn to face one night alone," she said.
Aurelianth tried to believe her.
But every time he blinked, he saw the Pulse-risen shadow from the night before.
Not yet.
The words still crawled under his skin.
He rose slowly and stepped into the corridor outside his room.
Lanterns flickered.
Runes dimmed.
The air felt stretched thin...like reality was being pulled from both ends.
His veins burned with faint silver light.
Something was wrong.
Something was here.
The Hunter Who Shouldn't Be There
A silhouette stood at the far end of the corridor.
A tall figure.
Broad shoulders.
A bone-blade glinting faintly.
Aurelianth recognized him.
It was Ralith....the hunter who voted for exile.
The one who glared at Aurelianth during every meeting.
Aurelianth exhaled. "Ralith… you scared me. Why are you here this late?"
The figure didn't move.
Didn't breathe.
Didn't blink.
Aurelianth's skin crawled.
"Ralith?"
The figure took one slow step forward.The lantern on the wall next to Aurelianth dimmed to a dying flicker.
No sound escaped the hunter's silhouette.
And when Aurelianth's veins pulsed in fear…
the silhouette's veins pulsed too....in hollow imitation.
Silver imitation.
Like a reflection of him.
Aurelianth's heart stopped.
"…That's not Ralith."
The figure tilted its head...sharp, mechanical.
Then it rippled....edges warping, body smearing like ink dragged across wet parchment.
Aurelianth stumbled back.
"No...no...no..."
The figure lunged.
Not fast.
Not frantic.
Just inevitable.
Aurelianth raised his hands....
Light burst from his palms.
A blinding wave of silver.
The figure staggered.
Cracks splintered across its shadow-body.
Aurelianth gasped.
"It's one of the Pulse's echoes…"
And the echo whispered....
"…Home…"
Aurelianth's stomach twisted.
That was the whisper the Pulse used earlier.
This wasn't an attack.
It was a message.
And then....
The echo evaporated in a spray of black dust.
Aurelianth stumbled backward until he hit the wall.
His lantern flickered back to life.
"Oh no…"
If the Pulse could send echoes inside the village…then its reach was closer than the matriarch feared.
He had to warn her.
He sprinted down the corridor.
The Children of Nightfall
The moment Aurelianth stepped into the main passage leading to the council hall...he froze.
The corridor was filled with silhouettes.
Dozens.
All standing motionless.
All turned toward him.
All shaped like villagers he recognized....
hunters, mothers, elders, children.....
But their forms flickered.
Their eyes were hollow pits.
Their shadows stretched unnaturally long behind them.
Aurelianth's breath shattered.
"They're not real…"
Lioren had warned him about echo-beings whispered in old stories...creatures mimicking the living to lure them.
But these were worse.
They weren't mimicking the villagers.
They were mimicking the idea of villagers...as if drawn by memory from Aurelianth's mind.
His veins pulsed in panic.
A child-shaped echo tilted its head.
"Deviation."
Aurelianth stumbled backward.
"No....stay away...."
They stepped forward in unison.
Their movement was soundless.
Precise.
Hunger wrapped in imitation.
Aurelianth tried to contain his pulse.... to stay calm...to hold the lesson he learned that morning.
But the sight of so many reflections....
click…
His control cracked.
His runes flared.
And every echo moved at once.
Not toward him.
Toward his runes.
They reached for the light.....
drawn to it....
repulsed by it....
both.
"Stop!" Aurelianth cried.
No one listened.
He raised his hands....
Silver fire exploded from his arms, flooding the corridor.
The echoes shrieked...voices like tearing paper and dissolved into falling dust.
Aurelianth collapsed to his knees, gasping.
His runes dimmed reluctantly.
His veins cooled.
But a new whisper slid through the hallways...
soft, pleased, intimate:
"Stronger…"
Aurelianth shivered violently.
The Pulse was close.
The echoes weren't just tests....they were measurements.The Pulse was taking notes.
Lioren's Warning
"AURELIANTH!"
Lioren sprinted into the corridor, lantern blazing with frantic light.
She skidded to a halt when she saw the black dust scattered across the floor.
Her face blanched.
"It's begun," she whispered. "Second attempt…"
Aurelianth steadied himself against the wall.
"It wasn't the Pulse directly," he said. "Just...
echoes. Copies. Hollow reflections."
"That's still the Pulse," she said breathlessly. "At least its presence. Its intention."
He nodded shakily.
Lioren looked at him, horror and worry threading her voice:
"Are you hurt?"
"No. But the echoes...."
He swallowed hard.
"They knew my name."
Lioren's lantern dimmed suddenly.
Her eyes widened.
"Aurelianth...."
And then...
The clicking started again.
But not inside his chest.
Behind them.
Aurelianth and Lioren turned slowly.
At the far end of the corridor a shadow rose.
Not mimicry.
Not echo.
Something taller.
Sharper.
More deliberate.
A shape like the silhouette from the sea...
hollow and thin but slightly more formed than the one that visited his room.
Its outline shimmered with the faint glow of stolen moonlight.
The Pulse was testing boundaries.
Not manifesting fully...just enough to taste the air.
The silhouette twitched.Its hollow eyes fixed on Aurelianth.
Lioren pushed him behind her.
"Don't you touch him!" she shouted.
The silhouette flickered.
And then it whispered:
"Not yet."
The corridor trembled.
Lanterns dimmed.
Aurelianth's runes blazed in fear.
Lioren stepped closer to him...shielding him with her entire body.
But the Pulse didn't lunge.
Didn't breach.
Didn't form a vessel.
It simply studied him.
Measured his fear.
Measured his strength.
Measured the bond between him and Lioren.
Its whisper deepened:
"Soon."
And then....It dissolved.
Dust.
Shadow.
Silence.
Gone.
Aurelianth collapsed to his knees.
Lioren grabbed his shoulders.
"Aurelianth....Aurelianth, breathe...."
He gasped.
"It's getting stronger."
Lioren nodded, trembling.
"It's not trying to take you tonight."
"Then what?" he whispered.
The lantern in her hand flickered violently.
Her voice was barely breath:
"It's learning."
The Matriarch's Truth
The matriarch arrived moments later, staff glowing with carved runes.
She took one look at the dust, the shaking walls, the dim lanterns and paled.
"The second attempt has begun."
Aurelianth's breath hitched.
"That wasn't the attempt?"
"No," she said darkly. "That was the prelude."
She pointed at the dust.
"The Pulse is mapping your limits."
Lioren looked horrified. "It's testing him."
"And testing us," the matriarch added.
Aurelianth's veins pulsed painfully.
"What do we do?"
The matriarch met his eyes.
"We prepare for the real assault.
Because the second attempt is never subtle.
Never quiet.
Never small."
She gripped her staff so tightly the wood groaned.
"The next time it comes…"She glanced at the swirling runes across Aurelianth's skin."…it will not send echoes."
Aurelianth swallowed. "Then what?"
The matriarch's voice fell to a whisper of dread:
"It will try to pull you out of the world."
Aurelianth's heart stopped cold.
Lioren's grip tightened.
The Hollow Pulse's final whisper echoed in the dark:
click…
…soon.