Darkness throbbed like a bruise behind his eyelids.
Aurelianth floated for a long moment, weightless, drifting through the Before again
....white expanse stretching endlessly under his feet. It pulsed as though breathing.
Not again…
he thought weakly.
But this time, the Before was already breaking.
Hairline cracks spiderwebbed beneath him, glowing with faint silver-black light....the Pulse testing him even here, even unconscious.
A voice rose around him....the same hollow echo of the original Aurelianth.
"Your rule has changed the world."
Aurelianth tried to form words.
"What… did I do wrong?"
The hollow figure tilted its head.
"Nothing wrong.
Just… consequences."
Behind the figure, the cracks widened.
A new tear formed in the dream-sky above him small, swift, hungry.
The hollow figure stepped backward into it.
But as he vanished, he left one final whisper:
"Night Two will send something worse than hunger.
It will send memory."
The Tear swallowed all light.
The Before shattered.
Waking to Ruin
Aurelianth gasped awake.
His entire body convulsed.
Cold sweat drenched his skin.
His heart pounded erratically.
His veins flickered with sickly silver light.
And the rune over his heart....the one he carved into himself during the rulebend was cracked.
Not broken.
But split down the center like a wounded eye.
"Aurelianth!"
Lioren's hands were on his face instantly, her breath shaky, her lantern's glow trembling.
"You're awake....thank the moons....
Aurelianth, look at me...."
He groaned, clutching his chest.
"It's… cracked…"
"I know," she whispered, pressing her forehead to his. "It happened when you forced the vessel to stop. You pushed too hard."
He looked at her through hazy vision.
"How long was I out?"
"Half the day," she said. "And… all of the first night."
His blood turned to ice.
"I lost… a whole night?"
She nodded grimly.
"The matriarch said your body was recalibrating after the rulebend. She said if she tried to wake you, the rune might break completely."
"What happens if it breaks?"
Lioren's voice trembled.
"You die."
Aurelianth looked down at the cracked symbol over his heart.
It pulsed faintly.....weak, flickering, struggling to heal.
He forced himself upright, ignoring the sharp pain in his ribs and spine.
"We need to check the summit. The Pulse might have...."
"No," Lioren snapped, pushing him back gently but firmly. "You need to rest."
"I can't rest."
"YOU CAN'T FIGHT IF YOU'RE DEAD!"
Her voice cracked into a sob.
Aurelianth's breath softened.
"Lioren…"
"Don't…" she whispered. "Don't make me watch you die in front of me. Not again."
He froze.
"…again?"
Her lips trembled.
She looked away.
"I didn't know the first Aurelianth well," she said quietly. "But I was there when the Pulse dragged him out of this world."
Aurelianth's veins pulsed painfully.
"He screamed," she whispered. "I was too young to help him. I just watched him disappear. I can't.... I won't....watch it happen again."
For a moment, nothing existed except her trembling voice and his pounding heart.
Then....
A boom shook the entire cliff.
Deep.
Distant.
Like a colossal heartbeat slamming into the ground.
Lioren's head snapped up.
"Oh no… it's starting."
Aurelianth pushed himself to standing despite the pain.
"What is it?"
Lioren grabbed her lantern.
"Not a Tear. Not the Pulse."
She swallowed, voice dropping to a terrified whisper.
"A memory."
Aurelianth blinked.
"What does that mean?"
"We don't know," she said. "The elders say Night Two never sends the same thing twice. But if Night One sent a vessel…"
Her voice cracked.
"Then Night Two sends something that remembers its prey."
Aurelianth felt cold settle in his bones.
"…me."
The Forest Stirs
The ground shook again.
This time closer.
Aurelianth staggered out of his chamber, Lioren beside him. Lanterns flickered violently along the corridor walls. Villagers ran past them....some screaming, some clutching children, some praying.
At the cliff's edge, they finally saw it.
The trees of the Shadowwood moved.
Not swayed.
Not toppled.
Moved.
As if something enormous pushed through them, parting the forest like water.
A low rumble followed.
Then a groan....deep and old, like a mountain learning to breathe.
Aurelianth's chest tightened.
"Lioren… what is that?"
The matriarch joined them, face carved in stone.
"That," she said, "is the Pulse's second response."
A massive shape blurred through the treeline.
A face flickered into view....for just an instant...
A face shaped like Aurelianth's.
But twisted.
Burned.
Shadowed.
Its eyes hollow and glowing faint silver.
It vanished again between trees.
Aurelianth's breath stuttered.
"That's...."
"Yes," the matriarch said grimly.
"A memory of you."
He shook his head slowly.
"I've never been that."
"You haven't," she said.
"But the original Aurelianth has."
The forest groaned again.
A tree snapped like a twig.
Then another.
Then a dozen.
The memory-creature stepped out of the woods.
The Memory That Walked the World
It stood nearly twice Aurelianth's height....a terrifying fusion of stone, shadow, and flesh.
Its skin was carved with runes like his own but broken, jagged, twisted into shapes that no longer followed any cosmic rhythm.
Its face…was his.
Not exactly.
Not perfectly.
But close enough that his stomach dropped, cold and hollow.
Lioren grabbed his hand.
"Aurelianth," she whispered, "it looks like… him."
The original.
The consumed.
The one torn away by the Pulse.
Aurelianth's chest ached.
"That's what he became?"
"No," the matriarch said softly. "That is not him. That is what the Pulse remembers of him."
He stared in horror.
The creature took a slow, dragging step forward.
Then another.
Its movements were jerky, mismatched, like a puppet learning how to walk.
A low groan escaped its throat.
Not human.
Not monster.
Something between.
The Pulse's eye in the sky pulsed faintly.
Aurelianth realized....
"It's learning how I might break."
The matriarch nodded grimly.
"That creature is a prediction."
"A prediction of WHAT!?" Lioren demanded.
"Aurelianth's death."
The creature roared.
And Aurelianth's veins flared painfully.
It lunged.
Aurelianth's First Stand Against Himself
The matriarch shouted,
"Defensive formation!"
Hunters charged forward, bone-blades glowing.
Elders raised lanterns, forming a shield of moonlight.
The creature slammed a hand down....
shattering lantern-light like fragile glass.
A shockwave blasted the front line backward.
Aurelianth took a step forward.
"Aurelianth....STOP!" Lioren cried.
"I have to face it," he said quietly.
"That thing is not you!" she shouted.
"No," he said softly. "But it's who the Pulse thinks I will become."
Lioren trembled.
"And if I don't fight that prediction…"
He took another step toward the creature.
"…I become it."
The creature roared again and charged.
Aurelianth raised his hand....His cracked rune blazed wildly....pain ripping through his ribs.
He screamed.....
Lioren screamed his name....
The creature collided with a wave of white-silver light erupting from his chest.
It staggered....howled...then glared directly at him, glowing eyes narrowing.
It recognized him.
And it hated him.
Lioren ran to his side.
"Aurelianth....STOP...your rune is breaking...!"
He fell to one knee, gasping.
He couldn't keep using his power.
The rune would shatter.
He would die.
He forced himself upright.
"…It can't be brute force."
"WHAT!?" Lioren cried.
"I have to beat its memory," he panted.
"Beat… the Pulse's memory? Aurelianth that's INSANE!"
He looked at the creature....
Its face twisting in a grotesque mimicry of his.
"No. It's the only way."
The Memory Battle Begins
Aurelianth stepped forward.
The creature mirrored him....same step, same angle, same tilt of head.
Aurelianth clenched his fists.
"You're not me."
The creature mimicked the movement.
"You're not him."
It flickered expression twisting.
"And you're not my ending."
The creature roared an angry, broken sound like a shattering story.
Aurelianth held his ground.
His cracked rune throbbed.
Lioren whispered through gritted teeth:
"Please….please survive this…."
The creature lunged.
Aurelianth whispered back:
"I'm done letting fate predict me."
He stepped forward straight into the....
creature's attack....His hand glowing with a faint, fragile light.
And the memory of him met the reality of him.
The world held its breath.... and everything collapsed into white.