The Pulse was gone.
But its absence wasn't peace.
It was the silence after a scream.
Aurelianth lay unconscious in his chamber, chest rising in shallow, uneven breaths. The cracked rune over his heart flickered like a dying star, bleeding faint threads of silver light that pooled along his ribs.
Lioren sat beside him....eyes red, hands trembling, lantern dimmed to a soft glow.
The matriarch, three elders, and two healers stood in heavy silence around the bed.
Finally the matriarch spoke:
"…He is alive."
Lioren's breath escaped her in a small, broken sound.
"But barely."
Aurelianth's hand twitched, fingers grasping at nothing.
The healer leaned forward.
"His essence is destabilizing. The Pulse's gaze tore at his identity. It tried to overwrite him."
Lioren clenched her hands.
"That's why he said the Pulse was trying to write him."
The matriarch nodded grimly.
"The Pulse wants his name."
One elder hissed sharply.
"That is impossible. Names are not things you take."
The healer gave a grim smile.
"The Pulse does not take.....It finishes."
Lioren covered her mouth, horrified.
"But… that would mean...."
The matriarch finished quietly:
"That Aurelianth is not meant to die."
Silence.
"Instead," she whispered, "he is meant to be changed."
Lioren shook her head stubbornly.
"Not him. Not this time."
"A name can resist fate," another elder said.
"But only if the soul behind it refuses."
Lioren looked at Aurelianth.
His face was pale.
Too pale.
Sweat beaded his brow.
A tremor ran through his fingertips.
She whispered:
"He refuses everything."
Aurelianth wakes to the weight of two worlds
Aurelianth gasped awake.
A sharp inhale....like he'd broken through ice.
Lioren was at his side instantly.
"Aurelianth! Aurelianth, look at me...please...."
He blinked slowly, vision swimming.
"…I'm here…"
She grabbed his hand with both of hers.
"Thank the moons…you scared me so badly...
....don't ever...."
"I'm here," he repeated, voice weak but certain.
He pushed himself up slightly....winced....fell back against the pillow.
The matriarch stepped forward.
"Aurelianth," she said gently. "Do you remember anything?"
He closed his eyes.
The Pulse's voice echoed in his skull.
"Let me finish you."
He swallowed hard.
"…yes."
"What did it do?"
Aurelianth exhaled shakily.
"It didn't try to take my body.
It tried to take my name."
The elders exchanged horrified glances.
The matriarch asked quietly:
"And your rune?"
Aurelianth touched the cracked symbol over his heart.
"It's… still mine.
But it's also… tainted."
He showed them.
The crack had deepened.
And along the edges....black-silver lines were creeping outward.
The Pulse's color.
Lioren sucked in a breath.
"Oh gods… Aurelianth…"
The matriarch reached out carefully, not touching the rune but observing its glow.
"It is stabilizing," she murmured. "Slowly. But the Pulse's imprint is woven into it now."
Aurelianth frowned.
"…Can it be removed?"
"No," the healer said softly.
Lioren squeezed his hand.
"That doesn't mean it controls you. It means it failed to take you."
Aurelianth looked at her gratefully.
"…thank you."
But his eyes were shadowed.
"Night Three is coming."
The room fell silent.
The Meeting of the Elders: The Plan Forms
Later that day, wrapped in furs and carried by Lioren and two hunters, Aurelianth was brought to the council hall.
It was carved deep into the cliff....walls lined with runes, branches of moon-crystal and memory-stone.
The ceiling above shimmered with liquid silver, reflecting every lantern like a pool of frozen sky.
The elders gathered around the long table.
Aurelianth sat at its center.
Lioren sat beside him, refusing to move even an inch away.
The matriarch stood.
"We must prepare for Night Three."
A silence like a held breath filled the chamber.
Night Three.
The Final Attempt.
The night no one had ever survived.
Aurelianth whispered:
"…Do you know what it will send?"
"No," the matriarch said."But every record agrees....on the third night, the Pulse stops sending echoes."
She met Aurelianth's gaze.
"And comes itself."
Aurelianth felt cold creep through his spine.
Lioren's hand tightened around his.
"And it will try again," the matriarch continued. "Not for your body. For your identity. For your unwritten name."
One elder stepped forward.
"You are the first person the Pulse has spoken to."
Aurelianth's heart stuttered.
"I… think I felt that."
"It also means," the elder continued, "you are not just a target. You are a link."
Lioren blinked.
"A link? To what?"
The elder gestured gently at Aurelianth's cracked rune.
"To the Before.
To the Unwritten.
To whatever space the Pulse occupies."
Aurelianth's pulse quickened.
"You mean… I can reach it?"
The matriarch nodded reluctantly.
"Yes."
Aurelianth looked down at his hands.
"…Then I'm not helpless."
One elder slammed his palm on the table.
"You are NOT fighting the Pulse directly!"
Lioren snapped at him:
"He just rewrote its creature! He CAN do it...."
"No human can fight the Pulse."
"He's not just human."
Everyone fell silent.
Even Aurelianth.
Lioren exhaled shakily.
"He is Deviation."
Aurelianth's chest tightened.
He whispered:
"I'm scared."
The matriarch stepped forward.
"So are we."
She knelt in front of him.
"But fear is not failure.Night Three is not death.It is a confrontation of truth."
She placed a cool hand near his rune.
"You must discover what part of you the Pulse desires…and protect the part it cannot touch."
Aurelianth swallowed hard.
"And… what is that part?"
The matriarch smiled gently.
"Your choice."
Training of the Unwritten: Learning His Own Soul
For the rest of the day, Aurelianth trained in ways he never imagined.
Not physically....his body was still too weak, trembling with every breath.
Not magically....the rune's crack made power dangerous.
Instead.....
He trained in the one battlefield Night Three would target:
Identity.
► First Lesson: The Mirror Rune
He sat cross-legged on a polished mirror-circle a rune designed to reflect the inner self.
At first the reflection was broken as if fractured across many lives.
The healer frowned.
"You are divided."
Aurelianth nodded, voice low.
"…I come from two lives."
The mirror trembled.
Aurelianth whispered:
"I was a man who died saving a child…and a young heir in this world…"
The mirror flared.
Then slowly...two reflections merged into one.
Lioren gasped softly.
"You're becoming whole."
Aurelianth stared at himself.
"…Maybe."
► Second Lesson: Naming Yourself
The elders formed a circle around him.
One spoke:
"Say your name."
Aurelianth inhaled.
"Aurelianth."
"Again."
"Aurelianth."
"Again."
"AURELIANTH."
The cracked rune glowed gently.
The elder began tracing symbols in the air.
"Your name is your anchor.Repeat it until the Pulse cannot speak over it."
Aurelianth whispered his name again....
and again....
and again....
But after thirty repetitions, he faltered.
His voice trembled.
"I… don't think that's all my name."
The room stilled.
Lioren leaned closer.
"What do you mean?"
Aurelianth pressed a hand to his chest.
"My name… isn't complete."
The matriarch nodded.
"That is why the Pulse wants it."
Aurelianth shuddered.
"…and why it can't have it."
► Third Lesson: Enter the Before
This was the hardest.
Aurelianth lay on a stone bed, eyes closed, breath steady.
The matriarch placed a hand over his cracked rune.
"You must enter the Before willingly.Not dragged.Not through the Pulse.Through yourself."
His veins flared.
His body convulsed.
But then....
He slipped inward and entered the white expanse again.
Only this time.....
He didn't fall.
He landed.
Standing tall.
Breathing.
Ready.
The hollow original Aurelianth appeared nearby.
His voice was softer than before.
"You are learning."
Aurelianth nodded.
"I have to be ready for Night Three."
The hollow figure touched the edge of the unfinished world.
"The Pulse will not be your hardest enemy."
Aurelianth frowned.
"Then who?"
The white world cracked.
Something stirred in the darkness behind it.
Something shaped like him.
Him.
But not him.
Aurelianth felt cold crawl through his bones.
"What....is that....?"
The hollow figure whispered:
"The version of you who chooses the Pulse."
Aurelianth's breath froze.
Lioren's voice echoed faintly from outside the dream....
"Aurelianth....come back....!"
He opened his eyes, gasping.
The matriarch steadied him.
"You saw it?"
He nodded shakily.
"Yes."
"And?"
Aurelianth whispered:
"…The Pulse isn't my biggest threat."
Lioren grabbed his hand.
"Then what is?"
Aurelianth closed his eyes.
"Myself."
Preparing for the Final Night
As sunset approached, the village clung to a fragile, terrified hope.
The hunters sharpened weapons that might not matter.The elders awakened old runes that flickered uncertainly.
Children were hidden in the deep caves beneath the cliff.
Aurelianth stood on the western balcony, staring at the sinking sun.
He felt Lioren before he heard her.
She slid her arms around his waist and rested her head between his shoulder blades.
"You're shaking…"
"…I know."
"You're scared."
He swallowed.
"…I'm terrified."
She held him tighter.
"Good."
He laughed weakly.
"Good?"
"Yes," she whispered.
"It means you have something to lose.And something to fight for."
He turned around slowly and she pressed her forehead to his.
Her breath was warm.
Her eyes soft and fierce and alive.
"Aurelianth," she whispered.
"What the Pulse wants isn't you.It's a version of you."
He nodded.
"And I'm not that version."
"No," she said. "You're mine."
Aurelianth's heart stuttered, painfully soft.
He whispered:
"Then hold me again after Night Three."
Her voice cracked....but she smiled.
"I will."
The sky darkens too early
The sun touched the horizon.
The wind stilled.
The light dimmed....too fast.
Too sudden.
Too wrong.
Lioren grabbed his hand.
"Aurelianth….the night….it's starting early."
He stepped forward...fire in his veins...identity blazing...fear and defiance tangled like stars inside him.
He whispered:
"Night Three is coming."
Lioren squeezed his fingers.
"And so are we."
The first star flickered.
The sky cracked and the world inhaled.