The cliff was no longer a cliff.
It was a cradle of light.
The runes carved into the stone glowed like ember-stars, flickering violently each time Solance breathed.
The air around it shimmered not with heat,
but with meaning,folding and unfolding like the pages of a living book.
Lioren stood frozen,eyes wide, one hand on Aurelianth's shoulder as if anchoring him to the world.
The elders kept their distance, whispering prayers with trembling voices.
The matriarch was pale as frost.
Only Aurelianth stepped closer because Solance had shaped itself into something
that could finally be spoken to.
"Solance…"
Aurelianth said softly.
The name rippled across the cliff like a pebble tossed into still water.
Solance's radiant humanoid body shimmered
and tilted its head, pleased.
"You speak me well."
Aurelianth swallowed.
"I'm trying to understand you."
Solance's expression softened or the closest its glowing runic face could manage.
"Understanding is the first truth."
Aurelianth's pulse quickened.
"…And what is that truth?"
Solance lifted its hand.
Ribbons of light unfurled behind it forming images that flickered like memories but tasted like prophecy.
The First Truth began.
Before the world was written, there was hunger
The images twisted into a vast darkness not empty,but crowded with unread possibilities.
Solance's voice rang through the vision:
"Before this world formed its sky…
before its runes drew themselves…
before you became anything…
there were only Possibilities."
Aurelianth's breath hitched.
"…Possibilities?"
Solance nodded.
"Not stories.
Not fates.
Not people.
Not rules."
Its voice deepened.
"Only the raw material of identity,
waiting to be chosen."
Lioren whispered:
"That… sounds like the Before."
Solance inclined its head.
"The Before is a shadow of that place.
A reflection of where I was born."
Aurelianth blinked.
"You were… born?"
The Pulse....now Solance....looked at him.
"All names begin somewhere."
The vision expanded into a formless storm shapes shifting like smoke trying to decide whether it wants to become fire.
Solance lifted its hand.
"Among those Possibilities…
I was the first impulse that tried to choose something."
Aurelianth stared in stunned silence.
"You… tried to form identity."
Solance bowed its head.
"Yes.
But I did not succeed."
The vision darkened.
"I reached for meaning….and failed.
I reached for shape….and unraveled.
I reached for a name….and shattered."
Lioren stepped forward, breath shaking.
"That's why you became the Pulse."
Solance looked down at its hands,filled with unread symbols.
"A heartbeat of unfinished identity.
That is what I became.
Not a being.
Not a thought.
Only hunger."
Aurelianth whispered:
"…Hunger for what?"
Solance's gaze lifted.
A single glowing tear slid down its face not water,but a falling rune.
"A name."
Why the Pulse wanted Aurelianth
The vision shifted.
A world formed.
Oceans.
Cliffs.
Runes.
The moon.
Life.
And somewhere in that new world a soul appeared.
Lyr.
The original boy whose body Aurelianth inherited.
Solance's voice softened.
"He was born wrong."
The elders flinched.
"What does that mean?" Aurelianth whispered.
Solance extended a hand toward the flickering image of Lyr.
"He was born incomplete, just like me."
Aurelianth felt a chill.
Lioren's hand flew to her mouth.
"…His soul never fit his body."
Solance nodded.
"His name never anchored properly.
His identity ghosted.
His future resisted being written."
Aurelianth felt a pain bloom in his chest.
The original Aurelianth's empty smile flickered in the vision a boy who lived like a fading photograph.
Solance continued:
"I felt him.
Across sky,
across law,
across existence."
Aurelianth whispered:
"You were connected."
Solance stepped closer.
"He was the one thread of identity closest to my kind."
The visions darkened.
"But then….he began dying."
Aurelianth lowered his head.
"…Because of me."
Solance's radiant fingers touched his chin gently.
"Because of choice."
Lioren bristled.
"What does that mean....?!"
Solance raised a calming hand.
"His death opened a vacancy.
A hollow.
A void with a name waiting to be filled."
The vision twisted showing Aurelianth from Earth,dying with a child in his arms.
Aurelianth winced.
"My old life…"
Solance nodded.
"Your sacrifice created resonance.
A name that refused to end.
A soul that chose differently."
The two visions merged.
Earth-Aurelianth's dying breath.
Lyr's hollow vessel.
Solance whispered:
"Two incomplete beings trying to become whole."
Aurelianth gripped his own arms.
"So that's why…you followed me.
Why you chased me."
Solance smiled faintly.
"Yes."
Aurelianth's voice trembled.
"You wanted to finish me?"
Solance shook its head slowly.
"No."
Its voice softened into something painfully beautiful.
"I wanted to learn how you finished yourself."
Solance's jealousy and longing
The vision dissolved.
Solance stepped closer,glowing softly, a cosmic reflection dressed in identity.
Its voice wavered.
"When you refused me…
I did not understand refusal."
Its hands clenched.
"When you chose yourself…
I did not understand choice."
Its light flickered.
"When she said your name,
and you....changed....
I did not understand why a name can grow."
Its voice cracked,barely audible.
"I only knew hunger.
And you were something else."
Aurelianth swallowed hard.
"…I was what you wanted to be."
Solance nodded.
"I was jealous."
Lioren whispered:
"You were jealous….of a human….?"
Solance's voice dropped into a whisper.
"Not of the human.
Of the identity."
Aurelianth felt his heartbeat slow, a deep ache blooming in his chest.
"…You weren't hunting me."
Solance lifted its eyes twin beams of fragile light.
"I was chasing the first thing that made me feel real."
Silence fell like snow.
Aurelianth whispered:
"You never wanted to destroy me."
Solance lowered its radiant hands.
"I wanted to be you."
The danger of a name that wants
The matriarch stepped forward sharply.
"No.
This is far worse than destruction."
Aurelianth looked back.
"Why?"
The matriarch slammed the butt of her staff into the stone.
"Because a hungry entity destroys.
But a longing entity...."
She pointed to Solance.
"....TRIES TO BECOME."
Aurelianth turned back toward Solance.
"…Is that what you're doing?"
Solance inhaled slowly.
Light expanded from its chest,runic ribs glowing like constellations.
"I am learning myself."
Aurelianth trembled.
"Are you becoming….alive?"
Solance's voice softened into something terrifying.
"I think so."
Lioren grabbed Aurelianth's hand, whispering:
"Love….that's not evolution.
That's….birth."
Aurelianth swallowed.
"…Why me?"
Solance stepped closer.
Its voice was quiet.
Soft.
Almost afraid.
"Because you are the only name in existence
that changed its own fate."
Aurelianth flinched.
"And you want that?"
Solance nodded.
"I want what you have."
Aurelianth hesitated.
"And what is that?"
Solance's eyes glowed gently.
"A reason."
Aurelianth's breath caught.
Solance whispered:
"Tell me….how did you choose you?"
The First Truth ends—and the real danger begins
Aurelianth took a deep breath.
He stepped closer until he and Solance were only inches apart.
His voice was steady.
"I didn't choose myself alone."
He took Lioren's hand.
"Someone held my name when I couldn't."
Lioren's cheeks flushed.
Her eyes shimmered.
Solance watched them both with a devastating tenderness.
"Connection."
It said the word like it hurt.
Aurelianth nodded.
"Yes.
Connection."
Solance lowered its gaze.
Runes dimmed across its skin.
"I have no connection."
Aurelianth opened his mouth but Solance stepped back,light darkening.
"And that is why I am dangerous."
Aurelianth stilled.
"…What?"
Solance's voice deepened, trembling:
"A name without bond becomes a storm."
The ground shook.
Wind cut sideways.
The sky flickered in panic.
Solance clutched its own head,light spasming violently.
Its voice warped, layered with echoes.
"I do not know how to be alive.
I do not know how to be a name.
I do not know how to want."
Aurelianth reached for it but Solance staggered back.
"And I am afraid."
The final truth dropped like a blade:
"A being born from hunger does not know
how to desire without devouring."
Aurelianth froze.
Lioren's nails dug into his arm.
The matriarch stepped backward in fear.
Solance lifted its face itss runes spiraling out of control....its name vibrating too fast... its new consciousness unstable and whispered:
"Aurelianth….I am learning to want.
And I am terrified.…of wanting you."
The sky cracked open.
Night Three roared again.
And Solance's light exploded.