Kaelric turned toward the window. Dawn had not fully risen, but the light was no longer hiding. A thin unease lay over the village; the birds had fallen silent too early, and the wind had changed direction.
"Someone found us," he said suddenly.
Zeythara lifted her head.
"A god?" she asked calmly.
"No," Kaelric replied. "Gods don't arrive this quietly."
Zeythara closed her eyes. For the first time, she didn't listen to instinct—she listened to the balance around her. The air… was bending. Lightning prickled at her fingertips without being summoned.
"Not the Voids," she said.
"This is… dirtier."
At that moment, a scream rose from outside. Short, muffled—and abruptly cut off.
Zeythara was without cloak, without weapon, but it didn't slow her. She moved for the door. Kaelric stepped in front of her.
"Together," he said firmly.
"That's not a suggestion."
Zeythara hesitated—then nodded.
When they stepped outside, they saw three figures standing in the center of the village. They were not human, though they stood like humans. They had no eyes—in their place were hollowed voids collapsing inward. Chains hung from their hands, seals attached to their ends.
Kaelric clenched his teeth.
"Balance Hunters," he said. "I thought they were a myth."
"Legends," Zeythara replied coldly,
"are usually warnings delivered too late."
One of the figures spoke. The voice did not come from a single mouth, but from many places at once.
"Zeythara," it said.
"Thunder Queen."
"And the anomaly."
The chains trembled.
"A bond has been formed," they said.
"Consequences have begun."
"Balance will be rewritten."
Kaelric stepped forward.
"You have the wrong address," he said. "We are no one's experiment."
The figures tilted their heads.
"Objection recorded," they said.
"Rejected."
Zeythara exhaled.
"Look," she said,
"I usually prefer solving things by talking."
Then the sky split.
It wasn't lightning.
Not yet.
But the heavens had remembered her name.
"Kaelric," Zeythara said, her eyes filling with light.
"Don't stop me."
Kaelric drew his sword. The metal vibrated—as if it recognized its own fate.
"I have no intention of doing that," he said.
"This time, we're the ones breaking the balance."
When the first chain shattered, the silence over the village broke apart.
And far away, in a place unseen—
The Voids added a new line:
The anomalies are resisting.