The first shimmer came without warning. Sam was inspecting the newly built watchtower—a latticework of pulse-alloy beams and bone-reinforced struts—when the sky flickered. It began as a slow wash of violet, as though someone had brushed pale paint across the firmament. Then red veins pulsed through, rhythmic, inexorable, drawing lines against the night like the breath of a sleeping giant.
"Did you see that?" Tek's voice was breathless, half in awe, half in fear.
Sam didn't answer. His hand dropped to the side of his staff, where the twin Nichirin Katanas hung, their hilts humming faintly against his thigh. The orb in his Inventory—a smooth, metallic sphere that had seemed inert until yesterday—vibrated in response, tuning itself to the same frequency.
Thirty-three seconds passed.
Another flicker.
Thirty-three more.
Sam began to count in his head.
"Thirty-three… thirty-three…"
The rhythm was impossible. Aurora danced in the sky, but this was not an aurora. It was a beacon. An alien beacon.
"Observation Beacon Echoed," whispered the Crown in his mind. "Potential celestial interest reactivated."
Sam closed his eyes. He felt the faint tug of the orb, stored safely in his Inventory interface—an ethereal pull against the fabric of his bones, as if it recognized his heartbeat, his blood, his very will to live.
He opened his eyes, voice low. "Tek. Gather the council. Now."
Below the ridge, Karun's horns called the tribe to order. Women and men streamed toward the central ridge in silent waves, faces turned to the sky's unnatural display. Children clutched their parents' robes, pointing at the pale veins of light.
Sam descended swiftly, the twin blades at his back whispering against each other. He reached the council platform and raised a hand.
"Be calm," he called. "But be ready."
Karun's dark eyes flicked to him. "What is it?"
Sam gestured upward. "Not an omen. A signal. Every thirty-three seconds, the sky pulses. We're being watched."
A murmur rose. "Watched?" Mira, the chief hunter, whispered. "By whom? The Rava-Ka?"
"No," Sam said. "By something older."
Sam observes a sky disturbance—rhythmic light pulses every 33 seconds—that he immediately recognizes as not natural.
He held up his staff. "I want every guard man at the outer palisade. Extra watch in the night. And no fires tonight—light only from our central beacon, so we can detect intruders."
Karun nodded. "What about the orb?"
Sam's lip curled. "We're going to use it."
Tek's eyes went wide. "You mean—link it again to the Crown?"
Sam tapped the staff. "Inventory: Deploy orb to Virtual Workspace."
The Crown alerts: "Observation Beacon Echoed. Potential celestial interest reactivated."
Suddenly, Sam was everywhere. His consciousness fractured into data streams, reflected in the orb's shifting patterns. A translucent interface appeared before him—blueprints, schematics, and code scrolling like digital rain. This was the Virtual Workspace—a holographic laboratory existing in his mind and linked to the orb's quantum matrix.
He scrawled a quick schematic: a sky scanner, capable of interpreting the pulse frequency, triangulating its source. The orb's surface rippled, embedding the blueprint into its nanolattice.
"Blueprint saved to Inventory," the Crown announced.
Tek gasped. "You just—built a scanner in your head."
Sam closed the interface. "That's evolution."
Tek discovers a half-buried metallic orb with shifting patterns.
The orb vibrates near SAM and links with the Crown, showing alien binary.
First use of Inventory System—SAM stores the orb, stunning Tek.
Virtual Workspace unlocks—SAM begins blueprinting a scanner remotely while at council.
Mira stepped closer. "A scanner isn't a weapon."
Sam shook his head. "It's an eye. We need to see what's watching before it sees us."
Karun raised an eyebrow. "Do you think it's the Rava-Ka?"
Sam exhaled slowly. "This pulse… too precise for any tribe. It's mathematical. Binary. We're dealing with starborn watchers."
Below them, the tribe panicked anew. Shouts went up: "The sky bleeds!" "The gods return!" "Protect the flame!"
Sam held up his katanas. Their blades glowed against the sky's pale luster, each humming in resonance.
"Stand back," he said. He drew the swords and held them so their edges caught the starlight. In the reflection, the aurora trembled.
He felt the strange pull again, softer now, urging him forward. It was as though the orb were whispering: "Align… integrate…"
Sam closed his eyes and touched the pommel of one katana. Instantly, a new protocol activated.
"System Update: Warrior Interface Initialized."
His strength doubled. His senses sharpened. He tasted the electric charge of the air.
Tek staggered back. "Sam… you're—"
He didn't finish.
Sam leapt, swords flicking outward. He slashed the air—twice, three times—each arc drawn in the sky like a spark, the tip of his blade tracing evidence of energy. The aurora quivered, as if acknowledging his mark.
"You are now observable. Prepare."
SAM senses a strange "pull" from the orb—a soft hum in his bones.
The tribe panics seeing lights—Karun calls it "The Return of Fire-Heaven."
A hidden protocol whispers: "You are now observable. Prepare."
The council drew sharp breaths. Then Karun nodded.
"Mira, send scouts to the Northern Ridge. Tek, secure the orb in the Vault of Flame. I will ready the assembly."
Sam sheathed his katanas. "Let's move."
That night, the scanner was complete. A tripod of pulse-alloy rods radiated outward, linked by glowing runes Sam had transcribed from the Virtual Workspace. Tek installed the orb in its core, and Sam activated the device.
A soft hum rose as the sky's pulses were captured and translated. On a bark display, crude symbols formed by Tek's charcoal brush revealed a map: three points of origin, converging trajectories, and a final red dot at the center.
Sam studied it. "They converge here."
He pointed to the valley's heart—Crownhold itself.
"They're coming for us."
Chapter ends with SAM looking to the sky, drawing his katanas for the first time.
Sam stepped out into the clearing, swords in hand. He raised one high, facing the night sky.
"Then let them come."
Behind him, the tribe bowed their heads—some in fear, some in awe.
Above them, the aurora pulsed… but now, in perfect harmony with his heartbeat.
End of Chapter 13