The forest never slept. Even at night, Nytherra's woods stirred with the calls of beasts and the whisper of unseen wings. But tonight… the silence was wrong.
Jordan stood outside the hut, unable to rest. Every time he closed his eyes, the word echoed in his skull. Aetherborn.
He gripped the wooden post by the door, staring into the treeline. The torches flickered low, casting thin halos of light. Beyond them, shadows clung unnaturally thick, as though the night itself had teeth.
Then he heard it.
Not a whisper. A growl.
Slow. Heavy. Predatory.
Jordan's pulse quickened. He turned just as Ariana stepped out beside him, her silver hair glowing in the torchlight. "You feel it too," she murmured.
Before he could answer, the first torch sputtered out. Then the second. One by one, the flames died, plunging half the village into darkness.
And from that darkness, it came.
A hulking creature, blacker than the night around it, its body shifting like smoke. Its eyes burned with a crimson hunger, and its claws dug trenches into the dirt as it advanced.
The villagers screamed. Warriors scrambled to grab spears, but their weapons looked pitiful against the thing.
Jordan's breath caught in his throat. The same sensation from before welled up inside him—a pressure, like a storm trapped beneath his skin. His hands tingled, light threatening to break through.
"Jordan!" Ariana's voice snapped through the fear. "Don't just stand there—move!"
The beast lunged. Its claw swept toward him, and instinct took over. Jordan raised his arm—
—and light exploded.
A barrier of searing blue energy erupted in front of him, the creature's claw slamming against it with a thunderous crack. The force rattled through his bones, but the shield held.
For a moment, the villagers were silent. All eyes turned to Jordan. The boy who had fallen into their world. The stranger with no past.
The barrier flickered, then shattered like glass. Jordan dropped to his knees, his body trembling, vision spinning.
The beast recoiled, snarling, smoke curling from where the light had touched it. It locked eyes with him, not with fury—
—but recognition.
It hissed a single word in a voice that chilled the air.
"Aetherborn…"
Then, as quickly as it had appeared, the monster dissolved back into the shadows, vanishing into the night.
Jordan collapsed to the ground, his chest heaving. The villagers surrounded him—not with cheers, not with thanks, but with stares. Some wide with awe. Others sharp with suspicion.
And he knew, with a sinking certainty, that this was only the beginning.