The darkness was heavy and wet, like drowning in ink.Ezra thrashed, lungs burning, her fingers clawing for the surface that wouldn't come. The river's current wrapped around her like hands, dragging her deeper into the cold. She tried to scream, but her mouth filled with water.
And then — a sudden, stabbing pain in her eye, so sharp it felt like lightning had split her skull in two. She curled against it, the water around her now pulsing, alive, whispering in a voice she couldn't understand.
She broke the surface — gasping — and found herself standing in a field of nothing. No sky, no ground, only a faint, cold light, and a shadow with no face standing just beyond reach.
"Who are you?" she demanded, but the shadow didn't move.
Instead, it tilted its head — and in the same heartbeat, the bandages over her eyes began to burn.
She woke with a sharp inhale, sitting up too quickly, nearly tipping off the cot. Her heart hammered against her ribs. Sweat clung to the back of her neck.
The fire in the hut had burned down to faint embers. She could hear the others sleeping: slow, steady breaths, the occasional shift of a blanket.
It had been just a dream.But it didn't feel like just a dream.
Ezra rubbed her hands over her face.Her head still ached faintly from the day's training, but… maybe this was a good time to practice again. The dark was no different to her now, but the quiet made it easier to concentrate.
She sat cross-legged on the cot, closing her eyes out of habit. She breathed in slowly, feeling her mana uncurl like smoke. Outward, not inward — like Malachi had said.
The room came to life in her mind.Gideon's mana was a low, restless hum in the corner, even in sleep. Eliakim's was faint, controlled, so still she might have missed it if she didn't know him. Caleb's was warm and loose, spilling just a little too far like someone dreaming of running.
Malachi's was… exactly the same as before. That still pond, deep and unmoving. No dreams, no shifts. Like he was carved from the current itself.
Ezra almost stopped there — but something tugged at her. A prickling along the edges of her awareness, outside the hut.
She turned her focus toward it.At first, she thought it was the river — its mana was always faintly there, a slow, steady pull like breath in the background. But this wasn't that. This was sharper. Quicker. Moving.
The shape was wrong. It didn't feel human — but it wasn't animal, either. Its mana flowed in jagged, broken rhythms, like shards tumbling through water. And it was close.
Ezra's heart began to race. She strained to reach further, to map its outline — but the moment she pushed, the shape seemed to notice her. Its jagged flow stilled, turning toward her like it could see her through the wall.
She flinched and nearly pulled back entirely — but another mana signature suddenly shifted awake.
Malachi.
She hadn't heard him move. Hadn't felt him wake — but there he was, his presence suddenly sharper, the still pond rippling once, just once. And when he moved, it was toward the presence outside.
Ezra held still, listening. There were no footsteps. Just the faint sense of his mana brushing past hers, silent and deliberate. The jagged presence outside seemed to… recede. Not quickly. Almost like it had been drawn away.
A few moments later, Malachi's mana returned to its stillness.
Ezra waited, but he didn't speak. Didn't ask if she'd sensed it too.
She wanted to call out to him. To ask what that was. But she remembered the way he'd sidestepped her earlier question about his own mana — and something in her gut told her he wouldn't give her the truth.
Instead, she lay back down, feigning sleep. She could feel him pause near her cot for a moment. His mana loomed there, still unreadable. Then he moved away again.
The hut was silent but for the breathing of the others. Ezra kept her mana stretched just enough to sense if the jagged thing came back — but it didn't.
Eventually, exhaustion pulled her under again.
She woke late the next morning to the sound of voices — Caleb laughing, Gideon muttering something sharp, Eliakim speaking low.
The memory of the night before pressed against her mind like a bruise. She kept quiet as she dressed, listening. No one mentioned anything unusual. No one acted like something had been right outside while they slept.
Malachi was outside when she emerged, tending the fire for the morning meal. She stopped a few paces away.
"You were awake last night," she said flatly.
"So were you," Malachi replied without looking at her.
"I felt something," she pressed. "Something outside."
His hands didn't pause over the cooking pot. "Did you?"
"Yes. And you went out there."
"I did," he admitted. "And?"
"And what was it?"
Malachi finally looked at her. "Something that no longer matters."
"That's not an answer."
"It's all you'll get for now."
Ezra clenched her jaw, but she didn't push further. There was no winning a straight challenge with him — not yet. She would have to watch. Wait. And keep practicing until she could tell what exactly swam beneath that still surface of his mana.
For now, she sat down by the fire, letting the warmth sink into her skin. But the taste of the river from her dream lingered in her mouth, bitter and cold.
Something had looked back at her last night.And she doubted it would be the last time.