The sect was quiet, cloaked in midnight stillness. Disciples slumbered, elders meditated, the mountains breathed with their usual silence.
But in Arhaan's chamber, silence cracked.
He sat cross-legged, eyes closed, breath slow and steady. The crimson-gold chains coiled around his spirit like serpents, flickering with embers. Each inhale drew the fragments of his broken qi into order, each exhale calmed the storm within.
Yet suddenly—
A shudder rippled through him.
The chains rattled violently, their glow sharp and jagged, as though something unseen had tugged at them from afar.
Arhaan's eyes snapped open.
---
The Pulse of Darkness
It was faint at first, like a whisper. A stain in the air, creeping through the sect like smoke no one else could see. But to Arhaan, it was clear as thunder.
"Something… unnatural," he murmured.
He closed his eyes again, reaching deeper. The chains throbbed, pulling his awareness beyond his chamber, beyond the sect walls—toward the distant cliffs, where shadows writhed against the stars.
He saw it for just a moment:
A flame, black and hungry, gnawing at the edge of the world.
The chains recoiled, snapping him back. Blood filled his mouth as he coughed violently.
---
The Warning
The door slid open. Selene stood there, her silver eyes narrowing at the sight of blood staining his lips.
"You felt it too," she said softly, more statement than question.
Arhaan wiped his mouth, his voice low.
"Something entered this sect tonight. Not from outside… but beyond."
Selene stepped closer, her presence a steady calm against the tremor inside him.
"Then the council will need to hear—"
"No." Arhaan cut her off, his chains rattling faintly.
"If they knew, they'd only see another reason to bind me. Whatever it is… I'll find it myself."
His eyes burned with quiet fire.
"Because whatever walks in that shadow… it's already hunting me."