Morning did not arrive gently.
It came with whispers.
The first villager who noticed the body thought it was an animal at first. Something large had collapsed near the outer crops during the night, half-hidden by flattened stalks.
He stepped closer.
Then stopped.
The thing lying there was not an animal.
Its limbs were too long. The joints bent wrong. Its skin was dark and thick, stretched over muscle like dried leather. One arm twisted beneath its torso, clearly broken.
Its throat had been pierced.
The man stumbled backward, nearly dropping the basket he carried.
"Someone!" he shouted.
Within minutes, others gathered.
No one stepped too close.
The corpse looked wrong even in death. Its mouth hung open slightly, revealing jagged teeth meant for tearing flesh rather than chewing food. The smell rising from it was faintly metallic, mixed with something older—like damp stone left untouched for centuries.
"Who did this?" someone whispered.
No one answered.
They didn't need to.
A few people exchanged quiet glances.
They had all seen Bharav walking the outer paths at night recently.
Footsteps approached.
Bharav stepped through the gathered crowd, his clothes still bearing faint stains from the previous night. His arm had been wrapped with a strip of cloth, though the cut beneath it was shallow.
The villagers moved aside without speaking.
He looked down at the corpse.
It had already begun stiffening.
The broken spear fragment still lodged deep in its throat told the rest of the story.
A low murmur passed through the group.
"Is it… dead?" someone asked quietly.
"Yes," Bharav said.
No pride.
No triumph.
Just certainty.
He crouched beside the body and studied it again.
The creature's claws were longer than he remembered in the dark. Its skin was tougher too. When he pressed two fingers against its arm, the flesh resisted slightly even now.
Not natural.
Not random.
Sent.
A shadow fell across the body.
Vighnaraj stepped forward.
He did not show surprise.
He simply observed.
For a long moment, he said nothing.
Then he crouched beside Bharav.
"You fought it alone."
Not a question.
"Yes."
"Did it attack without warning?"
Bharav shook his head slightly.
"It came looking."
Vighnaraj's eyes narrowed.
That matched the pattern he suspected.
The creature had not wandered.
It had been deployed.
He stood slowly and looked at the gathered villagers.
"Take the body away from the crops," he said calmly. "Burn it."
Several people hesitated.
One man spoke nervously.
"Burn it? Should we not bury—"
"Burn it," Vighnaraj repeated.
Something in his tone ended the discussion.
The villagers moved quickly after that.
As the body was dragged away, a faint line appeared across the soil where its claws had scraped during the fight. Bharav noticed the mark and frowned.
Three shallow curves.
Intersecting.
The same symbol the Rakshas commander had carved earlier.
He studied it silently.
"What is it?" he asked.
Vighnaraj glanced down.
His expression changed for only a fraction of a second.
Then it returned to calm.
"Nothing important," he said.
Bharav didn't look convinced.
"You're lying."
The older man didn't deny it.
"Not every truth should arrive at the same time," he replied.
Bharav exhaled slowly.
His patience was already thin from the fight.
"More will come," he said.
"Yes."
The answer came too quickly.
Bharav turned toward him.
"You already knew."
"I suspected."
"That's the same thing."
Vighnaraj folded his hands behind his back.
"No," he said quietly. "Suspicion allows preparation. Certainty forces action."
Bharav's jaw tightened.
"I don't like waiting."
"That is precisely why you must learn to."
The two men stood in silence for a moment.
Around them, villagers carried wood and oil toward the corpse.
The fire would begin soon.
Bharav looked at his wrapped arm.
The heat from the fight had faded, but something deeper still lingered beneath his skin.
Something restless.
"I almost lost control," he admitted.
Vighnaraj glanced at him.
"Almost is acceptable."
"And when it isn't?"
The older man studied him carefully.
"Then the consequences will teach you what restraint could not."
The flames rose moments later.
The body burned slowly.
Dark smoke curled upward, carrying the scent of something unnatural with it.
Several villagers turned away.
Bharav watched until the flames consumed the creature completely.
Only then did he speak again.
"This wasn't a hunt."
"No," Vighnaraj said.
"It was a test."
"Yes."
Bharav looked at him sharply.
"And the next one?"
Vighnaraj's gaze lifted toward the horizon.
"Will not be so polite."
Neither of them noticed the faint tremor beneath the ground.
But far away, something else did.
The Rakshas Commander felt the death of the scout fade completely.
Its eyes opened slowly.
No anger.
Only calculation.
"The spark survives."
It stood.
Around it, several larger shapes stirred.
"Send the next one," it said.
"This time…"
Its claws carved lightly into stone.
"Let them feel pressure."
The first test had ended.
The next one was already moving.
And neither Bharav nor Vighnaraj yet realized how quickly the game was changing.