The morning began wrong.
The drums from the night's rite still echoed in the villagers' ears, but the fires had all died in the dark. Not a single ember survived. The ashes lay cold and gray, spread across the square like snow that smothered instead of warmed.
Children cried when they saw it. Smoke had not carried into the sky. It was as if the flames had been swallowed whole.
Goats lay stiff in their pens, their eyes open and glassy, though not a single wound marked their bodies. The chickens did not cluck, the dogs did not bark. The dogs only stood at the edge of the square, their fur bristling, teeth bared, growls shaking low in their throats as they stared toward the northern tree line.
By the time Rei reached the riverbank, half the village had gathered. The air was heavy and wet, as if even the mist wanted to press them into the earth. The river that once shimmered silver now stretched out like a strip of ink. The water moved, but it gave no reflection. Not the sky. Not their faces. Only endless black.
The villagers whispered, but no voice dared rise above the sound of the water. The black current seemed to drink every word before it reached the air.
Envelon stepped forward. His bent back and trembling hand made the scene feel more fragile than ever. He dipped his cane into the river and pulled it free. The wood was scarred, blackened as if fire had licked it clean.
"This," he rasped, his voice dry as dust, "is not water anymore. This is the sky remembering."
Gasps rippled through the crowd. Some clutched their children closer. Some cried. A few began shouting to leave Hurukoya, their words panicked, their eyes wild.
The air split as Shira arrived.
She did not speak at first. She walked past the crowd, her white cloak cutting through the fog like a blade. At the river's edge she stopped, her hand brushing the hilt of her sword. Her eyes never left the water.
When she finally spoke, her voice was calm, yet carried with such weight that it silenced even the screams of the children.
"This is no accident. This is a call. And it will not end here."
Her words clung to the air. For some, they felt like warning. For others, like a death sentence.
Rei pressed his hand against his chest as his Enso pulsed hard, burning inside him as if something reached from the water into his body. He bit back a cry, his knees nearly buckling.
Kaien tried to laugh, his voice shaking. "Maybe it is just bad soil. Rivers do not turn black because of curses. Right?"
No one laughed. Not this time.
The fog pressed closer, thick as wool. It curled around their ankles, climbing like a living thing. Every torch in the square that had not been touched all morning suddenly erupted into flame.
But the fire was not orange. It was not warm. It was a color the villagers had never seen before. Blue. Deep and cold. It cast no heat, only shadows that bent wrong, stretching and twisting across the ground as if alive.
Screams tore through the crowd. Mothers clutched children. Men reached for tools that looked useless against such a sight.
Rei staggered back. His Enso burst violently, sparks cracking in the air around him. Mira grabbed his wrist, eyes wide. "Rei, stop. Everyone is watching."
"I… I am not doing this!" His voice cracked, but no one seemed to hear him over the roar of the unnatural fire.
And then he saw them.
For a single heartbeat, in the glow of the blue flame, the fog revealed silhouettes.
Tall. Faceless. Standing between the trees, unmoving.
Their bodies were wrong, stretched like shadows that forgot how to stay flat on the ground. They did not move, but Rei felt their gaze pierce through him. He could not look away. His lungs refused to fill. His body trembled as if it already knew their names.
The silhouettes vanished as quickly as they appeared, swallowed back into the fog.
But Rei knew they were still there. Watching. Waiting.
The villagers collapsed to their knees, wailing prayers to gods that had never answered before.
Hurukoya had never felt so small.
Hurukoya had never felt so doomed.
And Rei, with his unstable Enso sparking against his skin, realized the truth.
Whatever had been sealed away outside the river's gate… had found them.