Chapter 8: Eerie
Kael and Veyna stepped back. Their moment had passed.
Now it was Soahc's turn.
He didn't say anything at first. Just looked around, then lazily pointed toward a training arrow flying past after being activated.
"Watch this," he muttered.
The arrow didn't change speed at first.
Then it twitched.
And reversed.
It had reversed. The shards stitched themselves back together in mid-air, rotating like tape rewinding in a glitch. It spun back to its firing point, shaft whole again, feathers untouched.
Then he walked off without comment, hands in his pockets, heading toward the snack crates on the far edge of the ring.
He grabbed an apple.
Held it up.
And did something strange with that too.
In seconds it softened, browned, collapsed inward, then folded into a hard green kernel—a seed, trembling in his palm.
He flicked it away like trash.
Kael stared.
Soahc wiped his nose. There was blood. Obvious. He sniffed and tilted his head, trying to pass it off.
"You know", he said lightly, "if I wore more black and mumbled about collapse, I'd get recruited by the Veil Monks thinking I'm some sort of omen."
Kael didn't laugh.
He was still trying to understand what he'd just seen.
Soahc stretched his arms and rolled his shoulders like the strain was no big deal.
That's my Aevum. "I call it....." "Nothing; I don't have a name for it," he smirks, remarking.
No one said anything; they just stared at him. "Oh, come on, you guys, it's a joke."
"Basically—with my Aevum, I can trace something, untangle it, even reverse it. Seconds, minutes… maybe more, if I'm feeling stupid. But the cost stacks fast. Let's just say I had a nasty nosebleed after sparring with Sol."
He nodded toward Sol.
"His thing is… well, you'll see."
He sounded oddly amused. Like he'd accepted the price a long time ago.
Veyna tilted her head. "Does it work on people?"
Soahc grinned—nothing warm in it.
"You volunteering?"
No one pressed further.
Then Sol moved.
He didn't say anything.
Didn't change posture.
Didn't even look directly at them.
He just exhaled.
And something answered.
A shimmer bled into the air behind him—red-tinted, heatless, wrong.
A shape emerged. Not a figure. Not truly.
It moved like it had limbs, but its mass undulated like smoke and oil. Obsidian-black. Ribbed with slow-shifting tendrils. A dozen limbs or none at all.
And its face—
Kael glanced once and recoiled instantly, clutching his forehead as a knife-pain split through his skull.
Soahc winced. "Stars…"
Veyna backed away without shame.
A crimson veil pulsed from the creature's body, crawling out over the ground like spreading ink. The air felt like it dropped ten degrees.
Sol just stood beside it.
"It's from one of my dreams," he said, voice low. "Or whatever makes them. My Crown pulls from that place. I summon them, forcing me to play a sick game of willpower with it and my opponents. Do I last, fighting against it and its thoughts, or does the opponent fall before that?"
"If not, I use them as avatars of sorts."
He stared ahead, not at them.
"I use them to take on aspects—vision, speed, strength. Sometimes more. But the more I channel, the more they talk. And when they talk, it's hard to tell which thoughts are mine."
The creature pulsed, then slipped out of sight—folded back into its red shimmer and vanished like fog burning off glass.
Silence.
They didn't need to say it aloud.
Sol had it harder than any of them.
And yet—he stood still, composed. Not proud. Just… carrying it.
Soahc sniffed, blood still drying under one nostril.
"Well," he said, chipper again. "I don't know why you hate it; it's completely freaky. I love it."
And somehow, that broke the tension.
Kael exhaled.
Veyna didn't smile—but she eased her stance.
In that moment, for all their chaos, something settled between them.
They were strangers less and less.
their powers and pain revealed.
their capability and the cost.
Kael crossed his arms, his gaze drifting between the three of them. The silence was heavier now—part tension, part curiosity.
"We should spar," he said finally. "A two-on-two. Real test of sync."
He nodded once toward Veyna, then at Soahc and Sol. "Me and Veyna. You two against us."
Soahc lit up instantly, flashing a grin like he'd just been offered dessert before dinner.
"Oh, hell yeah. Finally, something fun. Been dying to fight."
Sol raised an eyebrow, expression unreadable as always. His arms remained folded, posture stiff.
"…Sure," he said after a beat. Quiet. Controlled. Like he was trying to calculate the safest way to agree.
Veyna didn't respond right away. Her mind was clearly still sorting through the thing Sol had just summoned—the veil, the whispers, that thing with the incomprehensible face. She turned slightly toward Sol, cautious but firm.
"Just… don't bring that out again. Whatever that was," she said.
Sol's mouth curved, just a little.
"No promises."
That didn't help.
Kael gave her a look, a small reassuring nod. "We've got this," he murmured.
Veyna exhaled slowly, brushing a strand of hair behind her ear. "Alright. Just don't get in my way."
Soahc laughed. "Aw, you're all tense. It's just a little squad bonding. Friendly trauma."
He bounced on the balls of his feet, already stretching like this was his warm-up act. "Besides", he added with a wink, "if I get hurt, I'll just reverse it and un-hurt myself."
Sol didn't laugh. But he stepped forward anyway.
Kael smiled—just slightly.
This wasn't about winning. It was about reading each other under pressure.
And they were about to learn a lot.