Night came on quiet, not tired. The kind of quiet that listens back.I had just finished closing the shutters when the mark on my arm pulsed once—then again, harder.
"Hey, kiddo," Lucifer murmured. "Your arm's glowing. Should I worry?"
The glow wasn't pain; it was invitation. A whisper in a language made of heartbeat and wind."Come," my Shadow Elf said. "Home remembers."
I pulled on my cloak. The frost outside hissed underfoot like it wanted to warn me.Lucifer sighed, long-suffering. "Every bad story starts with 'I'll just take a walk.'"
1. The Call Beyond the River
The forest had no business being awake this late.Wind breathed through the branches in syllables, guiding me down the frozen river path. The further I walked, the thinner the world felt—like pages I could see through if I stared too long.
The glow led me into a hollow valley I'd never noticed before. Moonlight pooled there like water, and in its center waited a structure half-swallowed by snow: arches of obsidian, pillars carved with curling runes that still whispered light.
A shrine, but older than any I'd ever seen. Elven, unmistakably.
"Looks like someone forgot to demolish their religion," Lucifer said softly.
The air itself vibrated. My breath came out black for an instant.
2. The Shrine's Heart
Inside, shadows clung to the stone like memories refusing to move on.At the center lay an altar—flat, circular, etched with thousands of tiny runes forming a spiral. The runes glowed in pulse with my mark.
The Eyes of Nihility opened on their own. The carvings shifted, showing lines of power flowing like veins, meeting at a single focal point: a core-shaped hollow.Next to it, drawn like blueprints, diagrams explained the shrine's structure—mana channels, placement of cores, even the ink mixture for the runes.
I didn't read the words so much as feel them.
"It's an Echo Gate," Lucifer translated softly. "Place of meditation for the old elves. A bridge between body and spirit."
My mark burned. The Shadow Elf's voice brushed my thoughts:"Sit, and remember who we are."
3. The Meditation of Shadows
I knelt before the altar.The stone was cold enough to make prayer seem reasonable.
Breath in.Breath out.The world fell away.
When I opened my eyes again, I wasn't looking through them.My body sat still on the altar, wrapped in dim blue light.And standing beside it—was her.
My Shadow Elf, clearer than ever before. A woman of smoke and starless midnight, her hair flowing like ink in water.
She looked at me without expression, then spoke—not aloud but directly into me."Walk."
We walked together. Our forms merged with the dark until we were part of it. In that world of half-light, phantom beasts made of broken memory prowled—constructs of the shrine's lingering mana.
When one lunged, she moved first, scythe forming from her hand in a single thought. I felt the motion, mirrored it, guided her.Every step, every slash, every pulse of magic—we were the same rhythm, the same intent.
"Good," Lucifer whispered distantly. "You're learning to split without breaking."
Hours—or maybe seconds—passed like breaths underwater.When I returned, I was lying on the altar, frost melting beneath me.
4. The Revelation of the Runes
The carvings glowed brighter now, rearranging into new shapes: a blueprint of the shrine itself, simplified and annotated.The words burned themselves into memory:
"Stone remembers flow. Core remembers heart. Ink remembers blood."
At the bottom, a smaller circle—marked For the House.It showed how to build a miniature shrine using local stone, a weak core, and rune ink made of shadow herb, feverfew, and a drop of the user's blood.
Lucifer chuckled. "Congratulations, kiddo. You just found the elves' version of home improvement."
I traced the runes into my notebook with shaking hands, memorizing every line. The mark on my arm throbbed with approval—like the Elf herself nodding inside me.
5. Building the Echo
By dawn, I stumbled back home half-frozen and fully awake.Klaus found me sketching runes on the table. "You went out alone again?"
"Didn't have a choice," I said. "My arm did."
He frowned but didn't argue. Kayra came closer, eyes wide as I unfolded the shrine diagram. "It's… beautiful," she whispered.
"It's also expensive," Ragnar said, squinting. "You sure it doesn't eat money too?"
"We'll use what's left from the salve sales," I said. "It's not for prayer. It's for training. For safety."
And maybe, secretly, for faith.
We spent three days building it near the forest edge. Klaus cut the stones; Ragnar hauled them. Kayra mixed the ink—herbs crushed, ash filtered, blood stirred with precision that would make the gods nervous.
I carved the runes myself, each one humming as the scythe edge etched it into stone.When we set the small core in the center, it pulsed once, like a newborn heart.
6. The New Bond
That night, the shrine glowed faintly.I sat cross-legged before it, breath syncing with the rhythm of its light.The Shadow Elf stepped out again—clearer now, solid from head to toe, her form tinted silver at the edges.
"Home," she said. It wasn't a question.
"You built a temple," Lucifer said, amused. "Most people start with a roof."
"Roofs keep the rain out," I said. "This keeps fear out."
The Elf tilted her head, curious. Then she dissolved into mist and entered the shrine's core. The mark on my arm pulsed in answer.
Now, when I closed my eyes, I could feel her range—fifty steps.Enough to scout, to strike, or to train even while my body rested.
A whisper passed through the air: "The night remembers."Maybe it was her. Maybe it was the shrine. Maybe both.
7. The Omen
As I stood to leave, one last rune on the shrine lit by itself—different from the rest.It wasn't part of the design I copied.A spiral, faintly crimson, pointing north.
Lucifer noticed."That, kiddo, is a problem pretending to be a direction."
I looked toward the dark treeline, where frost swallowed the horizon.Somewhere out there, something was waiting.
But for now, I had a shrine, a shadow, and a family.For now, that was enough.
End of Chapter 5