Rafe hit the ground before he even understood he was falling.
The world around him twisted — colors stretching, shadows bending, sound muffled like he had plunged underwater. His chest burned with a cold heat that made no sense, a paradox of sensations he couldn't fight or escape.
Mara's voice reached him first.
"RAFE!"
He felt her hands, rough and desperate, grabbing his shoulders.
Lyn wrapped trembling arms around his waist, whispering his name through tears.
Selene muttered a spell under her breath, trying to stabilize the collapsing aura.
The Seer stood the farthest back — staring, pale, shaken to her core.
"He—he shouldn't be reacting like this," she whispered. "It's not supposed to awaken this early."
Selene snapped toward her.
"What did you DO?!"
The Seer flinched.
"I tried to seal him, not awaken whatever is inside!"
"That IS awakening him!"
"I didn't know it was ALIVE!"
Rafe couldn't move.
He couldn't even breathe properly.
His aura convulsed, layers grinding against each other like tectonic plates colliding.
Light surged through his veins.Shadow curled around his ribs.And beneath both…
Something older opened its eye.
A memory not his own flashed behind his vision:
A tower of obsidian rising into a sky without stars.A circle of faceless beings kneeling around a broken throne.A whisper echoing through a world of silence.
"You were not meant to wake so soon."
Rafe gasped, reality slamming back into him like a punch.
Selene pressed her hand to his forehead, her voice trembling for the first time he had ever heard.
"Rafe! Stay with me!"
He tried.
He really tried.
But the third layer inside him wasn't just awake.
It was hungry.
Not for power.Not for control.
For recognition.
Like something ancient had been waiting centuries for someone to acknowledge it — and the Seer's seal attempt was the knock that opened the door.
The ground beneath him cracked as mana burst outward in waves.
Birds fled the treetops.Animals bolted into the underbrush.Even the wind stopped moving.
Mara's voice cut through the chaos.
"Rafe, listen to me! You're NOT dying, okay? You're NOT!"
She shook him — not gently.
Lyn buried her face into his chest, sobbing uncontrollably.
Selene kept chanting, runes flickering weakly around her fingertips.
But none of them could stop what was happening inside him.
The third layer pulsed again.
A pressure spread outward.Like a heartbeat felt through stone.Through forests.Through the earth.
And far away—
Something answered.
Rafe felt it.
Not a voice.Not a presence.
A detection.
A lock.
As if the universe itself turned to look at him.
The Seer staggered backward, clutching her head.
"Oh no… no, no, no— I felt it. The signal went out."
"What signal?!" Mara shouted.
The Seer's voice cracked.
"He pinged the Director."
Selene froze.
The blood drained from her face.
"That's impossible. We're too far—"
"No," the Seer whispered."No one is too far for her."
Rafe tried to speak, but only a low, broken breath escaped him.
Lyn looked up with tear-filled eyes.
"Selene… h-help him…"
Selene's hands shook.
"I'm trying."
But even she knew the truth:
This was beyond her.
The Primordial stirred deeper.
The air bent around Rafe's body.
Space warped, just slightly, like reality was adjusting to accommodate something foreign.
He heard the whisper again.
"Do not resist."
Rafe clenched his teeth.
No.
He forced the word through his mind like iron.
I'm not yours.
The pressure faltered — barely — and Selene used that moment to shove her palms against his chest and channel a surge of stabilizing mana.
Light snapped around him like a net.
Shadow tightened like a rope.
The third layer recoiled.
For a moment, everything stopped.
The forest held its breath.
And Rafe collapsed into Selene's arms — breathing, conscious, but drained.
Mara caught his head before it hit the ground.
Lyn clung to his hand like she would never let go again.
Selene exhaled shakily.
"He's alive. For now."
"For now?!" Mara snapped.
Selene didn't answer.
Rafe's voice was barely a whisper.
"...she's coming."
The Seer looked at the sky.
"The Director?"
Rafe nodded.
"She felt me."
The wind shifted.
A cold ripple moved across the trees — like a threat traveling on air.
Selene stood up, pulling Rafe with her.
"We move. NOW."
Mara didn't argue.Lyn didn't hesitate.Even the Seer followed silently.
But as they fled into the forest—
A small, silver drone blinked awake on a distant ridge.
A single blue light stared in their direction.
Then another.
Then another.
And a smooth mechanical voice whispered through the canopy:
"Target confirmed.Anomaly detected."