When the Midnight Echo Breathes - Chapter 3
Fog crawled along the streets of Ebonreach like a living thing, coiling around lampposts and stretching thin fingers into alleyways. The city still slept, unaware of the invisible war brewing in its bones, unaware of the eyes that had begun watching from beyond the veil of reality.
The Umbral Sovereign walked through that fog as if it were parting for him. Seren followed close behind, silent as a second shadow.
"What you faced," Seren said at last, "was no ordinary entity."
"No," Lorian agreed. "A shadow with a will is a rare find."
"But a shadow with a message," she continued, "is unprecedented."
Lorian smirked beneath his hood."Which makes it all the more fascinating."
She opened her mouth as if to protest, but quickly closed it. The Sovereign's fascination was, to the Duskwalkers, both reassuring and terrifying. It meant he saw a path others didn't — but also that he would walk straight into danger without hesitation if the theatrics required it.
Tonight, they returned to Obsidian Hall, their hidden base beneath the city. It had once been a treasury vault, long abandoned, until Lorian chose it as his "lair" after realizing dramatic monologues sounded best in echoing chambers.
The Duskwalkers awaited them.
All six knelt as he entered — cloaks dark, masks reflecting candlelight.
Duskwalker Two spoke first, voice sharp, efficient. "Master Sovereign. We have completed the analysis of the living sigil."
"And?" Lorian asked, stepping onto the raised obsidian platform he'd chosen solely because it looked important.
"The ink… isn't ink," Duskwalker Two said. "It's condensed shadow essence. Not magical. Not physical. Something in between."
Duskwalker Five shivered. "It shouldn't exist."
Which, to Lorian, meant it was marvelous.
Seren stepped forward and placed the Heartshard Sigil at the center of the table. Its glow intensified as if responding to the presence of the other Duskwalkers.
"The relic reacts to emotional tension," she said. "Fear makes it thrum. Determination steadies it. And you—" she glanced at Lorian "—you make it pulse."
Lorian blinked."I do?"
"Yes," Seren said softly. "It seems drawn to you."
The Duskwalkers looked between each other, unsettled.
Lorian looked down at the relic in mild surprise."It has excellent taste," he said.
Seren stifled a laugh, though the others didn't dare react.
Duskwalker Three cleared their throat. "We have identified the meaning of the carved symbols around the core."
Lorian leaned forward. "Go on."
"They are coordinates."
The hall fell silent.
Coordinates meant a location. A destination. Perhaps even a door.
Lorian tapped the table with a thoughtful finger. "Where?"
"In the Ashen Wood, Master," Three said. "Beyond the eastern border."
A forest. One known for its unnatural fog and the disappearance of travelers. A place whispered about in taverns, marked on maps not with symbols but cautionary scribbles.
"Then the Echo sings from the forest," Lorian murmured. "Appropriate."
Duskwalker Six stepped forward. "Should we deploy the full squadron, Sovereign? Reinforcements? Ritual barriers?"
Lorian lifted a hand dismissively."None of that will be necessary."
Seren frowned. "Master, we do not yet know what truly stirs there."
"That is why we go," Lorian said calmly.
Seren's pulse quickened. "We?"
Lorian clasped his cloak. "Of course. If the Crown is writing a story around me, it would be rude not to read ahead."
The Duskwalkers bowed in agreement, though tension rippled through the room.
Seren stepped beside him, gaze steady."Then I will go as well. You will not face the Echo alone."
"Good," Lorian said. "A Sovereign always needs an audience."
The Ashen Wood
The forest greeted them like a grave waking.
Twisted trees clawed at the sky, their bark ashen-gray and cracked like old bones. Mist drifted low to the ground. Every footstep made the air colder.
Seren walked beside Lorian, daggers drawn, violet eyes scanning the gloom.
"There's something wrong with the shadows," she whispered.
Lorian nodded."They're watching."
She shivered."Do shadows normally watch?"
"Only the interesting ones," he replied.
They moved deeper into the forest until the world became unnaturally silent—no wind, no insects, no rustle of leaves.
Then they saw it.
A clearing.
At its center lay a massive stone monolith, cracked down its length, carved with the same living sigil from the parchment. Only larger. And pulsing.
The sigil's ink blinked.
Seren instinctively stepped closer to Lorian.
"That symbol…" Seren whispered. "Master, that is the Eye of the Crown."
"I assumed as much," Lorian said. "After all, it's an eye. And a crown. Not subtle."
As they stepped closer, the air shifted. The ground trembled.
A voice rose from the monolith — layered, deep, like multiple beings speaking at once.
"UMBRAL SOVEREIGN."
The trees shook violently.
Seren drew her blades. "Master—!"
A crack split through the monolith.
Darkness spilled out like liquid smoke, rushing toward them in spirals.
Lorian didn't move.
The darkness condensed, forming a tall, armored figure with a helm shaped like a crown of jagged horns. Its eyes glowed with a chilling silver light.
It knelt.
Before Lorian.
Seren's breath caught.
"Master… it's bowing."
The creature's voice rumbled like distant thunder.
"You are the one who was not meant to be.The one who twists fate's script.The Crown has waited."
Lorian tilted his head."Waited? For me?"
The armored being rose slowly.
"You should not exist. And yet… you do. You walk outside the lines written for mortals."
Seren stepped forward, daggers raised."You will not touch him."
The creature did not look at her."Your Sovereign is woven into prophecy."
Lorian blinked."What prophecy?"
The voice shook the clearing.
"One we did not write.One you created by your arrival.The Obsidian Crown watches you because reality bends to accommodate you."
Seren swallowed."Master… what does that mean?"
Lorian stepped forward, cloak trailing behind him like unfolding shadow.
"It means," he said softly, "that we have reached an interesting plot point."
The creature extended a hand.
"Join us. We will reshape fate together. Your story is incomplete without the Crown."
Seren's grip tightened. "Master—don't listen."
Lorian examined the creature's hand as if inspecting a particularly curious book.
Then he smiled.
"No."
The forest froze.
The creature's silver eyes widened."You… refuse?"
"Your offer lacks dramatic appeal," Lorian said. "I prefer to author my own story."
"You deny the Crown?"
"I deny anything that believes it defines me."
The ground cracked violently.
The creature roared, fury echoing through the clearing.
"You choose rebellion.You choose defiance.Then you choose annihilation."
Seren moved instantly, stepping in front of Lorian. "Master, get back—!"
But Lorian raised a single hand.
"Allow me."
The creature lunged, swinging a blade formed from solid shadow.
Lorian stood still.
At the last instant, his cloak billowed unnaturally — whipping upward like a living shield of darkness. The blade struck it and refracted, shattering into smoke.
Seren gasped."Master… your shadow—!"
Lorian looked at his cloak with mild surprise."How interesting."
The creature recoiled.
"Impossible. You command the primordial shade?"
Lorian shrugged."It seems I do now."
The Crown's envoy roared and summoned spikes of shadow erupting from the earth.
Lorian stepped forward once — only once — and the shadows bent around him, missing by inches.
Seren stared in awe. "Shadows are obeying him…"
"Of course they are," Lorian said, voice steady. "I've been rehearsing for years."
With a single gesture, the darkness around him condensed, forming tendrils of thick, swirling shade.
Lorian lifted a finger.
The tendrils shot forward, binding the creature, slamming it against the cracked monolith.
It writhed, shocked.
"The Crown will not forget this," it growled.
Lorian approached until only inches separated them.
"Good," he whispered. "It should pay attention."
Then he flicked his wrist.
The creature shattered into raw shadow, dissolving like smoke into the night.
Silence fell.
Seren stared at him, trembling. Not in fear — in awe.
"Master Sovereign… you wield power beyond anything I've ever seen."
Lorian looked at his hand, flexing it experimentally.
"So it seems," he murmured. "How curious…"
Seren stepped closer. "What should we do now?"
He looked at the cracked monolith, its sigil now faint and dying.
"Now?" Lorian said, turning away, cloak billowing behind him."Now we prepare."
"For what?" Seren asked softly.
He paused.
"The Crown wanted me to join its story."
He looked back at her with a smile that held danger and certainty.
"So now, Seren…we write a better one."
End of Chapter 3
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