Seong-min slept for hours after the trial, his breath shallow but steady, his shadow wrapped around him like a second blanket. Yuna refused to step away from his side. She sat cross-legged beside him on the cold stone bed, brushing sweat from his brow whenever his body twitched with aftershocks.
Kazuki stood near the wall, arms crossed, eyes distant.
He should've felt relief.
Instead, something heavy coiled beneath his ribs, whispering the same phrase:
Being remembered.
Remembered…By what?
Voices echoed outside the chamber. Footsteps. A rhythm like metal tapping bone.
Halmeoni rose, spine aching, and faced the doorway.
Halmeoni: "Stay behind me. All of you."
The braided hair-door unfurled again. Faint moon-dust drifted inside, carried by a cold breeze that did not belong in subterranean air.
Someone stepped through.
A tall figure wrapped in worn traveler's robes, dipped in old stains and dust. Their hands were bare, fingers marked with shimmering scars — lines like constellations carved into skin. A hood concealed their face, shadowed by silver thread.
Two Council guards knelt immediately.
Guard: "Silverbound Nomad… you've returned."
The room tightened with silence.
Yuna's breath caught.Kazuki felt a chill spread along his spine.
Halmeoni bowed her head, but her voice trembled.
Halmeoni: "Why are you here?"
The Nomad did not answer at first. Instead, they turned slowly toward Seong-min's sleeping form.
Their voice came softly, like a knife wrapped in silk.
Silverbound Nomad: "The boy bonded with his own hunger. Rare. Reckless. Beautiful."
Yuna stood quickly.
Yuna: "Stay away from him."
The Nomad chuckled — a low, amused exhale.
Nomad: "Protective already. Your devotion is bright enough to burn you alive, child."
Yuna's jaw tightened, anger sparking gold beneath her eyes.
Kazuki instinctively stepped forward, but Halmeoni raised a hand, stopping him.
Halmeoni: "Do not provoke them. The Silverbound answer to neither Council nor Hollow law."
Yuna eyed the Nomad warily.
Yuna: "Then who do they answer to?"
The hood lowered just enough for a sliver of silver-pierced eyes to be visible.
Nomad: "I answer to what sleeps beneath the moon."
Kazuki felt the air tighten against his ribs again. A pressure — not painful, but intimate.
Like something listening.
The Nomad turned toward him slowly.
Nomad: "Kazuki Arai."
The room thinned.Even Seong-min's shadow twitched in its sleep.
Kazuki's throat tightened.
Kazuki: "…Do I know you?"
The Nomad stepped closer, each motion fluid, precise, like a thought taking shape.
Their voice lowered, heavy with recognition.
Nomad: "Not yet. But you remember me."
Kazuki's pulse stumbled. The phrase echoed in his mind again:
Being remembered.
Halmeoni moved between them, staff blocking the Nomad's path.
Halmeoni: "Enough. Leave the boy untouched."
The Nomad tilted their head, amused.
Nomad: "I would not harm him. He is not ready."
Kazuki's voice cracked with edge.
Kazuki: "Ready for what?"
Silence.
The Nomad smiled beneath the hood.
Nomad: "To wake."
Yuna turned sharply.
Yuna: "He's not… like Seong-min. He hasn't changed. There's nothing to wake."
The Nomad's tone shifted — sincere, almost gentle.
Nomad: "Everything awakens. Not everything transforms."
Kazuki felt sick.Words twisted behind his ribs, trying to make sense.
Kazuki: "What does that mean?"
Before the Nomad could answer, Seong-min gasped awake.
His shadow snapped erect behind him like a blade.
Yuna grabbed him.
Yuna: "Easy! You're safe."
Seong-min's eyes flicked open — silver glinting faintly in the dark.
They fixed on the Nomad instantly. Recognition, primal and instinctive.
Seong-min: "Stay away from them."
The Nomad laughed softly.
Nomad: "Your instincts sharpen quickly. Good. You'll need them."
Seong-min gritted his teeth, gripping his own arms as if to keep his shadow from acting.
Seong-min: "You're one of us. But you're wrong. I won't let you touch them."
The Nomad approached until they stood just out of reach.
Nomad: "I have no interest in controlling you. You already claimed your beast. That makes you… inconvenient to the ones who feed on obedience."
The Council guards stiffened, offended. The Nomad ignored them.
Nomad: "I came to warn you."
Kazuki stepped forward again despite fear gnawing at his stomach.
Kazuki: "Warn us about what?"
The Nomad's voice darkened, like storm clouds swallowing moonlight.
Nomad: "The Lightkeepers have chosen a new path. They no longer hunt to cleanse. They hunt to claim."
Halmeoni's grip tightened around her staff.
Halmeoni: "That cannot be. Their oath forbids—"
Nomad: "Oaths rot when power decays."
Seong-min's shadow flared silently behind him.
Seong-min: "So they want to use Eclipsed… like weapons."
The Nomad nodded slowly.
Nomad: "A forged imbalance. Sun turned predator, moon turned chain. You three stand at the center of it. Because you are young enough to choose."
Yuna swallowed hard.
Yuna: "Choose what?"
The Nomad's gaze drifted between them.
Nomad: "Rebellion. Compliance. Or a war neither side survives."
Silence spread, cold and suffocating.
The Nomad stepped closer to Kazuki again. Not touching him. Just near enough that the air hummed.
Nomad: "When you awaken, the balance will fracture. The world has waited a long time to remember you. Do not disappoint it."
Kazuki shook, anger rising to drown the fear.
Kazuki: "Stop saying I'm going to awaken! I'm not like you. I don't want power. I don't want any of this!"
The Nomad's voice softened, almost sad.
Nomad: "Power does not wait for desire. It waits for need."
Kazuki flinched.
Yuna: "Leave him alone."
The Nomad bowed slightly — not submissive, but respectful.
Nomad: "I will return when the moon calls the sun. And when your ribs stop trembling."
Kazuki's hand shot to his chest instinctively.
The Nomad turned, robes whispering like silk and static.
They stepped through the hair-door. The braids sealed behind them, leaving only silence and the faint scent of cold.
Seong-min sank back against the bed, breath shaking.
Seong-min: "Kazuki… we need answers. Before they come back."
Kazuki didn't answer.
He couldn't.
Because for the first time, a phrase inside him didn't whisper.
It roared.
Wake.
To be continued...