Chapter 54 — Those Who Would Feed the Void
The first sign was subtle enough that most missed it.
A pamphlet.
It appeared in the outer districts at dawn cleanly printed, carefully worded, passed hand to hand with an almost reverent urgency. No seals. No publisher's mark. Just deliberate typography and unsettling clarity. By midday, copies had reached the lower academies, the merchant guilds, the river docks, even the edges of the Still Order's former enclaves where old authority once lingered like dust in sunlight.
No one admitted to distributing them.
Everyone had one.
Elowen read it twice before handing it to Kael. She did not wrinkle the page. Did not scoff. That alone worried him.
"This is… careful," she said.
Kael scanned the text, jaw tightening as he moved line by line.
The Hollowing is not an enemy.
It is a truth long denied.
Meaning enforced becomes rot. The Void merely clears the excess.
We can learn to guide it.
