Dawn broke with violet fire across the horizon, casting the forest in hues of amethyst and gold. Birds didn't sing. Even the wolves were absent from the treeline.
Raiko stood on the balcony of the Cullen house, watching the stillness like a sentinel.
Below her, Alice set up an intricate ritual — not magical, but symbolic. Concentric rings of quartz, silver, and native salt. At the center, a mirror that shimmered like water.
"They're coming," Alice said. "Not the anomaly. Others. People who were changed by your presence."
Rosalie walked to Raiko's side. "They're not enemies?"
Raiko's eyes glowed faintly. "They're echoes. Stormwalkers. Drawn to the thunder."
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Three people's arrived before noon.
The first was a woman wrapped in what looked like coils of copper wire, humming with bioelectric charge. She didn't speak, but bowed before Raiko like a priestess.
The second, a man who moved like smoke, voice vibrating in harmonic frequencies that made glass chime when he passed.
The third, a child. Barely twelve, with lightning-shaped pupils and skin marked with glowing veins. She reached out and touched Raiko's hand and whispered, "I heard your voice in the storm."
Rosalie stepped protectively forward. Raiko lifted a hand — not to fight, but to accept.
"They're not followers," she said. "They're results."
Her presence had shifted something fundamental in reality. Beings who could walk with her, shaped not by intention but by resonance.
Stormwalkers.
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Later that evening, Carlisle analyzed each of them. They weren't vampires. Not humans. Something in between — like semi-conscious fragments of her divinity manifested in flesh.
"They're tethered to your essence," he said. "They're not children of biology. They're echoes of your surge."
"They're not mine to control," Raiko said. "Only to guide."
The copper-wrapped woman — who later gave her name as Liora — spoke finally. "We don't want power. We want to live. You made it possible. So we follow."
Raiko stepped outside under the starless sky and drew her sword again.
To her surprise, the Stormwalkers knelt. Not in worship.
In alignment. They resonated with her heartbeat.
She turned to Alice. "I've become a center of gravity."
"Then make sure you don't collapse into yourself."
Rosalie smirked. "We'll keep you grounded."
Raiko smiled.
The forest, the town, even the sky — all held their breath. Something vast approached still.
But now… she wouldn't face it alone.