It clung to the marketplace walls—a merchant's desperate prayer to the God of Coin, trembling like a dying ember. Most in Aetheria's floating city of Luminis couldn't hear such things. But Kira's fingers twitched as the Echo slithered into her, its weight bitter on her tongue.
*"Please, just one more sale—"*
She crushed the whisper against her teeth. Stealing Echoes was illegal. *Dangerous.* But hunger had sharper teeth than fear.
The sky above pulsed crimson, as it had since the Shattering. Kira adjusted the cracked resonator on her wrist—a scavenged device that muffled the Echoes' screams. Without it, she'd go mad within minutes.
**"Echo-Hearer."**
The voice wasn't in her head.
Kira spun, boots scraping the obsidian walkway. A figure emerged from the neon-lit mist—tall, clad in a cloak woven from what looked like *living shadow*. The air around him *warped*, swallowing the marketplace's noise.
Her resonator *screamed*.
**"You're leaking power, girl,"** the man said. His teeth glinted too sharp. **"The Stormguard will smell it."**
Kira's hand flew to her dagger. "Who are—"
A siren shrieked across Luminis.
*The Stormguard.* The city's ruthless enforcers, hunting anyone who tampered with Echoes.
The shadowed man lunged—not at her, but *past* her. His cloak lashed out like a whip, striking something invisible. A *howl* tore through the air as a half-seen figure collapsed, their Stormguard armor flickering into view.
**"Run,"** the man snarled. **"Or the next Echo you hear will be your own death."**