The command never reached her lips.
The ground heaved first.
A deep, seismic shudder rippled across the plateau, unsettling stones, rattling bones, turning their small camp into trembling chaos. Caelan staggered, catching Mira by the arm before she could topple. Marienne braced herself against a boulder, her bow raised uselessly, it would do nothing against that thing rising from the valley's throat.
Aelindra's knees buckled, but Severin caught her, pulling her back against his chest, his arm bracing around her waist.
She felt his heartbeat hammering against her spine.
Too fast. Too frightened.
The shadow continued to rise, stretching impossibly tall, like a column of living night. It had no shape, not truly. Just shifting suggestions, jagged limbs, a hollowed torso, a smear of a face twisted by unseen wind. The darkness didn't cover the moonlight; it swallowed it whole.
Mira's voice shook. "Arveth… what is that?"
Arveth did not look away from the towering void.
His expression, usually some mixture of irritated, exhausted, and unimpressed, was carved into something she had never seen on him.
Fear.
"An Eidolon," he whispered. "A remnant born from the earliest ruptures of magic. They should all be dead. Long dead."
"Well, it doesn't look very dead!" Caelan shouted over the groaning wind.
The Eidolon leaned.
Not with a body, but with presence.
And its attention fixed on Severin.
The pressure that struck them was like a physical weight tightening around their chests. Aelindra gasped, her lungs compressing.
Severin shuddered. "It's, pulling."
Of course it was.
The Crownfire.
The ancient tether buried in Severin's blood.
The thing the Herald wanted.
The thing every hunter and corrupted thing in these mountains would scent like prey.
"Severin," Aelindra breathed, turning in his hold, hands rising to his face. "Stay with me. Look at me."
He tried.
Gods, he tried.
But the shadow's pull wrenched at him like invisible hooks sinking beneath his ribs. He choked on a breath, the air frosting as it left him.
"Ael… I"
His knees buckled.
"NO!" She grabbed him before he could fall fully, arms locking around him. "I've got you, stay here. Stay with us."
Mira surged forward, pressing a glowing charm against Severin's back. It flickered violently as though resisting the Eidolon's influence.
Caelan stepped in front of them, daggers drawn even though they were utterly useless. "If this thing wants him, it's going through me first."
Marienne planted herself beside him, drawing an arrow even as her hands quivered. "Through all of us."
Arveth moved last.
He planted his staff in the earth so hard it cracked the stone.
"We cannot fight it," he growled. "Not directly. Not like this."
The Eidolon let out a sound.
Not a roar.
Worse.
A deep, cavernous inhalation, like the mountain itself was drawing breath. The wind whipped outward, spiraling toward the creature, dragging loose stones, dust, grass, and threatening to take Severin with it.
Aelindra's grip tightened until her arms ached. "I'm not letting you go!"
Severin's head pressed weakly against her shoulder.
"Ael… run…"
"No!"
The wind grew stronger, howling through the plateau, tearing at cloaks and hair. Mira crouched lower, bracing her charm with both hands. Caelan cursed into the gale. Marienne's arrow wavered, nearly ripped from her grasp.
Arveth held firm, leaning into his staff, whispering something in a language older than the kingdom of Solis.
The Eidolon moved.
Not by steps, by shifting.
It loomed, and the sky seemed to warp around it. The valley dimmed. The air thickened with cold so ancient it felt like time itself slowed.
Aelindra felt a sharp, nauseating twist beneath her sternum.
Fear.
Something she hadn't felt for a quite a while.
But wasn't just fear.
A memory.
No, something deeper.
A warning echoing from somewhere she didn't understand.
Her chest burned.
Her fingertips tingled.
She looked down,
and her palms glowed faintly, threads of gold pulsing beneath the skin.
"What…" she whispered.
Severin's eyes cracked open, dazed and pained. "Ael…"
Arveth snapped his head toward her, shock cutting through fear.
"Aelindra, don't fight it."
"I'm not, what is...?"
But the explanation never came.
The Eidolon shifted again, and its presence slammed down like an avalanche. Severin's body jerked forward out of her hold, dragged by an invisible force.
Aelindra screamed and threw her arms around his torso, anchoring him.
Pain lanced up her arms as the force tore at her, like her bones were vibrating under her skin. She felt like she might split apart.
Mira shouted her name.
Caelan lunged forward to help.
Marienne fired an arrow that vanished into the void as though swallowed whole.
Arveth roared something in the old tongue, slamming his staff into the ground.
The force broke.
Just for a breath.
Aelindra dragged Severin backward into her lap, his body trembling uncontrollably.
His breathing was ragged. "I… can't…"
"Yes, you can." She cupped his face; her forehead pressed to his. "You can. You stay with me. You hear me? Stay."
"I'm trying"
"I know."
Her voice cracked on the last word.
The Eidolon's form distorted, pulsing like a heartbeat of shadow.
It was preparing for something.
Something worse.
Arveth cursed under his breath. "It's trying to tether him. If it succeeds, Severin will be drawn to the Herald like a moth to flame."
"No," Aelindra said fiercely. "That's not happening."
"She's right," Caelan snarled, bracing himself for another surge of wind. "He's not going anywhere."
Her golden glow intensified.
A warmth pushed outward from her palms, not healing, not exactly. Something deeper. A force that steadied her breathing, grounded her thoughts, anchored her grip on Severin. Energy threaded between them, a soft barrier resisting the Eidolon's pull.
Severin blinked, clarity flickering in his eyes.
"Ael… what are you...?"
"I don't know," she whispered. "But I'm not letting go."
The ground trembled again.
The Eidolon leaned closer, towering, impossibly vast, blotting out the last traces of light. If it reached them fully, it would crush them, or worse, claim Severin entirely.
Arveth raised his staff.
Mira lifted her charm.
Caelan and Marienne stood ready despite the hopelessness of it.
Aelindra braced herself over Severin, her glowing hands gripping his shoulders.
The Eidolon let out another cavernous inhale.
And the plateau shattered.
Stone fractured beneath them.
The ground split open.
The world dropped.
Aelindra screamed as the earth gave way, sending them all plummeting.
The last thing she felt was Severin's hands clutching her waist,
and the overwhelming cold of the shadow swallowing the light.