The night air in Howling Gorge tasted of damp stone and impending violence. From their hidden ledge, Echo watched torchlight flicker in the wolf-kin camp below — a dozen brutish figures huddled around fires, unaware of the river's whisper about to turn into a roar.
Mira crouched beside him, her hands steady as she checked the herb-sachet charges they'd buried upstream. "The dam is weaker on the eastern side. Your… sight was right."
Echo nodded, his Error-Sight still pulsing with afterimages. When he'd examined the gorge earlier, he hadn't just seen cracks in the stone — he'd seen glitches in the terrain itself, weak points where reality seemed thinly rendered. One such point was the natural earthen dam holding back the underground river.
Leyla, a shadow beside him, flexed her newly awakened claws. They caught the twin moons' light with a silver sheen. "I'll take out the sentries on the ridge. They're bored. Slow."
"Go," Echo said.
She melted into the darkness, silent as falling snow.
Echo focused on the camp below. His Charm hummed beneath his skin — not just attraction now, but a low thrum of authority. He wasn't just surviving anymore. He was making moves.
A flicker of motion. Leyla's work was done — two wolf-kin sentries slumped without a sound.
"Now," Echo whispered.
Mira ignited the herb charges with a spark-stone.
A deep thump echoed through the gorge, followed by the groan of stressed earth. For a moment, nothing. Then, with a roar that shook the cliffs, the dam broke.
Water exploded into the gorge — a churning, violent tide that swallowed the wolf-kin camp whole. Shouts turned to screams, then to silence beneath the torrent.
Echo's breath caught. His Error-Sight flickered again, but this time — it shattered.
Not just terrain glitches.
Visions.
— A battlefield strewn with dying stars.
— Two colossal entities, one of woven light, one of devouring shadow, clashing in the void.
— A scream of resentment so profound it vibrated through dimensions.
The images burned behind his eyes. He felt heat, cold, rage, despair — all at once. His knees buckled.
"Echo!" Mira's hand gripped his arm.
He blinked, gasping. The gorge was below again. The water was receding, leaving a ravaged camp and scattered, fleeing wolf-kin.
"What happened?" Leyla reappeared, concern in her amber eyes.
"I… saw something." He shook his head, the cosmic aftertaste lingering like ozone. "Not important now. Let's move."
They descended into the chaos. Kiera's fox-kin merchants were already moving in, securing the gorge route with quiet efficiency. Kiera herself stood amid the wreckage, her silk robes untouched by mud, a satisfied curve to her lips.
She held out a small, velvet pouch. "The keystone. As agreed."
Echo took it. The moment his fingers touched the gem inside, a resonance shot up his arm — a harmonic hum that vibrated in his very bones. This wasn't just a key. It was a piece of something. Something that recognized him.
Kiera's sharp eyes didn't miss his reaction. "It hums for you," she observed quietly. "A frequency I've never felt. It's not of this world, Echo. Or any in this stable cluster."
"What does that mean?"
"It means," she said, leaning closer, her scent of jasmine and steel wrapping around him, "that your journey is bigger than clan wars." She looked toward the ruined camp, where a few wolf-kin bodies lay still. "And so are the enemies you'll make."
Echo pocketed the gem, its warmth seeping into his chest. "I'm starting to get that."