Chapter Three: The Echo in the Grove
Night in Velmyra didn't fall—it blossomed.
The sky did not darken in the way Earth's sky did. Instead, it slowly turned violet, and stars bloomed like flowers in a vast garden of space. Some of them moved. Others blinked in rhythmic patterns, communicating with something unseen beyond the sky.
Omkar sat near the still pool, knees drawn to his chest, eyes scanning the shimmering horizon.
He hadn't eaten. He hadn't slept. But he wasn't tired. Not yet. Something in this world filled him with a nervous, humming energy, like being plugged into a dream that refused to end. He felt too cool for his situation, he didn't feel like crying nor like enjoying, as if this energy was training his sanity to adapt.
From the corner of his eye, he noticed something shift.
At first, he thought it was just a tree swaying—but the wind hadn't stirred all night. Then it moved again. His eyes trailed it as they widened.
A shadow.
Long. Wrong.
It darted behind one of the translucent trees.
"Hello?" Omkar called, regretting it instantly.
The air changed—turned sharp. The grass shriveled beneath his feet. The glowing mushrooms around the pool hissed and folded in on themselves like they were hiding.
A low hum began to rise from the woods. It wasn't sound exactly. It was like… pressure. A pulling sensation, like his thoughts were being dragged forward. His skin quivered.
Then—
It emerged.
A creature, once humanoid perhaps, now twisted into a mass of shifting limbs and trailing smoke. Its face was a blur, like a memory half-forgotten. Its skin flickered in and out of visibility, and when it opened its mouth, it didn't scream.
It echoed.
Omkar staggered back as the Echo surged forward. It didn't run—it glitched, phasing in and out of the trees, covering impossible distances in seconds. Its form distorted everything it passed—trees bent away, the soil cracked, and the very air shimmered in panic.
"Stop!" Omkar shouted.
It didn't.
So he ran. Ran for his life
---
The trees grew tighter. The forest closed in around him, roots rising like hands to trip him. The Echo moved with unholy precision, always behind him, never tiring.
His legs screamed. His lungs burned.
"Huff~Huff~"
A clearing opened up ahead—an ancient grove with smooth stones arranged in a circle. The moment Omkar crossed into it, the Echo stopped.
It shrieked, not in fear, but anger.
It clawed at the invisible boundary of the grove, unable to pass.
Omkar collapsed to his knees, panting, heart hammering against his ribs.
Then—his hands began to glow.
It started at his fingertips, a faint silver flicker, like static dancing across his skin. Symbols, unintelligible but familiar, crawled up his forearms like tattoos written in living starlight. He didn't understand how, but he felt the pull of something beneath the earth.
A rhythm. A resonance.
As if , a memory buried in his bones. He pressed his palms to the ground.
And called.
---
The stones answered.
Light burst from their bases, linking into an intricate sigil across the grove floor. The Echo howled as tendrils of raw energy lanced from the stones, piercing the veil that held it together. Its limbs twisted violently, and for the first time, it faltered.
Omkar stood—barely—and lifted his hand.
The symbols along his arms pulsed.
Words spilled from his mouth, not his own, yet utterly familiar. The language of the Weave.
"Kiru'vahn eth lioran. Vel'ruum shara."
The ground shook.
The Echo screamed.
And in a flash of blinding silver, it shattered—dispersed into a thousand particles of memory, leaving only silence in its wake.
---
Omkar collapsed again, trembling. His breath came in ragged gasps. The symbols on his skin faded slowly, disappearing into nothingness.
He felt hollowed out.
But alive.
He didn't know how he had done it. He didn't know what he had done.
All he knew was that the thing that had chased him wasn't just a monster.
It had been drawn to him.
And whatever he had awakened inside himself was now—undeniably—real.
Velmyra was more than a place. It was a force.
And it had begun to move. Move towards him.