The night cracked open not with thunder, but with song.
Not a song sung with mouths or tongues but one that echoed through the marrow of the world, rippling through roots and ruins, through the hearts of the bonded.
Aure was the first to feel it. He dropped to one knee near the starmap stones, clutching his chest as a searing cold raced through his veins. "Something ancient," he gasped.
Lian knelt beside him ."What is it? Your sigil is glowing dark."
Kael and Sylis turned as one. The air shimmered violently. The stars above twisted not fell, not blinked but turned, realigned like some forgotten constellation had reawakened.
Sylis's voice was raw. "That's a celestial cipher. A warning from before the Ninefold War."
"The starborn ones," Kael muttered. "The ones even the gods feared."
The starmap beneath their feet blazed to life, ancient runes revealing themselves like breath on glass. Aure's fingers touched one instinct guiding where memory failed.
The stones spoke.
"He who was unbound waits beneath.
He who loved once shall rise in grief.
When the twin sigils flare and four hearts align,
The Hollow King shall cross the line."
Aure caught his breath."Hollow King!?"
Kael's face darkened. "He was sealed beyond the Mirror, beyond time. He was once like us. He was love twisted by betrayal into hunger."
A sudden cold wind tore through the clearing.
And then
A voice, deep and ancient, rolled through the trees like fog:
"You should not have remembered."
All four turned.
There, standing beneath the blood-stained moon, cloaked in shadow deeper than night, was a figure with eyes like collapsed stars pulling in light, pulling in truth.
The Hollow King.
His gaze swept across them rested a breath too long on Aure, then Lian. A low laugh, broken and cruel.
"You burned once for each other. Will you burn again?"
Sylis raised his blade. "Back into your void, monster."
But the Hollow King only smiled.
"I am the void."
And with that, he vanished leaving behind only ash, and the scent of sorrow.