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Dinner had ended hours ago, but no one had truly settled. The fire burned low, crackling softly, shadows dancing along the walls of the pocket dimension.
Rias sat close, legs drawn up, a blanket over her shoulders. Her crimson eyes studied Kaelthar, who hadn't moved much since the others began drifting off. She finally broke the silence.
"You've been quiet all night."
Kaelthar didn't look at her. His gaze was fixed on the stars above, distant and sharp. "I usually am."
"No," she pressed gently. "This is different. You're not just quiet. You're… elsewhere."
He almost smiled at her persistence. She was too perceptive for her own good. "Maybe I'm just tired."
"Mm." She didn't sound convinced.
Before the moment grew heavier, Akeno strolled in, hair loose and a playful smirk on her lips. She sat across from them, humming softly as if to cut through the tension. "You two look like you're having one of those serious, brooding conversations again. Should I leave you to it?"
Rias rolled her eyes, muttering something about "you're impossible," while Akeno only grinned wider.
Moments later, Yasaka arrived, serene and quiet, Kunou safely asleep in her room. She lowered herself gracefully to the fire's edge. Her golden eyes flicked to Kaelthar with sharp intuition. "You felt something earlier."
Rias and Akeno's attention snapped back to him.
Kaelthar hesitated only a fraction before replying, his tone even. "It was nothing important."
Rias frowned. "You don't usually lie to me."
"I'm not lying," he said smoothly. "Whatever it was, it's gone now. A ripple, nothing more."
Yasaka's gaze lingered on him longer than the others. She didn't believe him, not entirely, but she didn't press. She only nodded slowly, accepting his words at face value.
Akeno leaned back, unconvinced but unwilling to ruin the fragile peace. "Well, good. Because the last thing we need right now is another ancient nightmare thing crawling out of the dark."
Rias muttered, "Don't even joke about that," though she looked back at Kaelthar again, clearly unsatisfied with his answer.
Kaelthar simply shifted the subject, asking about their training progress, about Yasaka's spellwork, about Kunou's stubbornness. He guided the conversation until the tension faded and laughter returned in small sparks.
But his mind was already elsewhere.
Hours later, when they had all gone to sleep, Kaelthar remained by the fire. He closed his eyes. And stretched.
His awareness unfolded, peeling away the limits of flesh, reaching across layers of creation. He traced the ripple again—followed it through threads of light, time, and possibility.
And he found them.
The Old Ones.
Servants of Vorath, clinging to the hidden seams of existence. Their presence bruised reality, twisting it where they lingered. He sensed the taint they carried—the familiar chaos of Vorath—yet also something else. Something far worse.
A deeper resonance. Wrong. Alien. Not of this creation.
It leaked into the foundation itself, staining the lattice, bending cause and effect. Universes shuddered at their presence. Realities frayed at the edges, bleeding into one another in subtle, corrosive ways.
He pushed closer.
And then—
They vanished.
Not fled. Not hidden.
Gone.
Erased.
Kaelthar stilled, the emptiness echoing in his vast awareness. Even their scars were gone, wiped clean as though they had never existed. It was as if the framework of creation had rejected them, or something greater had plucked them from the tapestry.
His breath caught. Something that could erase even them…
Not Vorath. Not any power he knew.
Something worse.
His eyes opened slowly, staring into the dimming firelight. He said nothing. Not to Rias. Not to Akeno. Not to Yasaka.
Because no mortal—or even near-divine—was allowed to know what he had seen.
He swallowed the truth, forced calm over his features, and carried the burden in silence.
Tomorrow, he would smile, he would train, he would protect.
But tonight, alone beneath the stars, Kaelthar knew a new shadow had stirred across the horizon.
And for the first time in centuries, he wondered if even he was ready.
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