The Outskirts of Athelen
Cael and Mireth arrive in the tranquil mountain village of Athelen, built beside a sacred spring. It's peaceful, quiet, and remarkably untouched by mana corruption.
But as they step through the village gates, everyone stops what they're doing.
They look at Cael.
Not with fear.
With recognition.
The Riftwatchers
The elders of Athelen call themselves the Riftwatchers—a sect of mystics who meditate daily on a shimmering fissure in the air above their shrine. They've seen echoes of Cael for years in their visions.
"You are the one who walks between ends," the head seer whispers.
"We call you the Hollow Scribe."
Cael: "That's… not what I call myself."
"No," the seer says. "But it is what you will become."
The Spring of Unmaking
Cael drinks from the sacred spring. For a moment, the world turns white. He sees himself much older, standing before a collapsing sun of Essentia, writing a final equation in the void.
He awakes screaming.
Mireth steadies him. "What did you see?"
"Nothing."
"Exactly nothing."
When the Void Slips Out
Later that night, a child touches Cael's hand to thank him.
His shard pulses.
The child is instantly overwhelmed by visions of the Fracture, screaming in languages he's never learned.
Villagers panic. Some collapse. Others fall to their knees, worshipping him.
Cael reels back. Mireth draws her blade—not on them, but on him.
"You're leaking now. Like the seal. You can't stay."
Flight from Athelen
By morning, the Riftwatchers beg Cael to leave.
"You are sacred.
But sacred things burn the hands that hold them."
Mireth and Cael flee Athelen under silence.
As they descend the mountain, Cael asks:
"Is this what it means? To fix the seals but become the wound?"
Mireth doesn't answer.
She looks at the mountains behind them, where the Rift they watched for centuries now pulses visibly in the sky.