Morning came like a wound refusing to close.
The air of Darnsworth was thick with fog and coal dust, the sun smothered behind gray clouds. I rose before dawn, same as always, though something inside me felt... different.
Every sense was sharper — every whisper in the air, every shift of light. I could feel the city breathing.
And beneath that breath… something else was listening back.
Lira was still asleep when I left. She looked peaceful, curled up under the patched blanket, one hand gripping the edge as if afraid I'd vanish. I brushed a strand of hair from her face. "Don't worry," I whispered. "I'll bring something back today. Maybe even bread."
She murmured something in her sleep — my name, half-swallowed by a sigh — and that was enough reason to keep walking.
---
The streets of Darnsworth were a symphony of suffering that never stopped playing. Cobblestone slick with mud. Carriages drawn by weary horses. Steam carts hissing through alleys like angry ghosts. And the people — all hollow-eyed, all bent, chasing coins that ran faster than they could.
I was one of them.
A man who carried three jobs and no future.
But I wasn't like them anymore.
Beneath my sleeve, the faint mark of resonance still pulsed, synchronized to a rhythm I couldn't hear.
It wasn't human.
It wasn't mine.
When the Trial ended, it hadn't given me strength. No weapon. No protection. No miracle. Just a whisper in my veins and a promise I couldn't trust.
Observation confirmed. Reward delayed.
Delayed. Not denied.
I just had to survive long enough to collect it.
---
By the time I reached the lower docks, the fog was so thick I could barely see five steps ahead. It clung to my clothes, my skin, my thoughts. Darnsworth's river — the Vareth — flowed somewhere beneath that veil, black as ink, swallowing everything it touched.
I worked there often. Loading cargo. Cleaning hulls. Taking the jobs no one wanted.
But that morning, I saw something different.
A body.
At first, I thought it was another drunk washed ashore. But as I stepped closer, my gut twisted. The man's flesh had turned gray, as if every drop of life had been drained from him. His eyes were wide open, staring into nothing — and from his chest, thin cracks spread outward like a shattered mirror.
Something resonated inside him. And then… stopped.
I crouched, reaching out.
The mark on my wrist flared.
The world shifted.
---
The fog thickened into walls. The air grew heavy, cold. My breath came out in thin, silver trails. The ground beneath me wasn't mud anymore — it was ash. The river was gone. The city too.
I stood in a gray wasteland under a bruised sky.
In the distance, something moved — crawling, dragging itself across the barren ground. It wasn't human. Its body was twisted, sinewed with black veins that pulsed like molten wires.
And around it… whispers.
Unholy murmurs, carried by wind that shouldn't exist.
Then a voice — faint, near my ear, yet far beyond the world.
Trial fragment detected.
Resonant corpse. Collect Echo Remnant.
I froze.
"So the system finally speaks," I murmured, my voice low.
No response.
Typical.
The creature raised its head. Where eyes should've been, there were two hollow sockets leaking black smoke.
And when it opened its mouth, I saw faint threads of light twisting inside — like the essence of souls torn apart.
My pulse quickened.
I didn't have weapons. Didn't have power. Just… instincts.
And cunning.
The system wouldn't bring me here to die. Not yet.
I picked up a shard of glass from the ground — half-buried, sharp enough to cut. The creature's movements were sluggish, like it was bound to the corpse's fading resonance. If I moved fast—
It lunged.
I threw myself aside, the shard slashing across its throat. A burst of black mist erupted. The ground screamed beneath us, the air vibrating with invisible sound.
The creature fell. The whispers stopped.
Then, silence.
Followed by a faint chime.
Resonant corpse purified.
Reward: Unholy Resonance Echo (Faint quality).
A small light drifted from the creature's remains — no larger than a marble, shimmering weakly, like a dying ember refusing to fade.
I reached out.
The moment my fingers touched it, my vision exploded.
---
Memories — not mine — poured in like a flood.
A dying soldier crawling across a battlefield. His chest open, blood freezing in the snow. His hand clutching something invisible, muttering words I couldn't understand. Behind him, shadows moved.
Then, light — a crimson sigil burning into his skin.
The same one I now bore.
His last thought before dying echoed in my mind:
"I failed… but maybe another will carry it."
When the vision faded, I was back on the docks. The body was gone. Only my heartbeat remained, pounding in my ears like a war drum.
The light in my hand dimmed, then sank into my wrist.
The mark glowed briefly — once, twice — then steadied.
First Resonance Echo acquired.
Tier: Unholy.
Effect: Dormant.
"Dormant?" I muttered. "So even rewards are useless until they feel like working."
Still… something had changed.
The air around me felt heavier, more alive. I could sense the faint vibration of things unseen — a rat behind the crates, the shift of air from the waves, the distant hum of the factory engines.
Not sight. Not sound.
Something in between.
Resonance.
It wasn't power, not yet. But it was awareness — and in a world where one mistake could kill you, that was worth more than gold.
---
By the time I returned home, my clothes were drenched, my boots caked in ash and river mud. Lira was waiting at the door, worry painted all over her small face.
"You're late," she said, puffing her cheeks like she always did when she tried to scold me. "And you look… different."
I smiled faintly. "You always say that."
"Because it's true."
She reached for my arm before I could stop her. Her fingers brushed the faint glow under my sleeve, and for an instant — just a heartbeat — her eyes widened.
"I saw… something," she whispered. "A light. It was—"
I placed a hand on her head. "Don't. Not yet."
"But—"
"Later." I smiled. "When you're ready."
---
That night, when she fell asleep again, I sat by the window. The city beyond the glass was dark, fog curling like smoke over rooftops. Somewhere out there, others were resonating too — finding their first echoes, stepping into the same storm.
But I knew something they didn't.
Their systems served them.
Mine… was watching me.
And for the first time, I felt it breathe.