The days that followed felt stretched, as if time itself were trying to tiptoe around the estate. No loud events, no cracking distortions, no sudden tremors. Just a heavy hush—like Astraeon was holding its breath.
Yet Arav felt the tension beneath everything.
Servants moved more carefully.
Guards stayed closer to the walls.
Even Sharanya and Aaryan paused more often, listening to things he couldn't hear.
The world wasn't calm.
It was watching.
Arav found Meghala perched on a low stone wall, kicking her feet idly while she stared up at the sky as if expecting it to misbehave.
"Why are you sitting like that?" Arav asked.
"I'm thinking," Meghala replied.
"You look like you're waiting."
"I'm thinking about waiting."
Arav frowned. "Is something coming?"
Meghala gave him a sideways glance.
"You tell me, little ember. Do you feel anything strange today?"
Arav closed his eyes. He reached inward, touching the small flame he'd learned to steady. Warm, familiar. Calm.
But beneath that calm was a thread.
Thin.
Light.
Pulling.
Not like resonance—this was different.
Cold, not warm.
Distant, not close.
Unfamiliar, not mirrored.
Arav's eyes snapped open.
"Something… is brushing the boundary again."
Aaryan's voice came from behind them. "Yes."
Arav turned. Aaryan stood there, arms folded, gaze fixed on the eastern treeline. Sharanya approached from the house, Isha skipping behind her holding two frogs this time.
Arav pointed nervously. "Is it the Council again?"
"No," Aaryan said. "This signature is different."
Meghala hopped off the wall.
"Not Council. Not scholarly. And definitely not Thunder Clan."
Sharanya's eyes softened with worry. "Then who?"
Before anyone could answer, the air shimmered at the edge of the estate—just a ripple, delicate but precise. No force behind it. No intent to break in.
More like a knock.
A silent, curious knock.
Arav froze.
"It doesn't feel bad."
Aaryan stepped slightly in front of him. "Intent does not matter. Uninvited presence is uninvited."
Meghala conjured a tiny Stormflame spark on her palm. "Should I poke it back?"
"No," Sharanya said quickly.
Aaryan shook his head. "Hold."
The ripple lingered.
It didn't press.
It didn't invade.
It simply hovered—waiting.
Arav's flame stirred.
"Should I answer it?" he whispered.
Aaryan's head snapped toward him.
"No."
Sharanya put a hand on his shoulder.
"Not until we understand it."
Arav bit his lip. "But it doesn't feel… scary."
Meghala narrowed her eyes. "That's the problem."
The ripple pulsed once.
Soft.
Gentle.
Almost polite.
Then it vanished.
Completely.
The whole estate exhaled as if released from tension.
Meghala muttered, "That wasn't Council. They're never polite."
Sharanya frowned. "Could it be… a beast signature?"
"Not corrupted," Aaryan said. "Not primal either."
"Then what?"
Aaryan's silence told them he didn't know—and that was the part no one liked.
Arav whispered, "It felt like someone… watching from far away."
Meghala crossed her arms. "A silent watcher, hm? Lovely. Just what this place needed. First Council snoops, now mysterious peeping signatures."
Isha held up her frogs.
"My frogs say it's suspicious."
No one questioned her logic.
---
That night, Arav struggled to sleep.
The flame inside him was calm.
Resonance was quiet.
But the memory of that gentle knock stayed with him, tucked into the corner of his mind like a whisper.
He rolled over.
The moonlight touched his walls.
Shadows stretched softly.
Then—
A flicker.
Not flame.
Not distortion.
Something like… a ripple of aether brushing past the edge of the estate again, lighter than breath.
Arav sat up.
"...Hello?" he whispered.
No answer.
Just the faintest impression—
like distant eyes looking in his direction.
Not hostile.
Not friendly.
Curious.
And then it faded again.
Arav sank back into his covers, heart thumping.
Whatever that was, it wasn't done.
And he had a sinking feeling the next days would not be quiet.
Not quiet at all.