The courtyard fell silent.
Not the peaceful kind.
The kind that squeezes the air tight.
Meghala moved first. She knelt in front of Arav, hands on his shoulders, eyes sharp and unblinking.
"What. Did. It. Say?"
Arav swallowed hard. "Just two words."
Aaryan stepped closer, aura lowering—not flaring, not threatening, but compressing around the courtyard like a shield. Sharanya pulled Isha behind her gently, even though Isha was more confused than scared.
Aaryan's voice was controlled. "Repeat it."
Arav looked up, trembling slightly.
"…'Found you.'"
Meghala didn't curse.
She said nothing at all.
Which was worse.
Sharanya's breath caught. "It spoke directly into your mind?"
Arav nodded.
Meghala rose slowly. "That means it wasn't just watching the barrier. It slipped through enough to touch the edges of his consciousness."
Aaryan's jaw tightened. "Without crossing the boundary."
"That," Meghala said flatly, "is not easy."
Arav's heart pounded. He wasn't sure if he wanted to cry or hide or ask questions. His flame flickered in confusion, then surged with panic—
—and Aaryan's hand pressed gently over his chest.
"Steady," his father whispered.
Arav breathed out shakily. The flame quieted.
Meghala folded her arms, but her usual grin was gone. "We need to know what this thing is."
Sharanya asked quietly, "Arav… how did the voice feel?"
He hesitated.
"It wasn't scary. More like… curious."
"Curious," Aaryan repeated, but his tone didn't soften.
Arav nodded. "And a little sad."
The adults exchanged glances.
Sad?
Nothing they'd ever fought or studied—Council, clan enemies, corrupted beasts—expressed sadness through aether contact.
That alone made the situation stranger.
Meghala rubbed her temples. "Aaryan, I swear if this turns out to be some ancient wandering remnant spirit—"
"It isn't," Aaryan said immediately.
Sharanya looked worried. "How can you be sure?"
Aaryan hesitated for one beat.
"Remnant spirits cannot speak through barriers."
Meghala blinked.
"Well… then that rules out the easy explanation."
She snapped her fingers. "I'll set up a detection web. If it touches the boundary again, I'll catch its rhythm."
Aaryan shook his head. "No. The web will flare like a lighthouse. It will scare it off—or provoke it."
Sharanya whispered, "And if it's already frightened…"
Arav lowered his eyes.
He didn't want to frighten anything.
He didn't want to attract trouble.
He didn't want to be a beacon the entire world reacted to.
But the voice…
It didn't feel like danger.
Only loneliness.
—
Later that night, after a long day of forced calm and worried adults hovering around him, Arav lay on his bed staring at the ceiling.
The estate was too quiet again.
He could sense the faint pulse of the boundary, the flicker of aether threads dancing like faint fireflies beyond the treeline.
Every heartbeat carried an echo of earlier:
Found you.
Arav turned on his side and pulled his blanket up.
"...Who are you?" he whispered to the darkness.
A breeze drifted across the room.
Not wind.
Aether.
It slid along the wall like a shadow without a body, a soft shimmer that almost made the air glow.
Arav sat up quickly—but didn't call for his parents.
The presence paused.
As if waiting.
"It's okay," Arav said softly. "I'm not scared."
The air shifted.
He felt… gratitude?
Then—
A faint outline appeared by the window.
Not a body.
Not a silhouette.
Just a ripple in the shape of a person, bending the moonlight around it like water.
Aether gathered around the ripple.
Dim.
Soft.
Flickering.
Arav froze.
"You're… hurt," he whispered without knowing why.
The shape trembled.
A soft pulse answered—weak, fragile.
…help…
Arav's eyes widened.
"Help? How? I don't know how to—"
The ripple vanished instantly.
Like it panicked.
Or ran.
Or simply couldn't stay.
Arav's breath caught.
The flame inside him vibrated with confusion and worry.
He managed to whisper only one thing:
"I won't hurt you… I promise."
Outside, somewhere in the dark woods, the air shuddered once—like a sob swallowed by the night.
—
Aaryan stood silently on a rooftop, watching the forest.
Sharanya stepped up beside him.
"You felt that too?" she asked softly.
Aaryan nodded once. His eyes were cold, not from fear, but calculation.
"That wasn't an enemy," he murmured.
Sharanya hesitated. "Then what was it?"
Aaryan exhaled.
"A child."
Sharanya's heart sank. "A lost one?"
"No."
A pause.
"An unstable one."
They both looked toward Arav's window.
Sharanya whispered, "Will it come again?"
Aaryan's voice was quiet, but sure.
"…Yes."