The wind brought strangers.
Three of them, cloaked in weather-worn robes and soft smiles, arrived at the shrine's base as morning mist still curled across the cliffside.
Kael was the first to greet them.
"We got turned around in the pass," said the man in front, a warm grin on his face. "Didn't expect to see a soul out here. Thought this place was long abandoned."
He introduced himself as Eron, a quiet traveler with sharp blue eyes and a limp he never explained. Beside him stood Thess, a soft-spoken woman who carried a flute and smiled too easily. The third, Quen, barely spoke — but Kael swore he saw a flicker of magic behind his silence.
Serida stepped into view minutes later.
Her hand never left the hilt of her blade.
"Travelers don't come this far without purpose," she said flatly.
Eron raised both hands. "No harm meant. We're just seeking shelter and maybe a hot fire."
Kael gave Serida a look — the first real people they'd seen in weeks, and she was ready to throw them off the mountain.
But she didn't let her guard down.
"I don't like their timing," she muttered to Kael that night. "Or the way the quiet one watches the scroll."
"They haven't even seen the scroll," Kael argued.
Serida raised an eyebrow. "Exactly."
---
Over the next two days, the three strangers integrated themselves like silk through cracks.
Thess played music in the evenings that made Kael forget the shadows in his mind. Eron sparred with him, giving helpful advice about footwork and breathing. Quen never spoke, but offered Kael dried herbs that dulled the nightmares.
And yet…
Kael noticed small things.
How none of them flinched when Serida tested a silent warding spell.
How they always knew where Serida stored her weapons.
How they asked about the Devourer — but never once said the word "Echo."
---
That evening, as the sun bled crimson across the sky, Kael walked into the forest near the shrine to clear his head. He found Eron there.
Alone.
Watching the trees.
"Peaceful place," Eron said. "Hard to believe it was once a warfront."
Kael nodded.
"You've got power in you, boy. Dangerous kind. Someone taught you well."
Kael's spine stiffened. "Just one person."
Eron looked at him, blue eyes shifting — ever so slightly — to gold.
"That's all it takes to break a world."
Kael's Echo-sense snapped to life.
A memory not his own — blood and chains — shuddered through his mind.
---
Back at the shrine, Serida was already in motion.
She had found the faint dust of voidchalk runes beneath Quen's cloak.
"Kael—" she whispered, reaching for her sword—
A blade of crackling null-energy plunged through the wall beside her.
---
Far below, Eron stepped forward, his smile gone.
"You've passed your little trials, Kael. Now it's time to come with us."
Kael's fists clenched, heart pounding. "Cradle of Balance."
Eron smirked. "Took you long enough."
The forest went silent.
And Kael reached for the flame inside.