The night had no stars. No moon. Only a void so complete that even the trees seemed to vanish into it.
Kai sat beside the last embers of his fire, fingers tight around his bone-knife. The darkness beyond his shelter didn't just press it listened.
No owls. No insects. Not even the wind.
The forest held its breath.
And then... the whispers.
Not like before. These came in waves ancient, rising, desperate. A chorus layered over itself in a language he had never learned, but somehow understood.
"He wakes."
"He remembers."
"It begins."
Then
A shape in the dark.
A silence too deep to be natural.
The barrier at the entrance woven branches and bones shattered.
Kai rose, heart thundering. Knife raised.
And it stepped in.
At first, it was only shadow. Then form. Massive. Upright. Covered in fur so black it swallowed what little light remained.
But its eyes two embers in a void stopped him.
Not eyes of a beast. Not hunger. Not threat.
Recognition.
The air thickened. The whispers fell silent.
Kai didn't breathe.
Then, a voice.
Not spoken aloud, but felt inside his bones, inside his blood.
"Wait. The time for blood has not yet come."
He did. He couldn't have moved if he wanted to.
The creature stepped closer. Graceful. Deliberate. Reverent.
Now, up close, Kai saw it wasn't only black. Its fur shimmered with hidden colors, midnight blue, deep violet, green so dark it could be forest or decay. Each shift in its movement revealed patterns that felt... alive. Like constellations in motion.
Kai's hand trembled on the knife.
"Blood of my blood," the voice whispered.
"Last son of the ancient line. The time has come."
The world spun.
Visions surged like wildfire behind his eyes:
A cradle in a marble hall.
A woman with storm-gray eyes singing to him.
A throne of roots and stone.
A battlefield of fire and wings.
Then darkness. Screams. Blood on polished floors.
A child bundled in moss. The hush of the Everwood. A woman's whispered prayer:
"Hide him. Keep him. Let him grow strong."
Kai staggered. The creature did not move.
"You were not abandoned," the voice said. "You were protected. I am Valthyr, bound to your bloodline. Your guardian, since the day your mother vanished into the trees."
Kai's voice cracked. "Why now? Why speak only now?"
"Because now… you are awake."
Just then, something shifted in the trees.
A soft rustle. Barely audible.
Kai turned. A woman emerged from the shadows, bow lowered, flame-red hair tangled in the wind.
Lyra.
Her gaze never left Valthyr.
"We know who you are, forest man," she said. "And we've been waiting too."