She traced the air, catching the swirls of dust on her fingers that drifted languidly on the wind. Then she felt it.
A pull.
It started softly, a barely-there whisper at the back of her mind, but it grew, steady, like the tide drawn irresistibly toward the moon. Her breath hitched as it tugged at her chest, somethinginevitablelurking just beyond her reach.
And even if she wanted to, she couldn’t resist it.
Elara kept walking and almost as if they’d been waiting, a circle of stones emerged from the haze. They rose from the desolation like jagged, broken teeth, their silhouettes dark against the bleak landscape.
They resembled the stones in the Pit, but these were different. Their edges were worn and uneven, covered in moss that had withered to a brittle shell, as if even nature had forsaken this place.
She drew a breath and stepped closer, letting the circle of stones close around her. When her fingers brushed the nearest stone, a sharp shiver raced up her spine. The surface buzzed faintly beneath her touch—old power, worn but alive, humming through the ground. She closed her eyes and listened.
“It's you.”
Elara’s stomach dropped in a rush of surprise as she spun around, locking eyes with the Hunter.
His heavy-lidded gaze took in the world like a man not yet convinced it was real. Sleep softened his dark eyes, curls tousled as if he’d crushed them into submission during the night. He wore simple trousers and a linen tunic, the laces at the neck undone, revealing the hard planes of muscle beneath.
“What—why are you here?”
The sound of her voice seemed to drag him from whatever daze he was in. He blinked, his frown deepening as his eyes swept over the barren, ghostly landscape. “I don’t know. I… think I’m dreaming.”
Elara’s pulse quickened.Yes—this had to be a dream. The weightlessness, the way everything blurred and shifted at the corners.
She was dreaming. It had to be.
The Hunter’s gaze narrowed as he studied her face. “Why did you summon me?”
“I didn’t…” Her voice faltered, unsure. She hadn’t called him, but something had drawnherhere. That pull—could it have been the stones? Her gaze flicked back to him, his face still unreadable, though something shifted in his eyes—hesitation, maybe.
“Where are we?”
He squinted. “I’ve been here before…” He crouched low, hands sinking into the soil. Slowly, he let the dirt sift through his fingers, the fine grains catching the light, swirling like ash caught in a breeze. “We’re in Arwn’s Void.”
“Arwn’s Void?” Elara echoed. “I’ve never heard of it before.”
“You wouldn’t have,” he murmured, “They wiped it from every map after Osin took control. Didn’t want anyone finding it again.” He gave a curt nod to the ground. “Look closer. The soil’snot like anywhere else. It’s alive, in a way. It remembers. What’s left of the Great War...Draothstill bleeding through the land.”
Elara's gaze traced the shimmering particles she hadn’t noticed before. The dust seemed to glimmer in the fading light, as though tiny fragments of stars had fallen to the ground, glowing faintly beneath his fingers. “Draoth?”
The Hunter stood, wiping the dirt from his hands. “It’s theTírríshword for ether.”
Elara hummed softly, her gaze drifting. This land was dead—and yet ether, ancient ether, still endured, surviving where nothing else could. Her chest tightened. This place was survival stripped to its bones, clinging on despite everything.
Survival, at any cost.
Recognition stirred in her chest. Like the land, she carried something buried deep, dormant but not gone. Waiting.
Waiting for rain. For ignition. For a shift—any sign that might make sense of the path before her.
The Hunter stepped closer, stirring the dust around them. “Strange that I’d see you here, of all places,” he said under his breath, almost as though he was speaking to the air, not her.
Elara brushed her fingers against the stain on her tunic. “Don’t give yourself too much credit. You’re just another tormentmymind cooked up—haunting me in real life wasn’t enough, apparently. Now I can’t even get a break when I close my eyes.”
His head snapped toward her, brow creasing in confusion. Slowly, perplexity sharpened into recognition. His eyes widened, color draining from his face as though a dark realization had just slammed into him. Like he’d uncovered a piece of a nightmare.
Elara’s heart stuttered, and before she could stop herself, she took a step back.
