The Veil of Acension

Awakened Bonds

The soft glow of the moon felt strangely peaceful as the group slept. But for Ethan, rest never came easy. A sharp sense of dread stirred him awake, his heart racing, his mind fogged by the fading remnants of a dream. Something wasn't right.

He sat up, looking around, trying to shake the uneasy feeling crawling up his spine. The forest's energy seemed to hum with tension like it was trying to warn him of something. He glanced at Lucian and Statera, still fast asleep, and rubbed his temples, trying to calm the rising panic.

It's just nerves, Ethan told himself. This place is messing with my head.

But the feeling wouldn't leave him. It gnawed at him, growing more robust, more insistent. Something was coming. He could feel it. He looked toward the tree line, where the shadows were darker than the rest of the glowing world.

A movement caught his eye.

For a split second, Ethan saw something—a blur in the darkness, shifting and slipping through the shadows as if the light itself could not touch it. He squinted, his breath catching in his throat, but whatever it was, it was gone instantly.

I'm just seeing things.

He stood up, ready to dismiss the feeling, but a cold, bone-chilling wind rushed through the fireplace just as he turned to check on Lucian and Statera again.

And then it emerged.

A figure cloaked in shadow materialised from the darkness of the trees. It seemed to merge with the shadows themselves, its form indistinct but menacing, like a living silhouette. Its movements were fluid, barely visible in the light, and it slithered from shadow to shadow, inching closer to the cabin window near where Lucian lay.

Ethan's breath hitched. His pulse thundered in his ears as the figure moved with lethal purpose. It carried no weapon at first glance, but something about its presence radiated danger—an assassin in the darkness.

"Lucian!" Ethan whispered urgently, but the shadow warrior moved before he could move or shout.

The figure leapt through the window in a flash, its form barely perceptible. Before anyone could react, it was upon Lucian. A blade—long, thin, and shimmering with the same dark energy—appeared out of the shadows. It pierced Lucian's chest, sinking deep. Lucian gasped, his eyes wide with shock, blood pooling from the wound almost instantly.

"Lucian!" Ethan screamed, rushing to his friend's side as Statera jolted awake, panic flaring in her eyes. She scrambled to Lucian, but the sight of the dark figure standing over him, the blade dripping with blood, froze her in place for a second.

The shadow warrior's face, featureless in the dark, looked toward Ethan and Statera as if assessing its next move. It faded out of the window and into the shadows again, disappearing like smoke on the wind.

Ethan fell to his knees beside Lucian, his hands trembling as he pressed against the wound. The blood was hot, too much, too fast.

"No, no, no!" Ethan shouted, panic rising in his chest. "Stay with me, Lucian!"

Statera's hands hovered over Lucian, her breath coming in shaky gasps. "Ethan, we need to stop the bleeding! I don't— I don't know what to do!"

Ethan's heart hammered in his chest, and then that strange feeling returned—the pull. That same urgency, the one that had stirred him from sleep, now roared through him. But this time, it was stronger. He felt it deep within him, time whispering at the edges of his consciousness. He could sense it—the way the moment was slipping, but there was something else, a chance to bring it back.
Ethan clenched his fists without thinking, and the world around him slowed. The cabin, the shadows, the blood began to rewind. The blade retracted, and the shadow warrior flickered back into the tree line, the wound in Lucian's chest sealing itself in reverse.