Chapter 17: Echoes That Bleed
I. THE HUNTER
The rain did not fall naturally.
It came down in thin, vertical slashes—unnaturally straight, as if the sky itself had been disciplined into obedience. Each droplet struck the shattered streets of Kaloi's City without splash, without sound, swallowed instantly by the blackened concrete and scorched metal beneath. Even the storm knew better than to announce itself here.
He moved through it anyway.
Boots silent. Breath controlled. Presence muted.
The Hunter adjusted the strap across his shoulder, feeling the familiar weight of the blade resting against his spine. It was not forged for elegance, nor ceremony. This weapon was old—older than the city, older than the name Kaloi itself. It hummed faintly, responding not to electricity, but to something deeper.
Something alive.
The air tingled.
He paused atop the skeletal remains of an overturned transport truck, surveying the street below through a fractured visor. Thermal outlines flickered—rats, feral dogs, broken people hiding in broken buildings. None of them mattered.
He wasn't here for prey.
He was here for Inheritance.
Three echoes,
the elders had whispered.
Three soul-fractures passed unknowingly.
One child.
The Hunter's jaw tightened.
Children were never supposed to carry echoes this early. Their bodies cracked under the strain. Their minds folded inward, warped by dreams that weren't theirs. Most died before awakening.
But this one hadn't.
This one had survived proximity.
A flicker of golden static danced across the edge of his vision.
He turned sharply.
There.
A ripple—not of light, but of recognition.
The blade at his back vibrated once.
The Hunter exhaled slowly.
"So," he murmured, voice lost to the rain, "you finally stirred."
II. THE HUNTED
Sirius Cipher did not know why he was awake.
He only knew that sleep had rejected him.
His small body lay curled beneath threadbare blankets in the corner of the apartment Blitz had barricaded with furniture and scrap metal. The power had been out for days. The only light came from a single candle burning low on a crate by the wall.
The flame leaned toward him.
That was the first thing he noticed.
It wasn't flickering randomly. It wasn't responding to wind.
It was listening.
Sirius swallowed.
"Mama…?" he whispered.
No answer.
Blitz Jalid lay asleep nearby, exhaustion finally claiming her after another night standing watch with ice creeping unconsciously across her fingertips. Her breath fogged faintly in the cold air she radiated even while dreaming.
Sirius pushed himself upright, heart pounding.
The room felt… bigger.
No. That wasn't right.
He felt smaller.
The walls stretched outward, shadows lengthening into unfamiliar shapes. The ceiling dissolved into darkness, studded with faint pinpricks of light—stars? No. Not stars.
Eyes.
He squeezed his own shut, hands clamped over his ears.
The sound came anyway.
A low hum. A distant thunder rolling beneath reality.
And then—
—Sirius—
His name echoed not through his ears, but through his chest.
He gasped, breath hitching.
"I—I'm here," he whispered, unsure why he was answering.
The candle flame elongated, stretching upward unnaturally before collapsing inward on itself. The room snapped back into place.
Silence.
Sirius sat trembling, tears burning at the corners of his eyes.
Something was wrong.
Something had noticed him.
III. THE HUNTER
The trail sharpened.
Not scent. Not heat.
Memory.
Each step forward carried fragments—images that were not his. A man wreathed in lightning, screaming as the sky split open. A woman of ice standing against impossible odds. A city burning while the heavens watched in silence.
And beneath it all—
A child.
The Hunter crouched at the edge of a collapsed overpass, fingers brushing the wet concrete. His visor flared briefly as ancient sigils translated the residue left behind.
ECHO EVENT: MINOR
HOST: JUVENILE
SOUL SIGNATURE: UNSTABLE
He clicked his tongue.
Too soon.
If the Echo progressed unchecked, the child's soul would fracture entirely—or worse, become a beacon.
He rose, stepping off the overpass and landing without sound below.
Somewhere nearby, something else shifted.
Not human.
The Hunter's hand went to his blade.
"Show yourself," he said calmly.
The shadows recoiled.
Smart.
But not smart enough.
IV. THE HUNTED
Sirius tried to wake Blitz.
He shook her shoulder gently at first, then harder, panic clawing up his throat.
"Mama—Mama, please—"
Her eyes snapped open instantly.
"What is it?" she whispered, already scanning the room.
Sirius opened his mouth—and froze.
The air between them crackled.
Not with lightning.
With pressure.
Blitz felt it too. Her breath fogged sharply, ice forming along her forearms as her instincts screamed.
"Sirius," she said quietly, pulling him close, "don't move."
The candle went out.
Darkness swallowed the room.
Then—
A sound like glass cracking.
Golden light bled through the walls, not breaking them, but phasing through as if reality itself were thinning.
Sirius clutched Blitz's jacket, sobbing.
"I didn't mean to," he cried. "I didn't mean to call it—"
Blitz's heart stopped.
"Call what?" she demanded.
But Sirius wasn't looking at her anymore.
He was staring past her.
At the door.
V. CONVERGENCE
The door did not open.
It ceased.
Its atoms unraveled quietly, dissolving into motes of ash that drifted to the floor without heat or sound.
The Hunter stepped through the threshold.
Tall. Broad-shouldered. Cloaked in layered armor etched with symbols older than Kaloi's City, older than the quarantine, older than the Starborne themselves.
Blitz rose instantly, ice spiraling around her arms.
"Get away from my son," she snarled.
The Hunter raised one hand—not threatening, not placating.
Measured.
"I am not here for you," he said. His voice carried weight, bending the air around it. "Nor for the Stormbearer."
Blitz stiffened.
Stormbearer.
He looked down.
At Sirius.
The child's eyes were glowing faintly now—gold threaded with deep, electric blue.
Recognition hit the Hunter like a blade to the ribs.
So young.
So full.
"…Three echoes," he murmured. "And none dormant."
Sirius whimpered as the world tilted.
Images flooded his mind.
A man laughing as lightning danced across his skin.
A blade drawn in a burning city.
A soul split—not once, but three times—not by violence, but by love.
The Hunter took a step forward.
Blitz moved to intercept—
—and was slammed backward by an invisible force, crashing into the wall as ice shattered around her.
"MAMA!" Sirius screamed.
The scream became thunder.
The floor cracked.
Golden sigils erupted beneath Sirius's feet, spiraling upward into the air like constellations torn from the sky.
The Hunter froze.
"No," he breathed. "Not yet—"
Too late.
VI. THE FIRST ECHO
The world folded.
Sirius screamed as something inside him awakened—not a power, but a memory that was not his.
He stood somewhere else.
A place of endless dark and endless light.
A man knelt before him, face obscured by shadow, eyes burning gold.
"You carry what I could not keep."
Lightning split the void.
"Not my power."
"My promise."
Sirius reached out—
—and the man vanished.
The echo slammed back into Sirius's body like a tidal wave.
He collapsed, gasping.
The sigils burned brighter, then sank into his skin, vanishing without a trace.
Silence.
The Hunter slowly lowered his hand.
"…An Echo of Inheritance," he whispered, reverent despite himself. "Confirmed."
Blitz dragged herself upright, ice reforming around her shaking hands.
"What did you do to him?" she demanded.
The Hunter turned toward her.
"Nothing," he said quietly. "It was already done."
He looked back at Sirius—unconscious, breathing, alive.
"But now," he continued, "the universe knows his name."
He stepped backward, fading into shadow.
"We will meet again," he said—not to Blitz, but to the child. "Sooner than you think."
And then he was gone.
Blitz rushed to Sirius's side, pulling him into her arms, tears freezing on her cheeks.
Outside, the rain finally began to fall naturally.
And somewhere far beyond Kaloi's City—
Something ancient smiled.
End of Chapter 17
To Be Continued…