The dunes ended like a cliff.
After days of trudging across endless gold, the sand thinned to black stone. The horizon shifted, no longer soft curves of desert but jagged ridges of volcanic glass and sun-bleached rock. The air grew heavier, the heat sharper, carrying the bitter smell of ash.
Kabir stopped at the ridge, crouching to run his fingers across the stone. His panther prowled behind him, tail lashing, while the wolves paced uneasily.
"The Wastes," Kabir said with a grin. "Where the desert ends and hell begins."
Shanaya groaned, dragging her feet. Her flames flickered faint, weaker since the oasis. "Great. Because the desert was such a vacation."
Leela steadied Neel as he climbed the rocks. His steps were slow, sparks crawling faintly across his skin, the storm restless. Her eyes lingered on his face, worried. "You're burning yourself out."
"I'll survive," Neel muttered. But he wasn't sure. The chains of lightning he'd forged at the oasis still ached in his bones.
–––
The wind shifted.
Kabir froze, his grin fading. He crouched low, brushing his hand across the stone. "Tracks."
Neel frowned. "Beast?"
Kabir shook his head. "No. Human." He traced the faint grooves etched into the black stone, almost invisible. "Bare feet. But heavier than they should be." His eyes gleamed. "And they don't walk like men. They drag."
The panther growled, ears flat. The wolves backed away, whining.
Leela's face paled. "The envoy…"
–––
Night fell over the Wastes. The rocks gleamed like glass under starlight, jagged ridges casting long shadows. They made camp in the lee of a cliff, their fire small, flames flickering uneasily against the stone.
Shanaya threw herself down with a groan. "I don't care if shadows are chasing us. I'm sleeping."
"Sleep lightly," Kabir said, his voice low. He crouched on a ledge above them, the panther at his side. "Whatever left those tracks isn't done."
Leela sat beside Neel, watching him quietly as sparks danced across his hands. His face was drawn, pale, but his eyes burned with something darker.
She spoke softly. "Every fight, you're losing a little more of yourself. Aren't you?"
He didn't answer. The whisper did. "She fears you, Vessel. They all do. Even now, they wonder what will be left when the storm finishes with you."
Neel's fists clenched. "I won't lose myself."
The whisper laughed, low and cruel.
–––
A sound broke the night.
Not wind. Not beast.
A drag.
Something scraping across stone, slow and deliberate.
The wolves whined, pressing low. The panther growled, fur bristling. Kabir's grin returned, sharp as a knife. "Ah. Our guest arrives."
–––
At the edge of the firelight, a figure emerged.
Thin. Too thin. Skin gray, stretched tight. Red sigils burned faint across its chest. Its mouth was still sewn shut with silver thread, but its eyes — its void-black eyes — fixed directly on Neel.
The cursed envoy had followed them into the Wastes.
–––
The fire guttered low.
The envoy stood at the edge of the camp, its gray skin glowing faint with sigils that pulsed like a heartbeat. Its void eyes locked on Neel, unblinking. The air thickened, pressing against their lungs as though the night itself bent toward it.
Shanaya sat up instantly, flames spiraling around her fists. "You again." She grinned, sharp and furious. "This time, I'll burn you to nothing."
Leela rose quickly, her staff glowing blue. "No. Fire feeds it. Don't—"
Too late. Shanaya hurled a blazing spear straight into its chest. The flames swallowed it whole, but instead of withering, the envoy's sigils flared brighter. The fire sank into its skin like breath into lungs.
The envoy raised its hand.
Shadows whipped outward, chains snapping through the air. They slammed into the ground where Shanaya had stood, gouging cracks into stone. She leapt aside, fire bursting from her heels.
"Try harder!" she taunted, but her grin faltered. The sigils on her arms — the faint red glow left by the oasis water — pulsed in rhythm with the envoy's runes.
Leela's eyes widened. "It's linked to you!"
–––
The envoy surged forward, its movements jerky yet impossibly fast. Chains lashed from its arms, striking at Neel. He threw up a shield of lightning, sparks roaring outward, but the shadows wrapped around it, constricting like serpents.
The shield cracked. Neel staggered, his storm snarling inside him.
Kabir whistled sharply. His wolves lunged, fangs sinking into the envoy's legs. The panther sprang, claws raking across its back. For a moment, the envoy faltered, its body jerking under the assault.
Then it hissed without a mouth, shadows bursting outward. The wolves yelped, flung aside like rag dolls. The panther landed hard, limping as it retreated.
Kabir laughed, wild and delighted. "Stronger this time! Good!"
–––
Chains shot toward Neel again. This time, they wrapped around his arms, his chest, his throat. Cold seared into him, burning deeper than venom. Sparks flared desperately, but the chains only tightened.
The whisper surged in his skull, ecstatic. "Chains again! Always chains! Vessel, you know the truth — you don't break chains. You BECOME them!"
Neel roared, lightning erupting in violent arcs, but the envoy dragged him forward across the stone.
Leela darted in front of him, her staff glowing with brilliant blue. "Barrier!" A wall of water surged upward, hardening into crystal. The chains struck it, cracks spidering immediately. She gritted her teeth, pouring more strength into the seal.
"Neel, fight it!" she screamed. "Don't let it take you!"
–––
Shanaya hurled fire, but the envoy twisted its chains, redirecting the flames back toward her. She cried out, barely shielding herself, her arm scorched by her own magic.
She staggered, fury twisting her face. "You think you can use me?!" Her flames flared wild, unstable. For a moment, Neel swore her eyes glowed crimson.
Kabir's grin sharpened. "Careful, fire-girl. The desert is claiming you."
"Shut up!" she snapped, fire bursting from her hands.
–––
Neel's vision blurred, his body trembling as the chains crushed tighter. Sparks flared uncontrolled, tearing across the rocks. The envoy dragged him closer, its void eyes unblinking, its sigils pulsing faster, feeding on his storm.
Leela screamed his name, pressing both hands against the chains, her water-light flooding into them. The shadows hissed, steam rising as her magic fought the binding.
"Stay with me, Neel!" Her voice cracked with desperation.
The whisper hissed in his ear. "Why stay, Vessel? Let go. Give me the chains. Give me the storm. Let me devour."
Neel's sparks flared violently, the storm teetering on the edge of control.
–––
With a roar, he unleashed it.
Lightning blasted outward, shredding the chains, the explosion lighting the Wastes like daylight. The envoy staggered, cracks spreading across its sigils, smoke hissing from its body. For a heartbeat, it seemed to falter.
But instead of falling, it dissolved into black smoke, vanishing into the rocks. The red glow lingered faintly in the shadows before winking out.
–––
Silence fell, broken only by ragged breaths.
Shanaya clutched her scorched arm, fury burning in her eyes. "It's mocking us. Playing with us."
Leela collapsed to her knees beside Neel, pressing her hands to his chest, her eyes wet with fear. "It won't stop. It's bound to you. It'll keep coming until…"
Her words faltered.
Kabir crouched, his grin cruel. "Until he breaks it. Or it breaks him."
–––