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Chapter 34 — The Echo Between Two Hearts
Aren ran.
Branches whipped across his arms, but he didn't feel them. His chest burned with every breath. The forest around him pulsed with quiet life, yet none of it answered him the way Lirien always did.
"Lirien!"
His voice cracked.
He pushed through a curtain of vines, stumbling onto a narrow clearing filled with drifting blue dust. It glittered like starlight — a sign she had been here. Her mana always left a soft trail when she was frightened.
Aren knelt and touched the faint shimmer on a leaf.
Warm.
Recent.
His throat tightened.
"She was just here…"
A rustling noise snapped him upright. He spun, black flame flickering instinctively around his fingers — but it wasn't an enemy.
A strange creature floated above the leaves, shaped like a tiny orb of light with wings made of falling petals.
A Whispered Sprite.
Usually harmless.
But this one circled him urgently.
"You saw her?" Aren asked.
The sprite bobbed twice — yes — then darted deeper into the forest.
Aren followed.
Each step felt like a countdown.
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Lirien — Somewhere Else
Cold stone pressed against her cheek.
Lirien opened her eyes slowly, her vision swimming. A dim red glow pulsed rhythmically above her — heartbeat-like, alive. She tried to sit up, but chains carved with runes tugged her back down.
A siphoning circle.
Her mana… was being drained.
Lirien's breath hitched. "No… not here… not again."
Footsteps echoed.
A tall figure emerged from the shadows — not a Hunter, but something worse. A Listener who had betrayed the world long ago. His eyes burned with scarlet light, and his smile was carved with cruelty.
"Awake, little seed-bearer?" he said softly. "Good. I need you conscious."
Lirien trembled.
"You… you were erased. Your voice was taken."
He chuckled.
"And yet here I stand. Nothing stays erased forever."
He knelt, brushing a strand of hair from her face. She flinched.
"The boy with the black flame," he mused. "He is interesting. Dangerous. I will enjoy breaking him."
Lirien's fear snapped.
"If you touch him," she whispered, "the world itself will reject you."
"Oh, I hope it does," he murmured. "It makes the hunt exciting."
The siphon tightened. Lirien gasped, her mana slipping away like water through fingers.
She closed her eyes.
Please… Aren… don't come here.
But she knew he would.
He always would.
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Aren — At the Edge of Something Wrong
The Sprite stopped suddenly, trembling in the air. The trees around them bent outward, pulling away from a narrow path as if refusing to touch it.
Aren felt it too.
A hollow silence.
Like the world itself was holding its breath in fear.
"Lirien…" he whispered.
Ahead, he saw deep footprints — human — but twisted, sharp, as if the ground recoiled from whoever made them.
And next to them:
Lirien's faint steps… dragged.
Aren's pulse spiked.
He raised his hand. The black flame curled around his skin, hotter than before, reacting to his panic. It felt like it wanted to leap ahead of him. Burn through anything in the way.
"I'm coming," he said, voice shaking. "Just hold on."
He stepped into the hollow path.
The air shuddered, the forest dimmed — and for a moment, Aren sensed something watching him. Something ancient. Something wrong.
A whisper drifted through the trees:
"Come find her… if you can."
Aren's blood turned to ice.
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End of Chapter 34
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