Chapter 14 – The Watcher's Mark
Aiden didn't sleep that night. Even after the emergency team arrived to examine the sealed clearing, even after Leah dragged him back to Black Hollow for treatment, even after the medics insisted his vitals were stable—he couldn't rest.
Not with those three words echoing in his skull.
| The Watchers are Coming. |
The phrase pulsed like a bruise in his mind, repeating with mechanical indifference. A threat. A warning. A countdown. He didn't know which.
He leaned against the cold window of the infirmary, watching the faint lights of the settlement flicker in the darkness. The camp was always dim at night, powering down to preserve energy. Normally, that quiet darkness felt oddly safe.
Tonight it felt like the world was holding its breath.
Leah walked in, carrying two metal cups. Her eyes were rimmed with exhaustion. "You're still awake."
Aiden didn't turn. "Couldn't rest."
She offered him one of the cups. "Caffeine tea. The weak kind. Doc said no stimulants, but I won't tell if you don't."
He took it, holding the warm metal in both hands. "Thanks."
For a moment she just stood there, watching him the way someone watches a friend who's on the edge of a cliff.
"You saved us," she said quietly. "If that rift had opened… Black Hollow would've been wiped out."
Aiden didn't answer.
Because that wasn't what haunted him.
He finally said what had been choking his thoughts: "Leah… the System marked me."
She froze.
"Marked you for what?"
Aiden swallowed. "Something called the Watchers."
Her pulse visibly quickened. "The Watchers…? But those are just rumors. Stories from the higher-tier survivors. They say the Watchers oversee the rifts. That they're… entities. Not monsters. Not human. Not AI. Something else."
Aiden's fingers tightened around the cup. "The System doesn't warn people without reason."
"What exactly did it say?"
He breathed out slowly. "…It told me the Watchers are coming."
Leah paled. The steam from her drink wavered as her hand trembled slightly. "We need to tell Commander Rhea."
"She'll find out soon enough. The System logs everything. And the rift event was too big to hide."
Leah sat on the cot across from him. "Aiden… just how deep does your void ability go? If the System noticed you interfering with a rift, you must've done something huge."
Huge.Aiden replayed the moment he'd plunged his arm into the rift. The tearing sensation. The Void screaming. The whispers on the other side.
He didn't tell Leah about the whispers.
Not yet.
"I stabilized it enough to collapse," he said instead. "The Void… reacted on its own."
Her eyes softened. "You're scared."
"I'd be an idiot not to be."
She nodded. "Okay. Then tell me what scares you the most."
He hesitated… but the words came anyway.
"That I'm not controlling this power," he whispered. "That it's controlling me."
Leah reached out and grabbed his wrist, surprising him. Her grip was firm, grounding.
"Then we'll learn to control it," she said. "Together. You're not facing this alone."
Aiden didn't respond right away. But the trembling in his chest eased just a fraction.
Before he could reply, a chime echoed in the room.
Both of their heads snapped up.
| System Broadcast: Priority Notice. || A Rift of Unknown Origin Was Neutralized at Coordinates 14.92 – 3.71. || The System Has Detected Unauthorized Interference In Rift Stability Protocols. || Designated Individual: Aiden Cross. |
Aiden knew the message wasn't just for them. It had been broadcast settlement-wide.
Voices broke out outside the infirmary. Shouting. Confusion.
Leah cursed. "Well… the secret's out."
Another message appeared.
| Warning: An Overseer Entity Has Logged Interest in the Designated Individual. |
The air felt like it dropped ten degrees.
A third message followed immediately.
| A Watcher Will Manifest. Prepare Accordingly. |
Leah stood so fast her cup spilled.
"Aiden—we need to move. Now."
But Aiden didn't move.
Because the air in front of him rippled.
Just slightly.
Like a shimmer of heat on a metal surface.
"…Leah," he whispered, stepping back.
"What—?"
The ripple expanded.
Space itself bent inward like someone was pulling at the fabric of the world. A circular distortion appeared—silent, seamless, cold. There was no color, no light, no shadow.
Just a smooth, perfect absence.
A hole in reality.
Aiden's heart pounded so violently he felt it in his teeth. The Void inside him recoiled, then surged, reacting violently to the anomaly.
Leah drew her bow, hands shaking. "A-Aiden…"
He knew.
Even before the System spoke.
He knew.
| Watcher Manifestation Detected. |
A shape began to form inside the distortion.
Not stepping out.Not entering from anywhere.
It was as if the shape was being drawn into existence from nothing—a silhouette carved from the absence itself.
Human-like.Tall.Motionless.
The shape solidified into a figure draped in a smooth, perfectly reflective cloak. No face. No limbs exposed. No features. Its surface shifted like liquid metal, mirroring nothing.
Leah aimed an arrow straight at its center. "Stop. Don't come any closer!"
The Watcher didn't move.
Didn't react.
Didn't breathe.
Aiden felt his legs weaken under the crushing pressure.
The entity was doing nothing—Yet its mere presence felt like a storm pressing against his skull.
The Void inside him writhed.
The figure tilted its head a fraction of a degree. Not toward Leah.
Toward him.
Aiden's throat dried.
"…Why are you here?" he managed to whisper.
The Watcher spoke.
The sound wasn't a voice.
It was a resonance—like a single note from a stringed instrument played underwater. A vibration that echoed directly inside Aiden's mind.
"You touched the fracture."
Aiden flinched. Leah nearly dropped her bow.
The Watcher continued.
"You wield a seed of the Empty One."
Aiden didn't understand the words—but the implication chilled him.
"Is that… the void?" he asked.
The Watcher's head tilted again. "An echo of it. A fragment of a lost dominion."
Leah swallowed audibly. "What do you want from him?"
The figure turned slightly—just enough to acknowledge her presence.
"Not yet."
Leah's bowstring snapped taut. "What the hell does that mean?"
Aiden stepped forward before she accidentally triggered something catastrophic.
"What do you want with me?" he asked.
The Watcher's cloak rippled.
"To observe."
That word sent a chill through him.
"Why?" Aiden demanded. "I didn't ask for this. I didn't choose this power."
The Watcher lifted one featureless hand. A smooth, polished limb with no joints. No texture. Like sculpted glass.
"You resist what you are."
Aiden froze.
"What I am?"
Silence.
Then—
"Your evolution frightens even you."
Aiden's heart pounded.
The Watcher slowly extended its hand toward his chest—not touching, simply hovering.
The Void inside him erupted.
A swirling vortex of darkness burst out of his skin, twisting violently, reacting to the Watcher's proximity.
Leah screamed. "Aiden!"
He wasn't in control.
He couldn't stop it.
Shadow poured from his arm, his shoulder, his ribs—writhing tendrils of pure Void essence snapping like starving jaws.
The Watcher didn't move.
Didn't defend.
It simply stood as the Void slammed against an invisible barrier a millimeter from its cloak.
The clash was soundless, but the shockwave knocked Leah against the wall.
"Aiden—stop!" she cried.
He couldn't stop. His power was reacting on its own. Shooting toward the Watcher like it wanted to consume it.
The Watcher finally spoke again.
"You are unstable."
With one simple gesture, it waved its hand.
The Void recoiled instantly, slamming back into Aiden's body so violently he collapsed to his knees, gasping in agony.
He felt like something inside him had ripped.
The Watcher stepped back, the distortion around it rippling.
"Survive the next convergence," it said. "Then I will return."
Aiden forced himself upright. "Wait—what convergence? Answer me!"
The figure paused halfway through the distortion.
Then delivered its final message.
"The next rift you face will not be meant to open."
Aiden's breath hitched.
"What does that—"
"—it will be meant to consume."
The distortion folded inward, swallowing the Watcher whole.
Silence crashed over the infirmary.
Leah fell to her knees, trembling.
Aiden stared at the empty space where the entity had stood.
And the System delivered one more message.
| Warning: A Timed Rift Convergence Event Will Occur Within 72 Hours. |
Aiden closed his eyes.
Things were accelerating faster than he could keep up.
And the world wasn't ready.