They set up a makeshift camp beneath a rocky overhang, a flimsy shelter against the biting winds and the omnipresent darkness. The silence, thick as a funeral shroud, stretched endlessly, broken only by the faint crackle of a nascent fire.
Kaien, kneeling by the flame, arranged a circle of stones to steady it before pulling a small bundle of dried herbs from his satchel. He crumbled them between his fingers, letting the fragments fall into the flickering fire.
"Did you know some Umbra plants burn longer than wood?" he remarked, a wry smile curling his lips.
Gaël leaned forward, intrigued. The flames danced higher, but they were unlike any fire he'd ever seen. A spectral blue tinged the light, cold and pale, pulsing with a disturbing kind of energy.
"That's… odd," he murmured.
Kaien let out a short laugh.
"Welcome to the abyss, kid."
Brann sat cross-legged, his heavy blade resting against his knee, saying nothing as he stared into the ghostly fire. Rai, ever vigilant, swept his eyes over the darkness beyond, watching the shadows dance at the edges of their sight. Maera sat down silently by the fire, arms crossed, her weapon laid across her lap.
And then, finally, they spoke.
Kaien, always the first to cut through the tension, arched an eyebrow toward Brann.
"So, Grand Fallen One… you feel anything strange around here?"
Brann was silent for a moment, gaze fixed on the flickering blue light. Then, in a low voice, almost distant, he muttered:
"Everything here is strange."
Maera exhaled sharply through her nose, clearly unimpressed."That's a bit vague, isn't it?"
Brann slowly raised his eyes, first to her, then to Kaien.
"We're being watched."
The silence that followed fell like a guillotine. Gaël felt a chill crawl up his spine. Something old and primal stirred within him, an instinct as ancient as mankind's fear of the dark.
Kaien tapped the hilt of his blade gently.
"Figured as much."
Maera's jaw clenched.
"By who?"
Brann unbuckled his scabbard and laid it beside him with an unsettling calm.
"I don't know. But they don't seem ready to strike."
Unease twisted in Gaël's gut. He glanced out into the shadows, but there was nothing. And yet… something in the air felt wrong. As if something was lurking just beyond the veil of sight, just past the border of reality.
Rai, calm and unmoved, was the one who broke the silence.
"We need to stay focused." All eyes turned to him, but he didn't stop. "We're not here to hunt and cleanse the creatures of the Rift. That would be a futile endeavor… and, let's be honest, a rather arrogant one."
His gaze slowly drifted across each member of the group before concluding:
"We have a mission. Let's not forget that."
Maera, leaning against a crumbling rock wall, raised an eyebrow and crossed her arms over her chest.
"A mission, huh?" An amused smile, tinged with irony, brushed her lips. "You tagged along without even asking for my opinion, so maybe it's time someone told me what this is all really about."
"We're here to retrieve an item…" Kaien explained slowly, pausing for a beat. His voice was void of warmth as he added simply, "...taken by a creature of shadow. That's all you need to know."
Maera narrowed her eyes, her amusement giving way to a sharper curiosity.
"An item, you say?" Her smile returned, but this time there was a spark of challenge in her amber gaze. "Well, isn't that funny? I'm here for an item too… What a coincidence, don't you think?"
"I doubt it's the same one."
Maera let out a soft laugh.
"Oh really? And what makes you so sure?" Her tone hardened. "You think the Rift is just a trash heap where forgotten treasures are left to rot?"
She gestured broadly to the darkness surrounding them.
"Sure, some people dump things here… but that's beside the point. If, by chance, we're after the same artifact, I hope you'll forgive me for not handing it over with a smile and a bow."
The silence that followed grew heavier, more tense. Kaien was the first to break it.
"If it turns out we're after the same object…" He folded his arms, a smirk tugging at his lips, but there was something darker in his eyes, something sharper. "Then let our guardian decide who deserves it more."
Brann, silent until then, gave no reaction to the remark. His gaze betrayed neither amusement nor irritation. Instead, he chose to steer the conversation toward a more immediate, more practical matter.
"I don't care about the item," he said. "I'm here for Fenrir."
Maera raised an eyebrow. "Fenrir? What is that, an Hollowborn?"
Kaien gave a thin smile. "In a way. But more importantly… he's intelligent."
A tense silence fell over the group.
"…How intelligent?" Maera asked quietly.
Gaël, who had remained in the background, felt his stomach knot.
"An intelligent Hollowborn?" he murmured, as if the words themselves resisted meaning in his mind.
Kaien shrugged casually, his eyes drifting toward the young man.
"What did you think? That Hollowborns are just beasts that growl and devour?"
Gaël didn't respond right away. He knew some Altered creatures possessed a rudimentary intelligence, that certain corrupted beasts could stage ambushes, though it was always hard to say whether that was instinct or true cunning.But an Hollowborn… aware?
Rai answered the Swordbrother's question, his voice as sharp as the silence around them.
"Very intelligent. Born from a secret project, a collaboration between the Empire and the Order."
Gaël frowned.
"A secret project?"
Rai gave a bitter smile.
"More like a mad gamble. They thought they could fuse an Hollowborn with a living treasure and tame it."
He paused, weighing his words.
"Not just any Hollowborn. A Unique. One of the kind that twists the rules. The ritual worked… for a time. Then it escaped. Took with it an artifact of major importance."
"What are its capabilities?" Maera asked, her tone crisp and to the point.
Gaël nodded. It was the right question. A pressing one.
Rai exchanged a glance with Kaien, then replied simply:
"Hard to say. But from what we know, it has two forms. One human… and one beast."
"A great wolf," Brann growled, spitting the words like a memory that burned.
Maera turned a sharp gaze on him.
"You seem familiar with it. Did it steal something from you too?"
Brann froze. For a heartbeat, the mask of stone on his face cracked.
"Much more than that…" he said in a voice heavy with meaning.
Maera didn't press. She recognized the kind of wounds best left untouched. But she remained pragmatic.
"And this artifact… what could it use it for?"
Kaien raised an eyebrow, his gaze gleaming with dangerous amusement.
"Excellent question. Why don't we ask him?"
"Very funny," Maera snapped.
But beneath the sarcasm, Kaien's posture shifted, turning more serious.
"In all honesty… it wasn't taken by chance. It's not a trophy. That artifact has a function. A very specific one."
Maera narrowed her eyes at him, suspicion flaring.
"What aren't you telling us?"
Kaien didn't answer right away. He let his fingers trace the sheath of his sword, buying himself time to gather his thoughts. Then, finally, he said:
"What it took… wasn't just some artifact. It was the Lightdrainer of Lumen."
The reaction was instant.
Maera went rigid. In a flash, every trace of annoyance vanished from her face.
"The Lightdrainer?" she repeated, disbelieving. "You mean… the thing that can suck the Lumen from a Blessed until there's nothing left but a hollowed-out corpse?"
Kaien gave a small shrug.
"Do I look like I'm joking?"
Maera cursed under her breath, a hard glint flashing in her eyes. She stood straighter, her body taut like a drawn bowstring.
"Then we have a problem. Because that's exactly what I came here to find."
The blue fire crackled between them, as if sensing the rise in tension, casting longer, sharper shadows.
Kaien crossed his arms with casual ease, but something in his gaze had changed. More alert. Less masked.
"Then may the best one win."
Brann, ever the pragmatist, cut off the brewing confrontation.
"If he's still here."
A shiver passed through the air. The fire dimmed. The silence thickened. Around them, the darkness felt denser. Hungrier.