In the aftermath, the group turns on James. Mira demands answers, Lyssa nearly walks away. Toren insists the beast acted independently—a terrifying implication. James confesses: he didn't summon the beast. But he doesn't deny the Void is responding to him…differently.*
Part II: Fractures Among the Dust
The camp was dead quiet.
The four of them sat in a loose circle around the cold, black earth where the beast had stood. No one spoke at first. The trees no longer whispered. Even the wind had left.
Mira finally broke the silence.
"You going to tell us what that was?" she said, not looking at him.
James didn't answer. His hands were still shaking.
Toren, wiping blood from his temple, exhaled. "It was a void-construct. But not a clean one. That wasn't summoned. That was *feral.*" He looked at James. "You didn't call it, did you?"
James met his eyes, and for once, didn't lie.
"No."
Mira's head snapped toward him. "Then why the hell was it wearing your damn *face*?"
James flinched.
Lyssa stood slowly, brushing leaves off her coat. "It responded to you," she said. "It stopped when you commanded it. And it smiled at you."
"It didn't stop," James said flatly. "It *paused.* Then it ignored me."
"That's not better," Mira said.
Toren knelt by a scorch mark, dragging a finger through the ash. "If that thing crossed over *without a summoning,* then the Veil is thinner than we thought. Something's bleeding through."
"No," Lyssa said, staring at James. "*Someone's* bleeding through."
James stood. "You think I wanted that thing here? I didn't summon it. I've never seen it before."
Mira rose too, getting in his face. "But it knew you. You can't summon without calling. You can't *name* without knowing. So how the hell did a creature from the Void show up wearing a crown like yours?"
James turned away, jaw clenched. "Because maybe I've been calling things in my sleep. Maybe the Void doesn't wait for permission anymore."
That shut them up.
Toren let out a breath, slow and tight. "If the Void's reacting to your *presence*, not your intent… we've got bigger problems than we thought."
James didn't respond. He was staring out at the woods again, into the dark. Not looking for the beast.
Listening for the whispers.
Mira stepped back, voice lower now. "So what do we do? Keep running? Keep burning villages behind us when something follows?"
"No," James said.
They waited.
He turned toward them, eyes darker than before. "We stop running. I need answers. I need to know what that thing was. And why it looked at me like I was its father."
Lyssa scoffed. "So what? We just walk into the Void and ask it nicely?"
James said nothing.
But something in the way he looked at her made the camp go still again.
Toren spoke first. "Tell me you're not thinking about entering the rift."
James didn't blink. "I'm not thinking."
"I'm doing."