The fragment spoke the words Kaelen had feared for a decade.
“The hunger has changed course. It is coming here. Not in centuries. In years.”
Kaelen sat in Elara's old lab. The crystals glowed faintly. The shard pulsed with red light.
“How many years?”
“Three. Perhaps four. It moves faster than we calculated.”
“Why?”
“Something woke it. Something familiar. Your bloodline. The anchor's residue. It smells you across the void.”
Kaelen's blood went cold.
“It's coming for me.”
“For all of you. But you are the beacon.”
---
He called a council.
Ethan was there. Now thirty years old, a leader among the Freeholds. Her children—Lena and Kael—sat at the back, too young to understand.
Zara stood beside her husband. Gray-haired but sharp-eyed.
Thorne, now ancient, leaned on a cane.
“The h
