Chapter 13: The Hollow Monarch’s Whisper

The Hollow does not steal. It transforms.

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The City of Echoes

The air felt wrong.

Kael could hear his own breathing—shallow, uneven. His heartbeat thumped against his ribs, but the world around him was silent.

Too silent.

The ruined city stretched out before them, a maze of broken spires and crumbling streets swallowed by creeping shadow. The Hollow had touched this place long ago—claimed it.

Yet it was not abandoned.

The figures stood motionless, lining the streets like forgotten statues. They had no faces. No eyes. No form beyond their silhouettes. Not Hollowborn. Not human.

Just shadows wearing the memory of something that once lived.

Kael swallowed hard.

Vaeloria stepped closer to him, voice low. "What the hell are those?"

Lysara turned in a slow circle, gripping her staff. "They're not moving."

Kieran didn't sheath his sword. "Yet."

Kael wanted to believe the figures weren't a threat, but he knew better. Nothing in the Hollow was ever truly still.

A whisper drifted through the air—low, almost indistinct.

"You were not meant to be here."

The shadows stirred.

Not moving.

But breathing.

The Monarch's Presence

Kael felt it before he saw it.

The presence pressed against his mind, something vast and ancient lurking just beyond the veil. It wasn't Dain. It wasn't anything human.

It was older.

It had no shape.

But it was watching.

A sound rippled through the city—not a voice, but a thought forced into existence.

"You have seen. You have felt. And still, you resist?"

Kael clenched his teeth. Not again.

The Hollow Monarch wasn't speaking to all of them.

It was speaking to him.

The others didn't seem to hear it.

"Kael?" Lysara's voice barely cut through the pressure in his skull.

"You know the empire is dying." The whisper coiled through his thoughts, threading through his memories. Pulling at the doubt already inside him.

"It is already lost."

Kael's pulse spiked. This wasn't real. It wasn't real.

Except—

Something shifted at the edge of his vision.

A shadow separated from the rest.

A figure stepping forward.

And this one—

This one had eyes.

The Hollow's Offer

It looked like Kael.

Not a perfect copy.

Not a doppelgänger.

But a reflection of something he could become.

Its face was his, but the eyes were voids, twin abysses swallowing all light. It raised a hand—pale, scarred, just like his own.

And when it spoke—

It used his voice.

"You already belong to us."

Kael staggered back. "No."

The figure tilted its head, studying him. Amused. Pitying.

"Not yet. But soon."

Vaeloria moved, stepping between them, sword raised. "Enough."

The shadow didn't flinch.

"You cannot kill what does not live."

The Hollow surged forward.

And the city came alive.

Run.

The silent figures lurched into motion.

Not fast. Not human. Just wrong.

A twisted, jerking mockery of movement.

Kieran was already moving, his blade cutting through the first of them—but they didn't bleed. The darkness split apart like mist, reforming before the bodies even hit the ground.

"We have to move!" Lysara's magic flared, burning blue against the encroaching night.

Kael's chest tightened. The Hollow's presence was pressing in, its words still whispering at the edges of his mind.

"There is no empire to save."

"You know it's true."

"You have already heard its death rattle."

He clenched his fists, shoving the voice aside. Later. He could deal with it later.

Right now—

"Go!" Vaeloria snapped.

They ran.

The City's Heart

The streets twisted, leading them deeper into the ruins. The Hollow shifted the city around them, reshaping paths, closing doors.

Trapping them.

But Lysara's magic cut through the shifting dark, forcing open a narrow alleyway. "There!"

They reached a ruined square—and stopped.

Because at its center stood a doorway.

Not an ordinary one.

A gate, built of black stone, humming with power.

It pulsed at their approach, its surface shimmering with something older than the empire itself.

Vaeloria's breath came fast. "What in the void is that?"

Lysara's hands trembled. "I— I think this is it."

Kael turned to her. "It?"

She swallowed. "The first gate."

The weight of those words settled over them.

They had all heard the stories.

Before the Hollow had a name, before it spread like a disease—there had been a door.

A place where the first of its kind had entered this world.

A place that should have never been opened.

And now—

It was waiting for them.

The Final Whisper

The figures in the city stopped.

The Hollow's presence shifted, pressing closer.

The voice came again, but this time—

It wasn't just in Kael's head.

It echoed in the air.

"Do you truly think you can fight what you do not understand?"

The darkness curled around the gate—welcoming.

A choice lay before them.

Step forward—

Or run.

Kael could still hear the whisper threading through his thoughts.

"You already belong to us."

And this time—

He wasn't sure if it was wrong.