The Quiet Infiltration (6)

The morning felt wrong.

Maelra couldn't name it at first only that the air held a stillness that hadn't existed the day before. The crows were quiet. The wind moved through the trees like something watching.

She moved through the market with mechanical ease, lips tight, posture casual. But her eyes caught everything. Tomas was late opening his stall. The baker's daughter had a limp she hadn't had yesterday. And Kaelen… he wasn't in the training yard.

Something was shifting.

She returned to her room and knelt by the bedframe. Her fingertips brushed over the etchings until the rune flared faintly. The whisper rune vibrated like a breath between two mouths. She murmured:

"Unusual activity. Kaelen missing. Possible interference."

The rune dimmed.

Maelra didn't know why she said it. There was no evidence. But her instincts had sharpened over years of surviving on the Arcane's leash. And right now, those instincts whispered: Danger.

That evening, the sky turned a violent orange. Thunder in the distance, too rhythmic to be natural. Maelra stood outside the village square, senses pulled taut like thread.

Then the tremor hit.

A pulse, no louder than a heartbeat rippled through the soil. Villagers stumbled. Chickens scattered. Someone cried out. And from the woods beyond the eastern field, a column of light erupted, pale and searing.

Maelra's blood turned to ice.

She knew that color. That sound.

The runes had activated.

People rushed to see it, drawn like moths to a flame. Maelra didn't move. Her hand gripped the edge of the well, knuckles white. She whispered to herself:

"They started early."

Someone tugged her sleeve. It was Tomas, eyes wide. "Should we go see? Kaelen's already heading there."

Kaelen.

Maelra blinked, then forced a nod. "Stay here," she said. "I'll check it out."

She ran. Not toward the light but toward the storage house near the fields. There, behind a stack of barrels, she etched a quick update into the whisper rune:

"Light confirmed. Kaelen on route. Witnesses present. You said there would be remains but what kind?"

The reply came instantly:

"Let them witness. That is the point. The remains… will choose who is worthy."

She stared at the glowing rune.

" Worthy?"

But there was no follow-up.

From across the field, she heard Kaelen's voice shouting, firm, commanding, rallying people to stay back.

She turned slowly, watching him from a distance.

And whispered under her breath, "You have no idea what you're walking into."