The sky cracked under the blinding light of the shattered moon. A faint echo of essence leaked from the fracture, like blood from a wound in the heavens.
Suddenly, a hand shot out—skeletal and impossibly dark. It pulled on the invisible cracks, widening them just enough to allow passage. From the tear emerged a silhouette, cloaked in writhing shadows, its form undefined, yet unmistakably human.
The being paused, hovering in the sky above Ausus. Its eyes glowed faintly—not with light, but with absence. A void where sight should be.
Below, nestled in quiet slumber, was a small hut.
Its gaze locked onto the hut.
-- "So... the vessel has awakened." --
The voice was not spoken aloud, but carried across essence itself. Every blade of grass trembled. In the forest, animals fell silent. Even the wind seemed to retreat.
Within the hut, the baby stirred.
His violet eyes opened slowly—dreamless, unblinking.
The being lingered only a moment more, then began to dissolve, scattering into black dust that rained gently over Ausus. Where it touched the earth, flowers wilted. Where it touched the sky, stars blinked out for a breath.
But no one saw. No one knew.
Only the child, eyes wide, pupils dilated to pinpricks, reached toward the roof. As if he'd recognized what had come.
And in the air, for the briefest second, essence paused.
Inside the hut, the baby stared at the roof long after the sky had gone still.
Then... his eyes dimmed. The violet glow receded like waves from shore.
Just then the reality shattered. And it was back again. But something had changed.
Each midwife blinked once, then again.
"…Wasn't he crying just now?" one murmured, puzzled.
The elder looked down at the child, her brows furrowed. "What was I…?"
Her thoughts dissolved like smoke. She saw nothing strange—only a newborn sleeping peacefully, a healthy essence core glowing faintly beneath his chest.
"Must've been the winds," another said, chuckling. "He's perfectly normal."
No one noticed the small burn marks on the floor where the essence stones had once been.
No one remembered a Hollow had ever been born.
Outside the hut, the shadows shifted.
From nowhere and everywhere, a voice touched the baby's fading consciousness:
-- "I have sealed you well, little vessel. To them, you are as ordinary as wind. But one day… when the seal breaks…
Let them tremble." --
Then silence.
And the child slept.