Treaders

A new danger is set loose.

The rain fell in sheets now, drumming against the slate rooftops of Storm harbor like a warning no one dared to heed. Darius, Elara, Maren, and Rockford darted through the winding alleys, dodging overturned carts and flames licking out of shattered windows.

Somewhere far behind them, the girl’s magic cracked like thunder; white and blinding, followed by a howl that sounded less like a beast and more like the sky being torn open.

They didn’t speak until they reached a narrow underpass beneath the bridgeworks, breathless and soaked to the bone. Darius leaned against the stone, clutching the satchel tight to his side, every pulse of the crystal matching the thud of his heart.

“What is that noise?” Maren asked suddenly, her voice barely audible over the wind.

It wasn’t thunder.

The sound rolled through the streets like heavy grinding metal on stone, slow and deliberate. And then came the rhythm: two beats, pause, one beat. Two beats, pause, one beat.

Elara peered around the edge of the wall. Her face went pale.

“Treaders,” she said. “They’ve brought out the hollow armored constructs.”
Maren hissed. “Those were sealed in the undercity vaults. No one was supposed to”

“They’re not listening to rules anymore,” Elara snapped.

A shriek pierced the storm high and keening, answered by dozens more like it.
Maren turned to Darius. “That crystal. If Lyle is channeling its twin, then they’re not just summoning the Hollow. They’re feeding them.”

Darius tightened his grip on the satchel. “Then we have to stop it. We end this before there’s nothing left to save.”

Rockford growled low, ears flattened, sensing what none of them wanted to say.
This wasn’t just a siege.

It was the beginning of a reckoning.