The Echo War

Ten

Shadows of the Archive

The wasteland stretched in all directions, an endless grave of glass and ash. Morning light slid through the haze in brittle shards, painting the ruined horizon in pale fire. Dren moved with the stiffness of a man stitched together by sheer will, every step sending a shock of pain through his ribs. The Pulse Emitter hung across his shoulder, its coil still spitting tiny arcs like a dying star.

Veyna walked ahead, her cloak torn, her blade gleaming faintly in the thin dawn. She did not limp, though he knew her side still bled. Stubborn as iron. Proud as stone.

For hours, they spoke little. The silence pressed between them, filled only by the crunch of scorched ground and the whisper of the wind dragging smoke across the earth. Yet beneath that silence lay tension: the weight of unspoken truths, of the voice that had crawled into Dren’s bones.

It waited there now, like a shadow beneath his skin.

You cannot kill what you are.

The words repeated in rhythm with his f