Page 32 of Starlit Bargains

“I'm saying—” Eliar broke off suddenly, his entire demeanor shifting from contemplative to alert in an instant. His head snapped up, gaze fixed on something beyond the temple clearing. “Something's wrong.”

A cold wind swept through the ruins, bringing with it the scent of ozone and something less definable—like the absence of scent, a void where smell should exist. The hairs on the back of Kai's neck rose in instinctive warning.

“What is it?” he asked, keeping his voice low.

Eliar didn't answer. He moved to the center of the temple, his steps precise, one hand raised as if feeling for something in the air. After a moment, he swore under his breath—a phrase in a language Kai didn't recognize but whose meaning was unmistakable.

“We need to leave,” Eliar said, turning back to Kai with newfound urgency. “Now.”

“Why? What's happening?”

“My power,” Eliar said grimly. “It's been... fluctuating since our connection at the stream. Creating ripples. And something has noticed.”

As if summoned by his words, the shadows at the edge of the clearing began to move. Not the natural shift of darkness as the sun's angle changed, but something deliberate and hungry. They pooled and stretched, separating from the objects that should have cast them, becoming entities of their own.

“Void Feeders,” Eliar identified them, his voice tight with tension. “Like the one we encountered before, but more of them. And they're not just passing through—they're hunting.”

Kai's hand went instinctively to the dagger at his belt, though he doubted mundane weapons would be much use against creatures of pure shadow. His magic stirred within him, responding to the threat and to Eliar's proximity, golden light beginning to gather around his fingertips.

“Hunting what?” he asked, though he already suspected the answer.

“Me,” Eliar said simply. “Or more precisely, what remains of my power. They feed on magical energy, especially the kind that exists at boundaries between realms. My essence... calls to them.”

The shadows were taking more definite shape now—vaguely humanoid but wrong, too fluid and formless to be anything natural. Kai counted at least five distinct entities, with more shadows coalescing at the forest edge.

“This isn't just some ghost story we've stumbled into, is it?” Kai said, a chill running down his spine that had nothing to do with the dropping temperature. “This is a hunt. And we're the prey.”

“They've been hunting me since I fell,” Eliar replied, positioning himself slightly in front of Kai in what was clearly a protective stance. “Usually, I can sense them coming, avoid confrontation. But lately...” He glanced at Kai, a hint of accusation in his gaze. “Lately, my awareness has been... distracted.”

“So this is my fault?” Kai asked, equal parts defensive and guilty.

“Not fault,” Eliar corrected. “Consequence. Everything has consequences, Kai.”

Before Kai could respond, one of the shadow creatures surged forward with shocking speed. It moved like liquid darkness, flowing across the ground and then rearing up into a towering form just steps away from them. A gaping maw opened in what might have been its head—a void darker than the shadow itself, hunger given shape.

Eliar reacted instantly, silver-blue light flaring from his palm in a focused beam that struck the creature dead center. It recoiled with a sound like tearing fabric, its form momentarily disrupted before it retreated to the perimeter, reforming as it went.

“They're testing our defenses,” Eliar said. “Assessing our strength.”

“Great,” Kai muttered. “Intelligent shadow monsters. Just what we needed.”

Another creature attacked from a different angle, this one staying low to the ground, moving in a zigzag pattern that made it difficult to track. Kai sent a burst of golden magic toward it, but the creature veered at the last moment, his attack missing by inches. Where his magic struck the ground instead, the stone briefly glowed with the same celestial patterns he'd seen during their first encounter in the temple.

The shadow creature lunged again, and this time Kai barely twisted away in time. As it passed, he felt a cold so intense it burned, the creature's proximity alone enough to hurt. Where it touched the ground, a sizzling sound filled the air, the stone corroding as if exposed to powerful acid.

“Don't let them touch you,” Eliar warned, sending another beam of light at the retreating shadow. “Their essence is corrosive to living matter.”

“Noted,” Kai gasped, heart racing from the near miss.

The remaining shadows were circling now, coordinating their movements with an intelligence that seemed at odds withtheir formless nature. Kai and Eliar stood back to back in the center of the temple floor, magic flickering around their hands as they tracked the threat.

“We need a plan,” Kai said, trying to keep his voice steady. “There are too many to fight head-on.”

“The temple itself has power,” Eliar replied. “Old magic, tied to my arrival. If I can access it, channel it properly, I might be able to create a barrier they can't cross.”

“That's a lot of 'ifs,'” Kai observed.

“Do you have a better suggestion?” Eliar asked, a hint of his usual dry tone breaking through the tension.

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