The surface world felt louder after the quiet of the underground—like every sound had been turned up just to remind Caleb he wasn't the same anymore. The streetlights buzzed. Hovercars hummed past overhead. And yet, beneath all of it, he could still feel that strange hum in his chest.
The Aether hadn't gone silent. It was listening.
He sat on the edge of a rooftop overlooking Sector Twelve, knees drawn up, fingers tracing the edges of the medallion around his neck. Jarek stood nearby, arms crossed, eyes scanning the skyline like danger could fall out of the sky at any second.
"Is it always like this?" Caleb finally asked. "The noise in your head?"
Jarek didn't look at him. "You get used to it. Eventually, you learn how to quiet the current."
Caleb sighed. "I'm not sure I want to quiet it."
"Then it'll eat you alive."
They sat in silence for a while.
Finally, Jarek turned to him. "What you did back there wasn't normal. That kind of power surge, from someone newly Awakened? It shouldn't be possible."
Caleb looked down at his hand. "I didn't try to do it. It just… happened. Like something inside me knew exactly what to do."
Jarek nodded slowly. "That's Echo Aether."
Caleb blinked. "That's what I have?"
"One of the rarest types. It doesn't manifest like the others. Echo isn't an element. It's a reaction. It mirrors the Aether around it, adapts to it. And over time… it evolves. No two Echo wielders are the same. Some burn, some bend shadows, some twist time itself. You? You're still forming."
"Great. So I'm a blank slate with a target on my back."
Jarek smirked. "More like a wildcard. And people hate what they can't predict."
A message beeped on his comm. Jarek glanced at it and frowned. "We've got trouble."
"What kind of trouble?"
"Aether spike. Big one. Not far from here. Could be another Awakening—or a Rift."
Caleb stood. "We're going?"
"You're staying."
"Like hell I am."
Jarek hesitated. "You're not ready."
"I wasn't ready earlier either," Caleb said, stepping forward. "But if I sit still every time something dangerous happens, what's the point of having this power?"
Jarek stared at him for a long moment. Then, without a word, he turned and leapt to the next rooftop.
Caleb followed.
The source of the spike wasn't subtle.
Flames curled from the broken windows of an abandoned structure near the edge of the industrial zone. The air shimmered with heat, and waves of raw Aether pulsed outward—waves that made Caleb's head throb.
Inside the building, they found her.
A girl—no older than sixteen—surrounded by burning debris. Her eyes were wide, terrified, and glowing with a fiery orange light. She was crying, but her tears evaporated before they hit the floor.
Jarek raised a hand. "Easy. Don't spook her."
Caleb stepped forward slowly. "Hey. It's okay. I know what it feels like. The burning inside. Like the world's too small to hold it all in."
She looked up at him, shaking. "I didn't mean to. It just… it hurts. Everything hurts."
"I know," he said softly. "But you're not alone."
The flames around her flared, then flickered. Slowly, they died. The glow in her eyes faded. She collapsed to her knees, sobbing.
Caleb caught her before she hit the ground.
Jarek nodded approvingly. "You're learning."
Caleb looked down at the girl in his arms. For the first time, he understood.
The Aether wasn't just power.
It was people. Lives.
And maybe… this was what it was all for.