Dov raised himself from the cracked earth, coughing blood. His ribs felt splintered. Every breath scraped. The glow that had once clung to his veins was gone, leaving his body hollow. He touched the ground; it gave no pulse back. All the arc-light is gone.
He remembered the last surge. When Roselys's thread struck, it brushed the shared nerve of his tamed Archean—an echo web built for many Arksprens. Her weave had tried to reflect his pain through an emotional void, but hunger cannot echo; it devours what mirrors it.
His Archean drew from Devouring Absence, one of the fifteen Arche. Hers belonged to Entangled Will. Different roots, different hungers. Reflection worked on beings that held compassion, fear, connection. His held none of those.
The backlash turned inward. His Archean consumed its own arc-light to shield the shared link. The surge burned him empty inside, yet filled his body with the residue of that devoured light.
