He was drowning, he tried to reach out, struggle and push against the cold, the currents of darkness pulling him down. He thrashed and screamed even though he was nothing. 

He broke free– eyes. He saw eyes. Green and wide, dark brown hair and a pretty face contorted in a grimace of pain.

Selina! Avin screamed.

She turned towards him, her full attention fell on Avin like a claw– to grab him, to rip him apart. Her face twisted–contorted, her mouth opening wide, wider, and wider still like something forcing its way out– her teeth extended, blood gushing out, her face broke and turned into a beast– a monster. 

Avin screamed, he pulled back suddenly, the cold closing in on him, the darkness returned like an ocean of shadows, vast and everlasting, ever present. Avin thrashed again, the pain and horror in his heart amplified, his spirit trembling like a naked babe in a snowstorm– but Avin struggled and fought- Even though he was nothing.

He saw a figure cloaked in a black tattered robe, above him a conflux- a conflux- or was that a? Avin's vision and fell frozen on a cloaked figure.

Above, the conflux churned and crashed against each other. Like chaos in its purest form, flows of… something. Avin could barely sense, barely understand, it was the currents of– the figure in the cloak, his face hidden behind a hood, raised a crystal globe above his head. There was fire and smoke all around the figure, blood and blood and bodies drowning in blood. Burning one and all. 

The face behind the shadowy hood turned towards Avin, the soft yet rugged face, with long, slightly curly black hair. And those eyes, those cold purple eyes looking at Avin were… Avin himself. He stood with the crystal globe beneath a sky of chaos. 

Bloody tears flowed down his face, and he opened his mouth, “T-this is the only way,” and he brought his hands down, shattering the globe on the stones beneath. 

A flood of darkness escaped and surged; it was evil. Avin could feel it - a manifestation of Malice and hunger itself, meant to devour the spirits themselves. 

Avin was drowning again, horror and fear flooding his veins as he tried to breathe, 

‘H-help! Help! Vlad! Help! Anyone please, please!’ 

The world around him suddenly calmed, the whispers and rustling from around him pulled back somehow, it was quiet- eerily quiet. 

“You're not ready child, you're close but not ready.” A voice came, like a whisper from somewhere far and yet close, and it shook Avin as if he were made of husk. 

“W-who are you! Did you bring me here!” Avin asked, suddenly finding his beating heart calming.

“No.” The voice said softly, “You found your way here by yourself, child. You've seen the echoes it seems, not surprising- considering the songs you sing.”

“Song?” Avin asked.

“No time for that, you should not be here, and you definitely shouldn't attract attention to yourself the way you have, This is the realm of immortals. You're lucky I was close by.” 

“W-what is the realm of what? Who are you–” his words were cut off as he saw a hand in front of his face.

A palm, white as frost, cold as a corpse. Thin red vessels running through the length of the long spindly fingers with long red nails like the legs of a spider.

“Until we meet again, child of chaos.”

The hand grabbed whatever Avin was in a Vice and pushed him deep into the darkness, choking the warmth out of him until he could feel nothing. 

***

Avin shot up his hand, grabbing his neck, the other flailing around in the darkness. Panicked, he tried to grab onto something-anything. His hands clawed something soft, and he paused. 

A scream halfway through his throat choking itself out. And he became still, his heart pounding madly and Avin realised he was in his room, on his cot. He was sleeping.

A dream! That was… a nightmare? The visions he had seen– wh-what was that? 

He tried to calm himself and pulled his leg off the cot and placed his feet on the floor, letting the cold stone soothe his hot nerves somehow. He sat and ran his hands through his hair still breathing hard. 

Once he had calmed down, everything became clearer, the nightmare felt so real to him, and it still did. Not because of what he had seen, actually he couldn't remember anything he had seen, except for the voice, that cold hand pushing him down. 

‘No time for that, you should not be here, and you definitely shouldn't attract attention to yourself the way you have. This is the realm of immortals. You're lucky I was close by.’

The voice had called him a child of chaos—which only led to one conclusion. 

Avin bolted up from his cot and ran out of his rooms, he passed through his house, deep red and dark shadows bathing the small rooms and corridors. He reached the basement in moments.

He slammed open the door and found Vlad sitting on a chair beside a table full of papers, inks, and various geometrical instruments, rulers, compasses, and marking tapes. The room was full of flasks filled with colourful alchemical substances. Wooden models of various engineering curiosities and samples of bizarre animals and insects placed in a jar of preservatives and perfumes.

A metallic globe hung from the ceiling surrounded by odd circular, square and triangular loops. They rotated slowly; it was a little hypnotic normally, but it couldn't keep Avin's attention now.

“What was that?” He said.

Vlad was tracing something with charcoal on a sheet of paper. He paused and looked up, taking off the big spectacles that had numerical markings on them. 

His left eye looked at him white, while his right one was looking right as usual, “What was what?” He asked.

Avin paused, “T-that dream…” Avin trailed off.

Vlad squinted his eyes at him “Dream…?” 

Avin thought for a moment, maybe he was just overreacting, maybe it was just a dream, but… he still felt that cold inside him, it was fading, but Avin could still feel it. Like a fresh pain slowly numbing.

He explained to Vlad about the dream that he couldn't remember, then he described the hand and the voice that he could remember. 

Vlad's eyes widened at the mention of the ‘realm of the immortals’ part and he sighed. 

“Did you sing the Willsong before going to sleep?” He asked.

“What kind of question is that? Of course, I did, you told me to practice the song every day.” Avin replied confused. 

“That dream, you don't remember those visions?” Vlad asked.

“No, I do remember seeing some visions that left me panicked, but I don't remember what I saw, I just remember that voice it felt so… real. Like I was actually drowning in the darkness.” 

Vlad nodded, “It seems you're close to awakening. And by happenstance, you entered the Echo realm.” 

“Echo realm?” Avin asked.

Vlad just shook his head, “Don't ask me, I am merely a conjurer. I am still a mortal and I have had very few experiences where I found myself there. It's not a place meant for mortals… things dwell there. Things that… Well, let's just say those things are... Dangerous.”

A chill went down Avin's spine, “Why didn't you tell me this before!” He said. 

“How can I? Like I said I have found myself in there just once, and my predecessor wasn't an Immortal either. We chaoswalkers haven't seen an immortal among our ranks for five generations before me. So our knowledge on the topic is very limited.” 

Avin squinted at his master, “So… when are you going to tell me what you know?” 

Vlad just smiled, “Take a seat.” He said putting down his charcoal stick, Avin walked up, pulled a chair and sat down, his nails scratching the armrest of the chair in nervous anticipation. 

“So.. Like I said, the echo realm is just one name we give it, it has many other names. But we call it the echo realm because everything that has happened in the past and might happen in the future echoes through that realm. The greater the significance of that event the greater its echo, or so I have been told.” 

“That sounds like…” Avin trailed off, confused; he didn't actually know what that sounded like.

“An Immortal supposedly can tap into the Echo realm to gain knowledge of the future or the past, listening or seeing the echoes of future events.” 

“That sounds… useful to say the least. So do all the immortals look into the future? Like the Oracles?” Avin said, perking up.

“Oracles don't see the future, kid, their elemental spirits grant them the power to speculate the future, with great cognitive capacity to decipher the natural signs around them, and come up with a reason as to why it is happening, or what might it lead to, and among other arcane things, it's like how you watch and break down an opponents fighting style by observing their weakness, biases, tells and habits.”

Avin nodded in understanding. And Vlad continued. 

“As to the Immortals, no, I don't think they can see the future per se, because if they could, they would be invincible, and they're not invincible that much I know, nothing in the world is invincible. And I think even for them it's not easy to access the echo realm.”

“Why is that?” Avin asked. 

Vlad paused, getting his thoughts together before speaking again, “It is because of the things that dwell there, the things that you might have felt around you. I've heard stories about those beings, but I'm not sure. They were called the prowlers, by my master. Here's the thing, Avin, the Echo realm, as to my vague knowledge - so don't take my words for the truth- Echo realm is a realm where time and reason are in chaos and the deep Spirits there are madness given life–or lack thereof.

And since chaos is the place where our powers excel, we're very sensitive to it. Much like the Chaos convergence I've told you about, the powers of a chaoswalker relates to all things related to chaos and by extension order itself, we can sense and navigate conflicts as a fish would swim the currents. But…”

“We must not submit to the currents like a fish would to the currents otherwise we'll be swept down the into the dark unknown depths -I know- I know.” Avin nodded only half understanding all of it, even though he said otherwise.

“This is not something you should treat so flippantly boy If you're not careful, your fate will be worse than death.” Vlad said, leaning forward with his elbows on the table, fingers crossed as his eyes bore down on Avin. 

“But… What am I even supposed to do if this happens again? And that voice, it said ‘he was close by’ Who was he?” Avin asked, his nerves on edge.

There was something that flashed through Vlad's eyes, anyone else might've missed it but Avin didn't. He felt Vlad definitely knew something… 

“I'm not sure who that voice belongs to and who warned you, but so far it has not harmed you. That's all that matters for now. Don't worry about it.” 

Avin opened his mouth to insist, but Vlad cut him off with a raised palm. “That's enough, go to sleep now. And tell me if anything else happens, you don't need to sing the willsongs any longer, the nature of your spirit seems to have been completely morphed. Just focus on your spirit awakening.”

Avin huffed in frustration, got up and left Vlad's study rooms. After Vlad heard Avin's footsteps vanish outside from the corridors he sighed and stood up. 

He pulled the walking cane beside him and walked out of his home and out to the edge of the cliffside. The two moons above, Zerun and Eslyn, shone in the clear skies.

Jenia, the pale white moon shone with silver light, unseen to other but Vlad because of his enhanced vision he saw red marks throughout the surface of the moon, like blood splashes. 

He pulled his gaze away from the Jenia and peered down towards the red valley. In the very distance, just beyond the visible horizon obscured behind the valley hills he could just make out the red ruins. His eyes grew sharp. His pupils dilating as he peered in that direction as if he was looking for something. 

He reached for the spirit force. And it flowed through his spirit like a barbed saw. He trembled and fell to his knees, the use of his own powers threatening to shatter him like glass. 

Vlad's breath caught when he could feel, more than what he could see. A storm of churning, and clashing mass of invisible current, approaching from the north and south. It wasn't clear what it was being pulled or pushed by, but the chaos was approaching and coiling around the Krimzon valley, like a snake. Slowly and but surely, it will shroud the whole valley, Vlad knew. And nobody could see it but a Chaoswalker.