Elias stood in the dimly lit alley, staring up at the crumbling tenement building before him. Its windows were shattered, and faint wisps of smoke curled from cracks in the brickwork. The structure felt wrong, as if it were leaning slightly in defiance of gravity.
"This is it?" Elias asked, his voice low.
Adrienne nodded, gripping the hilt of her rune-inscribed dagger. The faint glow of its etchings illuminated her determined expression. "A rift opened here last night. The Lanterns detected it before it could spread too far, but it's still unstable."
"And what exactly am I supposed to do?" Elias asked.
Adrienne gave him a sidelong glance. "Stay alive and follow my lead. You're not trained for this yet."
"Comforting," Elias muttered, his hand brushing the Veil-forged dagger at his side.
They entered the building cautiously, the air inside thick with dust and a faint metallic tang. Shadows flickered unnaturally in the corners, moving as if alive.
"Why here?" Elias whispered. "This building looks abandoned."
"It's not," Adrienne replied. "Several families lived here. The rift displaced them, and a few... didn't make it out."
Elias's grip tightened on the dagger. The thought of innocent lives lost to something so incomprehensible made his stomach churn.
Adrienne knelt, tracing her fingers over faint scorch marks on the wooden floor. "Whisperers," she said quietly.
"What?"
"Amateur practitioners," Adrienne explained. "They tampered with the Veil, trying to summon something. Clearly, they didn't know what they were doing."
Elias glanced around uneasily. "And now we're walking into their mess."
The two moved deeper into the tenement, the air growing colder with each step. The walls groaned, and a low hum filled the space, vibrating through Elias's chest.
They reached a large room at the center of the building. Faint light from the moon filtered through a broken window, casting pale beams across a circle of chalk and blood scrawled on the floor.
The symbols glowed faintly, pulsating like a heartbeat.
"Don't step into the circle," Adrienne warned, her voice sharp.
"I wasn't planning on it," Elias muttered, his monocle already in hand.
He slipped it over his eye, the brass cold against his skin. The room shifted. The glow from the circle grew brighter, and faint tendrils of shadow rose from the markings, twisting and writhing like smoke caught in a breeze.
"What do you see?" Adrienne asked, her dagger ready.
"Nothing good," Elias replied.
A sudden noise made them both turn.
From the shadows emerged four figures, their faces pale and drawn. They wore tattered robes, and their hands trembled as they clutched strange talismans carved from bone.
"Whisperers," Adrienne hissed.
"Stop!" one of them called, their voice cracked and desperate. "You don't understand! We're so close!"
"Close to what?" Elias asked, his tone sharp.
"The Forgotten Pantheon," the Whisperer replied. "They promised us power, salvation—everything we've lost!"
Adrienne raised her dagger. "You've doomed yourselves."
Before Elias could react, the circle flared violently. The symbols on the floor burned bright violet, and a rift tore open in the air above it.
The Whisperers screamed as shadowy tendrils erupted from the tear, lashing out wildly. The largest tendril wrapped around one of the Whisperers, pulling them into the rift. Their scream was cut off abruptly.
"Get back!" Adrienne yelled, grabbing Elias and pulling him away from the circle.
The rift widened, and from it emerged a hulking Veilshard. Its body was a mass of shifting darkness, its eyes two glowing orbs of violet. The temperature plummeted, frost forming on the walls and floor.
Elias drew his revolver instinctively, firing at the creature. The bullets passed through harmlessly, the Veilshard barely flinching.
"Figures," Elias muttered.
Adrienne stepped forward, her voice steady as she began chanting in a language Elias couldn't understand. The runes on her dagger flared, and dark tendrils erupted from the ground, snaring the Veilshard's limbs.
The creature shrieked, its form writhing against the bindings.
"Hurry up!" Elias shouted.
"I'm trying!" Adrienne snapped, sweat beading on her forehead.
The Veilshard thrashed harder, one of its tendrils snapping free and striking toward Adrienne.
Elias acted on instinct, lunging forward with his Veil-forged dagger. He slashed at the tendril, the blade cutting through it with surprising ease.
The Veilshard recoiled, its violet eyes fixing on Elias.
"Great," Elias muttered. "Now it's mad."
The creature lunged at him, its tendrils slamming into the ground where he had stood a moment before. He rolled to the side, his dagger raised defensively.
Adrienne continued her chant, her voice growing louder. The bindings on the Veilshard tightened, dragging it back toward the rift.
"Keep it distracted!" she yelled.
"Easy for you to say!" Elias retorted, dodging another tendril.
He struck again with the dagger, aiming for the glowing veins he could see through the monocle. The blade sank into the Veilshard's form, and the creature let out an ear-piercing shriek.
Adrienne's chant reached a crescendo, and the runes on her dagger flared so brightly they lit up the entire room.
"With the Light of the Veil, I bind you!" she shouted, driving her dagger into the ground.
The Veilshard thrashed violently, its form collapsing inward. The rift above the circle began to close, pulling the creature back into its depths.
Elias stumbled back, his chest heaving as the room grew quiet once more.
"Is it over?" Elias asked, his voice hoarse.
Adrienne wiped her brow, exhaustion etched into her features. "For now."
She gestured to the remaining Whisperers, who were cowering in the corner. "We need to take them in. They'll have answers about who's behind this."
Elias nodded, still gripping his dagger tightly. His gaze lingered on the now-dormant circle, the faint glow of its symbols still etched into his mind.
The Veil's shadows were far darker and more dangerous than he'd ever imagined.