The edge of the world was silent. Not the silence of peace, but the hollow stillness of a tomb. Beyond the faint shimmer of the barrier, vast shapes moved in the dark eldritch things adrift in the Outerverse, too immense for mortal minds to grasp. Humanity would never see them. But William Bloodshadow had seen enough to never forget. He stood on the broken balcony of a forgotten fortress, staring into the void beyond. The air was bitterly cold, cutting through his ragged cloak. Behind him came the soft drag of silk across stone her approach. Void moved like a shadow given purpose. Her long, silky hair flowed behind her like liquid night, darker than any starless sky. A simple black dress clung to her lithe, curving form, its hem trailing the floor like creeping smoke. Her skin was pale, almost luminous in the darkness, and her eyes… they were bottomless pits, vanta black pools that seemed to devour the world around them. Beautiful, yet wrong a living echo of desire shaped by something inhuman.

Void: “You’ve been staring out there for hours,” she said, her voice smooth and soft, but carrying a strange, hollow resonance.

William didn’t look at her. William: “It helps me remember where we are,” he muttered. William: “And what’s waiting out there.”

Void tilted her head slightly, studying him with unnerving stillness. Void: “They cannot reach you. The cage holds.”

William: “For now.” He laughed bitterly. William: “Cages don’t last forever. I’ve seen kingdoms fall for less.”

She stepped closer, the air around her growing colder. Her fingers grazed his jaw cold as ice, yet delicate. Void: “You think too much of what lies beyond,” she murmured. Void :“It does not matter. I am here. We are here.”

William finally turned to face her. Even after weeks, her beauty still unsettled him. Her form was perfect by human standards, yet every detail was off the lifeless stillness of her chest, the unblinking gaze, the way her hair never fully caught the light, as if it absorbed it.

Void: “You are the only human I have known… and yet, in these weeks, I’ve found more purpose simply speaking to you than I ever imagined. Your kind,fragile, chaotic…..so simple, yet endlessly complex.”