Chapter 37: Echo's Warning

Echo responded to his contact within hours.

"You've been asking questions about me." Her voice came through a dimensional frequency Kai hadn't used before—cleaner than Vex's whispers, more stable. "The Council finally decided I was relevant to their operations."

"Someone attacked me in the Flux Realm. Used energy harvesting techniques I've never seen. The Architect suggested you might know who."

"Straight to business. I appreciate that." A pause. "The rift wielder you're looking for calls themselves Fracture. They've been operating in the uncatalogued regions for approximately two centuries, building power through methods that make your extraction phase look conservative."

"Two centuries? That's older than my awakening by a significant margin."

"Rift wielders exist throughout the multiverse, not just on Earth. Fracture is from a dimension that collapsed—destroyed by their own dimensional activity. They survived by fleeing into the spaces between, living on harvested energy ever since."

"What do they want?"

"To rebuild. Or to revenge. The distinction isn't clear." Echo's voice hardened. "What is clear: they've been watching Earth. Watching you specifically. A new rift wielder with Council connections, operating in their territory."

"The Flux Realm is their territory?"

"One of their harvesting sites. You stumbled into an operation they've been building for decades." Echo's tone carried warning. "They're not going to let that interference go unanswered."

Kai processed this. A rift wielder older than him, more experienced, with centuries of accumulated power and a grudge against him personally.

"How do I find them?"

"You don't. You prepare for when they find you." Echo paused. "I can provide information. Their patterns, their techniques, what I know of their capabilities. But I won't intervene directly. My evolution has made me... incompatible with direct dimensional combat."

"Then why help at all?"

"Because I don't want to see another rift wielder destroyed. Because Fracture's methods are unsustainable—they're destroying dimensions to fuel personal power, the exact behavior that gives people like us our reputation. And because—" She stopped.

"Because what?"

"Because you're different. Not better necessarily, but different. You've made choices that others in your position didn't. I'm curious to see where those choices lead."

Kai remembered Echo's earlier advice. About dimensions being ecosystems. About the damage caused by extraction.

"Fracture is doing what you warned me against. Treating dimensions as resources."

"Yes. At a scale that makes your early mistakes look trivial." Echo's voice carried something like regret. "They're not evil. They're desperate, traumatized, trying to survive the only way they know. But their survival is killing worlds."

"And the Council knows?"

"The Council has been trying to locate them for fifty years. Fracture is too mobile, too skilled at hiding in the uncatalogued regions." A pause. "Your Boundary Sense, though—your perception of dimensional barriers. If it's as developed as I've heard, you might be able to track them where Council equipment fails."

"You want me to hunt another rift wielder."

"I want you to stop someone who's killing dimensions by the dozen. The method is your choice."

---

The conversation left Kai with more questions than answers.

Fracture. A survivor of dimensional collapse, living on harvested energy, watching Earth and specifically targeting him. The attack in the Flux Realm hadn't been random—it had been reconnaissance. Testing his capabilities. Preparing for something larger.

"You're planning something," Vex observed during their next secret communication. "I can hear it in your voice."

"Fracture is a rift wielder who destroys dimensions. The Council wants them stopped. Echo wants them stopped. I want them stopped."

"And you think you can accomplish what fifty years of Council effort failed to achieve?"

"I think I have capabilities the Council doesn't. Boundary Sense that functions differently. Flux integration that's changed how I process dimensional energy." Kai paused. "And I understand Fracture in ways the Council can't. I know what it's like to treat dimensions as resources. To cause damage without understanding the consequences."

"You're projecting your own rehabilitation onto someone who might not want to be rehabilitated."

"Maybe. But what's the alternative? Let them keep destroying worlds?"

Vex was quiet for a long moment.

"What do you need from me?"

"Information about the uncatalogued regions. Places where a rift wielder might hide for extended periods. Patterns in dimensional activity that don't match natural phenomena."

"That's dangerous territory, Walker. Literally and politically. If the Council discovers I'm helping you conduct unauthorized operations—"

"The Architect knows we're in contact. They didn't stop it." Kai's voice was firm. "This is sanctioned. Unofficially, but sanctioned."

"Unofficial sanctions have a way of becoming official denials when things go wrong."

"I know the risks."

Another pause. Then: "I'll gather what I can. But we need to be careful. Fracture has survived this long by being paranoid and ruthless. If they discover we're hunting them..."

"They'll try to eliminate us before we can find them."

"They'll succeed in eliminating us before we can find them. Don't overestimate your own capabilities." Vex's voice carried genuine concern. "You've grown, Walker. But you're still young. Still learning. Fracture has two centuries of experience."

"Then I'd better learn fast."

The communication ended.

Kai sat alone, planning an operation against an enemy he'd never met, in territories he'd never visited, using capabilities he was still figuring out.

He gave himself two weeks to prepare. That probably wasn't enough.