The camp was asleep. The embers of the campfire, once a roaring shield against the night, were now just a bed of coals flickering lazily, casting dancing shadows on the tired faces of the templars. Everyone slept soundly, exhausted from the battle and the tension of the last few hours. Everyone, except for Ari and Thalassa.
Ari sat by the fire, leaning against a log, his face tight with the dull, throbbing pain in his burned shoulder. He couldn't find a comfortable position. Every breath reminded him of the corrosive sap and the effort of channeling mana to heal Vespera. Exhaustion was a crushing weight on his shoulders, heavier than any armor.
Thalassa, on watch, moved silently among the sleepers, her silver silhouette barely visible in the darkness. She approached him, her boots making hardly a sound on the fallen leaves. She crouched beside him, her worried gaze fixed on his face.
"I'm sorry, Ari," she whispered, her voice filled with a vulnerable sincerity she rarely showed in public. "For all of this. For Valerius. I shouldn't have let his pride endanger us."
Ari looked at her, and a small smile, genuine despite the pain, curved his lips. "It's not your fault, Thal. Pride is a poison that not even my best blessing could cure. Valerius thought he was smarter than he is. And you... you were incredible, by the way." He paused, recalling the scene. "When you sent him flying... it was almost poetic. The way he broke through those trees..."
A fleeting but real smile lit up Thalassa's face. "He deserved it. He endangered Vespera. He endangered your life."
"Well, at least now everyone knows not to mess with my friends," Ari said, shrugging carefully. "And that underestimating a village priest can be... painful."
They fell silent for a moment, the soft crackling of the embers filling the air. Their closeness was an anchor, an island of calm in the midst of the chaos that had surrounded them. Their connection was deep, forged over years of knowing each other, of shared secrets and a tacit understanding that transcended their roles.
As they spoke in whispers, Thalassa suddenly stopped, frowning. "Wait..." she said, her voice now tinged with uncertainty. "Do you feel that?"
Ari took a deep breath, trying to discern something beyond the pain in his shoulder and the weariness in his bones. "The cold? Because yes, I feel a cold that chills you to the bone. Or the smell of moss and damp earth that seems to permeate everything? Because I feel both of those too."
Thalassa shook her head, her gaze fixed on the dark mouth of a small cave they had found nearby while looking for water. "No. It's... something else. A vibration. An energy... barely perceptible, but it's there. It's coming from in there." She nodded toward the cave.
Ari strained his ears, concentrating. Now that Thalassa mentioned it, he could feel it: a subtle pulse in the air, like a distant heartbeat. It wasn't a sound, but a sensation, a slight pressure on his eardrums. "Now that you say it..." he murmured. "Like a very distant hum? Yeah, I think I feel it."
Thalassa stood up, her hand instinctively going to the hilt of her sword. "I don't like it. It's... like a call."
Vespera stirred under her blankets and coughed lightly. She opened her eyes, still drowsy, and saw the two of them by the fire, looking toward the cave. "What's wrong?" she asked, her voice hoarse with sleep. "Are there more of those things?"
"We don't know," Thalassa replied. "Ari and I feel something... an energy coming from that cave."
Vespera sat up, rubbing her eyes. "A cave, huh? Could it be where they're hiding?"
"It could be anything," Ari said, getting to his feet carefully, a silent groan escaping his lips as he moved his shoulder. "Priest's curiosity, I guess. Thal, what do you say?"
The captain was already walking toward the cave, her drawn sword gleaming faintly in the moonlight filtering through the trees. "Let's find out."
Vespera and Ari followed her. The cave entrance was low and dark, barely a slit in the overgrown hillside. The smell of damp earth and moss was stronger here, mixed with a subtle, metallic scent, almost like dried blood.
Thalassa entered first, moving with the caution of a predator. Ari followed closely, with Vespera right behind him. The inside was surprisingly large, a natural chamber with uneven walls and a floor covered in loose pebbles. The energy they had felt outside was much stronger in here, a constant vibration that made their skin tingle.
In the center of the cave, illuminated by the faint light of their makeshift torches, a tree was growing. It was not a normal forest tree. It was ancient, sturdy, with a thick, gnarled trunk covered in knots and strangely colored lichens. Its roots, thick as snakes, clung to the stone floor of the cave, disappearing into the depths. The branches reached upward, vanishing into the darkness of the ceiling. The energy pulsed visibly around it, like a faint, vibrant aura.
"What the hell...?" Vespera whispered, staring at the tree in amazement. "A tree... inside a cave?"
"It's old," Thalassa said, approaching slowly, her sword at the ready. "Very old. I feel... power emanating from it."
Ari examined the roots, his eyes narrowing. "Look at them. They're not just on the rock. They seem... to merge with it. As if they're part of the cave itself."
He approached the trunk and touched it carefully. The bark was rough and cold to the touch, but underneath he felt the same pulsing vibration they had detected outside. "I don't sense anything... threatening," Thalassa said, lowering her sword slightly. "Just... a powerful presence."
"Maybe it's the source of the dark magic we're tracking," Vespera suggested. "Should we burn it?"
Before Ari could answer, Thalassa reached out and touched the trunk with her palm.
The instant her fingers made contact, the ground beneath her feet opened up.
It wasn't a tremor. It wasn't a gradual collapse. It was as if an entire section of the cave floor had simply ceased to exist. A deep, dark pit opened up beneath Thalassa, swallowing her into the blackness with a choked cry.
The captain's reaction was instantaneous, pure templar survival etched into her bones. As she fell, she tore her heavy cloak from her shoulders, secured it firmly to the pommel of her sword in a split second, and threw it upward with all her might. The sword flew, spinning through the air, and with a solid, definitive thud, it embedded itself deep into the tree's trunk, just above the newly formed chasm. The cloak, now taut, became a makeshift rope, breaking her sudden fall.
Vespera reacted with the same astonishing speed. Trained for any eventuality, she drew her dagger, quickly tied it to her own cloak, and threw the improvised anchor toward a thick root protruding from the cave ceiling. With her free hand, she lunged for Ari and grabbed his arm tightly. "I've got you!" she yelled, her face contorted with effort.
Ari felt the sudden pull of Thalassa's cloak and Vespera's firm grip. They were hanging over a pit of unfathomable darkness, safe... for the moment. They could hear Thalassa's ragged breathing just below them.
But then, something even more terrifying happened.
The tree trunk before them began to move. It didn't break. It didn't crack. It opened slowly, from top to bottom, like a gigantic, gnarled mouth revealing an even deeper darkness within. The wood creaked and split apart, exposing a black, ominous void that seemed to absorb all light.
With a sound of splintering wood and screeching metal, Thalassa's sword began to slip from its hold in the opening trunk. The cloak strained to its limit, and then, with a dry snap, it tore.
Thalassa screamed as she fell again, the darkness swallowing her whole.
Vespera's cloak held for another instant, but the strain of holding both Ari and her own weight was too much. The dagger began to slip from the root, scraping against the stone with a horrifying sound. "Shit!" Ari yelled, feeling Vespera's grip begin to fail.
And then, they fell.
Their screams were lost in the darkness as the tree's "mouth" closed over them with a dull, definitive boom, shaking the cave and sealing the entrance to the abyss. The sound echoed in the chamber, then faded, leaving behind a sepulchral silence and total blackness.