The crevice the trio entered was thankfully wide enough for them. No wonder the smaller raptors could slip through it so easily.

  Edmund led the way, his sword raised to cast light along the jagged walls. Behind him, Leif supported Serena as she staggered forward, still shaken from the fight. The veins along her neck continued to glow faintly; a warning sign she needed to stop. She’d been told by both the king and her instructor never to overexert herself again. The last time she had was during the attack at the king’s lodge, after which she’d collapsed into unconsciousness. Worse still, she could fall into a coma.

  They pressed on until the crevice opened into another passageway. Wider than the gap they’d crawled through, but still tighter than the cavern they’d just fled. After scanning the shadows and listening for any sign of claws on stone, they finally allowed themselves to rest.

  Leif carefully guided Serena down and eased her back against the cave wall. Edmund uncorked his waterskin and brought it to her lips, letting her drink.

  “Are you hurt?” he asked.

  “I’m fine, Prince. What about you?”

  “Just some minor cuts,” he replied, then turned to Leif.

  He didn’t even have time to ask. Leif was slumped against the opposite wall, one arm clutched tight to his upper shoulder. In the sword light, Edmund saw it immediately.

  Blood slipping between Leif’s fingers and dripping to the ground.

  The prince was at his side in an instant. “You’re injured.”

  “I’ll be fine,” Leif muttered. “I just need… to rest.”

  Serena pushed herself up the moment she heard it, ignoring her own exhaustion. She crossed the short space between them and gently pried Leif’s hand away, revealing fresh claw marks. She placed both palms over the wound despite his protests.

  “Don’t,” Leif tried, strained. “You’re already tired.”

  “You should’ve said something sooner,” Serena said, ignoring him. Her voice tightened as she focused. “This is from when you shoved me out of the way, isn’t it?”

  She didn’t waste time. Serena’s palms emanated a faint golden glow over his injuries. The air around her hands seemed to thicken with heat, soothing even before the magic fully took hold.

  It only took a few minutes for the bleeding to slow until it fully stopped. The ragged cuts drew together as if pulled by invisible thread, sealing until the last mark vanished beneath smooth skin.

  Leif stared at his upper arm. He flexed his fingers once, then again. The pain was gone, so was the stiffness. He looked up to thank her, only to find Serena faltering. Her breath had turned uneven and shallow. Her shoulders trembled as she tried to steady herself, but the glow in the veins on her neck pulsed faintly again, betraying how far she’d pushed.

  Leif started to reach for her, but Edmund was already there. The prince caught Serena gently and guided her back against the wall. Serena’s eyes fluttered, fighting to stay open, but she lost the battle as her head tipped forward, her body going slack.

  Edmund sat down beside her and shifted closer, letting her lean into him. He kept one arm around her shoulders, waiting until her breathing began to slow into something deeper. Leif watched without a word.

  Serena’s face softened as sleep finally claimed her, her head resting on Edmund’s shoulder. The two young men sat in silence for a while, watching her sleep as the glow along her veins finally faded. Leif spoke first not long after, breaking the quiet.

  “It feels like yesterday, when her speech was still halting.”

  Edmund smiled faintly, eyes still on her. “It does. But here she is, blasting monsters left and right.”

  “It’s been two years since the king found her, isn’t it?”

  The prince nodded. “She couldn’t even speak then. Didn’t even look at anyone.”

  “Her gaze was always on the ground,” Leif said. “But her hair was strangely neat, and she smelled like lilac all the time, too. I almost thought she was a princess.”

  Edmund gently stroked her hair, shifting so her head rested more comfortably against him.

  “I remember how excited you were to teach her how to speak, and to introduce her to everyone in the palace,” Leif said.

  The prince’s gaze was still on Serena. “I just… wanted to guide her. It didn’t feel fair, to be alone, lost, without memory. I wanted her to feel like she belonged somewhere.”

  He glanced at Leif afterward. “What about you? You welcomed her so quickly too. I still remember you walking her around the palace yard the very next day, showing her the gardens, the fountains.”

  Leif hesitated, then exhaled softly. “I felt… this strange connection with her. Like I’d known her already.”

  “It was as if I’d seen her before,” he added quietly. “And when she first spoke, her voice sounded familiar.”

  “Familiar?” Edmund echoed.

  Leif nodded. “It reminded me of my dreams, the ones I used to have before I met her. I always dreamed of this girl. Her hair was a lighter blonde, I think, and her eyes were green.”

  “Really?” Edmund said, intrigued. “And what did you two do in these dreams?”

  Leif’s gaze drifted, as if he were watching the scenes replay behind his eyes. “Sometimes we just walked around, surrounded by these strange, tall structures made of glass. Other times we stood on a balcony, watching a meteor shower at night.”

  He paused, taking a sip from his waterskin before continuing. “There was even one where we were with other people in this huge hall with plants everywhere, like a garden that belonged indoors.”

  “Sounds like you were dreaming of your future wife and family,” Edmund murmured.

  Leif let out a quiet chuckle. “Mother said the same thing every time I told her.”

  “Now that we’ve started talking about dreams…” The prince yawned, rubbing his eyes. “I feel like sleeping.”

  “Me too,” Leif admitted. He glanced down the passageway, then back to Edmund. “But you sleep first. I’ll keep watch.”

  Edmund was too tired to argue. He shifted carefully so Serena wouldn’t slip, then let his eyes fall shut. Not even a minute passed before his breathing deepened.

  Leif stayed upright as long as he could, forcing his eyes to remain open, listening to the cave’s silence and the distant, occasional drip of water. But like the prince, exhaustion crept up all the same, until his eyelids finally surrendered.

  Not long after, he heard a voice—a woman. It wasn’t one he recognized, yet it sounded eerily familiar. It spoke in a low whisper, each word calm, though there was an unmistakable hint of bitterness with every syllable she uttered.

  Angel of Requiem.

  The savior.

  The guardian of balance.

  Leif’s eyes snapped open. He wasn’t in the cave anymore.

  He found himself standing in a vast hallway of pristine white, so clean it felt unreal. Along the wall to his right, small fountains ran in repeating sections, their water whispering over smooth stone. Beneath them, plants thrived in dense, deliberate beds, green and alive.

  To his left, open archways stretched in a line, leading out to a long balcony. Leif stepped closer. Beyond the parapet, he saw an ocean sprawled endlessly below, dark and immense. Far ahead lay a distant landmass, jagged mountains rising like teeth against the horizon.

  Above, the night sky seemed peaceful at first, until movement caught his eye. It started with a single streak of light, followed by a few more, drawing delicate lines across the heavens. Then dozens more followed, then more. Hundreds of meteors, bright enough to paint the sea below.

  Leif stared, mesmerized, until the pattern clicked into place. They weren’t passing overhead, they were falling straight toward the faraway land.

  As he watched, the voice grew louder, no longer a whisper. It was firmer, yet it retained the same calm and embittered tone it had earlier.

  Arbiter of annihilation…

  Murderer.

  Hypocrite.

  Leif turned from the balcony and looked down the hallway. Far ahead, the immaculate path gave way to something wrong. An unnatural pocket of darkness, pooling at the far end. As he stepped closer, the shadows shifted. The woman spoke again, her tone more curious this time.

  I feel a presence nearby.

  Come closer. I want to see you better.

  He took a cautious step. The voice was definitely addressing him directly now.

  “I-is anyone there?”

  Yes. I’m here.

  Leif stopped a few paces away, keeping distance between himself and the void ahead. And then, without warning, a pair of violet circles bloomed within the shadows.

  Eyes.

  Leif stumbled back. Strangely, though every instinct told him he should be afraid, fear didn’t come. Not fully. Not the way it should have. The woman spoke again.

  You look familiar. What is your name?

  Leif’s brow furrowed. He glanced around, as if expecting someone else to answer, then looked back to the darkness. “Are you… speaking to me?”

  Yes, I am.

  “I’m sorry,” Leif said, voice unsteady. “My name is Leif.”

  The darkness shifted, and with it, the woman’s tone, sliding from firmness to something almost solemn.

  Leif…

  You remind me of someone.

  Someone I came here with.

  Leif remained speechless, unsure how to react to the woman’s words. Then, from the darkness in front of him, a pale hand slowly emerged, reaching for him.

  May I touch your face?

  Don’t be afraid. I won’t harm you.

  Leif remained in place, motionless, confused, yet tried his best to respond. “I’m really sorry, um—miss. I’m just—I don’t—”

  This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  Please. Just a touch. I’ve been alone here for so long.

  Leif hesitated, but the desperation beneath her calm made his chest ache. He didn’t understand why, but something in him wanted to step forward. Only the fact that he couldn’t see her beyond that darkness kept him from moving.

  Leif didn’t notice that he began to take steps forward, nearly lifting his hand to meet hers.

  Then the hall shuddered.

  A violent tremor shook the place. The ceiling split. Stone and dust rained down in chunks, and Leif stumbled, throwing an arm up instinctively. Outside the archways, the night erupted.

  Flashes of light tore across the sky. Vast detonations rippled over the ocean below. Beyond the horizon, the distant landmass glowed as smoke billowed upward, a towering plume rising from the surface even at that impossible distance.

  Slowly, the world itself began to come apart. The pristine white walls fractured into nothing. The fountains blinked out. The plants withered in an instant. Even the darkness before him thinned and unraveled at the edges.

  Her voice came one last time, softer now, almost regretful.

  Not today, I suppose. But soon, perhaps, we will meet again.

  Until then…

  In a blink, everything turned dark, then his eyes opened.

  Leif looked around, almost unsure whether he was truly awake.

  The cave was still there: dark stone, the distant drip of water. Edmund sat with Serena resting against him on the other side, both asleep.

  For a moment, everything seemed fine.

  Although he wanted to ponder what the dream was about, there was no time. A low growl rolled through the passage. Leif held his breath and listened.

  It came again, closer this time.

  He didn’t hesitate. He reached over and shook them gently, just enough to wake them without making noise. “Up,” he whispered. “Quickly.”

  Edmund’s eyes sharpened at once. Serena stirred, blinking sluggishly, still drained, but she understood the urgency in Leif’s face. He motioned toward the crevice they’d crawled through. “Back in there. Now.”

  They slipped into the narrow gap and pressed themselves into the stone, bodies tight and motionless, listening as the sound crept nearer, approaching from their left. Claws scraped faintly against rock. Another growl came.

  Leif’s pulse hammered. He lowered a hand to the ground, feeling blindly for anything he could use. Pebbles, grit, until finally, he found a small stone. He drew his arm back and hurled it hard to their right.

  The pebble cracked against stone with a sharp, clean tap. For a heartbeat, nothing moved.

  Then the raptor exploded into motion, sprinting toward the sound, talons skittering, its breath snarling through the dark as it charged past their hiding place without even a glance.

  The three stayed still until the sound began to fade. Only then did they let themselves breathe.

  “Is it gone?” Serena whispered.

  Leif held still, listening. The footsteps slowed… then faded. He finally nodded. “It is.”

  Edmund peered into the passage beyond the crevice, brow furrowing. “Where does that even lead? Isn’t that the front of the cliff?”

  “Downward, maybe,” Leif murmured. “Or… I don’t know.”

  Serena swallowed. “Which way should we go, then?”

  Leif hesitated, then glanced at the direction the raptor had come from. “Maybe… if we follow its trail, we can find a way out.”

  Edmund’s gaze flicked to Serena. “Will you be okay walking?”

  “I’ll be fine,” she said, though her voice was still thin.

  Carefully, the three eased out of the crevice and crept toward the passage where the raptor had emerged. Edmund kept his sword low, letting only a faint glow spill ahead, just enough to see a few paces without announcing them to anything lurking farther in.

  They moved in short stretches, stopping often. Each time, Leif would tilt his head, listening for claws on stone, for breath too loud. Any sound that didn’t belong to dripping water and settling dust.

  Another corridor opened ahead, splitting into two.

  Leif pointed to their left. “We should follow the water,” he whispered. “It’ll lead somewhere. Even if not outside, then at least to something we can use.”

  Edmund and Serena nodded, and the trio turned left.

  Somewhere deeper in the cave system, raptors growled and barked. Sharp, restless sounds that echoed along the stone. Thankfully, none of them came their way. Edmund couldn’t help thinking the collapse might have kept most of them deeper, wary of the unstable tunnels.

  After a long walk, the trickle grew louder. Water dripped from above, collecting in a shallow run that cut along the wall. Leif crouched, dipped his fingers in, then brought them to his lips. He paused, eyes half-lidded, as if listening to something more than taste.

  “It’s mostly clean,” he said at last. “It just needs some filtering.”

  Edmund and Leif filled their waterskins while Serena drank small, careful sips. Leif ran his hand over the water as it poured, filtering out grit and sediment until it ran clear and pleasant.

  “Didn’t know you could fight like that,” Edmund said as he watched Leif, remembering how the peaceful gardener had helped him rescue Serena from the raptors. “Thought you hated violence.”

  “Well… I do,” Leif responded. “Still, Mother taught me how to defend myself, just in case.”

  They rested only a moment before moving again, eventually finding another opening ahead. From it, a dim green glow appeared.

  They slowed as they stepped out of the passageway and into a wide cavern, its walls veined with luminous moss and clusters of small crystals that cast a soft emerald light across the stone. Despite the dimness, the glow was enough for them to make out two routes: one sloping downward to the left, the other stretching straight ahead and slightly upward to the right.

  It wasn’t much of a debate.

  Far below, shapes moved. The two larger raptors from before were roaming at ease. Smaller ones dotted the stone like scattered shadows, sleeping in loose clusters, snapping and barking at one another. Others were tearing into what looked like the remains of some unfortunate animal.

  Edmund tightened his grip on his sword. They kept to the higher path, moving straight and keeping their steps light. No whispers, not even careless brush against rock. They crept along the ledge until, at last, they reached another wide opening carved into the wall.

  They slipped inside. Another cavern greeted them, larger than the last, and brighter. Yet there was little moss here, and only a few crystals studded the walls. The light came from something else. The floor itself glowed. Vines, or perhaps roots, an across the stone in branching strands, pulsing with a soft green light, like veins under skin. Edmund glanced back and noticed a few of them trailing from the passage they’d entered through.

  They followed the pulsing, and at the heart of it, where the vines converged, lay a dense knot of roots twisted together into a cradle. Resting atop it was something smooth and oval, bathed in the same green light. At first glance, it looked like a crystal, quite a large one. But the pale, whitish tone beneath the glow, the faint sheen of a living membrane…

  Leif went still. “That’s an egg,” he murmured, dropping to one knee and placing his fingertips against the glowing strands. His expression tightened. “And it’s using the vines to sap vitality from the ground.”

  “You mean…” Serena swallowed. “Like plants?”

  Leif nodded slowly. “The same way they draw minerals from the earth. Only this…” His eyes lifted to the egg again. “This doesn’t feel like it’s a plant.”

  While the two Alvarynn pondered what it was, Edmund remained quiet. He stared at the egg, a cold weight settling in his chest as memory surged up uninvited. The clearing. The Draemhyr. The barren patch of forest where the malformed monster rested. The eggs surrounding it, nestled atop roots, pulsing with the same living rhythm.

  Only then, the glow had been crimson, drawing vitality from the soil… to grow…

  Leif stepped closer, hoping to get a better look. Meanwhile, far behind them, the raptors stirred as one. The larger beasts went rigid, heads lifting. Nostrils flared as they began to sniff the air. A heartbeat later, the smaller ones followed. Waking, rising, turning in unison. They followed the large ones, tracking a scent, slowly making their way up the cavern, toward the ledge… toward the egg.

  “Leif, careful, I think—” Edmund started, stepping forward to pull him back, but a thunderous growl cut him off. Then came the sound of footsteps. Claws on stone. Heavy footfalls mixed with dozens of lighter ones. Two massive creatures were heading their way and an entire pack behind them.

  “They’re reacting to the egg,” Leif said tightly, eyes fixed on the pulsing cradle. Even so, he kept moving, approaching with deliberate care.

  Serena had already turned toward the opening, breath controlled despite her exhaustion. “What do we do?” she asked, voice low.

  Edmund lifted his sword. Ether flared along the blade, casting sharper light across the glowing vines. “Take it,” he ordered. “Remove the egg, Leif. If I’m right… that’s a Draemhyr’s.”

  Serena’s head snapped toward him. “You’re sure?”

  Edmund didn’t look away from the passage where the sounds were growing closer. His jaw clenched as the memory rose, clear and brutal. He nodded once. “I’ve seen this before.”

  Leif fixed his gaze on the egg. “In that case… we can’t let it grow.”

  He stepped closer and placed a hand against its surface.

  Up close, he noticed the outer shell was translucent, and crystalline in nature. Suspended inside it was a second oval the size of a watermelon, pale and living. The actual egg, with a single vine connecting it to the nest. Leif summoned his vine whip. Green light coiled along it as he snapped it forward and wrapped it around the crystal casing. The moment it tightened, the egg flared, vivid and bright.

  Outside, the cavern erupted into chaos. Raptors shrieked and surged toward them, the smaller ones pouring in first. Serena met them head-on, firing ether blasts that lit the cavern gold. Edmund supported her immediately, blade flashing as he cut down anything that slipped past her.

  Behind them, Leif braced his stance and pulled. The whip cinched tighter around the crystal, the casing beginning to fracture. Hairline cracks spidering outward with each tense breath.

  It wasn’t long before the larger raptors entered. Their eyes gleamed as they pushed through the opening, massive heads low. Serena concentrated her fire on them, hitting them on the snout, the chest, the head, but her blasts only staggered them. It wasn’t stopping them. If anything, it only seemed to enrage them.

  “We have to keep them away from Leif and the egg!” Edmund shouted.

  Serena didn’t answer. She was already moving.

  The two of them drew the pack away from Leif, keeping the fight away from the center to buy him time. Serena’s ether grew sharper, denser, forming into lances of light that she hurled in quick succession. The smaller raptors fell to those strikes. Some blasted off their feet, others pierced and dropped mid-lunge.

  However, the giants endured. One faltered when a lance struck true, stumbling for a heartbeat, only to surge forward again, shaking off the impact with a furious bellow as it chased Serena. Edmund found himself locked with the other. He leapt from rock to ledge, using the uneven terrain to gain height, then launched himself onto the creature’s back. His plan was simple. Drive ether through his blade and carve into the nape, hoping to end it in a single decisive strike, but this wasn’t the southern boar.

  This monster was faster, stronger, more violent in its movements. Worse, it had forelimbs. It twisted hard, claws raking backward the moment Edmund landed, forcing him to throw himself aside to avoid being shredded. Back during the hunt, he’d had his retainers. He’d had numbers. Even then, it had taken everything to wear a single beast down.

  Now, Serena was occupied with the other giant, and Leif was fighting to break the egg. Edmund was alone in this fight. Despite that, the prince pressed on, drawing deeper on the power within him, meeting the monster’s brute strength with speed.

  Meanwhile, Leif finally managed to shatter the casing. The crystal shell broke apart with a sharp crack, fragments scattering across the glowing floor. The true egg fell onto the nest of pulsing vines. It emitted a verdant light as it continued to drink from the ground below.

  Leif swallowed. Reluctantly, he raised his whip again, ready to strike, to end it before whatever was inside could grow. But something about it held him. Not its glow, nor the strange warmth. It was a subtle feeling, as though the living thing within was reaching for him. Calling. Trying to communicate with him. His hand trembled.

  Leif hesitated at first, then lowered his whip to his side. He stepped closer and reached for the egg. Behind him, Serena and Edmund were beginning to slow. Exhaustion caught up in heavy waves, their breaths turning harsher, their movements less sharp. Yet their opponents seemed more annoyed than truly wounded.

  The larger raptors advanced, smaller ones circling, closing in again when, abruptly, they stopped. Serena’s eyes narrowed. Edmund didn’t lower his sword, but the sudden stillness froze them both. For a heartbeat, the cavern lay motionless. The raptors’ heads then turned in unison toward Leif.

  He stood with the egg in his hands, unaware that the battle behind him had gone quiet. A vine-like strand still tethered the egg to the glowing roots on the floor, feeding it, only now the light running through it had shifted, no longer pure green, but tinged with a yellow hue.

  Leif blinked, as if waking from a trance. He turned and found the entire cavern watching him.

  Edmund and Serena hurried to his side, taking advantage of the monsters’ eerie stillness.

  “Was it you who stopped them?” Edmund asked, voice tight, sword still raised.

  “I—I don’t know,” Leif stammered. He could only stare at the egg in his hands, at the strange glow bleeding through it.

  Serena edged closer, caught by it as well, her eyes flicking between Leif’s hands and the egg’s shifting light. Behind them, both the massive and smaller raptors still hadn’t moved an inch, as if something unseen held their instincts in a lock. None of the three bothered to wonder why. All they saw was a chance. A chance to escape before the trance broke.

  Leif motioned for Edmund and Serena to go first, keeping the egg cradled close. “Move,” he whispered. “If I let go… they might—”

  Edmund’s jaw tightened. “We’re not leaving you here.”

  Serena nodded, voice firm despite the tremor in her breath. “The prince is right. You’re coming with us.”

  Leif hesitated, but he knew wasting time to argue could only get them killed. Letting go might send the raptors back into a frenzy. Cutting the tether might do the same. Either way, they couldn’t afford a sudden rush of claws and teeth going after them.

  Leif stared down at the vine-like strand still connecting the egg to the root network beneath the glowing floor.

  “Then we go slowly,” he said. “We walk toward the exit with it while it’s still attached.”

  He took the first careful step. The trio backed away toward the opening behind them, never turning their backs fully, eyes locked on the raptors. The beasts remained perfectly still, yet their gaze followed every movement. They were nearly there when the tethering vine pulled taut. It snagged against the stone, or perhaps it simply couldn’t stretch any farther. Either way, it stopped them short.

  Leif froze, looking down at the vine. He only had two options.

  Cut it… or put the egg down.

  They didn’t even need to say it aloud. If the raptors snapped out of their trance, they would have to run either way.

  “We’ll have to cut it,” Edmund whispered.

  Leif nodded once, tightening his grip on the egg. Serena shifted beside them, bracing as if ready to bolt at a moment’s notice.

  Edmund stepped forward, sword raised. Their plan was simple. One clean strike, and the instant it severed, they run.

  He lifted the blade high, then brought it down. The vine snapped. The glow flickered.

  And the three of them moved, spinning and sprinting for the opening without looking back. Their boots hammered stone as they burst into the passage beyond, slowing only long enough to make sure they weren’t charging straight into a drop, after which they ran again.

  The tunnel widened, the light from the egg’s pulse casting faint illumination ahead, enough to see the rough walls alongside the glow of Edmund’s sword and scattered patches of luminous moss…

  And behind them, somewhere deep in the caverns, something finally roared.