Corin's eyes widened. "What did you just do?"
Jamie pulled his hand back, and within seconds, the tree resumed its twisted posture.
"That's..." He trailed off, unable to articulate the strangeness of what he'd witnessed.
"Interesting," Azelon finished, moving closer to study the phenomenon. "Touch it again."
Jamie complied. Once more, the tree calmed at his touch. This time, he kept his palm against the rough bark, watching as the effect rippled outward. Nearby vegetation gradually settled into more natural patterns, as if exhaling after holding a painful position.
"It's responding to you," Corin breathed, his own excitement causing small stones near his feet to vibrate. "Just like the store."
"But I'm not doing anything," Jamie insisted.
"Perhaps not consciously." Azelon knelt to examine a patch of grass. "The nexus energy from your store seems to be leaking into the surrounding area, creating magical instability. But your presence mitigates the effect."
Jamie withdrew his hand, watching as the tree bent into an unnatural pose once again. "So my store is... what? Poisoning the forest?"
"Not poisoning," Azelon corrected. "Transforming. The store traveled between words. That creates ripples."
Jamie's jaw tightened. "And those ripples are upsetting the wildlife." It wasn't a question.
He sighed.
This was definitely not what he'd wanted when he'd opened his store.
Then again, he'd never meant for his store to be pulled into a different world either.
How had his life spiraled out of control so quickly?
And why wasn't there anything he could do about it?
No, there had to be something. He only needed to continue looking.
And so they continued their exploration.
Going on, Jamie paid special attention to how the environment changed around him. Within a roughly twenty-foot radius of where he walked, the forest appeared normal—or what he assumed was normal for Veridia. Beyond that boundary, distortions increased: trees growing in spirals, rocks floating inches above the ground, flowers that looked oddly translucent.
"How do we make things go back to normal?" Jamie wondered out loud.
"I'm not sure," Corin said, and he looked as if he wanted to say something else, but Azelon spoke up.
"Did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Jamie asked.
A guttural hiss cut through the air. Azelon's markings flashed bright blue in alarm. "Head back to the store!"
"What was that?" Jamie asked, already turning back the way they'd come.
"Shadow creature," Corin whispered, suddenly pale.
Another hiss, closer now. Through the trees, Jamie glimpsed something shifting and formless, darker than the shadows it moved through.
"Run," Azelon ordered, pushing Jamie ahead of him.
They sprinted through the forest, branches whipping past.
Behind them, a slithering sound grew louder.
