The sensation deepened, a silent pressure coiling around her awareness. Serenna’s breathing shallowed, her pulse drumming in her ears.
Then, a soft creak. Not from the trunk, but from deep within the earth, as though the roots themselves were shifting in slumber.
A twig snapped in the undergrowth beside her. She whirled toward the sound, heart hammering—
“Is it saying something?” Vesryn asked, plucking a spiky blossom from a nearby vine. He winced, jerking his hand back as a hidden thorn pierced the pad of his thumb.
“What kind of flowers bleed?” he muttered, scowling at the broken petal as it oozed a liquid that gleamed like his blood.
Withdrawing from the trunk, Serenna shook off the unsettled feeling, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. “The tree isn’t ‘saying’ anything, but there’s something more to it. I can feel its life force and…” She hesitated, searching for the right answer. “Maybe there’s druidic magic? Whatever it is, I can’t fully grasp it.”
Vesryn grimaced and pinched the thorn from his skin before flicking it to the ground.He tilted his head, eyeing the gnarled surface. “Sounds like it has something to hide.”
Serenna nodded slowly, tracing the deep grooves in the trunk. “The open trees—like those we’re using for the infirmary—seem as though they were intentionally shaped or guided to grow hollow. But this one…” A faint wind stirred through theglade, swaying the branches above. “I think it might’ve been similar once, but now it’s sealed.”
Vesryn unsheathed a belt knife, using the blade to strip back a layer of bark, clearly expecting to uncover something. Frowning, he ran his fingers through the glowing sap that trailed from the cut.
“Can you…open it?” he asked. Shadows sprang to life, coiling across his arms like living smoke. “Or maybe I could—”
“Let me try first,” Serenna interrupted before he began hacking the tree into firewood.Though Jassyn would probably be better at this,she thought, planting her palms against the trunk.
Drawing a grounding breath, she centered herself before channeling her awareness outward. Relying on instinct, Serenna focused on the rippled texture beneath her fingertips. A roiling torrent of life ebbed and flowed as she plunged into the tree’s river of energy.
The deeper she anchored herself to the rhythmic pulse, the more certain she became that something lurked deep below. With her power entwined with the tree’s, Serenna braced herself and shoved.
Resistance thickened beneath her touch, a force pressing back as if aware of her intent. Energy writhed within—not yielding, but recoiling, clinging to itself in silent defiance.
Beneath Serenna’s palm, the pulse stuttered, then surged—a violent, thrumming protest. She drove her will further and a tremor ran through the trunk, deep and shuddering.
A deafeningcracksplit the air, echoing through the clearing like thunder shattering the sky. Serenna staggered, her pulse lurching as if the fissure had torn through her instead of the wood.
“What if I kill it?” she gasped, hand flying to her racing heart. She stared at the thin, jagged line now ripping up the center of the trunk.
Vesryn shrugged, flipping his knife and catching it. “Looks fine to me. Why not just close it the same way you’re prying it open? You know, after we have a look inside.”
Serenna chewed her lip, unease winding in her stomach as glowing sap wept from the wound. The ancient tree towered over the glade, feeling like the heart of the jungle itself. “I don’t want to hurt it.”
Clicking his tongue, the prince tapped his blade against the bark. “With how big this thing is? I doubt it’ll notice.” He held his thumb up to her face. “That thorn did more damage to me than you scratching at the trunk.”
Saving her breath, Serenna bit back her retort that perhaps the sting would make him think twice before touching things he shouldn’t.
Refocusing on the tree, Serenna reached for the energy coursing within, coaxing and urging the split to widen. The wood resisted at first, creaking and groaning under the strain until the fracture slowly splintered apart.
Drops of water beaded along the freshly exposed bark. As carefully as she could, Serenna channeled her focus into folding the outer layers inward, smoothing the edges to seal the wounds.
Vesryn watched intently, sliding his knife back into its sheath before peering into the darkened hollow. Veins of green light began flickering to life, tracing up and down the interior of the trunk.
“If it decides to swallow us, you can force it open again, right?” he asked.
Serenna groaned. “I wasn’t even considering that until now.”
“In any case, we can always rend or portal our way out.” The prince conjured tiny globes of illumination and the orbs whirledahead, pushing the shadows back. “Looks inviting enough.” With a shrug, he squeezed through the gap.
Spine tingling, Serenna recalled the terrors of the previous time she retrieved a Heart—the volcanic chamber collapsing around her.
As she hesitated at the threshold, a strange awareness slid across her senses, almost as if the ancient sentinel was aware of the intrusion.
Vesryn’s hovering spheres of illumination guided them as they followed a twisting path downward through the trunk. The bark walls, slick with moisture, pressed close as the spiral constricted. Roots coiled over one another, weaving a rough semblance of a staircase. A steady emerald glow coursed through the tree, its hum resonating in Serenna’s skull like a second pulse.
