Collateral.
The knowledge landed like a blade through his chest.Rezer’s voice dropped to something soft and lethal.“You touch her,” he said, “and I’ll burn what’s left of you so clean not even history will find the ashes.”
For the first time, something like hesitation rippled back at him.He felt it retreat.Good.He almost smiled.Almost.“That’s what I thought.”
He turned away from the pressure behind him.The pull resisted now, not forceful, but urgent, like fingers closing too late around a wrist already slipping free.
“You called me here to remind me who I was,” Rezer said over his shoulder.“Congratulations.You were somewhat successful.I remember I don’t put up with bullshit.We should all take tiny wins when we can.”It wasn’t a complete lie.He was getting bits and pieces, but it was like a puzzle thrown in a box that needed to be put together.
He stepped forward.The forest didn’t offer a path, but the ground hardened beneath his boots anyway.Branches shifted aside with visible reluctance.Magic flexed around him, resisting without stopping him.
“Only now,” he continued, “you’ve reminded me who I fight for.”
Displeasure sharpened behind him, no longer subtle.
Rezer didn’t slow.“Enjoy the attention you’ve earned,” he added.“Triktapic doesn’t stop once he starts.”His mouth twisted faintly.“And neither do I.”
He could feel eyes on him as he walked, its presence never left him.He kept walking, needing to find a reflective surface in order to make his way toward the human realm, toward Lisa, toward a choice that he felt would unravel centuries of careful manipulation.On the edges of his path, where light and dark still bled together, Rezer felt the Chamber shift.It wasn’t amused; in fact, he was pretty sure it, or whoever was inside of it, was quite annoyed.
The forest grew quieter the farther Rezer walked, as if it had decided silence might succeed where force had failed.
Not the peaceful kind.Not the gentle hush of birds settling or wind losing interest.This quiet peeled sound away in layers until even the soft press of his boots against damp earth felt intrusive, as though the land itself had decided he’d heard enough.
He slowed, fingers brushing the bark of a twisted oak as he passed.The hum beneath his skin sharpened, no longer background noise but direction.The pull wasn’t dragging him forward.It was waiting for him to keep up.
“Impatient,” he murmured, though his voice sounded wrong in the stillness, flattened, swallowed before it fully formed.“I feel like that tracks.”
The path narrowed ahead, roots rising through the soil like ribs.Water pooled in shallow depressions, dark and motionless.Rezer glanced down automatically, and frowned.
The surface should have reflected something.Sky.Leaves.His own likeness.Instead, it remained dull, light swallowed instead of returned.He stopped and knelt.The puddle rippled faintly at his presence, then went opaque again, as if something beneath the surface had exhaled and fogged it over.No mirror.No doorway.Just mud and refusal.
“Well,” he said quietly, straightening.“That’s new.And annoying.”
The hum tightened, a precise pressure settling behind his sternum.Not pain exactly, perhaps the Chamber was making a point, or attempting to.
He moved on.The forest thickened around him.Branches arched overhead, blotting out the sky in uneven patches.The air grew dense enough to taste, heavy with sap and old magic.His wards whispered along his skin, restless and alert.
The presence slid into his mind without warning.
Still pretending you don’t remember.
Rezer stopped.Slowly turned in place, scanning the trees.Nothing moved, but everything listened.There was an awareness suddenly present, inthisspot.
“If you’re going to keep interrupting my stroll,” he said evenly, “you can at least have the courtesy of telling me how you’re slipping past my defenses.”What better way to learn your enemy than to get them to spill their secrets, that or maybe he’d talk it to death and the whole issue would be solved.
A pause.Not uncertainty, but like it was considering an answer.
Too easy.Even the daughters have stronger minds than you.You should seek out their guidance.
He let out a dry breath.“Cute answer.”
The forest shifted, not visibly, but spatially.The distance between trunks compressed until the clearing ahead felt closer than it had a heartbeat before.
“Chamber of Light and Dark,” Rezer muttered softly as his eyes took in his surroundings.“Whatareyou exactly?”
We are what learned to survive when all memory forgot us.
That sharpened his focus.“Ah,” he said.“So,you’renot the Chamber.”
