“We’re close,” Elora said quietly.That preternatural steadiness was in her voice again, the kind that came from surviving things better left unspoken, and scars that didn’t fade.
Cassie nodded once.“Not reassuring.I think I’d take that tree trunk to the face instead.”
Her hand had settled protectively over her abdomen.The life within her stirred just enough to make her breath catch.Her child was awake.Aware.And calm in a way Cassie couldn’t be.
The Chamber was calling, but it wasn’t only her it wanted.Cassie could feel it.The intent was there.Howshe knew, she couldn’t explain.But she’d bet her favorite pair of shoes on it.
Something electric cracked through the air ahead of them, a ripple that felt like the realm inhaling sharply.
Cassie’s steps slowed, not because she chose to, but because theirguidehad decided it.She felt it lock into place, as if the forest itself had finally exhaled.The air thickened, not with cold or heat, but withpresence.
Elora felt it, too.Cassie saw it in the way her shoulders squared, the way her hand flexed once at her side like she was resisting the urge to draw a blade that wasn’t there.
“Well,” Elora muttered, scanning the bent trees and warped shadows ahead.“This feels new.And by new, I mean I hate it.”
Cassie didn’t answer right away.Her attention had turned inward, drawn to the tight, steady awareness blooming beneath her ribs.Again, she knew the pull wasn’t after her alone.It was after what she carried.
They stepped into a clearing that did not belong to the forest.The trees bent away from its edges, trunks twisted as if unwilling to lean closer.Light pooled wrong here, too bright in places, swallowed entirely in others.The ground beneath their feet was smooth stone, veined with pale silver and deep shadow, the two braided so tightly together it hurt to look at too long.
At the center, the air rippled.Not a doorway.Not a structure.Aspacethat pressed back when Cassie looked at it, like a held breath.
Elora swore softly.“That’s ...not what I expected.”
The space moved.No— itfocused.
A voice filled the clearing.Out loud, gentle, coaxing, and familiar as if it had always been there and they were only just now capable of hearing it.
“You have arrived.”
Cassie felt the words settle into her bones, not invasive, but intimate.Like something reading the shape of her rather than her thoughts.
Elora’s jaw tightened.“We didn’t exactly have a choice.”
“Choice is why you were called.”
Cassie’s hand drifted to her stomach, fingers splaying protectively.“Then speak plainly,” she said, voice steady despite the hammering of her heart.“No more pulling.No more games.”
The presence paused.Cassie swore she felt uncertainty ripple through it.
Very well.
The air shimmered, and images pressed gently against Cassie’s mind, not forced, not overwhelming.She saw flashes of stone split by magic.Light and shadow colliding so violently the world itself seemed to fracture.She felt fear–raw, newborn fear–and confusion that had no language yet.
Somethingbecoming, being created.She watched the light and dark elves battle, and with clashes of swords, something erupted when two elves slain one another.When both light and dark fell, shadow emerged.Cassie thought of Peter Pan’s shadow, only pulsing with a power that practically caused the edges of their form to ripple.Over and over this happened until there were countless forms looking around the battlefield.Confused, angry, and unsure.Then, a figure rose, more solid than the rest, and he led the charge, telling them to follow him.He led them to a sanctuary.Time passed, power pulsed from inside the deep opening in the side of a mountain.The power began to pull from within, and Cassie could feel magic from the elfin realm being funneled inside.Then, Trik was there, along with an army–other elves dressed in robes, looking regal and powerful.They spoke in the language she recognized as their own and stone formed in front of the opening.Slowly, it formed from the ground and the sides of the mountain until a massive stone door covered it, sealing the occupants inside.Rage, pain, and confusion radiated from inside.Cassie’s eyes focused on her Chosen, long before she’d ever known him.Before he’d become the dark elf assassin, stepping down from his place as King of the Elves.She saw a shadow fall over his face.She saw darkness wrap around him like a cloak as his shoulders slumped forwards, as if he’d been defeated instead of being the one who’d protected the realm.Her heart broke for him.This had been the moment he’d changed.He’d given up on there being peace between the two races.He’d chosen a side, and it hadn’t been the light.
Then the thought planted firmly and she whispered, “Shadow elves.That’s what you are.Created from light and dark clashing.”
Elora sucked in a sharp breath.“That sounds incredibly badass, but since you’ve run us nearly to death through a forest, I’m forcing myself not to be impressed.”
“We are what remained when balance failed,” the voice replied.“We are consequence given shape.”
The images shifted, showing a cavern, vast and alive with magic, light and dark bleeding into its walls until the stone itself seemed to breathe.
“We sheltered them.We held them.And in holding them, we learned.We realized that the light and dark would never deserve the power given to them.They would forever battle, continuing the cycle.We decided it was necessary to weaken them, show them what it was like to be unable to fight.If they didn’t hold any magic, then they couldn’t destroy each other.”
Cassie felt the hunger beneath the words.Not malice.Need.
“You learned?Youdecided?”Elora asked flatly.
