They entered a unknown forest .The forest swallowed their footsteps. Every snap of a twig seemed too loud, echoing in Kael's skull as if it might summon something from the mist. The woman—still unnamed, still as unreadable as the shadows around them—moved ahead without hesitation.
Her pace wasn't hurried, but it carried a quiet urgency, as though she knew something about the forest that Kael didn't. The covering above was dense enough to blot out most of the moonlight, and the mist hung thick and low, curling around their ankles like grasping fingers.
Kael's hand lingered near the hilt of his knife, though he knew it was more a talisman than a weapon. He had no illusions—whatever stalked these woods was likely beyond anything a blade could answer.
They walked until the forest began to change. The ground sloped downward into a narrow ravine, its walls slick with moss. The air here felt heavier, damp with the scent of stone and something metallic—blood, perhaps, though Kael hoped he was imagining it.
"This way," the woman said at last, her voice barely above a whisper. It was the first time she'd spoken in over an hour.
The path twisted and narrowed until Kael saw it: a gap in the ravine wall, half-hidden by a tumble of rocks and vines. A dark opening, no wider than a doorway.
A cave.
Kael hesitated at its mouth, peering into the blackness. "You're sure this is—"
"It's shelter," she cut in, brushing past him. "For now."
Her tone left no room for argument, so he followed, ducking inside. The air turned cooler immediately, the sound of the forest muffled until all he could hear was his own breathing.
The cave wasn't deep—ten, maybe twelve paces in—but it widened into a low chamber. Patches of faint luminescence clung to the walls, pale fungus glowing in irregular blotches. It was enough to see by, though the light was sickly, casting their faces in shades of ghostly blue.
Kael ran a hand along the stone. It was smooth, unnaturally so, as if worked by hands long ago. He felt faint grooves under his fingertips—patterns, perhaps symbols—but the layer of damp moss made them unreadable.
The woman moved to the far wall, setting her pack down and kneeling. "We won't stay long. Just until dawn."
Kael studied her in the dim light. She still hadn't told him her name. Her eyes flickered toward the cave entrance now and then, sharp and watchful, like a predator scenting the air.
He sat opposite her, leaning against the wall. "You've been here before."
A pause. "Once."
"And you survived."
"Barely."
That single word carried more weight than any story she could have told.
Silence stretched between them. Kael's eyes wandered to the ceiling, where the stone curved unnaturally smooth, like the inside of a great dome. The glowing fungus here formed odd clusters, almost geometric—triangles, lines, circles intersecting in ways that seemed too precise for nature.
He told himself it was coincidence, but the longer he stared, the more deliberate they appeared.
He blinked, and for a heartbeat, he thought the patterns shifted.
A trick of the light, surely.
The woman seemed to notice his gaze. "Don't look too long."
Kael frowned. "Why?"
"They say the Labyrinth remembers eyes that linger."
He wasn't sure if she was serious, but the quiet gravity in her tone made his skin prickle.
The cave was quiet except for the slow drip of water from somewhere unseen. Kael's mind drifted to the forest outside, to the sound of something moving just beyond the mist earlier, the faint scrape like claws against stone.
"Do you know what's following us?" he asked at last.
Her eyes met his. "Not what. Who."
That answer settled in his chest like a stone.
He thought of asking more, but the exhaustion of the day caught up with him. His limbs felt heavy, his thoughts sluggish. The glow of the fungus pulsed faintly at the edges of his vision, a slow rhythm that seemed to match his heartbeat.
Sleep clawed at him, but he resisted. He didn't trust the cave, didn't trust the forest, didn't even trust the woman—at least not entirely.
But eventually, the weight of his eyelids won.
The last thing he saw before darkness claimed him was the woman, still awake, staring toward the entrance with that same unwavering focus. The glow behind her made her look like a figure carved from shadow and light, waiting for something Kael couldn't yet see.
And in the silence of the Hollow Sanctuary, the Labyrinth seemed to breathe.