Morning came with a grey sky and the heavy smell of rain, the kind that promised to soak through armor and bone. Kael stood at the river dock, pack slung over one shoulder, watching the water slap against the pilings.
The first red sigil on the map lay south of the city, past the low farmlands and into a stretch of abandoned quarry pits. The tunnels beneath them had been cut before the city walls even existed — a perfect place for something old to take root.
Ryn arrived with a half-dozen quarrels strapped to her hip. "Dorrin says the quarries are empty."
Kael raised a brow. "And you believe that?"
She smirked. "Not for a second."
They took a flat-bottomed river skiff downstream, passing mist-cloaked fields and the skeletal remains of old watchtowers. Two hours later, they pulled the skiff into the reeds and disembarked onto muddy ground.
The quarries yawned ahead — jagged scars in the earth, their walls streaked with mineral veins. Pools of rainwater filled the lowest depressions, reflecting the shifting clouds above.
Kael crouched by the first pit, running a hand over the stone. "Old work. Pre-Guild. Maybe even pre-Council."
Ryn scanned the ridges with her crossbow half-raised. "And abandoned for a reason, I'm guessing."
They found the tunnel entrance halfway down the second pit, concealed behind a tumble of loose rock. It wasn't natural collapse — the stones had been stacked deliberately.
Kael pulled them aside one by one until the opening yawned dark and cold before them. A faint draft whispered out, carrying the damp, green scent of moss.
Ryn frowned. "Already smells wrong."
Kael stepped inside, Stonehide rippling faintly over his forearms. "Stay close."
The tunnel was narrow and steep, cut by hand and pick centuries ago. Their footsteps echoed against the stone, and here and there, old chisel marks still showed through the lichen.
After twenty paces, the stone underfoot changed — softer, crumbling. Kael crouched to touch it and found fine root threads woven into the rock like veins. They pulsed faintly at his touch.
"Alive," he murmured.
The passage widened into a cavern whose walls were draped in pale moss, glowing faintly in the dark. Water dripped steadily from the ceiling into a shallow pool at the center.
Standing at the edge of that pool was a figure hunched under the weight of a massive wooden frame strapped to its back. The frame held dozens of hive-grown lanterns, their light green and sickly.
Lantern Bearer — C-Rank (High), GP ~640.
The Bearer turned slowly toward them, its eyes replaced by smooth plates of bark. Without a word, it swung one lantern forward and smashed it on the ground.
The glass shattered, spilling not light but seedlings — tiny, wriggling rootlings that hissed and darted across the floor toward Kael's boots.
Kael's knife came up, cutting two in half before they reached him. The Bearer moved with surprising speed for its size, swinging the frame like a massive club. Kael ducked low, feeling the air split above his head.
Ryn fired a quarrel straight into the Bearer's thigh, the bolt burying deep. The creature staggered, and Kael charged in, slicing across its midsection.
[C-Rank (High) | GP: 710 + 15 = 725]
The Bearer crumpled, the lanterns on its back dimming one by one. The seedlings froze, then dissolved into black sludge.
"Messenger," Ryn said, nudging the corpse with her boot. "It was bringing light for something deeper in."
Kael nodded grimly. "Or food."
They pressed on through a low tunnel at the far side of the cavern, ducking under root clusters that hung like ropes from the ceiling. The glow ahead grew brighter — not green this time, but a pale, almost silver-white light.
The tunnel spilled into a vast underground dome, the roof lost in shadow. At its center was a tree.
It wasn't like any surface tree — its trunk was pale as bone, its branches leafless, and from its bark sprouted hundreds of narrow, thorned roots that burrowed into the surrounding stone. At its base, a pool of thick, sap-like fluid reflected the silver light.
Kael's breath caught. "That's not a root-heart."
Ryn's voice was tight. "Then what is it?"
Something shifted behind the tree.
A shape stepped into view, easily a head taller than Kael, its limbs elongated and wrapped in pale bark. Its eyes burned faintly white.
Pale Warden — B-Rank (Low), GP ~1,020.
Kael's grip tightened on his blade. "This isn't going to be like the others."
The Warden moved without sound, crossing the distance in a blink. Its first strike was a downward smash that split the stone where Kael had been standing. He rolled, slashing at its side, but the blade glanced off hardened bark.
Ryn's bolt hit it in the shoulder, staggering it just enough for Kael to slip in and cut at the roots lacing its chest. The Warden caught his wrist, its grip crushing, and hurled him into the cavern wall.
Stonehide flared, saving his ribs from snapping, but the impact still knocked the air from his lungs.
The Warden turned toward Ryn. She reloaded, fired, and missed as the creature twisted unnaturally.
Kael surged back to his feet, charging low, and drove his blade under its ribcage where the bark was thinner. Warmth hit him like a wave.
[C-Rank (High) | GP: 725 + 25 = 750]
The Warden roared, roots whipping from its arms and striking Kael across the face. He felt skin tear, tasted blood. The creature reeled, sap spilling from the wound, and collapsed to its knees.
Kael finished it with a clean slash to the neck.
For a moment, the only sound was his ragged breathing and the drip of sap into the pool.
Ryn moved closer to the pale tree, eyes narrowed. "Kael… this thing's not dead."
She was right. The roots in the walls still pulsed, slow and steady. Killing the Warden hadn't severed them.
Kael approached the base, studying the sap pool. Beneath its surface, something moved — a slow, coiling shape too large to see fully.
"We can't kill it from here," he said. "Not without collapsing the whole dome."
Ryn's eyes flicked toward the tunnel they'd come through. "Then we come back better prepared."
They left the cavern, sealing the tunnel mouth behind them with rocks and soil. By the time they reached the surface, rain had begun to fall in earnest, plastering Kael's hair to his face.
As they started the trek back toward the skiff, Ryn glanced over. "That thing down there — it wasn't hive, was it?"
Kael didn't answer immediately. "Maybe it was. Maybe the hive found it and wrapped itself around it. Either way… that wasn't its final form."
By the time they reached the city again, Kael's GP gains still buzzed in his blood — C-Rank (High), GP: 750. Stronger, yes. But the image of the pale tree and its hidden, coiling shadow stayed in his mind.
The map had marked that place in red. He understood why now. It wasn't just dangerous. It was wrong.
And there were still two more marks.