The forest breathed — a deep, rumbling prayer that seemed to come from the bones of the earth itself. The cavern trembled. The colossal roots hanging from the ceiling flexed and contracted, making slick, heavy sounds like flesh rubbing against flesh.
The group ran on, gasping for air. The white smoke Ly had conjured was thinning fast, revealing the dim violet glow behind them — and the figures that emerged from it.
Statues that had once been stone were now half-human, half-root creatures, dragging their twisted limbs forward, eyes glowing faintly through the mist.
"Left!" Ly shouted.
Kael sprinted ahead, slashing open a wall of roots blocking their way. His blade flashed, catching the reflection of the enormous golden eye that watched from somewhere in the depths.
Renar caught a glimpse of it — his breath froze. "It's… looking at us."
No one replied. They plunged down a spiral staircase roughly carved into living roots. Each step echoed and was swallowed whole by the dark below.
Sill supported Senmi, while Senki carried Sivall on his back. Her breathing was shallow; the faint glow of spores still lingered on her skin.
"Ly!" Kael shouted over the echoing thunder. "Where are we even going!?"
"To the heart of the memory," Ly answered without looking back. "The place where the forest connects to everything that ever was."
Kael hesitated for a heartbeat, but another quake tore through the ground before he could speak. From above, a massive root crashed down, blocking their path.
Ly turned, silver light gathering around her hand. She drew a symbol into the air, and a glowing tear split open reality itself.
"Go!" she commanded.
Kael dragged everyone through — but just as he crossed, he realized Ly wasn't following.
"Ly!" he shouted, turning back. "What are you doing!? Come on!"
Ly shook her head, calm as still water. "I have to close the gate. If I don't, the forest will find us."
"Don't be stupid!" Renar yelled. "If you stay—"
Ly smiled — soft, fleeting, like mist before dawn.
"I'm only a fragment of what was left behind. And what's been kept… cannot leave."
The gate began to close. Kael started toward her, but Sill grabbed his arm, tears spilling down her cheeks.
"There's no time!"
The light swallowed them whole.
When the brightness faded, they fell onto cold, damp ground.
They were in a vast circular cavern — silent, endless. Above them, thousands of glowing roots shimmered faintly like imprisoned stars. In the center lay a black lake, its surface rippling softly, as if it were breathing.
Senki gasped. "We… made it out?"
Kael said nothing. His eyes fixed on the heart of the lake, where a massive pillar of roots coiled around an amber sphere. It pulsed slowly — in time with the heartbeat of the forest.
Renar whispered, "Its… heart."
Ly emerged from the shadows on the far side of the lake. No one knew how she had come to be there — but her face was pale, her golden eyes dimmed.
"This is where the forest keeps its deepest memories," she said, her voice echoing as if carried from centuries away. "And where everything began."
Sill stepped closer, her voice trembling. "You're… still alive?"
Ly smiled faintly. "If you can call it that."
She knelt beside the lake and took out the glowing amber fungus — the Heartspore Bloom. Crushing it in her palm, she mixed it with her own blood, then let it fall into the water.
Light spread like rippling fire. The black surface turned to jade, releasing a faint, sweet chill.
Senmi collapsed, barely breathing.
Ly placed her hand on the girl's forehead, whispering softly:
"Sleep. The forest will return what it once took."
Light flowed through Senmi's body, and then Sivall's. Their color returned, their breaths steady. But as they healed, Ly's body began to tremble. Blood streamed from her nose, dripping into the lake.
Kael clenched his fists. "Stop! You'll kill yourself!"
Ly looked at him, smiling faintly.
"I have no life to lose, Kael. I'm only what remains of someone who once belonged to this city. When the forest remembers, I return to it."
The lake began to churn. From its depths rose shapes — faint, translucent figures of men, women, and children. The lost souls of those who had been kept. They reached for one another, glowing softly like a drifting galaxy.
Senki stepped back, whispering, "It's beautiful… and terrifying."
Ly rose, her voice now layered with a hundred others.
"The forest recalls its pain — who hurt it, who abandoned it… and who begged to forget."
Kael's jaw tightened. "If it's remembering, then we have to get out before it makes us part of it too!"
Ly nodded slowly. "There is a way."
She drew a rune-etched crystal from her cloak and tossed it to Kael.
"Use this. It will shift you out of the memory layer. But only one who's bound to the forest can trigger it."
Kael frowned. "Who would that be?"
Ly smiled — gentle, distant. "Me."
Before anyone could stop her, she pressed her hand to the crystal. The entire cavern quaked. Roots convulsed like living veins. Blue light surged from her feet, spreading across the chamber, engulfing them all.
"Wait—!" Sill screamed, reaching out. "You haven't told us everything! You—"
Her voice was swallowed by the light.
Through the blinding white, Kael caught one last glimpse of Ly — standing in a sea of closing roots, silver hair flowing, golden eyes watching them with a serene, ancient calm. Not human anymore — but the forest itself, smiling.
The light faded.
Kael awoke on soft ground. Mist rolled across a gray sky. Waves whispered against the shore. In the distance, cliffs rose — the southern floating isles, where their journey had first begun.
Renar sat up suddenly, panic in his voice. "Where's Ly!?"
No one answered. Only the wind blew, carrying the faint scent of mushrooms.
Sill helped Sivall sit up. The marks of infection were gone — her skin clear, her breath steady. Senmi too had recovered.
Senki exhaled shakily. "She… really did it. She saved them."
Kael stood silently for a long time, gazing toward the distant pit — now nothing more than a dark scar in the earth, the violet glow gone.
He murmured, "She stayed behind… with the memories."
Renar bowed his head. Sill wiped away a tear.
The ground beneath them quivered. From the soil, a tiny mushroom sprouted, glowing faintly amber — identical to the Heartspore Bloom.
Kael crouched, brushing its cap. It dissolved into glittering motes of light that drifted skyward and vanished.
A voice — faint and distant — whispered through the breeze:
"Leave this place… before the forest remembers you again."
The group stood in silence.
Sill tightened her fist, then gasped softly. In her coat pocket, something pulsed — a fragment of the golden fungus, half-transparent, glowing weakly.
She whispered, trembling,
"This… it's a piece of the Heartspore Bloom."
Renar's eyes widened. "That's impossible! Ly used it all!"
Sill shook her head, tears welling.
"No… She must have left it for me. Ly knew I needed it."
She held the fragment close, her voice shaking but firm.
"With this, I can save my mother… The medicine I've searched for—it's finally real."
Kael looked at her, his voice low.
"Ly didn't just save our lives… She gave you hope."
The amber light shimmered in Sill's palm — a tiny flame amidst the ruins.
By dusk, they reached the forest near the island's edge. The tribe that had rescued them once before was waiting.
An elder — white-haired, eyes cloudy as fog — stepped forward.
He placed a trembling hand on Kael's shoulder.
"You have returned… carrying the breath of the forest."
Kael frowned. "You… know what happened below?"
The old man smiled faintly. "Because we were once part of it. A fragment of our tribe's souls were among those the forest kept. We are the memories it chose to forgive."
Renar whispered, stunned, "You mean… you're—"
"The souls of the old city," the elder said softly. "Those given another chance — to remember in the forest's place."
Silence fell.
Senki looked down, murmuring, "So… we never really escaped its memory. It simply allowed us to leave."
The elder nodded once, then turned away, his voice fading with the wind:
"But remember — the forest never truly forgets."
Standing on a cliff above the sea, Kael watched the horizon. The violet clouds had broken, leaving streaks of amber across the waves.
He whispered,
"Ly… you were right. The forest doesn't die. It only sleeps. And whenever mankind forgets… it dreams again."
Renar smiled faintly. "Maybe she's still out there — smiling inside its dream."
Sill looked down at the fragment glowing in her hand and whispered,
"Thank you… for leaving behind a miracle."
They stood in silence. Only the sound of the waves and the whisper of wind remained.
Far across the horizon, where the pit once was, a faint golden light flickered — pulsing like a heartbeat — before fading into the dusk.