"Now," Aric said. "Before it wakes."
Garran did not waste time asking what it was.
He turned toward the upper corridor. "Lysa, get everyone outside. Mara first. Edren if he can be moved."
Lysa nodded once. "And you?"
"We'll follow."
She looked from Aric to the cracked floor beneath them. "That answer sounds like a lie."
"It's the answer that gets people moving."
Another pulse rolled through the waystation.
The floor split wider.
Stone groaned below their boots.
From somewhere above came the sound of wood breaking, followed by a scream that ended too sharply.
Lysa swore and ran.
Garran followed her toward the corridor, then stopped when Aric did not.
"You said we were leaving."
"We are."
Aric crouched at the crack.
Cold air rose through it, carrying a smell unlike the Mimic Hounds' wet fur and black blood. This was older. Dry. Mineral. It smelled of sealed rooms and things that had been buried alive.
The System hovered at the edge of his vision.
[Unknown subterranean activity increasing.]
[Structural integrity: 71%.]
[Projected collapse risk: Rising.]
[Recommendation: Evacuate all noncombatants immediately.]
Aric touched the stone.
The pulse came again.
This time, the crack beneath his palm answered with a faint vibration.
Not sound.
Recognition.
He pulled his hand away.
Garran saw his face. "What?"
"It knows I'm here."
"Then that is another reason to leave."
Aric stood. "The wounded one is still below."
"You want to go after it?"
"No."
Garran frowned.
Aric pointed toward the shaft of the spear. The wood had been bitten and split, but the metal head remained firmly attached.
"The hounds were moving around us. They wanted us near the arch. They weren't protecting the passage."
"What were they doing?"
"Buying time."
A distant crash shook the stairwell.
Dust spilled from the ceiling.
Garran looked toward the corridor where Lysa had disappeared.
Aric continued, "Whatever is below is not waiting for us to come down."
Garran's eyes narrowed.
"It's coming up," Aric said.
The next pulse hit harder.
The floor under the dry well cracked in a perfect ring.
The old stones shifted inward.
Garran stepped back. "Move."
Aric did.
The well collapsed.
A column of broken stone plunged into the darkness below, carrying dead roots, rusted iron, and the remains of old wooden supports. A wave of cold air blasted through the chamber.
Something moved beneath the rubble.
Not one body.
A mass.
Garran lifted his sword.
A pale limb rose from the opening.
It was too long to belong to any hound.
The hand hooked over the edge of the broken well.
Its fingers were thin and jointed, with dark ridges running along the knuckles.
Aric thrust downward.
The spearhead struck the wrist.
The limb recoiled.
The opening beneath the well filled with a sound like a deep breath.
Then every voice the hounds had collected rose from the darkness at once.
"Father."
"Aric."
"Please."
"Don't leave me."
The voices layered over each other until the chamber itself seemed to speak.
Garran's face tightened. "That isn't a hound."
"No."
The System flashed.
[Life-Sign Detection: Inconclusive.]
[Multiple signatures overlapping.]
[Primary entity classification unavailable.]
The pale limb struck.
Aric barely turned in time. The claws scraped across his chest and threw him backward.
[HP: 217/300.]
He hit the wall hard enough to lose his breath.
Garran stepped between him and the opening.
The limb lashed again.
Garran blocked with his sword.
The impact bent the blade.
He staggered but held.
"Go!" he shouted.
Aric forced himself upright. "It's testing the surface."
"What?"
"It's not fully out."
"Then help me keep it that way."
The limb withdrew below the broken well.
For one second, the chamber was silent.
Then a low pressure rolled through the foundation.
The remaining Mimic Hound beyond the collapsed arch shrieked.
Its cry was answered from farther below.
The tunnel walls began to tremble.
Aric looked at the widening opening.
"It's calling them."
Garran's head snapped toward the arch.
Shapes were moving beyond it.
The surviving hound came first, dragging its damaged leg. Behind it, two more forms pressed through the narrow tunnel, smaller than the thing below but moving with far greater speed.
Garran cursed.
"We're boxed in."
Aric looked toward the stairwell. The upper passage was still open, but voices and fighting echoed from above.
Lysa was trying to evacuate the station.
The creatures below were trying to stop them.
He had seconds.
Aric pointed to the damaged spear. "How much strength do you have left?"
Garran gave him an incredulous look. "Enough to dislike your question."
"Good. We need the arch."
"You said it was a trap."
"It is. But it's the only narrow point left."
Garran understood.
They moved together.
The first hound launched itself from the tunnel.
Aric stepped aside and drove the spear into its shoulder. The damaged shaft bowed but did not break.
The creature twisted, trying to pull itself along the weapon.
Garran struck its knee.
The hound dropped.
Aric tore the spear free and slammed the butt into its throat.
It staggered backward into the second hound.
For one moment, the narrow tunnel jammed with bodies.
"Now!" Aric shouted.
Garran charged.
His sword cut low, opening the lead creature across both thighs.
The second hound leapt over the falling body.
Aric caught it with the spear shaft across the neck.
The creature's claws struck his arm.
Pain flashed, but he held.
Garran drove the pommel into its skull.
The hound sagged.
Aric twisted the spear and threw it aside.
The shaft snapped in two.
He seized the creature by the throat and slammed it into the tunnel wall.
The hound spoke in Selisse's voice.
"Aric, stop."
The sound was so gentle that his hands almost loosened.
Then a second voice came from behind it.
His mother.
"Come home."
Aric's jaw locked.
He drove his forehead into the creature's face.
Bone cracked.
He struck again.
The hound collapsed.
The System appeared.
[Target incapacitated.]
[Temporary classification: Mimic Hound.]
[Confirmed kill condition satisfied.]
[EXP Awarded: 28.]
The surviving wounded hound snarled and lunged over the fallen body.
Garran intercepted it.
The two crashed against the tunnel wall.
The hound's claws raked across Garran's forearm.
He grunted but kept his sword hand steady.
"Aric!"
Aric reached for the broken spear shaft.
The creature was stronger than the others. Its injured leg no longer seemed to matter. It moved with a desperate, almost focused violence.
Garran stabbed.
The hound twisted aside.
The blade entered beneath its ribs but did not stop it.
Aric seized the remaining half of the spear and drove the broken end into the wound.
The sharpened splinter punched through.
The hound convulsed.
Garran shoved it away.
Aric followed, striking the creature's skull with the metal spearhead still attached to the other half of the shaft.
Once.
Twice.
On the third strike, the hound stopped moving.
[Target incapacitated.]
[Temporary classification: Mimic Hound.]
[Confirmed kill condition satisfied.]
[EXP Awarded: 28.]
The tunnel went quiet.
Too quiet.
Aric looked toward the broken well.
The pale hand had disappeared.
Garran was breathing hard, blood running down his forearm.
"Tell me that means we won," he said.
The floor answered with another pulse.
A crack raced from the well to the base of the stairs.
The System appeared.
[Warning.]
[Subterranean pressure breach imminent.]
[Estimated time to major structural failure: Less than two minutes.]
Aric grabbed Garran's shoulder. "We leave now."
This time Garran did not argue.
They ran.
The stairwell shook beneath them as they climbed. Halfway up, the stone behind them exploded outward.
A black mass surged through the lower doorway.
Aric glanced back.
It was not a hound.
Its body was too narrow and too tall, with limbs folded close against its sides like a starving insect. Its head brushed the ceiling. The face was unfinished, as though features had been pressed into wet clay and never allowed to harden.
The mouth opened.
It spoke in Aric's voice.
"Finally."
The sound carried no emotion.
That frightened him more than the mimicry.
Aric climbed faster.
Garran reached the upper corridor first and seized the edge of the doorway.
"Lysa!" he shouted.
"Here!"
She stood near the front entrance with two caravan guards. Mara was wrapped in a blanket between them. Edren lay on a makeshift stretcher, pale and shaking but conscious.
The corridor wall behind them had split open.
Black claws pushed through the plaster.
Lysa saw the creature below Aric.
Her eyes widened.
"What in the name of the Crown is that?"
"Outside!" Aric shouted. "Everyone outside!"
Mara clutched Edren's hand. "What about the others?"
"There are no others," Garran said.
It was a lie, and everyone knew it.
But Lysa moved.
The guards lifted Edren.
Mara stayed beside him.
The creature in the stairwell reached the top step.
Its head tilted toward Edren.
Then it spoke in the voice of the absent daughter.
"Father?"
Edren froze.
His eyes went wide.
Mara gripped his shoulder. "Don't listen."
The creature smiled.
It had no lips, yet the expression was unmistakable.
"Father, I found the way home."
Edren began to shake.
Aric saw the creature's attention shift toward him.
It was not looking at the others.
It was measuring him.
The Dark Wolf Fang burned against his belt.
The System opened another message.
[Unknown entity response detected.]
[Resonance with stored item increasing.]
[Potential predatory recognition.]
Aric pulled the fang free.
The black tooth glimmered in his hand.
The creature stopped.
For the first time since it emerged, it seemed uncertain.
Garran stared at the fang. "What did you bring into this place?"
"Nothing that was alive when I found it."
The creature lowered its head.
A deep clicking came from its throat.
The remaining Mimic Hounds answered from beneath the floor.
Aric understood.
The fang was not merely reacting to the creature.
It was familiar to it.
A memory.
A scent.
A piece of something related.
The creature took one step forward.
The building groaned.
Aric held the fang out.
Not as a weapon.
As a challenge.
"Come on," he said.
Garran stared at him. "That's your plan?"
"It's looking at me."
"That doesn't make it a good plan."
"It makes it our only one."
The creature moved.
Aric threw the Dark Wolf Fang toward the cracked section of floor behind it.
The tooth struck stone.
The creature turned instantly.
Its entire body followed the motion.
Aric lunged.
He drove the broken spear shaft into the back of its knee.
The point barely penetrated, but the creature stumbled.
Garran and Lysa attacked together.
Garran slashed across its side.
Lysa drove her sword into the shoulder.
The creature made no sound.
Instead, it released a pressure wave that knocked all three of them backward.
Aric struck the wall.
[HP: 205/300.]
Mara cried out.
The entrance doors burst open under the force of the impact.
Cold daylight flooded the corridor.
Beyond it, the caravan guards were shouting.
The creature straightened.
Its head turned toward the open road.
Then toward the fang.
Then toward Aric.
It had a choice.
That was what the System told him.
Not in words.
In the way the entity paused.
It could pursue the fang.
It could pursue the people.
It could pursue him.
Aric rose, one hand against the wall.
"Take it," he said.
The creature looked at him.
"Take what?"
The voice came from the thing itself this time.
Not borrowed.
Not copied.
Its own voice was deeper than speech should have been.
Aric pointed toward the broken floor.
"The fang."
The creature stepped toward it.
Aric shouted, "Now!"
Garran and Lysa pulled Edren through the doorway.
Mara followed.
The guards dragged the stretcher outside.
Aric backed toward the entrance.
The creature bent over the fang.
Its fingers closed around the black tooth.
The instant it touched the item, the entire waystation screamed.
Not the people.
The stones.
The walls.
The buried supports.
The old iron in the foundations.
The world beneath the building answered with a roar.
The floor collapsed behind the creature.
It fell into the darkness, carrying half the records room with it.
Aric ran.
He crossed the threshold just as the waystation folded inward.
The western station sank into itself with a thunderous crash.
Dust and splinters burst across the road.
The caravan horses screamed.
Mara fell to her knees beside Edren.
Garran seized Aric by the back of his coat and hauled him clear as the front wall collapsed.
For several seconds, no one moved.
Then the earth gave one final shudder.
Silence followed.
Aric stared at the ruins.
The Dark Wolf Fang was gone.
The System appeared.
[Stored item: Dark Wolf Fang — No longer detected.]
[Unknown entity: No longer detected at surface level.]
[Subterranean life-signs: Numerous. Classification unavailable.]
Aric's hand closed around empty air.
Garran bent over, trying to catch his breath. "Did we kill it?"
"No."
"Did we stop it?"
Aric looked at the crater where the waystation had stood.
The pulse beneath the earth had not stopped.
It had simply moved deeper.
"No," he said. "We made it choose."
Lysa turned toward the road.
Smoke and dust rolled across the ruined station.
"Then what did we buy?"
Aric looked at the caravan, at Mara holding Edren's hand, at the guards trying to calm the horses.
"Time."
The System flickered once more.
[Level 16 progress updated.]
[Additional EXP Awarded: 56.]
[Current HP: 205/300.]
[Current MP: 100/100.]
[Unallocated stat points: 3.]
Aric looked back at the ruins.
Far below, beneath the broken stone, something whispered his name again.
This time, it sounded less like a threat.
It sounded like a promise.