The world re-formed around them in a shudder of black light.
When Selene opened her eyes, she was lying on damp earth beneath trees that breathed. Their trunks rose like ribs around her, pulsing faintly with veins of silver. The air tasted of smoke and rain.
Kael's voice broke the silence. "Stay close. Nothing here feels alive, yet everything is."
Darius crouched beside Selene, scanning the mist. "This place feeds on us," he murmured. "Can you feel it? The bond…it's listening."
Selene tried to stand. The mark over her heart glowed softly, its edges shifting like liquid shadow. Every time she drew a breath, the forest seemed to sigh with her.
"What is this?" she whispered.
"The Vale of Shadows," Kael said, his hand on his blade. "But the legends never said it moves."
They walked in silence. The light above them never changed; it was neither day nor night. Roots twisted underfoot, and occasionally a low hum vibrated through the ground, as if the forest were remembering something.
A figure flickered ahead of them.
Selene's steps faltered. "Mother?"
The woman stood among the trees, pale and smiling. "Selene, my love. You've come home."
Kael drew his sword, the metal gleaming. "It's not real."
But Selene couldn't move. The apparition stepped closer, her eyes a mirror of Selene's own. "They'll betray you, my child. Just like they betrayed me."
Her voice dissolved into wind. The trees exhaled a long, mournful breath, scattering silver dust.
Selene shuddered. "She knew things, things no one ever told me."
"The forest remembers every soul that's crossed it," Darius said. "It's showing you what it wants you to fear."
Hours, or maybe moments—passed before the next illusion rose.
Kael stopped short as a young man appeared in front of him, bleeding from a chest wound. The boy's eyes were wide, accusing.
"Your first kill," the forest whispered through the leaves. "Do you still hear him at night?"
Kael's jaw locked. "Don't."
But the image stepped closer until Kael's blade trembled.
Darius caught his brother's wrist. "It's feeding off your guilt. Don't give it power."
Then it was Darius's turn. A small child appeared, crying, clutching a broken toy wolf.
"Brother," the voice whimpered, "you left me."
Darius fell to his knees. "No…"
Selene grabbed his shoulders. "It's not real!"
The illusions vanished with a sound like glass shattering. The forest went still again, almost satisfied.
Lyra's voice carried faintly through the mist—soft, echoing, impossible.
"Stay together…or the Vale will separate your souls."
Kael looked around sharply. "She's not here."
"No," Darius answered. "But her magic is."
Selene's mark flared again, heat slicing through her chest. "There's something ahead," she whispered. "Something calling me."
Through the shifting fog, they saw a shimmer,
an archway woven from living branches, glowing faintly blue. Beneath it, the ground seemed to ripple like water.
"The gateway," Kael breathed. "This must be the way out."
"Or deeper in," Darius muttered.
Before they could move, the forest screamed. Roots tore from the ground, forming the shape of a massive creature, half-wolf, half-serpent, its body made of bone and smoke.
Its voice was a thousand whispers. "The bonded must bleed to pass."
Kael and Darius stepped forward together, their blades drawn, moving with the practiced rhythm of brothers who had trained for war. The creature lunged, and the clash shook the forest.
Selene felt the bond ignite, three pulses, one heartbeat. Pain seared through her, then light.
She raised her hands, and black fire exploded from her palms, striking the creature square in the chest. It howled, unraveling into mist.
But the fire didn't stop. It swirled around them, forming a spiral of light that tore through the sky.
The archway split open, revealing a chasm of stars. The ground beneath them crumbled, and for a moment they were weightless—falling through wind and light and echoes of their own voices.
Then the world reassembled.
They landed on black stone beneath a violet sky. Mountains of crystal loomed in the distance. Rivers glowed red like veins of molten glass. And at the edge of a cliff stood creatures unlike any they had seen, winged, scaled, horned, watching in silent reverence.
Selene staggered forward. The mark on her skin now blazed white. Every creature bowed.
Kael whispered, "They're kneeling…to you."
Selene's pulse raced. "Why?"
A voice rolled through the air, deep and ancient.
"Because the blood remembers its queen."
The ground trembled. A giant shadow rose from the valley, eyes burning silver.
"Welcome," the voice said, echoing through every bone in their bodies,
"to the Realm of the Forgotten."
And the sky split open in light.