The forest began screaming before dawn.
Ashen heard it through the infirmary walls—low at first, like wind dragged through broken teeth, then rising into something sharper. More deliberate. A sound that carried intent.
He was already awake.
Sleep had found him only in fragments, each time torn apart by dreams he couldn't fully remember. Bells half-buried in soil. Roots coiling around stone arches. A voice calling his name from somewhere impossibly far below.
The mark on his chest pulsed beneath the bandages.
Ashen sat up, ignoring the protest of his muscles, and swung his legs over the side of the cot. The infirmary was quiet, the lantern burned low, and no one else stirred.
The scream came again—closer this time.
Not human.
Ashen's hand closed around the iron pendant. It was colder than ever.
The door creaked as he eased it open and stepped into the corridor. The temple halls were dim, lit only by scattered candles and moonlight bleeding through narrow windows. Shadows clung to the walls in unnatural ways, stretching too long, bending where they shouldn't.
He made it three steps before a voice whispered from behind him.
"You shouldn't be walking."
Ashen turned to see Mara leaning against the wall, arms crossed, eyes sharp despite the hour.
"Neither should you," he said.
"I wasn't thrown across a square by living darkness."
He gave a crooked smile. "Fair."
Another scream tore through the air, this one unmistakably closer—and answered by something deeper, rumbling from beyond the town walls.
Mara's expression hardened. "That's the forest."
Ashen nodded. "It's calling."
She stared at him. "That's not comforting."
They didn't bother waking the elders.
Blackmere's gates were already open when they reached them, guards clustered along the walls with torches and drawn weapons. The forest beyond churned in restless motion—branches swaying without wind, roots pushing up through frozen earth, shadows folding over themselves.
Captain Hollen blocked their path, scarred face tight with tension. "You two shouldn't be here."
Ashen met his gaze. "Something's wrong."
Hollen snorted. "That much is obvious."
A branch snapped beyond the treeline, followed by a wet, tearing sound. The guards shifted uneasily.
Mara stepped forward. "If this has anything to do with the seal—"
Hollen cut her off. "Then all the more reason for him to stay back."
The mark burned.
Ashen sucked in a breath as heat flared beneath his skin, sharp enough to steal the air from his lungs. His vision blurred, then snapped into terrifying clarity.
The forest wasn't just moving.
It was opening.
Roots twisted apart like ribs spreading, revealing a dark hollow beneath the trees. Stone jutted from the earth there—ancient, carved with the same symbols as the temple walls.
A gate.
Ashen staggered forward before he realized he was moving.
"Stop him!" someone shouted.
Hands grabbed at his arms, but the ground trembled and the guards were thrown off balance as the forest screamed again—this time in pain.
From the hollow, something began to climb out.
It was larger than the creature from the square, its body woven from bark, bone, and blackened sinew. Antlers crowned its skull, and glowing symbols burned along its chest like wounds that refused to close.
The Forest Warden.
The name rose unbidden in Ashen's mind.
"It's bound to the seal," he whispered.
Mara grabbed his sleeve. "Ashen, listen to me. Whatever you're feeling—it's not the same as knowing what to do."
The Warden's eyes—pits of green fire—locked onto Ashen.
It knelt.
The guards froze in stunned silence.
The Warden lowered its head, antlers scraping stone.
Bearer, a voice thundered inside Ashen's skull. The chain is strained. The gate weakens.
Ashen's knees buckled, the weight of the voice crushing.
"What do you want?" he gasped.
Choice.
The word echoed like a bell strike.
Mara stared at him. "Who are you talking to?"
"The forest," Ashen said. "And it's afraid."
The Warden rose, turning its gaze toward the dark hollow. Shadows churned within, pressing against an invisible barrier.
They are learning, the voice said. They remember your blood.
A crack split the stone arch.
Ashen felt it in his chest, a tearing sensation that made him cry out.
"If the seal breaks—" Mara began.
—the gate opens, the Warden finished. And the bells will no longer be enough.
The Warden stepped aside, revealing the hollow completely.
Beyond it lay darkness layered upon darkness—and something watching from within.
Ashen took a step forward.
Mara moved with him.
"No," Hollen barked. "You don't go in there."
Ashen didn't look back. "If I don't, it comes to us."
The forest screamed one last time as the barrier fractured, and cold spilled out like breath from a tomb.
The mark on Ashen's chest flared bright.
The gate began to open.