Each metallic step made Kayden's spine freeze, the sound drawing closer and closer.
What now?!
He could already see the tip of the spear the knight was holding. Everything pointed to one thing: the fight was about to begin.
I need to...
Kayden closed his eyes and turned his head, focusing all his energy into his palm.
A yellow light exploded in the narrow alley, a flash that tore through the city's pale glow like sunlight forcing its way through heavy clouds. The sound of grinding metal echoed behind him as the creature staggered back, disoriented.
Now!
Kayden sprinted through the narrow streets, running aimlessly, following only the crackling sound coming from the tree. The burning pain in his chest faded.
After turning several corners and weaving through crooked alleys, he found a hiding spot, a kind of shelter formed where two houses bent oddly into each other, their dark metal walls interlocking. A small refuge had formed in the center of that strange fusion.
As soon as he sat on the ground, he exhaled sharply, breath ragged and uneven.
Damn it, my hand... Kayden looked at the hand that had cast the light bomb, burned and shaking. So my idea worked... or almost.
He smiled faintly and lay down on the cold, hard ground, staring at his injured hand with a mix of pain and satisfaction.
I still can't control it right... Every time I try to use it, it feels like a tsunami wants to burst out of my hand... But if I can get better control over it...
If he could stop the lightning before it fully formed, using only the light and not the destruction, it would be the perfect tool for situations like this.
Focus. I need to get out of here before I start experimenting again.
Kayden stood and peeked out from the edge of his shelter. But maybe... should I check what's near the tree first...
Lethal curiosity. That was what Rodolph always yelled at him about. Kayden's need to figure things out sometimes spoke louder than his survival instinct, and that was something Rodolph could never tolerate.
Okay, fine! I'll only check if it's on the way... or really close by.
Kayden resumed his search on the other side of the city. It wasn't hard to avoid the knights; their patrol routes were stiff and predictable. He had spent his entire childhood dodging the guards of Ashen Falls anyway. A single wrong look was enough to get accused of any crime imaginable, no matter if you were a child or an old man. After all, those guards came from inside the walls, and their contempt for the people they watched was clear as day.
Finally, something caught his attention. The hard, ash-covered stone beneath his boots suddenly ended. In its place was grass, silver grass, like a garden carpeted with scattered crimson flowers. There were no soldiers here.
What kind of place is this inside the city...
Kayden had no cover in this area, but something told him this was the way out. Still, the thought gnawed at him: an open field in a city full of deadly knights, and worst of all, if something went wrong, he'd have to fight for his life. And that would definitely go wrong.
It's not like hiding in those alleys is much safer either... His leg trembled, his lip twitching under the weight of his nerves. Who knows what this garden hides? Or how many things? What are these flowers? Does this really lead to an exit?
He slapped his own face, cutting the thoughts short.
It's the only way. I have to move.
Kayden took a deep breath and stepped onto the silver soil. The grass was strangely soft, almost silky under his worn boots. The red flowers seemed to pulse faintly, as if breathing in sync with something unseen. The air here was different too, heavier, filled with a sweet scent that made his head spin slightly.
The burn in his chest returned, but this time it wasn't pain. It was attraction. A call.
He moved through the garden, eyes fixed on the structures ahead. The interwoven houses continued on this side of the city, but they were different, taller, more twisted, as if they had grown on their own instead of being built. The closer he got to the center, the more the structures seemed to merge, forming something larger.
Then he saw it.
Between two towers bending toward each other, forming a natural arch of darkened metal, there was a passage. Beyond it, a staircase. Not leading down, but up. Wide steps of silver stone climbed in a spiral along the side of a massive structure he hadn't been able to see from the lower alleys.
Up?
Logic told him to look for a way out on the ground level, maybe a gap in the walls or a forgotten gate. But something stronger than logic pulled him toward those steps.
Kayden glanced around one last time. No knights in sight. Only the silent garden and those red flowers that seemed to be watching him.
He climbed.
The steps were worn down in the middle, marked by countless feet over the ages. Sometimes his hand brushed against the wall to steady himself, the metal so cold it almost burned. The staircase wound upward in a slow spiral, always to the left, always higher.
After what felt like endless minutes, it finally opened onto a platform.
And Kayden forgot to breathe.
He was standing atop one of the city's inner structures, something like an old watchtower or bastion. From here, he could see everything. The outer walls surrounded the city like jagged black teeth. The alleys and streets formed a chaotic maze below him. And at the absolute center of it all...
The castle.
It was impossible. Gigantic. Made entirely of gleaming silver that seemed to shine with its own light, even under the dead gray sky. Towers rose like spears stabbing at the void, impossible bridges connected structures that defied any logic of design. And at its base, wrapping around the castle like the roots of some gemstone beast, was the tree.
But it wasn't a normal tree. The trunk was vast, larger than any building Kayden had ever seen, its color shifting between silver and bone white. It grew crooked, twisted, as if forced to exist in agony. Branches without leaves stretched in every direction, some piercing the castle towers, others vanishing into the dead sky above.
The burn in Kayden's chest flared violently. It wasn't pain, it was recognition. As if something deep inside him knew this place, that tree, that impossible castle.
I have to... I have to go there.
The urge was almost unbearable. His feet moved on their own, one step toward the staircase descending on the other side of the platform, the one that surely led closer to that place.
Then the burn changed.
It turned to ice. A cold so intense that Kayden doubled over, clutching his chest. And with that cold came understanding, not in words, but in a feeling, pure and sharp.
I'm not ready.
It wasn't fear. It was absolute certainty. The kind of truth you don't question, like knowing fire burns or that a fall kills. If he went to that castle now, something terrible would happen. He wasn't strong enough, didn't know enough, didn't have... something. Something essential he still needed to find.
Kayden stepped back, breathing hard, legs trembling. He looked one last time at the silver castle, etching every detail into his memory. One day he would return. He had to.
But not today.
Forcing himself to turn away from the impossible sight, Kayden scanned the platform. On the opposite side, away from the castle, there was another passage, narrow and almost hidden behind a fold of metal. As he approached, he felt it, wind. Fresh air, coming from outside the city.
An exit.
The passage led into the wall itself. It wasn't a carved tunnel, but a gap between layers of construction, as if the city had been built over something older and left empty spaces behind. Kayden had to squeeze through at some points, the rough metal scraping his shoulders.
Eventually, the darkness gave way to the gray light of the outside world.
Kayden emerged through a crack at the base of the outer wall, falling to his knees on the dry earth beyond the city. He turned immediately, looking back.
The dead city rose like a wound in the world. And somewhere within it, unseen from here but carved into his mind, stood the silver castle and its tormented tree.
I'll come back, Kayden whispered to himself, his hand pressed against his chest where the burn was finally starting to fade. When I'm ready... I'll come back.
Then, forcing his exhausted legs to move, Kayden walked away from the city, into the gray desert stretching endlessly ahead.