As they broke through the treeline again, smoke rose thick and black. The hut—gone. The earth around it scorched, pulse residue flickering like dying fireflies. The air reeked of something unnatural.
Kaelen was off the bike before it stopped. "Zephryn! Solara!"
Yolti skidded across the shoreline, falling to her knees. "Wait for me—he's my friend too!"
They split up, searching desperately through wreckage and ash. Splintered wood. Shattered bowls. A single, half-burned plate still steaming.
"Solara!" Kaelen's voice cracked.
Yolti's steps slowed. She looked toward the cliff. Her breath caught.
A scarf.
Hanging from a branch at the cliff's edge.
She walked toward it like sleepwalking. Reached. Lifted.
Her scream ripped through the night.
Kaelen ran to her side. "Yolti—what is it?!"
Then he saw it.
Down below, broken against the rocks like a forgotten star, lay Solara's body. Motionless. Unmoving. Alone.
Zephryn… was gone.
And so was the hum.