The light did not fade.
It yielded.
As if it had been opened from within.
Arthur felt the ground vanish beneath his feet for a single instant — not like a fall, but like a transition. The air lost density, sound stretched thin, and then everything reassembled at once.
Silence.
A silence too vast to fit inside the Mountain.
They were standing on solid, uneven rock, surrounded by tall formations that rose in circles around an impossible space. Above, there was no open sky — only a distant stone vault, so high it seemed like one. Long fissures allowed a diffuse, greenish light to seep in, spreading through the environment like an eternal twilight.
Ahead of them, the lake.
Gigantic.
A stretch of still water, smooth as ancient glass, occupying almost the entire central space of that colossal chamber. Its surface reflected the green light softly, without excess brightness, as if the lake itself absorbed the world around it.
And at its center…
The tree.
Arthur stopped breathing for a second.
It rose from the middle of the water like a living pillar, too wide to be embraced, too tall to be measured by sight. The trunk was thick, marked by natural veins that pulsed in deep shades of green, like light running beneath the bark. The branches spread in every direction, supporting a vast, luminous crown whose leaves seemed made of translucent matter.
The light came from it.
Not from outside.
Not reflected.
It was a constant emission — calm, ancient.
— …what is this? — Mia whispered, almost afraid of breaking the place.
Arthur did not answer right away.
He felt something different in his chest.
Not pressure.
Not threat.
Something… attentive.
— I don't know — he said at last. — But this isn't part of the Mountain. At least, not the way we knew it.
They took a few steps forward over the uneven rock that bordered the lake. The ground formed natural platforms, like steps shaped by the mountain itself. Everything there felt too deliberate to be natural — and too ancient to be recent.
— Did we leave the path… or go deeper? — Mia asked.
Arthur watched the tree.
— I think this isn't a "place" — he replied. — It's a point.
That was when he realized it.
They were not alone.
Far beyond the lake, almost blending into the landscape itself, there were figures.
Three.
At first, they seemed like nothing more than motionless silhouettes, cut against the green light of the tree. But as Arthur focused his gaze, details began to take shape.
One of them was tall and slender, with skin too pale to be merely human. Her hair merged with living fibers, cascading in tones that shifted between green and pale gold. Her body seemed part of the environment — not camouflaged, but integrated, as if the place itself had learned to take human form.
Beside her, a woman.
Steady posture, restrained presence. Her clothes were simple, but bore marks of use, of long paths traveled. She watched the lake, not the tree — like someone accustomed to that scenery.
And then… the boy.
Younger than Arthur.
His body was light, but tense, like a rope pulled too tight. Dark hair fell in disarray, and there was something in the way he stood upright that betrayed impatience. He did not look at the tree.
He looked far away.
At them.
Arthur felt it first.
A dry chill, straight at the back of his neck.
Mia felt it a heartbeat later.
— Arthur… — she murmured. — They're…
— I know.
It wasn't just a look.
It was recognition.
The instant the boy's eyes met theirs, something invisible stretched between the two points in space — like taut threads binding presence to presence. Arthur felt his breath falter for a second, as if the air had been pulled out of him.
The boy frowned.
His expression changed.
Anger.
Not confusion.
Not surprise.
Immediate, instinctive anger — as if their very existence there were an affront.
— This isn't good… — Mia whispered.
Arthur didn't have time to answer.
The boy moved.
He didn't walk.
He didn't run.
He leapt.
The ground beneath his feet cracked with a dry impact, and his body was hurled forward with absurd force, cutting through the space above the lake like a projectile. The air bent around him, leaving a visible, distorted trail, as if reality itself were being shoved aside.
— MIA! — Arthur shouted.
Instinctively, he grabbed her arm.
The world responded before any spell could be formed.
The space behind them contracted violently.
The path they had come through — the luminous opening between the rocks — collapsed inward on itself. Before they could be swallowed back, a sound echoed across the lake.
An explosion.
Not of fire.
Of pure force.
The impact shook the entire chamber, waves spread across the water's surface, and the green light of the tree wavered for the first time.
Arthur and Mia were thrown backward.
The light swallowed them again.
The sound of the world shattered into fragments.
And in the final instant before everything vanished, Arthur was certain of one thing:
They had not been expelled by chance.
They had been rejected.
The path closed behind them with a definitive snap.
And on the other side, something remained watching — not with curiosity…
But with intent.