---
And then—
Footsteps.
Not the usual rhythm.
The lights didn't go red.
A crack in the wood above.
Leya's hand closed around Elen's wrist, sharp enough to leave a mark.
They didn't smile.
They didn't dare.
But their eyes shifted—
just enough to betray the dangerous thing they'd been hiding.
Not hope.
Expectation.
Someone had stepped in the wrong place.
---
On Elias side:
[Elias's Hall – Late Afternoon]
The quiet of the hall was unnatural.
No echo of distant chatter.
No sound of boots against marble except his own.
Elias walked with the kind of pace that made the air feel heavy—
Every step was not slow, but deliberate.
He dragged the weight of his thoughts with his steps.
He hated this part.He despised it.
Not the waiting—No, he'd endured much worse, night watches under skies that bled red before dawn,not knowing when scouts will came, not knowing when enemy will strike them.
They could only wait, but it was fine. Atleast they had a clear direction.
The part he despised was— the blindness.
The not-knowing.
It gnawed at him like a blade pressed just under the ribs. And you can do nothing about it.
He had faced armies.
Broken through dungeons.
Walked away from battlefields where the air was so thick with smoke and blood it clung to him for days.
But nothing compared to this—
wondering if somewhere, right now, a child's heartbeat was slowing…
and he wasn't there to stop it.
---
He paused at the cracked window at the end of the corridor.
A wind slid through it—thin, cold.
It smelled faintly of damp soil.
And something else.
Something faintly sour.
Decay under moss.
His jaw tightened.
The forest wasn't that close to the keep, and yet… he could feel it, he could sense it.
"Hold on," he murmured.
Not loud enough for anyone to hear,
but the words were meant for someone far away.
---
[Red Forest – Twilight]
Top dark... sunlight coming in broken pieces. Too eerie like it will devour you alive, too silent to make you drop your guard. And too horrifying if you fell for it.
The Red forest— Twilight.
Roots curled up from the earth like the bones of some long-dead giant.
Shadows bent the wrong way, stretching where no light touched them.
Sir Kael moved through it like a ghost—
steps soundless despite the bed of dry leaves.
His gloved hand rested on the hilt of his blade, not out of fear—
Kael didn't scare easily—
but because this quiet was wrong.
He could feel it but couldn't pinpoint.
---
He stopped, crouching low.
Something pale glimmered beneath a layer of rotting leaves.
He brushed the muck aside,
expecting stone.
It wasn't stone.
It was bone.
Small.
A child's jawbone, still partly buried in the dirt.
Kael's breath left him in a controlled exhale.
He didn't move for a long moment.
Then his gaze shifted—
—a thin strand of red fabric was tangled on a root above it,
fluttering in air that seemed to breathe on its own.
Beneath the root, just visible in the soft soil—
a footprint. A person's footprint.
Too fresh to belong to the dead.
---
Kael knelt, pressing his ear to the ground.
Faint vibrations.
Not footsteps above—
movement below.
He swept the leaves back farther,
fingers hitting the uneven grain of old wood.
A hatch, blackened and damp, its edges overgrown with moss.
He pressed his ear to it.
Knocks.
He froze.
Every muscle went still.
Three… pause… two… pause… three.
Then silence.
And then—
a drag of breath.
Uneven.
Shallow.
Strained.
Kael's jaw flexed.
He tapped the gadget stone on his belt.
Static hissed back at him.
The forest swallowed the signal whole.
The trees loomed overhead like sentinels,
branches creaking in the slow wind.
The air pressed against him,
thick, damp, and wrong.
Another knock.
This one frantic.
---
Kael didn't waste another second.
He flicked a concealed latch on the gadget stone,
forcing the signal to spike.
"Red Forest—reporting. I repeat, Red Forest—reporting.
There is something very strange going on here.
Send scouts. Fast."
---
[Elias's Hall – Minutes Later]
The message hissed through the crystal relay.
Elias was halfway to the war room when the stone on his belt pulsed twice.
The faint distortion of Kael's voice cut through the silence.
"Red Forest—reporting… very strange… send scouts fast…"
The pulse repeated once before the line went dead.
Elias stopped moving.
Only his breathing shifted—slow, but heavier.
Kael didn't call "strange" without reason.
---
The war room door slammed open.
"Red Forest, now," Elias said.
No explanation.
He didn't need to give one.
Two aides moved immediately—
one for the armory,
the other for the stables.
The map table flared as Elias swept his hand over it,
the Red Forest marked in dull crimson.
He counted the distance,
the available scout units,
the time before darkness thickened the canopy.
"Four riders, light armor.
Two in the air for coverage.
Relay carriers ready.
I want eyes on Kael within the hour," he ordered.
Everyone moved after bowing with respect and small smile on face— ' He's back' they thought.
---
[Basement – Same Time]
The twins had stopped trying to stand.
Every joint burned.
Every muscle shook.
The air was heavier tonight,
and the damp had crept into their bones.
Leya's lips were split,
but she didn't touch them.
Touching drew attention.
Elen's head was bowed,
eyes half-closed—
but he was listening.
Footsteps in the corridor.
Not the same as before.
These were faster.
Urgent.
---
Somewhere above—
wood cracked.
Both twins looked up at the same time.
Neither spoke.
Because they could hear it—
the difference between the slow, deliberate steps of their captors
and the heavier, cautious tread of someone else.
And in the space between those sounds…
Hope itched like a wound.
---
[Red Forest – Dusk]
Kael didn't move from the hatch.
He knew help was coming—
but he also knew whatever was inside was on the edge of breaking.
The knocks had stopped.
So had the breathing.
He adjusted his grip on his blade,
eyes scanning the ground.
The soil here wasn't just disturbed.
It was patterned—
drag marks from something heavy being pulled toward the hatch.
And on the edge of one mark,
caught in the mud,
was something small.
A metal cuff,
child-sized,
its lock mechanism bent open as if forced from within.
---
Kael's jaw set.
He pressed his palm flat to the wood.
"Hold on," he said quietly,
echoing words spoken miles away by the man who had sent him here.
From below,
he thought he heard it—
the faintest, weakest knock.
Once.