The silence in the wake of the battle was like a physical weight. Dust, disturbed by Sorrin's impossible power, settled slowly in the gloom. The air was thick with the scent of ozone and something acrid, like burnt sap. Sorrin's heart hammered against his ribs, a frantic rhythm in the sudden quiet.
He pushed himself to his feet, every muscle screaming in protest. His body felt hollowed out, a vessel that had been filled to bursting and then drained in an instant. Across the chamber, Renn was a pale shape slumped against the throne's steps, his leg bent at a sickening angle. He was alive. That was all that mattered.
"Renn," Sorrin rasped, stumbling toward him.
"I'm here," Renn breathed, his voice thin. "Sorrin... what was that? The flow... it was like nothing I've ever sensed. Actually, w-was that a blessing? That had to be, right?"
"Later," Sorrin said, kneeling beside him. He looked around the vast, tomblike chamber. The weathered reliefs on the walls seemed to watch them with empty eyes. "We need to find a way out."
There was no door. No passage. Just the unyielding stone walls that had trapped them here. A wave of despair, cold and sharp, washed over Sorrin. He was hurt, Renn was crippled, and they were buried alive. He pushed himself up, his body trembling with exhaustion, and leaned a hand heavily against the arm of the great stone throne to steady himself.
The moment his palm made contact, the chamber changed.
A low hum vibrated up his arm, resonating deep in his bones. The stone of the throne, once cold and dead, now felt strangely alive. The faint veins of gold and silver in the walls flared, not with a steady glow, but with a rhythmic pulse that matched his own heartbeat.
"Sorrin, get away from it!" Renn hissed, his head snapping up. His pale eyes were wide with alarm, fixed on something he was sensing.
But it was too late. The hum rose to a deep, grinding groan that shook the very foundations of the room. With a shudder that sent dust raining from the ceiling, a section of the wall behind the throne began to slide inward, revealing a chasm of absolute darkness.
Sorrin snatched his hand back as if burned, staring at his own palm. "What's happening?"
"It's not your Blessing," Renn said, his voice a mixture of awe and terror. He was pushing himself up on his elbows, head tilted as if listening to a silent symphony. "The throne didn't react to Flow at all. It reacted to you. That branch... it didn't just give you power. It changed you. It made you into something this place recognizes."
"And I'm not entirely sure if that's a good thing."
Sorrin sighed.
"C'mon, stop being so dramatic. I mean, can you believe it? I finally got to use flow for the first time!"
Renn had a worried look on his face.
A wind, cold and smelling of deep earth, began to blow from the new passage.
Taking Renn's weight was an agony for them both, but they shuffled through the opening, leaving the oppressive silence of the throne room behind. The passage led them into another cavern, this one a sanctuary of soft, silvery moss that glowed with its own internal light. The air was cool and clean.
Sorrin gently lowered Renn into an alcove, his friend's face clammy and pale. "Comms are shot," Sorrin stated, tapping the dead device on his belt. The static hiss was his only reply. "We're alone down here."
"Ah, so that explains why Calda didn't bother reaching out to us even once since we entered this place," Renn said sarcastically.
"Anyways, it won't be like that forever, Arven has that protocol. The emergency rally point. We miss check-in by sundown, he moves the Marrowlight to hold position over those coordinates for three days. This passage... it feels like it's heading in the right direction. Up, and north."
The logic was sound. It gave them a goal. To survive and climb. But as Sorrin looked at his own trembling hands, he knew it wasn't that simple. After they got out, what then?
Renn seemed to read his mind. "The Council will hear about this. A power that can drain an abomination like that... they don't tolerate anomalies, Sorrin. They regulate, they control, and they rip apart what they can't."
The thought of being chained in a Vesselkyn lab sent a spike of pure fear through him. "No," he said, his voice hard. "No one can know."
"Then what's the plan?" Renn challenged. "We can't just go back to taking contracts. You're a walking cataclysm. What happens if you can't control it?"
He was right. Sorrin needed answers. "Odria," he said, the idea forming as he spoke. "The Grand Academy there. They value knowledge above all else. They collect information on every Blessing, every Curse. If answers exist, they'll be there."
Renn let out a short, harsh laugh. "Infiltrating one of the most prestigious academic institutions in the known world. It's a stupid, suicidal plan." He paused, and when he spoke again, the humor was gone, replaced by a raw, desperate intensity. "If you are really going to go though... I'll come along too."
Sorrin looked at him, confused. "Renn, you're in no condition to travel. It's alright, I can go to the academy and find the answers myself. You need to rest. "
"You don't understand," Renn cut in, his pale eyes seeming to fix on Sorrin for the first time. "That power you have... It's something I've never seen. It touches the marrow of this world. My blindness, Sorrin... I've accepted it." He took a shaky breath, the glowing moss reflecting in his cloudy pupils. "But you... You might be the only person alive who could ever truly understand the hidden laws of this world. I'm not just coming to help you. I'm coming because for the first time, there's a chance, no matter how small, to find an answer for myself. I have to see this through, for both of us."