The wind moved through the abandoned metal structures of the old industrial district. It was a cold, lonely wind that made the loose steel plates tremble with a dull and uneven sound. These buildings stood like dark ghosts covered in thick orange rust. Broken machines, large and heavy, rested exactly where they had been left many years ago. It felt as if the great city had simply forgotten that this place ever existed.
Lyall walked slowly between the giant shadows of the factories. Each step he took lifted a thin layer of black dust. The dust floated for a moment in the freezing air before settling back down on the cracked ground. He had been walking for a very long time. Hours, perhaps even days. Ever since the great explosion, time had become a very difficult thing for him to measure. His head felt heavy, and his memories were blurry.
He had not truly chosen a direction to follow. He was just moving because he couldn't stay still. And yet, a strange sensation had followed him since he left the smoke of the battle behind. It was not a clear thought or a planned decision. It felt more like a faint pressure somewhere deep in the world, gently pulling his body toward a place he could not yet see.
Lyall suddenly stopped. Something in the air had changed. He placed his hand against a bent metal pillar that had been standing there for decades. For a moment, he thought he was just too tired and his mind was playing tricks on him. His chest tightened, and his breathing grew very shallow. Then, he felt it. A vibration. A deep pulse.
Since he had learned how to use Nexium, he sometimes sensed these invisible movements traveling through the dirt. Most of the time, they felt very distant, like a weak river moving far beneath the surface of the earth. But this time, it was different. The vibration was much stronger. It was unstable and angry. It passed through the metal pillar, climbed up his arm, and spread across his chest like a wave.
Lyall closed his eyes to focus. The network of the Mother-Plants was disturbed. Something or someone had forced the flow of energy. A dull pressure began to build behind his eyes. He stayed perfectly still for a few seconds, trying to understand where this trouble was coming from.
"What did you do…" he whispered quietly to the empty wind.
The memory of the explosion returned to him without any warning. He still did not fully understand what had happened in that moment. Everything had moved too quickly for his eyes to see. First came the heat. A violent wave of fire striking his back. Then came a light so bright it blinded him. The ground vanished beneath his feet before he could even try to run. For a brief moment, there was only the scary sensation of falling through the air. The wind rushed past his ears, and then, there was nothing but darkness.
When he finally regained consciousness, he was lying on a hard and damp surface. The air felt cool and smelled like wet soil and living sap. He slowly opened his eyes, expecting to see the sky, but he was not outside. The light around him was not sunlight. It was a blue light, soft and fluid, like glowing water. It seemed to drift gently through the space around him.
Lyall tried to sit up, but a sharp pain cut across his chest and forced him to stop and gasp for air.
"Don't move," a voice said. It was calm, but very firm.
Lyall turned his head slowly. An old man sat a few meters away. He was leaning against the inner wall of a massive, hollow tree trunk. His grey beard was very long, nearly reaching his belt, and his clothes were worn out and covered in grease and dust.
"Where…" Lyall had to pause to breathe because it hurt to talk. "Where am I ?"
The old man looked at the glowing walls before answering. "You are in a place where very few people arrive alive. You are safe for now."
Lyall looked around him in wonder. The inner walls of the trunk were translucent, almost like glass. Sap moved through them like glowing blue veins traveling slowly through the wood. The light flowed through these living channels with a steady, peaceful rhythm. He understood immediately. He was inside a Mother-Plant.
"How did I get here ?" Lyall asked.
The old man shrugged his shoulders. "The root took you. It reached out and pulled you in."
Lyall frowned, confused. "Plants don't take people. They are just trees."
The old man gave a faint, sad smile. "This one did. Your flow of energy was collapsing inside your body. You were dying. If the root hadn't absorbed you, you would be a corpse on the ground up there."
Lyall looked down at his own chest. His coat was burned and torn to pieces. A dark, jagged scar crossed his skin exactly where the explosion had hit him. He felt lucky to be breathing.
"How long have I been here?"
"Two days," the old man said. "You slept while the tree fixed you."
A long silence settled between them. Lyall shifted his body slightly. The pain was still there, but it was much weaker than before. He felt the energy of the tree touching his skin. The old man stood up and walked closer to him.
"You manipulate Nexium," the old man said. It was not a question; he already knew. Lyall did not answer. He didn't know if he could trust this stranger. The old man placed his hand against the glowing inner wall of the trunk. "And you force it too much. You treat it like a tool."
Lyall raised his eyes. "You don't know anything about me or what I do. I use it to survive."
The old man tapped lightly on the glowing bark. "Nexium is not just a fuel for a machine. The Empire treats it like a simple resource. They think it is just energy that can be stolen and controlled. But the roots do not work like their metal engines."
He paused and looked at the sap moving in the walls. "They listen," he said quietly. "They feel what you feel."
Lyall had never felt anything like this before. He looked at the luminous filaments running through the wood. "That's the flow? The real flow?"
"Only part of it," the old man replied. He crouched down in front of Lyall. "When the root took you, it tried to stabilize your energy. It tried to make you part of the forest."
The old man hesitated for a moment. "Your body doesn't react to Nexium the same way most people do. You are different."
"What does that mean ?" Lyall asked, feeling a new tension in his heart.
"It means you are more sensitive. Some people just use the flow to power their lights and their guns. But others… others can hear the world speaking through it."
Lyall opened his eyes again, returning to the present moment in the ruins. The wind was still moving through the abandoned machines, but the vibration in the ground had grown much stronger now. He crouched down and placed his bare hand against the cold, hard earth.
The flow was very unstable. Something had opened a huge passage inside the network of Mother-Plants. The roots were reacting with fear. Slowly, a direction began forming in Lyall's mind. It was like an invisible river pulling at his soul. He lifted his hand and looked toward the fog-covered horizon.
He knew now. Someone was manipulating the Ether Veins. Someone was touching the heart of the world. If the network had been disturbed this much, it meant something very important had just happened. The war was not over. Vane was still out there, and his friends were in danger.
Lyall adjusted the strap of his bag and stood up straight. He felt the power of the tree still hum inside his blood. This time, he was no longer walking without a goal. He was no longer lost. He was following the flow, and it was leading him straight to the final battle.