Chapter Three: The Echoes of Mortis
Fog. Shadows. Darkness.
For the past few hours, the only sounds were the distant, mournful howling of the wind and the rhythmic drumming of Nyx's hooves against the frozen earth. Three days. That was all the time I had to reach Veritas—if I reached it alive.
I had heard countless stories about this place, but the reality was far more sinister. I found myself chuckling, a dry, hollow sound. "I feel like I'm walking inside my own head," I whispered.
Nyx snorted, the sound echoing in the mist.
"What is it, boy? Don't worry. We'll reach Veritas," I mumbled, reaching down to pat his matted mane. I hadn't wanted to bring him at first; I couldn't be sure either of us would survive out here. But in the end, we were here together. I couldn't bear to be apart from him. Not now. Not after everything else was gone.
Suddenly, a sharp rustle came from the thickets. My heart hammered against my ribs as I drew my sword, the steel singing as it left the scabbard. Something—or rather, someone—emerged from the fog.
I narrowed my eyes, my breath catching in my throat. A little boy.
"Eric?" My eyes widened in disbelief. "Oh my God, Eric! You're alive!"
I practically fell off Nyx, sprinting toward him with my arms outstretched. But as I reached for him, his small form dissolved into the gray mist like smoke in the wind.
"What...? Where did he go?"
Nyx trotted up behind me, snuffling against my shoulder as if to pull me back to reality.
"Just a hallucination," I whispered, my voice trembling. I mounted him again, forcing my gaze forward. "People don't die here just from hunger, cold, or beasts. They die because of the visions. They follow the ghosts of their past right off a cliff."
I shook my head, trying to clear the image of my brother from my mind. He would have been older now. Five years had passed. The mountains were playing tricks on my grief.
The temperature continued to plummet. I watched my breath bloom into a white cloud and then vanish. I paused to wipe my blade; the dark, thick blood of the mutated bear I'd killed earlier was already starting to freeze on the steel. I looked down at the carcass. Its fangs were unnaturally long, its body twisted and oversized.
"Mutated," I muttered, squinting at the beast. "Bears shouldn't be this large."
Suddenly, Nyx let out a sharp, warning snort. I whipped around, a dagger already in my hand.
"Who's there?!" I snarled at the treeline.
"Whoah... easy there!" A man stepped out from behind a gnarled trunk, his hands raised in a mock gesture of surrender. "It's just a human. No need for a funeral today."
"I can see you're human," I said, my voice like ice. I didn't lower the dagger. "What do you want? Why are you following me?"
"Not exactly following," he said, taking cautious, slow steps toward the light of my path. "But aren't we all heading to the same hell? I saw you back there when that 'creepy rat' jumped at you. I was going to help, but you handled it before I could even blink. I figured you were another soul just trying to survive the night."
I narrowed my eyes. "And where exactly do you think I'm going?"
"Veritas, isn't it obvious?" He tried to offer a crooked, charming grin. "No sane person comes to the Mortis range for a vacation, right?"
I slowly lowered the dagger, though my muscles remained tense. "You're alone?"
"Well, I'm sure there are others scattered about, but you're the first person I've seen in two days who didn't turn out to be a pile of rocks or a ghost," he said. He extended a hand. "The name's Felix Thorn, by the way."
I hesitated. The name Aelis Arcanum burned on the tip of my tongue, but that girl died in the fire five years ago.
"I'm... Elaine," I stammered for a split second before finding my footing. "Elaine Anacrum."
"Umm... Nice to meet you then? Shall we continue our path full of beastly creatures towards that perfectly hellish paradise together?" Felix asked, his tone mocking the very danger we were in.
I eyed him with a mixture of curiosity and dread. There was something too light about him for a place this dark.
"Brr... Stop staring at me like that," he shivered, though the air was already freezing. "I'm not ready for my grand finale yet. And I'm certainly not planning on killing anyone. Unless, of course, you count the local welcoming committee."
"Are you on foot?" I asked, glancing at the empty space behind him. I hadn't seen any other mounts.
He turned and let out a sharp, melodic whistle. From the oppressive shadows of the trees, a grey horse emerged, its coat the color of storm clouds. "This is Ashbun."
I grimaced. "Ash-Bun? Really? What a... unique name."
"Right?" he squealed with a grin that didn't match the gloom. "I always knew it was a perfectly suitable name for him."
"Right," I muttered, shaking my head. "We only have a few hours left. We should hurry."
"There should be a stone archway ahead," Felix said, mounting his horse with practiced ease. "If we gallop through it, we should make it to the gates on time. It shouldn't be far. Come on!"
We pushed the horses into a gallop, the wind biting at our faces. But as the silhouette of a massive stone archway loomed through the fog, the horses began to snarl and rear back.
"What is it now?" Felix mumbled, his hand flying to his hilt.
Before I could answer, something plummeted from the sky. It was a blur of feathers and filth. Massive talons gripped my shoulders, ripping me from Nyx's back.
"Let go!" I roared. The wind rushed past my ears as I was hauled higher into the freezing air. With a surge of adrenaline, I drew my sword and swung blindly upward. The blade connected with something leathery. The creature shrieked, its grip loosening, and suddenly, I was falling.
"Aaaaa!" The ground rushed up to meet me.
"Hold on! I'm coming!" Felix yelled from somewhere below.
I braced for the impact, but instead of the hard earth, a pair of strong arms caught me mid-air, pulling me onto a thick, sturdy tree branch. I gasped, heart hammering against my ribs.
"Woah... what was that thing?" I wheezed.
"An Airgull," a calm, steady voice answered.
I lifted my head. Standing on the branch beside me was a tall man. His face was partially obscured by a veil, but his piercing green eyes held a strange, unsettling stillness. He didn't look frightened; he looked bored.
"Elaine! You alright?" Felix called out from below. "Shit! There's more of these party favors!"
Two more of the winged beasts dived. Felix drew his sword, slashing through the air with a grunt of effort. "Ugh... Disgusting!"
I scrambled down from the tree, my boots hitting the snow as I drew my own blade. We were surrounded. The Airgulls circled above, preparing for a final strike.
"Close your ears!" a female voice commanded from the shadows.
Before I could ask why, a high-pitched, piercing whistle shattered the silence. It felt like a needle being driven directly into my brain. I groaned, dropping to my knees and pressing my hands to my head. Above us, the Airgulls screeched in agony, their internal navigation shattered by the sound. They scattered, vanishing back into the black peaks.
"That's better," the woman said, stepping into the dim light. She was tall, with a sharp jawline and eyes that looked like they were forged from iron. She held a strange silver instrument in her hand.
"You're fine?" she asked, her gaze sweeping over us with clinical indifference.
"Yes, more or less," Felix panted, leaning on his sword and trying to look much cooler than he actually was. He glanced up at the man in the tree and then at the girl with the whistle. "Though I've got to say, as far as 'first dates' go, being rescued by a tree-ghost and a human siren wasn't exactly what I had on my itinerary. What's next? A dragon to shine my boots?"
He turned to me, his eyes dancing with forced wit. "See, Elaine? I told you this place was a paradise. Free music and everything."
The woman stepped forward, ignoring Felix's chatter. She moved with a predatory grace that made me keep my hand on my dagger. She looked at us—a girl on a horse and a man who couldn't stop talking—and seemed to judge us in a split second.
"I am Tomris," she said, her voice as sharp as a blade. She gestured vaguely toward the man who had caught me, who was now dropping silently from the branch to the frozen ground. "And this is Silas. We crossed paths a few miles back. He doesn't say much, but he's better with a blade than he is with words."
Silas nodded. He adjusted his veil, those unsettling green eyes tracking the movement of the fog.
"Charming," Felix muttered, his sarcasm undeterred. "A mute and a banshee. We're really putting together a dream team for Veritas, aren't we?"
"If you want to reach Veritas," Tomris snapped, her iron-grey eyes locking onto Felix, "you'll stop trying to be funny and start looking at the ground. You see that archway? It means we're close—it's the threshold of the sanctuary—but it's also the most lethal stretch. The mountain doesn't stay still here; the terrain is a labyrinth that shifts to weed out the weak. If you follow the old maps now, you'll be walking off a cliff before you even see the gates."
My blood ran cold. I looked at the massive stone archway we had been galloping toward. It stood like a silent sentinel, a sign that the legendary halls were finally within reach, yet the air around it felt heavy, charged with a strange, ancient pressure.
"The sun is dropping," Tomris continued, her gaze shifting to the horizon where the light was bleeding out of the sky. "And in the Mortis range, the shadows grow teeth at night. There are no Umbrals here—the kingdom's wards see to that—but the mountain itself is more than enough to kill you. If we don't move now, Veritas will remain a dream we died chasing."
We stood there for a heartbeat—four strangers brought together by a slaughter in the sky.
"Well," Felix sighed, mounting Ashbun again and adjusting his grip on the reins. "I've always preferred the company of strangers to the company of mutated birds. Lead the way, oh fearless leader. I'd rather not find out what 'shadows with teeth' look like."
Just as we turned to follow her, a low, guttural vibration shook the ground beneath our feet. It wasn't an enemy, but a warning. From the darkness beyond the archway, a massive, ancient horn echoed through the peaks—the call of Veritas. It was a sound of welcome, yet it sounded like a funeral dirge.
The path ahead was finally visible, but as the mist cleared for a split second, I saw dozens of other silhouettes moving in the distance. We weren't the only ones who had made it this far, and the real competition was only just beginning.