The air inside the Mother Tree's chamber was dense, saturated with bitter sap and freshly turned earth.
Selvryn was kneeling, her hands pressed against one of the main roots. The pulse beneath her fingers was irregular.
"Something is wrong with him," she murmured.
Silent tears ran down her cheeks, glimmering for a moment with traces of mana before disappearing into the dark soil.
"He's hurting, Lusian," she whispered. "He's afraid. The mountain no longer feels safe to him."
Lusian stood by the window, watching the crops.The Tree truly was remarkable. It consumed the dense mana of the depths and somehow returned it transformed into life. Where there had once been barren soil, plants overflowing with mana now grew.
He turned toward the elf, looking somewhat weary. He understood her… though not completely.
"Thar'Kaal is strong, Selvryn," he said. "He is not in danger."
Selvryn rose abruptly. Her sorrow hardened into anger.
She walked toward him and struck his chest with clenched fists again and again, without real force, yet without restraint.
"How can you be so calm?!" she snapped. "He is our… your son! They hurt him, humiliated him… and you do not even react!"
Lusian caught her wrists.Cold. Unmoving. Without violence.Not fully understanding her reaction.
"Calm down."
"Calm down?" she repeated. "He's wounded!"
"He has many roots," he replied. "They only damaged one."
The silence that followed was uncomfortable.Even so, the bond between them had grown strong over time. Strangely strong.
Selvryn rested her forehead against his chest.
"You're horrible… cold… heartless… How can you say that while he suffers?"
Lusian did not answer.He simply wrapped his arms around her. Held her. Nothing more.
Selvryn's trembling slowly faded.
"We'll increase security," he finally said quietly. "We'll send patrols."He paused briefly before looking at the damaged roots."And I want to understand why those creatures are so desperate to destroy him."
Selvryn looked up. The anger had vanished from her eyes.
"We must protect him… Lusian, you won't abandon us, will you?"
Lusian held her tighter and shook his head.
"The Lithaar still do not know the full extent of our strength," he murmured. "But they will."
He released her.
"Stay with the Tree. Heal him."Pause."I will go out."
He turned toward the exit.
"I'll return at dawn."
Lusian left before sunrise.Mist covered the disturbed earth surrounding the Tree.Dark mana silently enveloped his body until he disappeared into the shadows.
By the time the sun began to rise… the hunt was already over.
The first to notice were not the warriors.They were the scavengers.
They descended upon the clearings where battle had taken place the previous night. They expected remains.
Blood.Flesh.Death.
The land still bore the marks:
trees torn apart,rocks split open,earth ripped by claws…
They also found bodies.
The same hunters who had climbed the mountain during the night.
Now they lay motionless among the churned soil and shattered trees.
Something had hunted them.
And none of them had understood what it was.
Their sense of smell detected no trace at all.Sound came only after death.The darkness swallowed everything else.
They died without ever seeing their executioner.
Across the savanna, within the carnivore camps, unease began at dawn.
The hunters returned stained with blood that was not their own.They had hunted.They had celebrated.They had slept secure in their strength.
Then they began noticing the absences.
Those who had gone to the mountain were not returning.
One.
Then several.
Then entire packs that never woke again.
When they went searching for them, they found the bodies.
There were no signs of struggle.No traces of intruders.But the wounds…
The wounds made no sense.
The semihumans were accustomed to bodies torn apart by horns, hooves, claws, or fangs.They knew violence.
This was different.
The cuts sliced through flesh and bone with unnatural precision.Clean. Deep. Strange.
None of them could identify what kind of beast could do such a thing.
There was only one species associated with wounds like those.
Humans.
But humans were far too weak to hunt carnivore warriors without being detected.
Some lay stiff, eyes open, frozen in something close to surprise.
Others… had simply vanished.
Their dens remained untouched.The fires still burned.The meat remained uneaten.
Only they… were missing.
The eldest among them scented the air.
And stepped back.
There was no smell of an enemy.No trace of another pack.No hostile presence.
Beneath the earth, the Lithaar sensed the first change.
Mana simply no longer flowed the same way.
The tunnels began to feel empty.
What had once felt natural to them now felt heavy.
Like lungs breathing too slowly.
Then they understood the true problem.
The deep currents were shifting.
The river of mana was still there… but the Tree's roots were diverting it away from them.
The Lithaar tried to correct the flow.
They descended toward the point where the mana currents had been disrupted.
They could do nothing.
The depths, which for centuries had been their refuge, began to feel hostile.
The underground air grew heavy. Strange.
The first units to approach the roots became "statues."
Lithaar hardened from within.Their cores slowly dimming as mana was drained from their bodies.
Some remained frozen in impossible positions.Others never even managed to retreat.
They did not look dead.
They looked frozen.
On the surface, the Tree stopped bleeding.
The damaged roots slowly healed.Sap began to flow again, thicker than before. Darker.
Thar'Kaal's pulse stabilized…
and began to expand.
It was as though all of its attention had become focused on the depths.
And for the first time in centuries, the Lithaar began to wonder whether they would survive.