CHAPTER 178—CALM
The realm had finally become quiet.
Not the fragile silence that came before collapse, nor the tense stillness that accompanied Leylin's constant instability. This was different. The crimson sky no longer trembled under uncontrolled pressure, and the eighty-two stars above revolved in slow harmony around the chained sun without sending violent distortions across the landscape below.
For the first time since Seraphine entered the chamber, the world around them felt inhabitable.
The black island beneath the crimson tree had expanded again during the past few days, though neither of them had spoken much about it. Dark crystalline paths now stretched naturally across parts of the terrain, cutting through the black grasslands in long quiet trails that led toward distant shapes barely visible through the crimson haze. Far beyond the island, mountains had begun emerging from the fog itself, massive silhouettes resting at the edges of the realm where visibility broke apart into pale distortion.
And yet the boundary remained.
No matter how far the landscape expanded, the world still ended in fog.
Seraphine stood near the edge of that mist now, watching the pale veil churn softly in front of her as cold air drifted from somewhere beyond it. She had tested it once already. The moment she walked too deeply into the fog, the realm itself bent strangely around her until she found herself standing back where she started without understanding how she had returned.
Behind her, a small fire crackled beneath the crimson tree.
Leylin sat beside it silently, watching the flames with an expression Seraphine still could not fully understand.
For a long time, neither of them spoke.
The only sounds came from the firewood shifting beneath the flames and the distant movement of wind across the black grass beyond the island. Somewhere farther out, near the base of the newly formed mountains, small creatures had begun appearing during the past two days. They resembled lean deer from a distance, though their bodies carried faint crimson markings beneath their fur that glowed softly whenever they moved through the dark terrain. Seraphine had managed to catch one earlier after nearly an hour of stalking it through the grasslands.
Now strips of roasted meat rested on a flat black stone beside the fire.
The scent drifted slowly through the air.
Seraphine finally walked back from the fog boundary and lowered herself across from Leylin, holding one of the cooked pieces near the flames for a moment longer before extending it toward him.
"You've been staring at that fire for almost an hour," she said. "Either eat something or admit you physically can't."
Leylin looked at the meat in her hand Curiously.
As if he recognized the action more than the object itself.
Then he took it from her in silence.
The meat remained in his hand for several seconds before he finally took a bite.
Seraphine watched him carefully without pretending otherwise.
Leylin chewed slowly.
Not because he disliked it.
Because the sensation felt unfamiliar.
The warmth reached him first. Then texture. Then, faintly, taste. It was weaker than he remembered it being, dulled somehow, as though part of the process no longer connected fully inside him.
Still..he swallowed.
A quiet relief crossed Seraphine's face before she could hide it.
"So you can eat," she muttered.
Leylin looked down at the remaining piece in his hand.
"I think so."
"That is not a reassuring answer."
He ignored the comment and took another bite, smaller this time.
The firelight reflected faintly across the crystalline texture beneath his skin as he sat there in silence again. Compared to the flames inside him, the fire before him should have looked insignificant. Instead, he found himself watching it more closely than anything else in the realm.
Eventually, he spoke without lifting his gaze.
"I remember this."
Seraphine glanced at him.
"The fire?"
Leylin nodded once.
Another silence passed before he continued.
"I do not remember where from."
Seraphine lowered her gaze toward the fire.
For once, she did not try forcing a response into the silence. Some things were too fragile to interrupt too quickly, and Leylin looked strangely distant now, not detached from the world around him, but caught somewhere between recognition and uncertainty.
"You remember anything else?" she asked eventually.
Leylin stayed quiet for a moment.
Then he leaned back slightly against the dark stone behind him and looked toward the crimson sky above the tree branches.
Voices," he said.
Seraphine waited.
"I think there were many of them."
His expression tightened faintly, almost imperceptibly.
"They were arguing."
"About what?"
"I don't know."
The answer came immediately this time, but there was frustration beneath it now. Not anger. Something quieter. The irritation of reaching toward a memory and finding only fragments.
Leylin looked at his hand again.
The cracks beneath his skin had grown fainter over the past few days. The second constellation had stabilized much of the strain inside him, and the realm itself no longer felt on the verge of tearing apart every time he moved. Even so, something about that improvement unsettled him.
Because the stronger the realm became..the more real it started feeling.