Valenne was dying behind them.
The ancient city had survived seventeen years of abandonment, countless storms, and the slow decay of time, but it could not survive the thing that had awakened beneath it. Black roots continued to tear through the ruined streets, twisting around towers and collapsing buildings as though the earth itself had grown hands. Every few moments, another section of the city disappeared beneath the ground. Dust covered the horizon, turning the setting sun into a pale red circle.
Ayan ran without looking back.
Seraphine was beside him now, refusing to be carried despite the exhaustion written across her face. Mira and Maren followed close behind, while Doctor Rowan struggled to keep pace. They had left everything behind. Supplies, equipment, most of their belongings. None of it mattered anymore.
They only needed distance.
They reached the edge of the ruined city just as another tremor shook the earth.
Seraphine stumbled.
Ayan caught her arm.
"Are you all right?"
She nodded.
"Yes."
"You don't look fine."
"I'm tired."
"That's different."
She smiled faintly.
"You've become irritating."
"I've been told."
She looked back.
For several seconds, she stared at Valenne.
The city where she had been born.
The city where her mother had worked.
The city where Isolde had died.
The city where something ancient had been waiting beneath the earth.
Then Seraphine turned away.
"I don't think I'll ever come back here."
Ayan looked at her.
"You don't have to."
"I know."
She took a slow breath.
"But I think some part of me will always be here."
Ayan didn't answer.
Some places didn't need to be left behind completely.
Sometimes surviving meant carrying them with you.
They continued north.
For the first few hours, nobody spoke much. Everyone was exhausted, and the road ahead was long. The nearest safe settlement was two days away, and the capital was much farther.
Eventually, they stopped near a stream.
Mira immediately began preparing a small camp.
Maren gathered wood.
Doctor Rowan checked everyone's injuries.
Ayan sat beneath a tree and watched Seraphine.
She was staring at her hands.
"Something wrong?"
She shook her head.
"No."
"Then why are you staring at them?"
"I'm checking."
"Checking what?"
"Whether they're mine."
Ayan frowned.
Seraphine smiled.
"Don't worry."
"I'm not worried."
"You are."
"I am."
She laughed quietly.
Then her expression became serious.
"After the Memory Bloom, I was afraid."
"Of what?"
"That I wouldn't know which memories belonged to me."
Ayan remained silent.
"There were so many," she continued. "Seraphine's childhood. Isolde's memories. Mother's memories. The life I lived in Haven. Sometimes they overlap."
"Do you know which ones are yours?"
She looked at him.
"All of them."
Ayan nodded.
"Then you have nothing to fear."
She looked down again.
"But there's something else."
"What?"
"I can feel it."
Ayan immediately became alert.
"The heart?"
"No."
She touched her chest.
"Something inside me."
"The thing Elena left?"
"Maybe."
"What does it feel like?"
Seraphine closed her eyes.
"Like a locked room."
Ayan's expression hardened.
"Can you open it?"
"I don't know."
"Have you tried?"
"No."
"Don't."
She looked at him.
"Why?"
"Because we don't know what's inside."
Seraphine nodded.
"I thought the same."
A brief silence passed.
Then she whispered,
"But Mother is inside too."
Ayan looked at her.
"Are you sure?"
"No."
She smiled sadly.
"But I want to believe she is."
Ayan looked toward the fire.
"Then maybe we should find out."
Seraphine's eyes widened.
"You mean..."
"We find the record your mother sent away."
"And if it tells us how to remove the heart?"
"Then we remove it."
She looked toward the north.
"And if it doesn't?"
Ayan smiled.
"Then we'll find another way."
Seraphine laughed.
"You make everything sound simple."
"It isn't."
"Then why do you always sound so confident?"
"I'm pretending."
She stared at him.
Then laughed.
For the first time since leaving Valenne, the tension around the group eased.
But none of them noticed the shadow standing far beyond the trees.
It watched the camp.
It did not move.
It simply waited.
---
They left before sunrise.
The road toward the capital passed through the Northern Plains, an enormous stretch of grassland separating Valenne from the central territories.
The journey would have been simple under normal circumstances.
It wasn't.
By midday, they found the first sign.
A wagon lay overturned beside the road.
Two horses were dead.
There was no blood.
Mira immediately raised her bow.
"Stop."
Everyone froze.
Ayan approached carefully.
The wagon belonged to a merchant caravan.
Several crates were scattered across the road.
Maren examined the ground.
"Tracks."
"How many?"
"At least eight."
"People?"
"No."
He crouched.
"Too deep."
Ayan looked around.
"What carried these?"
Maren shook his head.
"I don't know."
Doctor Rowan examined one of the horses.
"There are no wounds."
"Then how did it die?"
Rowan touched its neck.
"The heart stopped."
Seraphine stepped closer.
Her expression changed.
"I've seen this."
Ayan looked at her.
"Where?"
"In Valenne."
"During the plague?"
She nodded.
"Some patients died like this."
"What caused it?"
"We never knew."
Ayan looked toward the northern horizon.
The creature beneath Valenne had already begun spreading.
Or perhaps...
It had never stopped.
"We move."
Nobody argued.
They left the wagon behind.
---
That evening, they reached a small village.
The gates were closed.
Mira approached first.
"Open the gate!"
No response.
She knocked again.
"We're travelers."
Still nothing.
Then a voice came from above.
"Leave."
Maren frowned.
"We aren't here to cause trouble."
"Leave!"
Ayan stepped forward.
"We only need shelter for one night."
"We don't shelter outsiders."
"Why?"
Silence.
Then the voice answered.
"Because outsiders bring the voice."
Everyone went still.
Seraphine looked at Ayan.
"What voice?"
The guard above them whispered,
"The one beneath the earth."
Ayan's expression hardened.
He stepped closer.
"We've heard it."
The guard became silent.
"Then you should know better than to come here."
Ayan looked at the village.
"How many people have disappeared?"
No answer.
"Ten?"
Silence.
"Twenty?"
Still nothing.
"More?"
The gate slowly opened.
An old man stood behind it.
His face was pale.
"Forty-three."
Doctor Rowan's expression changed.
"Forty-three people?"
The old man nodded.
"Over three months."
"Where did they go?"
"We don't know."
"Any bodies?"
"No."
"Any signs?"
The old man looked toward Seraphine.
Then immediately looked away.
Ayan noticed.
"What?"
The old man swallowed.
"She."
Seraphine stepped forward.
"What about me?"
"You have the mark."
"What mark?"
The old man pointed toward her chest.
"The black heart."
Seraphine froze.
Ayan immediately moved between them.
"What do you know about it?"
The old man looked frightened.
"Nothing."
"That's a lie."
"I said I know nothing!"
Ayan's voice became colder.
"Then why did you recognize her?"
The old man trembled.
Because another voice answered.
Not his.
A voice from beneath the village.
"Daughter."
Everyone heard it.
Seraphine's face went pale.
The old man collapsed to his knees.
"No."
The ground trembled.
A faint black line appeared across the village square.
People began screaming inside their houses.
Mira drew her bow.
Maren reached for his weapon.
Doctor Rowan shouted,
"Everyone away from the center!"
Ayan grabbed Seraphine's hand.
"Don't answer it."
"I won't."
The voice came again.
"Come."
Seraphine closed her eyes.
Then she whispered,
"It knows where we are."
Ayan looked around.
"No."
He stared at the ground.
"It doesn't."
"What?"
"It knew we were coming."
The black line beneath the village widened.
Ayan suddenly understood.
The voice wasn't following Seraphine.
It was calling her.
And something had been waiting along the road.
Waiting for her to leave Valenne.
Waiting for her to move north.
Waiting for her to reach the capital.
The creature beneath Valenne wasn't trying to drag her back.
It was herding her forward.
Toward something.
Ayan looked toward the distant mountains.
The capital lay beyond them.
His expression became grim.
"We're not going to the capital."
Seraphine looked at him.
"Then where?"
Ayan remembered Elena's final record.
The hidden laboratory.
The six symbols.
The black heart.
And the sentence written seventeen years ago.
I sent the record away.
Not to the capital.
Somewhere else.
He looked at Doctor Rowan.
"Do you remember the old routes of the Lilies?"
Rowan frowned.
"Some."
"Where would Elena send something she didn't want the council to find?"
Rowan's eyes widened.
"There was an old monastery."
"Where?"
"Beyond the western mountains."
Maren stared at him.
"That's the opposite direction."
"I know."
Ayan looked toward the west.
"If the creature expects us to go north..."
Seraphine finished the thought.
"...then we go west."
The ground shook again.
The village bells began ringing by themselves.
One.
Two.
Three.
The same number as Valenne.
Ayan looked at Seraphine.
She was staring at the western mountains.
And for the first time since recovering her memories...
Fear appeared in her eyes.
"I remember that place."
Ayan's expression tightened.
"The monastery?"
She shook her head.
"No."
"Then what?"
Seraphine whispered,
"The mountain."
"Which mountain?"
She pointed toward the distant horizon.
A single peak rose above the others.
Its summit was covered in clouds.
"I saw it in Mother's memories."
Ayan looked at it.
"What happened there?"
Seraphine's voice became barely audible.
"She buried something there."
"What?"
Seraphine looked at him.
"Not a record."
"Then what?"
She swallowed.
"The first heart."
The village shook violently.
And beneath their feet...
Something began to laugh.