Dawn had not yet broken over Duskwhisper Forest. The trees stood twisted and gnarled, their blackened limbs frozen in eternal screams. The mist clung thick between them, swallowing sound and light alike.
Lion stepped on a brittle branch—the crack echoed like a gunshot in the suffocating silence.
"Make that noise again," Calvin growled without turning, "and I'll nail you to a tree as bait."
At the front of their ragged procession, Selene limped forward, her left shoulder crudely bandaged. A flickering blue flame hovered above her palm, its light barely piercing the fog. The fire sputtered erratically—still tainted by the Inquisitor's anti-magic runes.
Strangely, Lion's shadow-sight grew sharper here. The trees were veined with inky tendrils, their roots occasionally bulging beneath the soil as if something slithered beneath. "These trees—"
"Are drinking," Calvin kicked a protruding root. Dark fluid oozed from the break. "The Elders turned the whole damn forest into a living trap."
The mist suddenly swirled. Selene's hand shot up—her flame flared. "DOWN!"
A bone arrow grazed Lion's ear and struck a tree behind him. Where it hit, the bark instantly rotted, spewing foul smoke.
Three figures materialized from the fog. Cloaked in woven bark, their skin was moss-choked, their eyes milk-white. The leader nocked another arrow, its tip leveled at Selene's throat.
"Tainted One," the Elder rasped like rustling leaves. "You bring the Forbidden Seed."
Selene's fire turned black. "We seek the Shard in your Sanctum."
The Elder's mouth split ear-to-ear, revealing needle teeth. "The Shard lies at the heart of the Thornsanctum. But the Shadowborn must claim it alone."
Lion felt their blind gaze pierce him. The smallest Elder shuffled forward, root-like fingers clamping his wrist—
Images exploded behind his eyes:
A beating heart on a stone altarA skeleton crowned in shadowSelene standing in a bloodied circle, lifting something skyward...
"Take the Trial," the Elder released him, the visions dissolving like smoke, "or leave."
A horn bellowed deep in the forest. The Elders twitched violently. "The Silverflame comes..." They melted into the mist, their final warning lingering: "One chance, Shadowborn."
Calvin spat. "Trap. Obviously."
But Selene gripped Lion's arm. "Can you feel the Sanctum?"
He closed his eyes. The shadows pulled northwest—toward a cold fire half a mile away.
"Listen," Selene yanked him close. "The Trial is lies. Whatever you see, trust only your shadow." She pressed a crimson crystal into his palm. "If trapped, bleed on this."
Calvin's sword cleaved through a sudden silver fireball. "GO!"
As Lion sprinted into the gloom, trees parted for him, roots slithering aside. The shadows underfoot boiled like eager hounds.
The Thornsanctum was deceptively simple: seven stone pillars encircling a dais where the second Shard hovered. But when Lion stepped onto the platform—
The Sanctum woke.
Pillars warped into screaming faces. The ground bled tar-black. A chorus of dying wails filled the air.
First Illusion:
Brook stood before him, a shadowbeast's claw buried in his chest. "You could've saved me," blood-tears streaked his face. "Why run?"
Lion's breath caught. His shadows howled to attack—but he stood still. The phantom's claws pierced his chest... and passed through like icy wind.
Second Illusion:
"Selene" grinned over Calvin's corpse, her dagger dripping. "Mine now," she crushed his skull underfoot.
Again, Lion resisted—until the false Selene lunged for his forehead. He dodged. That strike was real.
The pillar-faces turned in unison, mouths splitting ear-to-ear. "Clever," they hissed. The ground vanished beneath him.
Falling.
Endlessly.
Until—
The Crown.
It hung in the void, woven of light and shadow, glorious and grotesque. As Lion stared, it contracted—becoming a vise around his throat. Voices shrieked in his skull:
"WE ARE ALL SACRIFICES!"
—
Gasping, Lion found himself kneeling at the dais, the Shard clutched in his bleeding hand. His blood seeped into the stone. The platform rotated, pillars projecting beams that formed a star-map overhead.
A foreign memory surfaced:
The third Shard waits on Dragon Isle...
But the final key is...
"The heart of a Shadow Prince," Lion whispered.
Outside, explosions shook the forest—Selene's blackfire clashing with Inquisitor silver.
Time was up. He sprinted for the exit—
Something grabbed his ankle.
A shadow-hand, exactly like from his nightmares, yanked him back into the dark.