The cold crept in before dawn.
Ava stood at the window, arms crossed over her chest, watching the pale sky bloom with morning's weak light. Mist still clung low to the ground, but the oppressive darkness from the night before had lifted slightly—like something had retreated, but not gone far.
Behind her, Sil stirred in her sleep, mumbling Ava's name softly. Adam sat against the doorframe, blade across his lap, eyes half-lidded in meditation.
Nicholas entered from outside, brushing frost from his cloak.
"No movement," he said. "But the trees feel...off. Like they're holding their breath."
Ash followed behind, holding a rolled map. "Leyline is warped worse than we thought. I marked three points east where the convergence fractures. That thing in the well—it wasn't random. It was guarding a tether."
Ava nodded slowly. "If something corrupted the leyline, we need to follow the break until we find the source. And kill it."
She looked at her companions—tired, blood-streaked, loyal.
"And if we survive," she added, "we demand double the pay from the Guild."
Ash smirked. "Now that's the Queen I follow."
They ate what rations they had—hard bread, dried meat, and a canteen of water passed between them. Not enough for another day. Ava had only brought a handful of coins from the castle treasury—enough to cover lodging, not survival.
She'd never expected to be away from her realm this long.
As they packed, Sil asked quietly, "Will the Guild send reinforcements?"
Ava shook her head. "Not until the leyline itself collapses—and by then, this region will be unsalvageable."
"Lovely," Nicholas muttered. "So it's just us. Again."
They left Hearthvale behind as the sun rose—what little light filtered through the thick clouds overhead. The village didn't say goodbye. No voices. No signs. Only wind.
Hours later, they reached the first fracture.
It sat in the middle of an old orchard. Fruit trees twisted unnaturally, branches like claws scratching the sky. At the orchard's center was a stone ring—ancient, moss-covered, cracked with power. A ley sigil hummed faintly in the air above it, flickering like a dying lantern.
The air was thick with wrongness.
"This is where the leyline burst," Ash said, crouching to examine the cracks in the soil. "It's bleeding magic into the ground."
Ava knelt beside him, hand hovering over the sigil. "No. Someone poured something into it. This fracture wasn't accidental. It was fed."
"Fed with what?" Sil asked, voice barely above a whisper.
"Sacrifice," Adam said.
All of them turned.
He didn't elaborate. He didn't need to.
Ava stood slowly. "Ash. Nicholas. Reinforce the outer symbols. If we don't stabilize this fracture, it'll unravel within the week."
They worked for over an hour—tracing runes, binding them with chalk and blood. Sil and Adam stood watch while the beast circled the perimeter, growling at shadows only it could see.
Ava placed the final rune and channeled magic into it.
The earth shuddered. The light flickered.
Then stillness.
"It'll hold," Ash said, wiping sweat from his brow. "For now."
Ava looked toward the eastern hills. "We move. The second fracture won't be far."
But they'd barely gone a mile when the rain started.
Cold, sharp, and sudden—falling not from clouds, but from a split in the sky itself. The wind howled through trees, and the path ahead became slick and treacherous.
They found brief shelter beneath a crag of stone, huddling close.
"We'll need to take a Guild contract soon," Ava said. "We don't have supplies for much longer."
Sil looked up. "But we're already on a mission."
"This wasn't sanctioned," Nicholas replied. "It was a side request. The Guild won't pay unless we file it formally."
"Then we go back?" Sil's voice was hopeful, if only a little.
"No," Ava said. "We detour."
She pulled a soaked parchment from inside her coat and smoothed it against her thigh.
"There's a small outpost near the second fracture—Sanctum Hollow. If they have a Guild board, we take a contract. Something fast. Easy coin."
"And if there's nothing easy left?" Ash asked.
Ava smiled faintly. "Then we take what isn't."
The rain lessened by midday, and they pressed forward. The second fracture came into view just before dusk.
This one was worse.
Where the orchard had been still and eerie, the second site writhed with corrupted energy. Roots burst from the ground in spirals. The trees around the area bent inward, as if bowing to an unseen master. A circle of totems stood at the center—stone and bone, wrapped in strips of flesh and cloth.
The air reeked of decay.
"I don't like this," Nicholas muttered.
"I don't either," Ava said. "But we're here."
As they approached the circle, the earth moaned.
A shape rose from the soil—not shadow this time, but something solid. Its skin was bark and sinew, mouth filled with thorn-like teeth. Eyes like burning coals locked on Ava.
"Outlanders," it hissed. "You disturb the feeding ground."
Ash raised his blade. "You talk too much."
The creature lunged—and the battle was on.
Sil fired bursts of magic from behind a root wall, her power shaky but improving. Nicholas vanished into the mist, then appeared behind the creature, slashing deep into its back. Adam fought at Ava's side, matching her ferocity blow for blow. The beast tore into the creature's limbs, dragging it down with brute force.
Ava climbed the nearest stone totem, leapt, and drove her sword through the creature's skull with a roar of steel and power.
The leyline shivered beneath their feet.
Then it steadied.
The second fracture… was sealed.
Breathing hard, Ava dropped to her knees.
"Two down," she murmured. "One left."
Ash collapsed beside her, grinning through blood. "We're going to need that contract money after this."
Nicholas chuckled. "Assuming we live long enough to spend it."
Sil knelt beside Ava, eyes shining. "You were incredible."
Ava didn't smile—but she squeezed the girl's hand. "So were you."
They camped in the circle of fallen totems that night.
No one sang. No one spoke much. But they were alive—and the leyline was quiet, for now.
Ava stared at the third fracture's location on the map.
It was deeper into the woods.
Into the forgotten lands.
She would go.
And her companions would follow.