Jett's POV
The animals came first.
They always do.
Animals know when something is wrong long before people do.
By morning, the eastern road was covered in tracks.
Deer.
Foxes.
Wild boar.
Even wolves.
They had all come out of the Greywood during the night.
They didn't attack anyone.
They didn't even seem interested in the village.
They were running.
That was what frightened me.
Animals ran from Oakhaven when hunters came too close.
They ran from fire.
They ran from storms.
But this was different.
They were running from the forest.
I stood at the edge of the village and watched a herd of deer cross the road.
There were twelve of them.
One limped.
Another had blood on its flank.
None of them looked back.
Then came the boars.
Five of them.
Then more.
A fox ran between my boots.
I barely had time to move.
It disappeared beneath a cart and stayed there.
I crouched beside it.
The fox was shaking.
Its eyes were wide.
"Hey."
It pressed itself against the wheel.
I reached toward it.
The moment my fingers touched its fur, I saw something.
Darkness.
Trees.
A blue light beneath the earth.
The fox running.
Something enormous moving behind it.
Then—
Nothing.
I pulled my hand away.
The fox immediately bolted toward the houses.
I stood slowly.
"What did you see?"
I hadn't realized I'd spoken aloud.
Nobody answered.
Nobody needed to.
Everyone was watching the forest.
Even the children.
Especially the children.
The Greywood stood beyond the fields, silent beneath the morning mist.
Nothing moved between the trees.
That made it worse.
By midday, people had started building fences.
Not to keep animals out.
To keep whatever was in the forest from coming after them.
It wouldn't have worked.
We all knew that.
Still, people needed something to do with their hands when they were afraid.
I spent the morning helping Mara repair her barn.
She had lost two chickens, three rabbits, and half her stored grain.
She didn't mention the animals.
She didn't mention the forest.
Neither did I.
We worked in silence.
Then the ground shook.
The hammer fell from my hand.
Mara froze.
A deep rumble rolled beneath us.
Not thunder.
Something mechanical.
Metal grinding against metal.
The sound came from beneath the village.
Once.
Twice.
Then stopped.
Mara looked at me.
"Did you hear that?"
"Yes."
"What was it?"
"I don't know."
She sighed.
"You always say that."
"I've noticed."
The third sound came from the old mill.
We ran.
The mill had been abandoned for years.
The wheel had rotted away.
The building leaned so badly that everyone joked it was waiting for the right wind to fall over.
Now it was moving.
Slowly.
The giant wooden wheel turned.
Once.
Then again.
Wood groaned.
Metal screamed.
Water rushed beneath it even though the stream had been almost dry for weeks.
People gathered in the road.
Nobody dared approach.
The wheel turned faster.
Something beneath the mill began to glow.
Blue light leaked through the cracks in the floor.
I felt the hairs on my arms rise.
I knew that light.
I'd seen it in the forest.
I'd seen it in my visions.
And I'd seen it beneath Garran's workshop.
A man near me whispered, "Old Bones."
Someone else crossed themselves.
The mill suddenly stopped.
Silence returned.
Then a panel beneath the building opened.
Nobody moved.
I stepped forward.
"Jett!"
I stopped.
Harlan stood behind me.
He shook his head.
"No."
"What is it?"
"I don't know."
"Then why are you stopping me?"
"Because the last time someone opened one of those machines, three people disappeared."
I looked at the machine.
"How long ago?"
"Forty years."
"What happened?"
Harlan's eyes hardened.
"They never found the bodies."
The machine clicked.
We all jumped.
A narrow metal arm extended from the floor.
It moved toward me.
Slowly.
Precisely.
Then stopped.
A small circle of blue light appeared at its end.
It was the same symbol.
Seven lines around a circle.
My heart began pounding.
The machine made a sound.
A word.
Almost.
I couldn't understand it.
But I felt something inside my mind respond.
Like a door opening.
I stepped back.
The machine went dark.
Nobody spoke.
Eventually, the villagers began leaving.
One by one.
As if walking away could make what we'd seen disappear.
I stayed.
I stared at the machine until sunset.
Something was buried beneath Oakhaven.
I was certain of it now.
And whatever it was, it was waking up.
That night, I couldn't sleep.
I left the workshop after midnight.
The village was dark.
No lamps.
No voices.
Only wind.
I walked toward the northern edge of Oakhaven.
The Greywood stretched before me.
Then I saw the lights.
Blue.
Dozens of them.
Floating between the trees.
I stopped breathing.
They moved slowly through the forest.
Not like torches.
Not like lanterns.
They hovered.
Some were small.
Others were large enough to illuminate entire sections of trees.
They appeared around the ruins.
The Old Bones.
I counted seven.
Seven lights.
One for each line of the symbol.
I thought about going back.
I really did.
Then one of the lights moved.
It floated between the trees and stopped directly in front of me.
I could see something inside it.
A shape.
A person.
No.
A memory.
The image flickered.
A woman stood in a ruined street.
Her clothes were strange.
Her hair was dark.
She was holding something against her chest.
A child.
I couldn't see his face.
Then she looked up.
Straight at me.
My heart stopped.
She whispered something.
I couldn't hear it.
Then the light vanished.
I stumbled backward.
The other six lights remained.
Something moved beneath the ground.
The earth trembled.
The trees shook.
And somewhere deep inside the Greywood, machinery began to turn.
One machine.
Then another.
Then another.
A chain of ancient mechanisms waking beneath the forest.
The sound spread through the earth.
Clang.
Clang.
Clang.
I felt something inside my pocket.
I reached down.
My fingers touched cold metal.
The small box Garran had given me.
I pulled it out.
The symbols on its surface were glowing.
For a moment, I couldn't move.
Then the lid opened by itself.
Inside was nothing.
Except a single line carved into the metal.
I had never seen it before.
But somehow, I could read it.
WHEN THE LIGHTS RETURN, THE LAST MEMORY WILL WAKE.
I stared at the words.
Then the seventh light went out.
The forest became completely dark.
Something whispered my name.
"Jett."
I turned.
Nobody was there.
The voice came again.
Closer.
"Jett."
I reached for the knife at my belt.
Then I heard another sound.
A heartbeat.
Not mine.
Something enormous was beating beneath the ground.
Slow.
Heavy.
Ancient.
I backed away from the forest.
For the first time since Garran died, I understood something.
The attack on Oakhaven hadn't been the beginning.
It had been a warning.
Whatever was happening now had started long before I was born.
And somehow—
I was part of it.