And the forest, for the first time, whispered a warning to Tari not in her mind, but in the Hollows' jagged, echoing words:
The Guardian's heart is yours to carry, He will return when the cage is empty.
_ _ _
The Order's citadel rose from the horizon like a fang of iron and obsidian, its spires clawing at the sky. Smoke coiled from its chimneys, not the gray of industry but the oily black of burning shadowroot a plant that grew only in blighted soil. Tari's skin prickled. Even from a mile away, the air tasted like rust and rot.
They call it the Crown of Ashes, Liora murmured, her eyes fixed on the fortress. The heart of their experiments. Where they turned living soldiers into… things. She glanced at Kael, who trudged beside her, his breath labored. The corruption had spread to his collarbone, the veins beneath his skin squirming faintly, as if alive.
Tari tightened her grip on the Whispering Blade. Behind them, the hollows lurked at the tree line, their forms half-hidden in the gloom. They had followed silently for days, neither attacking nor assisting. The cage is empty, their voices had hissed that first night. But the key remains.
She didn't trust them but the forest did, and that terrified her most.
How do we get in? Kael coughed, wiping his mouth. His sleeve came away smeared with black. Front gates? Secret tunnels? Or are we just walking into the butcher's shop?"
Liora hesitated. There's a passage. For… disposal.
Disposal? Tari frowned.
Of failed experiments. Liora's voice cracked. They'd dump the bodies into a ravine. But sometimes… sometimes the ones that weren't quite dead crawled back. The Order called them 'echoes.' They'd track them, study how long they survived."
Kael stared at her. You never told me that.
"You never asked."
---
The ravine was a scar in the earth, its edges studded with jagged metal barbs. At the bottom, bones glinted in the moonlight some human, others grotesquely elongated. The stench was unbearable.
There, Liora pointed to a rusted grate half-buried in debris. It leads to the lower labs. But the locks are
A hollow shambled forward, its clawed hand brushing the grate. The metal shrieked, corroding instantly into dust.
biometrically sealed, Liora finished, staring at the hollow. Or… not.
The hollows did not enter. They clustered at the ravine's edge, their glowing eyes fixed on Tari. The key remains, they whispered.
Beware the gardener.
Charming, Kael muttered, ducking into the tunnel.
---
The lower labs were a labyrinth of dripping pipes and shattered glass tanks. Preserved specimens floated in brine hollows in various stages of mutation, their bodies fused with weapons, machinery, or worse. Tari's Luminescent Seed pulsed erratically, its light reflecting in the dead creatures' glassy eyes.
Liora froze before a tank holding a girl no older than herself. The girl's torso split open like a flower, ribs splayed into petal-like blades.
Subject 23, Liora read the label aloud. Vascular assimilation successful. Host consciousness terminated.
Liora, Tari said gently. We need to keep moving.
"No." Liora pressed a hand to the tank. This is my grandmother's work. Her journals… she called them 'blossoms of progress.' But she knew. She knew...
A drop of water echoed in the silence.
Then the lights flickered on.
Blinding white panels hummed overhead, and a mechanized voice boomed: Contamination detected. Purge protocol initiated.
Steel shutters slammed over the exits. Vents hissed open, spewing crimson mist.
Shadowroot spores! Liora yanked her scarf over her mouth. They'll suffocate us or worse!
Kael slammed his shoulder against a shutter. It didn't budge. The mist coiled around his legs, tendrils snaking toward his corrupted arm. Where it touched, the black veins bloomed, thorny growths erupting from his skin.
Tari! He choked, collapsing.
She lunged for him, but the Whispering Blade suddenly twitched in her hand, its point dragging her toward a nearby tank. Inside floated a hollow with a mangled arm no, not mangled. Fused with a blade identical to hers.
The key remains, the hollows had said.
Tari smashed the tank. The corpse slid out, its weapon-arm clattering to the floor. She pressed the hilt of her blade to it.
The two weapons clicked, merging into a single jagged key.
The shutters groaned open.
The upper citadel was worse.
The halls writhed with bioluminescent vines, their thorns dripping a viscous liquid that burned holes in the floor. Living defenses. But not the Order's work the vines recoiled from Tari's Seed, as if recognizing its light.
This isn't their design, Liora realized. The corruption… it's infesting them.
A scream echoed ahead. Human.
They rounded a corner to find a laboratory in chaos. Order scientists in stained white coats scrambled as vine-like tendrils burst from their equipment, impaling them. One man staggered toward Tari, gasping: The gardener it's awake!
A thorn punched through his chest.
At the room's center stood a massive, pulsing pod, its surface veined with black and green. Inside floated a figure a man, his body interlaced with roots, his eyes open and glowing.
The gardener, Liora breathed. The First Guardian's counterpart. They made it to control the corruption…
but it's become the infection.
The pod cracked.
The man's head turned toward Kael.
You… carry a piece of him, it spoke through the glass, voice bubbling like swamp water. Give it to me. I will make you a king of rot.
Kael's corruption surged, thorns tearing through his sleeve. He screamed but this time, it was a scream of rage.
Stay out of my head!he snarled, and the thorns lashed toward the pod.
The gardener smiled.
Oh, it said. You'll do nicely.