The trail turned rough and cold still. The arch long disappeared behind the trees. Good riddance.
Kaal walked slower today, not from pain, though his ribs still flared with every deep breath but from frustration.
"This should be the fork," he said, stopping near a twisted tree.
Lyra turned, eyeing the path ahead. "Doesn't look like a fork. Looks like a ditch."
"It's here," he insisted, flipping through his journal.
A map was tucked between the pages, inked in careful strokes and notes.
He pointed. "The original cartographer called it the Twin Root Divide. A split in the trail, north leads around the gorge. South goes through it."
Lyra looked around.
There was only one trail.
And it went nowhere.
Kaal frowned. "It's supposed to be here."
"Maps lie," Lyra said, arms crossed. "Especially the old ones. Especially the ones made by men who never bled on the road they're sketching."
He scanned the tree line. "I cross-referenced this with two other journals. This isn't just a sketch, it was used during the last pilgrimage."
"And how'd that go for them?"
He didn't answer.
They kept walking.
The trail narrowed again, twisting like it was trying to escape its own direction. The trees thickened unnaturally, branches woven too tightly above them to let real light in. The world turned gray-green, like it had been stained by moss.
After an hour, Lyra stopped. "This is wrong."
Kaal looked up. "You said that already."
"No." She turned slowly, eyes narrowing. "This clearing. These stones."
He followed her gaze.
Three tall stones leaned together in a half-arch. Covered in lichen. Marked faintly with spirals.
"We passed this already."
Kaal frowned. "No, we turned west..."
She shook her head. "I always mark turns."
She pointed. Sure enough, a broken branch near the trail had been tied with a strip of red fabric, Lyra's work. A breadcrumb.
"We looped," she said.
Kaal looked down at his map again, brow furrowed. "That's not possible. I've been checking orientation, counting elevation."
"The map is wrong," she said flatly. "Or the forest is playing tricks."
He glanced around uneasily. "You think it's… magic?"
"I think we followed a path that doesn't want to be followed."
She sat down on a low rock and tugged off her glove to rub her temples. "How many days have we been off the main route?"
"Two," he admitted quietly. "Maybe three."
"Then we're losing time. And food. And if we don't fix it soon, we're not getting to Eternity. We're dying out here."
The cold pressed in with her words.
Kaal crouched beside her. "We can backtrack. Start from the ridge again."
"You sure we'll even find it?"
"I have to be."
Lyra didn't answer.
She reached for her water skin and took a slow sip, then paused.
She stood quickly. "We're being watched."
Kaal rose beside her. "Again?"
"Nope, " she said. "Still... Bro doesn't want to give up."
They scanned the trees, but nothing moved. Just mist curling around trunks like breath caught mid-sigh.
"Get your things," she said. "We're going."
"Where?"
"Anywhere but here."
They walked in silence for a while, the map tucked uselessly into Kaal's cloak.
He didn't look at it again.
Eventually the trail split. One path curved upward, ragged and narrow. The other descended into fog-choked lowlands dotted with the faint gleam of standing stones.
No markings. No names.
Lyra looked at him. "Well, Prince. North or south?"
Kaal stared down the hill. "Neither are on the map."
"Exactly."
He took a breath. "Let's try the descent."
Lyra raised an eyebrow. "That your instincts talking?"
"No," he said. "Just tired of walking uphill."
She snorted softly but nodded.
The valley below was wrong from the moment they entered.
The light dimmed, though no clouds passed.
The trees thinned out and were replaced by pale, bone-white shrubs that crumbled when touched.
Strange symbols, similar to those from the spiral stones, appeared on bark, on stones, even once on the underside of a leaf.
Lyra walked slower.
Not out of fear.
But out of a familiar, prickling caution.
"I've seen a place like this," she said under her breath.
"Where?"
"Outside the assassin guild's southern grounds. Before my last mission."
Kaal glanced at her. "Coincidence?"
She shook her head. "No such thing"
By dusk, they reached a circle of cracked stones where an old camp had once been. Torn canvas, rusted iron, scorched firewood.
And a flag.
Green, faded. Emblem half-burned.
Kaal's face paled. "That's royal."
Lyra crouched beside the remnants. "This a patrol?"
"No," he said. "This was an expedition, years ago."
"Looking for Eternity?"
"Or what guards it."
Lyra straightened, brushing dust from her fingers. "So the Palace knew the map might be wrong."
Kaal looked sharply at her. "No. They wouldn't..."
"They sent others," Lyra said. "Before you. If they were able to get this map , then surely...."
"Then maybe they volunteered," he snapped. "Maybe they failed. That doesn't mean they lied."
Lyra looked at him, carefully neutral.
"I never said but you sure of that?"
He held her gaze. "Even if the palace plays some game, my mother wouldn't let it "
She nodded. Once. "Alright. But isn't your mother the queen of the palace?"
They didn't speak again that night.
But long after they laid down beneath the quiet trees, neither of them slept.
And the forest didn't blink.