Each step onto the rope bridge groaned like the bones of the dead. The wood, blackened from time and soot, creaked beneath Mara's boots as she led the way across the Hollow. Talon followed a few paces behind, silent but watchful. Below them, nothing—just mist and shadows stretching endlessly downward.
The bridge swayed with the wind, a sharp, hissing breath that scraped at their skin. There were no birds here, no insects, no signs of life at all—only the soft, eerie moan of the gorge, like it was remembering every soul it had swallowed.
Halfway across, the air grew colder.
The whispers began again.
Not the wind this time.
"You left her."
"You watched them burn."
"You'll never outrun it."
Mara froze. The voice was inside her head, but it sounded like her mother—and then like herself, twisting memories into knives.
She gripped the rope tightly, knuckles white, eyes shut.
"It's not real," she whispered.
Talon stepped up beside her. "It's the Hollow," he said quietly. "It speaks through guilt. It wants you to turn back."
She swallowed hard. "It knows my name."
"It always does."
They pushed forward.
With each step, the fog thickened, swirling up and around them like hands reaching out. Mara's fingers brushed the pendant at her neck—the crystal shard, now glowing faintly again. Its warmth was the only thing grounding her.
Then suddenly, just ahead, the bridge ended.
Not in collapse—but in stone.
A platform.
A path.
And a figure.
Standing at the edge was a hooded woman cloaked in gray, her face hidden beneath a veil of ash. She said nothing—only lifted a pale hand and pointed beyond the ridge, where jagged mountains broke the ember sky.
Mara stepped forward, but the woman raised her other hand.
"Only one may pass," she said, her voice like falling dust.
Mara turned to Talon.
He was already backing away.
"I'll wait here," he said. "You go."
"But—"
"You have the shard. It called you, not me." He met her eyes. "You're not just chasing ghosts anymore. You're walking into something alive."
Mara turned back to the veiled woman, heart racing.
And stepped past her, into the smoke.
Beyond the ridge, something stirred.
Something ancient.
---