The wind outside the cavern carried no birdsong.
No rustling leaves.
No distant hum of life.
Just silence.
Rowan pressed a hand to the rough stone wall as he helped Daniel forward, Kairen leading them into the fractured clearing beyond the cavern's mouth. The Beacon's collapse had altered everything—the earth still trembled faintly, as if the world hadn't decided whether the disturbance was over or only beginning.
Daniel's weight sagged heavier on Rowan's shoulder.
"You doing okay?" Rowan asked quietly.
Daniel's breath came shallow, uneven. "Define okay."
"Alive," Rowan said, trying for a small smile.
Daniel didn't return it. "Barely."
Kairen scanned the treeline ahead. Rowan noticed it immediately—her posture was different. Her steps were careful, almost too precise. She was listening beyond the normal range.
"Something's wrong," Rowan murmured.
Kairen didn't look back. "Everything's wrong."
She stopped abruptly and crouched. Her fingertips brushed the ground—a faint pulse of violet light flickered along her hand, so soft Rowan wouldn't have noticed if he blinked.
He stiffened. "What is that?"
Kairen didn't answer at first. She stood, eyes narrowed, her jaw tense.
"The ground remembers the Beacon," she said finally. "Its energy signature is fading… but not fast enough."
Daniel coughed, gripping Rowan's arm. "Which means?"
"It means the Guild will reach this place soon," Kairen said. "Hunters, scouts, maybe an Overseer if the reading was strong enough." Her voice dropped. "They'll sense that the Beacon collapsed—and that someone survived it."
Rowan frowned. "What's wrong with that? We didn't do anything wrong."
"That's not how the Guild sees Beacon events," she replied coldly. "Survivors are either threats… or experiments."
Daniel tensed, his hand shaking. "She's right. If they discover I severed a tether to a Sovereign…"
Rowan swallowed. "Then they'll lock you away."
"No," Kairen corrected. "They'll hand him over."
A cold knot formed in Rowan's stomach.
The air changed.
Softly at first—just a shift in pressure, a strange heaviness settling across the clearing.
Rowan felt it before he heard it.
The world… listening.
Daniel stiffened. "He's searching."
Rowan's heart kicked. "Lykorian?"
"Not directly," Daniel whispered. "Not him… but something of his."
Kairen turned sharply toward the forest's edge. "We need to move."
But the forest had other intentions.
A sound cut through the silence—slow steps crushing dead leaves, measured and deliberate. Not hurried. Not cautious.
Confident.
Rowan pulled Daniel back behind him, summoning faint Balefire into his palm. The green-blue flame flickered weakly—his core still recovering from earlier.
"Kairen," he said carefully, "what am I supposed to be sensing?"
Kairen didn't answer.
Her eyes were locked on the trees.
As the figure stepped into the clearing.
At first Rowan thought it was a person—tall, wrapped in hunter-style armor lined with black plates. A mask covered its lower face, and a hood shadowed its eyes.
But then Rowan felt it.
The temperature dropped around them—not like cold air, but like the absence of warmth. The figure didn't move like a human. It walked too smoothly, too silently, as if weightless.
Kairen cursed under her breath. "I hoped I'd never see one of these again."
Daniel tensed. "A memory specter?"
"No," Kairen said. "Worse."
The figure stopped fifteen paces away—head tilted slightly, studying them as if through invisible eyes.
Rowan's flame sputtered. "What is it?"
Kairen stepped forward slowly. "A Harrowed."
Rowan blinked. "…A what?"
Daniel inhaled sharply. "Servants created by Sovereigns. Not flesh. Not spirit. A construct made from intent alone."
Kairen's voice was tight. "They are drawn to whoever their master remembers."
Rowan's breath caught. "So it's here for Daniel."
The hooded figure twitched.
As if acknowledging him.
Rowan instinctively pushed Daniel behind him. The Harrowed didn't attack—it simply tilted its head, studying them like prey it wasn't allowed to touch yet.
"Daniel," Rowan hissed, "tell me how we kill it."
"You don't," Daniel whispered. "Not unless you can break Lykorian's will."
Fantastic.
Kairen stepped forward, dropping her pack, her fingers tracing sigils in the air. Rowan recognized them now—Shadow Glyphs, part of Kairen's assassin arts.
"Kairen," Rowan warned, "we don't know what it can do."
"Oh, I know what it can do," she muttered darkly. "I've fought one before."
Daniel blinked. "You what?"
Kairen didn't look back. "I didn't say I won."
The Harrowed took a single step closer—and the world dimmed around it. Shadows bent toward its body unnaturally, drawn into its cloak.
Rowan shuddered. "Whatever it is… it isn't alive."
"That's the problem," Kairen said. "It doesn't die."
The Harrowed raised its hand.
Not quickly. Not threateningly.
Just… raising it.
Rowan saw not fingers, but darkness shaped like fingers—smoke contained by invisible structure, moving like flesh without being flesh.
Kairen muttered, "Fall back. Now."
Daniel weakened further. Rowan supported him, heart pounding.
The Harrowed's arm drifted upward—smooth, unnatural, deliberate.
Rowan felt a pulling sensation—faint at first, like static tugging at his skin.
"Kairen," he whispered, "what is it doing?"
"Searching," she said. "Trying to locate its target."
Daniel.
Rowan lunged, putting himself between Daniel and the Harrowed.
But the Harrowed didn't aim at Daniel.
Its hand pointed at Rowan.
His breath hitched.
Kairen's eyes widened. "Rowan—get down!"
He didn't have time to react before the Harrowed closed its fist.
The air around Rowan collapsed inward, darkness lashing toward him not as smoke but pressure—a crushing force—
Kairen struck first.
Her Shadow Glyph snapped like a whip, slamming into the Harrowed's arm and breaking the tether. The force around Rowan dissipated instantly, throwing him backward but not crushing him.
He hit the ground hard—but alive.
Kairen landed beside him, eyes blazing. "On your feet! It's testing us!"
The Harrowed tilted its head again—so slight a movement Rowan almost missed it.
Daniel stepped forward despite his exhaustion. "It isn't after him. It's after me. Rowan got in the way."
Rowan gritted his teeth, lungs still stinging. "Then it can go to hell."
Daniel shook his head. "It doesn't understand threats. Or fear. Or pain. It only knows commands."
"And the command right now?" Rowan asked.
Daniel swallowed. "Find me."
Kairen flicked her daggers into her hands. "Then we need to run. Fighting this thing now is suicide."
Rowan pulled himself up. "Fine. Daniel's barely standing. Let's move."
But the Harrowed moved with them.
Every step they took backward, it took forward—matching their pace perfectly, like a shadow refusing to be left behind.
"We need cover," Kairen said. "Dense forest. Somewhere it loses sight of us."
Rowan glanced around the clearing. "There's nothing thick enough nearby."
Daniel leaned heavily on Rowan. "Then we make it."
Kairen blinked. "What?"
Rowan felt Daniel's energy pulse—thin though it was, flickering but present. Daniel lifted one trembling hand.
"The Beacon left residual distortion. I can bend it—just once."
Rowan stiffened. "Daniel, no. You have nothing left."
"Then it's good I only need a little."
The Harrowed paused for the first time.
As if it sensed Daniel's intention.
Daniel took a shuddering breath. "Kairen. Rowan. When the opening forms—run."
Kairen grabbed his arm. "Daniel. You are not sacrificing what little power you have left."
"I'm not," he whispered. "Just reshaping the air. It won't hurt me."
Rowan frowned. "But it'll weaken you."
Daniel didn't deny it.
He raised his hand—
The Harrowed's body twitched violently.
Rowan felt tension snap in the air.
"Kairen—now!" Daniel shouted.
The Harrowed lunged forward.
Daniel unleashed a burst of shimmering distortion—space bending in ripples around the trees, twisting the forest into a maze of warped shadows.
An opening appeared—
A corridor of twisted light and cracked reality.
Kairen grabbed Rowan's sleeve and sprinted.
Rowan dragged Daniel with him.
The Harrowed darted after them—
And slammed into the distorted space as if hitting an invisible wall. Its body flickered, glitching violently. Shadows rippled, bending around its limbs.
Daniel collapsed again.
Rowan barely caught him. "Daniel! Stay with me!"
"I'm… fine," Daniel lied. "It won't hold long."
Kairen looked at the distortion behind them—fraying like glass cracks spreading.
"We need distance," she said. "Enough that when the Harrowed breaks free, it loses our trail."
Rowan nodded, hoisting Daniel on his back. "Then we run."
They pushed deeper into the warped forest, relying entirely on Kairen's navigation. The branches twisted in unnatural angles, space bending slightly with every step. Daniel's distortion made the world feel wrong—like the forest didn't want them but couldn't push them out.
Only after several minutes did the distortion fade—and the forest returned to normal.
Rowan set Daniel down gently.
Kairen knelt, checking Daniel's pulse, her face tightening. "His core is nearly empty."
Daniel managed a weak smile. "But we're alive."
"For now," Kairen muttered.
Rowan looked back toward the direction they'd come from. The forest was quiet.
Too quiet.
"Kairen," Rowan whispered, "will the Guild find us?"
"Yes," she said without hesitation. "And they'll be angry they weren't the first ones here."
Daniel closed his eyes. "Rowan…"
"Yeah?"
"If the Guild arrives before we recover… you'll need to choose who to trust."
Rowan's throat tightened. "Why are you talking like that?"
Daniel's voice softened. "Because after what happened in that cavern… you're not the same."
Rowan blinked. "What do you mean?"
Kairen looked up sharply. "He's right."
Rowan frowned. "What do you both know that I don't?"
Kairen pointed at his hands.
Rowan looked down.
Balefire danced faintly across his fingertips.
Even though he hadn't summoned it.
Even though he wasn't trying.
It burned on its own—steady, constant, alive.
Daniel whispered, "The Beacon touched you, Rowan. But unlike me… it didn't take from you."
Kairen finished quietly:
"It gave you something instead."
The forest behind them shifted.
A twig snapped.
Seryth's voice called from the shadows—
"Rowan? Daniel? Kairen? Don't move."
Kairen's eyes widened.
"Guild hunters," she hissed.
Rowan's heart pounded.
The Harrowed was hunting them.
The Guild was hunting them.
And Rowan's own power had changed.
Nothing was safe now.
Absolutely nothing.