After several minutes—maybe more—Cain glanced at the faint ember in his brother's hand.

"Does that hurt?"

"A little," the man admitted. "I haven't shaped flame freely in a long time. The sanctum… restrains expression."

Cain shot him a look. "Then don't force it. I'll handle the light."

"You can't," the man said simply. "Not here."

"Why not?"

His brother looked at him with eyes that glowed faintly in the dimness.

"Because this place responds to lineage. Only one of us is recognized by the space at a time."

Cain blinked. "And it recognized you?"

"For now."

Cain let the irritation pass. Barely.

He scanned the path ahead—an opening between the trees, narrow and shrouded.

"Something's following us," Cain muttered.

His brother didn't look surprised. "It would be strange if nothing was."

Cain stopped walking. "What do you mean by that?"

The man gestured weakly upward. "This forest is a boundary. It draws attention. Old attention."

Cain tightened his grip on the lantern. Even sealed, it pulsed with warmth—alive and restless.

He turned. "What's behind us?"

His brother shook his head. "Not behind."

Cain waited.

The man pointed forward.

Cain followed the direction—nothing but fog and dead bark.

Until something shifted.

Not a creature.

Not a shadow.

The trees moved.

A trunk twisted, bending in a slow, unnatural arc. Branches reconfigured like shifting limbs. The entire forest ahead of them reshaped itself, pulling back, opening a path Cain had not seen until the moment it decided to exist.

His brother exhaled shakily. "It has chosen a way."

Cain narrowed his eyes. "Chosen by what?"

"The Grove. It watches for intruders."

"Is that supposed to be reassuring?"

"Not at all."

Cain huffed and moved forward.

But as he passed the first reshaped tree, a voice seeped through the fog.

Not spoken. Felt.

"Cain."

Cain froze instantly.

The voice was familiar—deep, resonant, the sound of embers collapsing in a dying fire.

The Fallen.

The same voice from the sanctum's collapse.

Cain's grip tightened around the lantern. "He's still following?"

"Of course he is," his brother whispered sharply. "You stole from him. You broke a contract. He'll chase us through every realm until he gets back what's his."

"I didn't steal anything."

"You freed me," his brother said. "That's theft enough."

Another rumble rolled through the woods. The fog shuddered.

Cain felt the voice again.

"Return what was bound."

Cain bared his teeth. "Or what?"

The forest answered.

Not with words.

With movement.

A dozen trees twisted at once, their trunks cracking like bone as they bent into shapes that resembled towering silhouettes—neither human nor beast.

Cain's brother stumbled back. "Run."

Cain didn't need to be told twice.

They sprinted down the path the Grove had chosen, the forest warping violently around them. Trees stretched overhead like claws. Roots erupted from the ground, trying to snare their feet. Fog thickened into choking walls.

Cain felt heat surge through the lantern.

It wanted to unleash itself.

But he didn't dare open it here.

"Left!" his brother shouted.

Cain veered. The ground dipped sharply. They slid down a slope of wet roots, catching themselves on jagged bark.

Figures moved in the fog—massive silhouettes shaped from shifting vines and splintered wood. Lightless eyes blinked open across their bark-limbs.

One stepped into the path ahead—ten feet tall, its limbs bending in reverse.

Cain didn't slow.

He released the lantern's seal halfway.

Not a flame. Not an attack.

A flare.

Blinding white light burst outward, slicing through the fog. The wooden creature recoiled with a hiss—if trees could hiss—and its limbs curled inward to shield itself.

Cain didn't let it recover. He dragged his brother past it as splinters rained around them.

But more were waking.

More shapes twisted free from the fog—some thin and towering, others rigid and hunched, all moving with the smooth confidence of guardians who never needed to hurry.

Cain felt the Fallen's presence grow—closer, sharper, forcing the air itself to tremble.

His brother gasped. "If he manifests fully, this place will collapse—"

Cain grabbed his arm. "Then we don't give him the chance. Move!"

They broke into another clearing.

And froze.

A river cut across the path—wide, utterly still, glowing with faint silver light. A single stone stood at its edge, carved with the same runes as the sanctum.

Cain's brother stiffened. "This is it."

"'It' what?"

"The divide. Once we cross, he can't follow. Not directly."

Cain looked back as the fog behind them darkened, coiling around a massive shape forcing itself into the world.

"Define 'directly'," Cain snapped.

His brother shook his head. "No time. Lantern—use it."

Cain lifted the lantern over the water.

Its flame pulsed brighter than ever—reacting to something beneath the river's surface.

The silver water pulled back, parting to reveal a submerged pathway made of the same black stone as the sanctum.

Cain stared.

"No way this is safe."

His brother met his eyes, weary but certain.

"It's safer than what's behind us."

The fog exploded as something enormous stepped into the clearing.

Cain didn't look back.

He grabbed his brother's arm—

—and sprinted onto the path the river exposed.

Behind them, the Fallen roared, and the forest shuddered like a wounded beast.

The water crashed back together an instant later, swallowing the path in a surge of blinding silver and cutting them off completely.

They didn't stop running.

Not until the light ahead grew into another doorway.

Not until the river's roar faded.

Not until the Fallen's voice finally broke.

"This is not finished."

Cain didn't answer.

He dragged his brother into the doorway as the Grove collapsed behind them, swallowed by darkness and water.

And the world beyond shifted again.

The doorway spat them out like discarded debris.

Cain hit the ground first—hard enough that his teeth rattled. His brother landed a moment later, sliding across the cracked surface of whatever dead place they had emerged into.

Cain groaned, rolled to his knees, and forced himself upright. His muscles felt like they'd been wrung out and hung to dry, but he shook it off and looked around.

The new realm was a wasteland of stone and fractured plains stretching in every direction. The sky wasn't a sky—just a swirling smear of dark grey currents churning overhead like smoke caught in a vortex. No sun. No moon. No horizon. Everything dissolved into a distant blur.