h4Chapter 29: Something Worse Than Rot/h4

By the time we saw the vige, the sun had vanished behind a wall of clouds that refused to move. The wind had stilled. Not a leaf stirred. Even the smell of rot from earlier had faded. It was reced by something worse:

Total emptiness.

The vigey at the foot of a sloping hill, framed by brittle trees and crooked fences. Dozens of cottages stood in silence, their windows shuttered, smoke absent from the chimneys. It looked like a ce paused mid-breath.

Lucas reined in beside me. "This is Erid Hollow," he said.

"It looks... abandoned."

He nodded slowly. "It shouldn’t be. At least not to this extent."

We rode in.

No one greeted us. No children ran through the streets. The wells were dry, the carts untouched, as if everyone had left in the middle of their day and never returned.

"I don’t like this," I muttered.

Lucas dismounted. "We’ll ask questions. Someone should be around."

I dismounted too, my hand hovering near the dagger at my hip. We moved quietly, the sound of our feet far too loud on the damn ground. A door creaked in the wind, and I flinched. It felt like something was watching from behind the shutters, not a person.

Something else.

Finally, an old man peeked from a half-opened door as we passed one of the houses.

"Leave," he rasped. "You shouldn’t be here."

Lucas stepped forward. "We need information. We’re looking for Lord Genrik. We were told he lives a bit nearby."

The old man paled. "Well, you definitely won’t find him here. He doesn’te to Erid Hollow anymore. Not since the—" He broke off, shaking his head.

"Since what?" I asked.

He stared at me, and his voice dropped to a whisper. "I can’t say anymore, for your own good, please just leave. It’s the best I can advice you both right now."

The air thickened.

Lucas stepped closer. "Since what?"

But the old man mmed the door shut without another word. I heard the bolt slide into ce from the inside.

I turned to Lucas. "What the hell does that mean?"

He didn’t answer. Instead, he looked toward the edge of the vige, toward a narrow path that cut through the trees like a wound.

"We need to find shelter," he said. "Tonight we stay hidden. Tomorrow, we find Genrik’s estate."

"So we should do nothing for now? Can’t we just try to force him to talk?"

Lucas shaked his head in refusal. "We don’t use force until it’s necessary. Something isn’t right here. And whatever it is, it’s close."

We found an old inn with a lock that still worked. Everything here seemed so broken. Lucas took first watch.

I couldn’t sleep.

Not really.

Because outside — beneath the heavy clouds and dead stillness. I could have sworn that I heard a deep breathing.

Everything really felt... Just... wrong.

The vige might have looked quiet.

I turned again and tried to rest.

But there was no peace.

The air inside the inn felt wrong — stale, like it had been sealed too long. I could feel it pressing down on my skin, on my chest, making every breath feel like a task. I stood up t from the bed.

Lucas sat by the window, a de resting across his knee, his eyes locked on the shadows outside. I envied how calm he looked. Or maybe he was just better at hiding the unease wing at him.

"I’m hearing something..," I whispered.

Lucas looked at me.

"It’s like a deep breathing," I said. "I swear it’s not just in my head."

He stood slowly. "You’re not the only one who heard it."

Then the sound of scratching started.

We both turned to the far wall. It was faint at first — like ws on stone — then it grew louder. Closer.

I grabbed my dagger.

Lucas was already drawing his sword. We were both ready to shift if it needed us ro.

The wall at the back of the inn shuddered — then it cracked.

"What in the—" I started.

Something burst through.

It was a monster beast.

It was a twisted fusion of fur and rot, with ck veins glowing faintly beneath its skin, and too many teeth crowding its mouth. Its eyes were empty not blind, but just empty. Like whatever soul had once lived inside had been burned out and reced with nothing.

I barely dodged its first lunge. Lucas tackled it from the side, driving his de into its nk but the thing didn’t even flinch. It screeched, a sound that scraped against my skull like a de against bone.

I tried to shift but for some reason, I couldn’t.. my wolf form remained... what was happening. I looked at Lucas still in his human form. He couldn’t shift too

I shed at its back, catching muscle and it turned on me with a speed that shouldn’t have been possible.

Its ws raked across my side — not deep, but enough to hurt like hell.

Lucas rammed it against the wall, this time driving his de through its neck.

It didn’t die.

Itughed.

A guttural, broken sound that didn’t belong in this world.

Then I tried to think of something that could potentially harm it.

Yes! fire.

I reached for the oilmp and smashed it at the creature’s feet, then dragged my de across flint.

mes roared to life.

The creature thrashed shrieking, twitching the fire was burning something unnatural within it. Lucas pulled me back, shielding me as it howled onest time and copsed into the embers.

Burning.

Dead.

Finally.

For a long time, we didn’t speak.

The inn was filled with the stench of burned flesh and something worse — the scent of magic gone wrong.

I looked at the charred remains.

"What the hell was that? Why couldn’t we shift into our wolf forms" I whispered.

Lucas didn’t look away. "That wasn’t normal. In fact, I’ve never seen anything like it before."

My voice shook. "Should we go back to report this new development to the king?"

He finally met my eyes. "No need. Afterpleting our mission we can then report everything to him at once."

Lucas touched my shoulder. "We leave at first light. This ce is worse than we thought."

I nodded slowly, still staring at the ashes.

One thing was clear.

Whatever awaited us in Varos... wasn’t going to be just politics or nobles.

Something darker was feeding at the edges of the world.

And it had already found us.