The light spat them out.
Kaelen hit the ground hard, the breath tearing from his lungs. The surface beneath him wasn't metal, wasn't stone—it was alive. A fleshy membrane pulsed under his palms, warm and wet, as though he had fallen inside the belly of some colossal beast.
Lyra landed beside him, rolling into a crouch. She was already aiming her blaster before her eyes had even adjusted. "Where the hell are we now?"
Kaelen pushed himself up, grimacing. The air was damp, thick with the coppery tang of blood. The walls around them contracted faintly, like the ribcage of something breathing.
And then it moved.
The ground rippled, forcing them to their knees. From the ceiling, tendrils uncoiled—slick, glistening, ending in hooked barbs. They twitched in the air, sniffing, tasting. Searching.
Kaelen's voice was a rasp. "It's a construct. A living machine. We're inside one of its—"
The floor split open beneath them, rows of jagged teeth snapping shut just shy of their legs.
Lyra fired instinctively, the blaster bolt searing through a tendril. The thing shrieked—an unholy sound that rattled through their bones—and the walls shuddered violently in response.
Kaelen grabbed her arm, dragging her as the floor began to ripple like waves. "We can't kill it—it's the trial. It wants us to move!"
"Move where?" Lyra snapped, eyes darting to the endless tunnels of muscle and teeth opening around them.
As if answering her, the tendrils lashed out, striking the ground where they'd stood a second earlier. The chamber was closing in, the maw trying to swallow them whole.
Kaelen's crystal pulsed against his chest, resonating with the alien flesh. He could feel it—like a map burning into his mind. "There!" He pointed toward a pulsating archway in the distance, glowing faintly violet.
Lyra didn't hesitate. She shoved him forward. "Run, Doctor. I'll cover."
They sprinted, the ground surging and buckling beneath them. Tendrils lashed from the walls, striking like whips. Lyra fired bolt after bolt, each shot buying them fractions of a second. Kaelen stumbled, nearly swallowed by a splitting crack in the floor, but Lyra yanked him back, her grip iron-strong.
The archway loomed closer. The glow intensified, pulsing in time with the crystal.
And then the walls convulsed, slamming shut behind them. The maw shrieked, tendrils surging all at once, a storm of hooks and teeth crashing toward them.
Kaelen and Lyra dove through the archway together—
—and the world inverted.
Silence.
They landed in a chamber of pure starlight, the grotesque beast vanished as if it had never been. At the center of the space, floating weightless, was another relic: a shard of black glass, etched with alien glyphs that shimmered like fireflies.
The voice thundered once more, resonating deep in their bones:
"Two threads endure. Two threads survive. But will two threads remain… when sacrifice is demanded?"
Lyra's jaw tightened. Her eyes flicked to Kaelen. For the first time, he saw not just the soldier—but the fear beneath.
She whispered, almost too low to hear:
"They're going to make us choose."
--