Selene didn't wait for questions.
"Gather your things. We leave now."
Rafe hesitated for only a moment before nodding. Mara sprinted to the cottage, pulling Lyn with her. Selene's cracked staff hummed with unstable mana, its glow flickering erratically.
Rafe stared at it.
"Your staff… is it damaged?"
Selene closed her eyes for a second.
"It's holding together. Just barely."
"What happened?" Rafe pressed.
Selene exhaled through her teeth.
"The Primordial's interference warped every protective sigil in the forest. When I cast my barrier against the Fate Hunters, the spell collided with… something I couldn't see. Something it left behind."
Rafe shivered.
"The Primordial left something behind?"
"Yes," Selene said. "A resonance. A trace of its presence."
"And that damaged your staff?"
"No," she said, voice low."It damaged me. The staff merely reflects it."
Rafe felt his stomach drop.
He wanted to ask more — needed to — but Mara and Lyn rushed out of the cottage, carrying two small bags stuffed with supplies.
"We're ready!" Mara shouted.
Lyn stood closer to Rafe than ever, her hand locked around his sleeve as if letting go meant the void might take her again.
Rafe squeezed her hand back.
"Where do we go?"
Selene pointed north — deeper into the forest.
"The ruins lie beyond the Whispering Valley. It's a day's travel on foot."
"A day?" Mara repeated. "With what chasing us?"
Selene didn't sugar-coat it.
"If the Fate Hunters find us again… we don't survive."
Lyn's eyes widened in terror.
Rafe stepped in front of them both, placing himself between the girls and the darkness around them.
"Then we won't let them."
Selene gave him a long look — equal parts admiration and fear.
"No," she said softly. "You won't be the one stopping them. I will. As long as I can."
The way she said as long as I can made Rafe's chest tighten.
Before he could respond, the ground beneath their feet vibrated.
A tremor.Light.But unmistakable.
Selene snapped her head toward the south.
"No—already…?"
Rafe felt it too — a shift in the air pressure, a barely audible hum, like someone plucking a taut string in another world.
Mara whispered:
"…What is that?"
Selene's face hardened.
"Fate Hunters. They've crossed the outer boundary of the forest."
Lyn clutched Rafe's shirt.
"They're… they're coming?"
"Yes," Selene said. "And faster than before."
"How many?" Mara asked.
Selene didn't blink.
"All of them."
Rafe felt his blood run cold.
The entire forest seemed to hold its breath.
Selene turned to the children with urgency.
"Move. Now."
They ran.
The Forest Retreats
The ancient trees bent overhead as if leaning away from the children. Mana currents twisted, pulling the mist aside to clear a narrow path.
Rafe noticed it first.
"The forest… it's helping us?"
Selene didn't look back.
"No. The forest fears what follows."
Branches cracked behind them.
Distant screeches — mechanical, distorted, like metal scraping bone — echoed through the trees.
Mara shuddered.
"I hate that sound—"
"They're close," Selene warned.
The children's breathing grew ragged from the pace.
"Don't slow down," Selene ordered. "Keep your mana low, keep your minds quiet. They track by anomalies, not scent."
"What does that even mean?" Mara snapped between breaths.
"It means they're following him," Selene said without turning. "Not you."
Rafe stumbled for a moment but kept running.
"I… I didn't ask for this—"
"I know," Selene said. "But a Primordial marked you. And where a Primordial invests interest… the universe shifts around it."
Rafe felt a cold spot under his ribs.
"Why me?"
Selene finally looked back.
Her answer was honest — brutally so.
"I don't know. And that terrifies me."
The forest opened into a narrow ravine. Fog rolled along the ground like pale smoke.
Lyn trembled, voice tiny:
"Rafe… are they going to catch us?"
He didn't hesitate.
"No."
Her hand tightened around his.
"Promise?"
"I promise."
But inside, Rafe wasn't so sure.
The Hunters Draw Near
A shriek tore through the trees behind them — sharp enough to rattle bones.
Selene cursed under her breath.
"They've entered the inner boundary!"
"Selene!" Mara yelled, pointing. "They're behind us!"
Rafe turned his head just enough to see shapes darting through the distant trees — tall, skeletal silhouettes with joints that bent wrong and limbs that moved too fast to be human.
Their glowing eye-cores pulsed.
Tracking him.
Only him.
Rafe's heart pounded.
"Selene—what do we do?!"
Selene spun her staff, slamming it into the ground.
A dome of shimmering blue mana erupted behind them, spreading outward like a tidal wave.
The world shook as the barrier collided with the forest.
"KEEP RUNNING!" Selene shouted.
The children sprinted forward while Selene stayed behind the barrier for a second longer, pushing it outward with everything she had.
Her voice cracked under the strain:
"I can't hold them long—GO!"
Rafe felt Lyn trembling as she ran beside him.
Mara gritted her teeth, refusing to look back.
When Selene rejoined them, she was pale — too pale. Blood dripped from the corner of her mouth.
Rafe shouted:
"Selene!"
"Don't stop," she gasped. "Don't… look back…"
Then, the ground in front of them split open — a narrow chasm leading deeper into a canyon.
Selene pointed.
"Down there—quickly!"
Mara jumped first.Lyn followed.Rafe leaped after them.
Selene landed last, collapsing to one knee.
Rafe rushed to her side.
"Selene! You're hurt!"
She wiped the blood from her lips.
"It's nothing."
It was not nothing.
But they had no time.
Mara whispered:
"What now?"
Selene looked up toward the canyon's far end.
"The entrance to the ruins is close. Once inside… we may lose them."
"And if we don't?" Rafe asked.
Selene stood shakily.
"Then the ruins will be our tomb."
She raised her cracked staff—
"Move."