Aleron hit the ground hard enough to knock the breath from his lungs. Pain shot up his spine as he rolled across jagged stone, gravel scraping his palms. The darkness around him pulsed with dust and echoing tremors. Somewhere nearby, Liora screamed his name.
"Liora!" he croaked into the darkness. "Liora, where are you?"
A weak cough answered him. "Here… Aleron, I'm here."
He crawled toward the sound, blinking through the dust. After a moment his hand brushed her arm. Relief crashed through him.
"Are you hurt?"
"My shoulder," she whispered, wincing. "I landed on it. But I'm okay. We need to move before.."
A thunderous impact shook the cavern. Stones rained from above. The creature had reached the edge of the chasm.
Aleron pulled Liora to her feet. "Come on. It won't jump—it doesn't need to. It'll find another way down."
"And then what?" she shot back bitterly. "Finish what it started?"
Aleron didn't answer. He didn't know what the creature wanted. Only that it had followed him through fire, stone, and memory.
Only that its voice had called him child.
He shoved the thought aside. Not now. Survival first.
The cavern around them stretched far wider than the hole that had swallowed them. Massive stone pillars, cracked and crooked, jutted from the earth like the ribs of a long-buried giant. Blue moss glowed faintly on the walls, casting an eerie light across the ground.
Liora stared around. "This place… Aleron, this isn't natural."
"No," he murmured. "It isn't."
Another tremor rippled through the earth. Above them, faint red light leaked through the cracks — firelight from the burning village.
They had fallen deep.
Too deep.
"We follow the cavern," Aleron said. "It has to open somewhere."
They moved quickly, though Aleron's injured ankle screamed with every step. Liora kept glancing at him, guilt flickering in her eyes. She blamed herself, for slowing him, for panicking, for making him fight harder to save her.
He wished she wouldn't.
Silence pressed in on them, thick and heavy, until a faint sound cut through the darkness.
Whispers.
Aleron froze. Liora grabbed his arm.
"What was that?" she breathed.
The whispers grew louder, curling through the air like tendrils of smoke. Dozens of voices murmured at once: some soft, some frantic, some sounding like they were laughing.
Aleron's skin crawled. "Stay close."
They edged forward, following the slope downward. The whispers grew more distinct — words emerging from the chaos. Some in languages Aleron knew. Some in languages no human should know.
And some in…
His mother's voice.
"Aleron…"
He stopped dead, blood turning to ice.
Liora stiffened. "No. No, don't listen. It's not real."
But the voice spoke again. Clearer this time. Closer.
"Aleron… little flame, keep your hand steady…"
His stomach twisted.
Those were her exact words — the first time she taught him to draw a sigil. He could see it now, her hand over his, guiding him through the lines and curves.
The memory almost made him smile.
Almost.
Then the whisper twisted.
"…little flame… ready to burn."
Aleron jerked backward. That was not her voice. Not really. Not anymore.
Liora grabbed his sleeve. "Aleron. We should turn back."
"We can't," he said through clenched teeth. "It's following us. Forward is the only way."
The cavern opened into a wider chamber. Strange stone carvings lined the walls — symbols and runes he hadn't seen since childhood. Old. Forbidden. Taught only in secret.
His breath stuttered.
He knew this place.
Or rather, he recognized the markings.
"Your mother studied this," Liora whispered, noticing his expression. "Didn't she?"
Aleron swallowed. "Yes. She… "
The chamber trembled violently.
A deep groan rolled through the cavern, like something enormous shifting in the stone.
Then the whispers stopped.
All at once.
The silence was worse.
Much worse.
Liora's fingers dug into his arm. "Aleron… something's—"
The ground beneath them split open.
Aleron barely had time to shove Liora sideways before a jagged fissure tore through the chamber floor. He scrambled up, pulling her with him as sharp cracks branched outward like lightning.
Something below the surface was moving.
Something massive.
Stone exploded upward as a huge shape burst through the floor — a hulking creature made of rock and twisting tendrils of blue moss. Empty stone sockets stared at them like dead eyes. Its jaw unhinged with a grinding shriek.
Liora screamed.
"Run!" Aleron pulled her toward the nearest tunnel.
The stone colossus lunged, its massive arm smashing into the ground where they stood only moments before. The entire chamber shuddered, chunks of ceiling raining down.
They sprinted into the tunnel, barely ahead of the collapsing stone.
But the colossus followed.
It dragged itself after them, its hulking form scraping the walls, sparks flying as rock ground against rock.
"THIS WAY!" Liora cried, pointing at a split in the tunnel.
Aleron yanked her toward the narrower passage. The colossus tried to follow, but its shoulders were too wide. It howled in frustration, pounding the walls until shards broke loose.
They kept running, lungs burning, until the passage widened into a smaller chamber filled with glowing blue water. A pool. Its surface shimmered like liquid moonlight.
Liora staggered to the edge, gasping. "What… what is this place?"
Aleron had no idea. But something tugged at his mind. A memory. A warning.
His mother's voice.
"Never touch the blue water, Aleron. Promise me."
Liora noticed his expression and stepped back from the pool. "Aleron… what's wrong?"
He didn't answer. Because he didn't know how to explain it.
Not before…
A distant roar echoed through the tunnel.
The colossus was breaking free.
Aleron grabbed Liora's hand. "We have to cross. The chamber continues on the other side."
Liora looked between him and the glowing pool. "Aleron, that water—"
"We have no choice!"
"I can't swim!"
"You won't need to. It's shallow — look."
He stepped into the water.
And froze.
The moment his foot touched the pool, visions slammed into him.
Fire. Screaming. A woman's silhouette dissolving into ash.
And a sigil: glowing, burning, searing itself into his skin.
Aleron staggered back, gasping.
"Aleron!" Liora grabbed his shoulders. "What happened?"
He didn't have time to answer.
Because the pool began to glow brighter.
Then brighter still.
Then—
A dark shape rose from the water.
A figure.
A woman.
Her entire body made of shimmering blue light.
Her eyes snapped open.
And she whispered Aleron's true name.
A name no one living should know.
Liora stepped back in terror.
The glowing woman raised her hand…
And the cavern floor cracked open beneath Aleron's feet.
He fell backward into the water—
as the glowing woman uttered the words that froze Liora's blood:
"The Hollowborn returns."