Kael emerged from the Hollowroot like a man pulled from a dream that had bled too far into reality.
The cavern's threshold spat him out onto cold earth beneath a steel-grey sky, his limbs trembling and skin slick with sweat. The storm had passed while he was inside—or maybe the world had simply shifted without him. The trees whispered with the wind's breath, branches skeletal and twisted. He didn't remember them being that way when he entered.
Everything felt… older.
His knees gave, but he caught himself on one hand, gasping as if breaking the surface of dark water. His other hand still crackled faintly with residual energy—ghost trails of the Core's power running up his veins like sparks beneath his skin.
He didn't know how long he had been inside. Hours? Days?
"You're alive."
Kael's head jerked up. Sarai stood nearby, arms crossed, her expression unreadable—but her eyes were not. They were sharp, wary. Like she was looking at a different person.
Maybe she is, Kael thought.
"I think so," he rasped. His throat felt like sand. "What… happened to the Hollowroot?"
"You awakened it," she said quietly, walking toward him. "It's… changed. Its connection to the world is unstable now. But more importantly—so are you."
Kael looked down at his hand. The sparks were gone now, but the echo remained, coiled like a sleeping serpent beneath his skin.
"I saw him," he murmured. "I saw what I could become."
Sarai didn't ask for details. She only nodded, her voice softer. "Then you know what's at stake."
Kael pushed himself to his feet. His legs protested, but they held. He wiped the sweat from his brow and looked back at the Hollowroot's entrance. It had sealed behind him. The vines that once framed it were withered, the stones cracked as if the mountain itself had exhaled one final time and fallen still.
No going back.
"So," he said, "where do we go from here?"
Sarai hesitated. "There's a place. North of the Riftlands. A sanctuary of sorts. It's not on any map—not anymore. The Astral Cartel wiped it from the records. But it's real. And it's where you'll get answers."
He narrowed his eyes. "Answers to what?"
"To who you are. To why the Hollowroot called you. To what lies at the center of this war."
Kael looked down at his hand again. The whisper of the Core had quieted, but it hadn't left. It never would. Not now.
"Do we have time?"
"No," Sarai said. "But we have a head start. Barely."
North of the Riftlands. That meant passing through broken territories, ghost cities, and worse. Kael had heard stories—bandits, mutated beasts, fractured ley lines that warped the world itself. But what choice did he have? There was no safety in standing still.
Sarai turned, her cloak flaring with the wind. "We leave at first light. I'll get supplies. You rest."
Kael stayed behind for a moment, staring out across the barren valley. In the far distance, he saw fires flickering in the ruins of a village—too many to be from a single hearth.
Hunters. Raiders. Or worse.
The world was already moving, forces gathering. He had passed the first trial, yes—but it was only the opening move in a game far bigger than he understood.
Still… he didn't feel helpless anymore.
He wasn't the same Kael who had entered the Hollowroot.