We spent the next day recovering. While the safehouse offered no luxury, it was quiet, and for the first time in days, that silence didn’t feel threatening. Mal busied herself cleaning her knife collection and muttering complaints about the general lack of food options. Liam sketched in a worn leather journal, occasionally pausing to glance at the orb or the fading sunlight.
Logan remained watchful, patrolling the perimeter of the safehouse with calculated precision. He seemed to need the activity, the movement. Whenever our eyes met, his expression softened, though he rarely lingered. The events in the cavern had left him unusually quiet.
As for me, I couldn’t stop staring at the orb. Its runes still glowed faintly, but something had shifted. The rhythm it pulsed with now felt faintly off, as if it was waiting for something-or someone. My thoughts drifted to the moment I had severed its connection to the creature. The energy I had channeled hadn’t come from the orb alone. It had been drawn from me, intertwined with something deeper.
It scared me.
Night fell again, the dense forest swallowing the dim light of dusk. Liam volunteered to take first watch this time, his eyes sharper than usual as he scanned the treeline. I sat by the orb, hoping to decipher the runes-or distract myself from the gnawing fear rising in my chest.
Logan joined me without a word, his footsteps light. He leaned against the wall, crossing his arms as he looked at the orb with wary curiosity. “You’ve been staring at that thing all day,” he said finally. “You learn anything?”
“Not really.” I traced a rune with my finger. “It feels… different, though. Like it’s waiting for the next step, but I can’t figure out what that step is. There’s something it wants to show me.”
He crouched down beside me, his expression guarded but curious. “When you touched it earlier, you said you saw memories. Could it show them to you again? Something we missed?”
“I’m not sure. It was like… a flood. It wasn’t just images, but feelings, too. Everything was connected to the balance, but the lines between light and dark-” I hesitated, trying to put the experience into words. “They blurred. It’s not as simple as we thought.”
“Simple never is,” he said, his voice quiet. His golden eyes lingered on me, unreadable. “But whatever’s next, you won’t face it alone. Don’t try to carry the world on your own, Audrey.”
I forced a small smile. “Coming from the guy who spent all night patrolling alone.”
He huffed a soft laugh. “Touche. But this is different. I mean it-you’re not just our leader. You’re… you’re something more.”
The weight of his words was almost too much. I shifted my gaze back to the orb, my mind racing. “Do you think the Spire knows how dangerous this is? Sending us into all this without answers?”
“They know,” he said after a moment, his tone grim. “They have to. They just think you’ll figure it out. You always do.”
His unwavering confidence was almost enough to steady me. Almost.
Suddenly, the orb pulsed brightly, startling us both. Logan was on his feet in an instant, hand resting on his weapon. “What the-”
Before either of us could react further, the runes along the orb’s surface shifted. The glow became steadier, the carvings rearranging into a new pattern. A low hum filled the room, vibrating through the floor and walls.
Mal and Liam rushed in, weapons drawn. “What’s going on?” Mal demanded, her knife already in hand.
“The orb,” I said, barely above a whisper. “It’s… changing.”
We all watched as the runes formed what looked like a map, glowing lines connecting dots across a circular surface. It pulsed again, and a faint projection flickered into the air above it-a sprawling image of the world, or what I assumed was the world before the void began corrupting it.
“What is that?” Liam asked, stepping closer.
“A map,” Logan said. “Look at the way those dots connect. It’s showing us something.”
One of the glowing points pulsed brighter, then dimmed as another lit up farther away. I leaned forward, tracing the lines with my eyes. “These must be the other fragments,” I said, my heart quickening. “The balance isn’t just here. It’s spread out, scattered. This is how we find it.”
Mal’s brow furrowed. “Hold up. Are you saying we’re supposed to run around collecting shiny rocks like this one? Like this is some sort of cosmic scavenger hunt?”
“Exactly what I’m saying,” I replied. “This is bigger than we thought. The balance isn’t just one thing-it’s pieces of a whole, and we’re the ones who have to put it back together.”
Logan let out a slow breath, his expression darkening. “If this map is right, the pieces are far apart. That means crossing into more void territory, probably fighting more of… whatever the hell that molten thing was.”
“And we’re already at half strength,” Liam added grimly. “We can’t afford to rush this. If we lose anyone-”
“We won’t,” I said quickly, cutting him off. The certainty in my own voice surprised me. “We’ll rest, regroup. But we don’t have a choice. If we don’t do this, the balance will collapse completely. The void will spread until there’s nothing left.”
The weight of those words sank into the room like stone. Mal sank onto a chair, rubbing her temples. “Well. No pressure, right?”
“We’ve faced worse odds,” Logan said, his voice low but steady. “We’ll figure it out.” He looked at me, the intensity in his gaze anchoring me. “And we start tomorrow.”
The decision settled among us, and despite the uncertainty, a quiet resolve replaced the fear. We had a map. A direction.
But as I stared at the orb, its glow now soft and steady, I couldn’t shake the sense that this was only a fraction of the story.
And that the void wasn’t done with us yet.