Liam’s gaze turned contemplative, and he drew patterns in the dirt absentmindedly with his finger. “Think about it,” he continued. “If the orb really is the key to balance, it’s already fragmented. That in itself might be why everything feels so out of sync. Maybe gathering the pieces isn’t causing the imbalance-it could be the only way to fix it.”
“Or it’s a gamble,” Mal interjected, keeping her focus on the shadows just beyond the protective runes. “Maybe putting the fragments together stabilizes everything. Or maybe it destroys everything instead. No way to tell until we’re staring down the aftermath.”
Logan shifted, leaning forward as if her words struck a nerve. “If we stop now, what’s our alternative? Let the void keep expanding until it wipes out everything in its path? Sit here twiddling our thumbs while it’s Audrey they hunt down every time?”
I flinched involuntarily at the reminder, my fingers tightening around the orb. It almost felt alive beneath my touch, like it could sense my uncertainty.
“Logan’s got a point,” Liam said reluctantly. “We don’t know for sure if gathering the pieces is safe. But doing nothing is definitely not an option.”
Mal sighed, throwing a rock into the woods. The distant clink of it hitting something hard echoed faintly back to us. “Well, yay for impossible choices. Pick a side, pick a doom.”
“I think,” I said slowly, my voice trembling, “I think that’s why they warned us. The stranger knew I’d hesitate. They wanted me to doubt everything.”
“Yeah, well, cryptic strangers usually have that effect,” Mal muttered. “But if they wanted you to second-guess yourself, they underestimated your stubborn streak.”
“I’m not stubborn,” I shot back, frowning.
“Sure you aren’t,” she said with a smirk. “That’s why we’re currently chasing magic fragments across dimensions. Total lack of stubbornness there.”
Logan let out a quiet chuckle, the sound low and soothing despite everything. “Mal’s got a twisted way of saying it, but she’s right. You’re still here, Audrey. That means you haven’t let doubt stop you yet.”
Something in his voice, in his unwavering confidence, steadied me. I took a deep breath and let the tension in my shoulders ease just slightly. “Okay,” I said. “If we’re doing this, then we do it carefully. We plan for the worst. But… we keep going.”
“That’s the spirit,” Logan said with a faint smile. “Knew you had it in you.”
Before I could respond, Liam stood and dusted off his hands. “Speaking of careful,” he said, “we need to figure out the next fragment’s location. But first, we’re sticking to the basics: food, water, rest.” He glanced at the others. “If anything gets past the wards tonight, it’ll eat us alive. And none of us are at full strength after that fight.”
Mal yawned, though she made a dramatic effort to stifle it. “Fine. But I’m sticking to first watch. You nerds do your mage prep or whatever.”
As she sauntered toward the edge of the ward, knives back in hand, Logan turned to me. “You should get some rest. You’ve been running on fumes for hours.”
I shook my head. “I won’t sleep. Not after that… warning.”
“You need to try,” he insisted, his voice softening. “Just close your eyes, even if it’s just for a while. I’ll keep watch with Mal.”
“And me,” Liam added, raising a hand like he was volunteering for extra credit. “I’ll have enough energy for a tracking spell if I don’t pass out first.”
I hesitated, glancing between them, before finally nodding. The exhaustion was too heavy to fight. “Okay. But wake me if anything happens.”
Logan’s lips twitched upward, though his eyes betrayed his concern. “Promise.”
I moved closer to the faintly glowing protection rune Liam had cast and leaned against the boulder again, still clutching the orb. The hum of its energy was steady, almost like a heartbeat. It was a strange comfort, knowing that whatever power it held, it had chosen me-or perhaps it had simply been thrust upon me. Either way, I couldn’t shake the sense that I wasn’t carrying it alone.
As I closed my eyes, the words of the stranger replayed in my mind once more: The balance is delicate. The void is only the beginning. And you… are the key.
For the first time, I wasn’t sure if being the key was a blessing-or a curse.
Morning broke in fractured beams of light through the trees, the air cold and still. I woke to find Logan and Liam in hushed conversation near the campfire, which now burned low, crackling sporadically. Mal, perched on a log with her knives laid out in neat rows, gave me a curt nod when she saw I was awake.
“Nothing got through,” she said. “If it had, you’d know by now.”
I pulled my jacket tighter around me and walked to join the others. The orb rested cool and inert against my hip where I’d tucked it into my pack. Logan turned at my approach, his golden eyes sharp as ever but shadowed with exhaustion.
“Morning,” he said, his voice low. “How’d you sleep?”
“Better than I thought I would,” I admitted. “Any sign of trouble?”
“Not yet,” Liam said, brushing off his hands and standing up. “But we’ve got a bigger concern now. While you were sleeping, I ran a preliminary search spell for the next fragment. Let’s just say… it’s not in a friendly neighborhood.”
Logan raised a brow. “Define ‘not friendly.'”
Liam sighed, the weight of his discovery evident in his expression. “The void is spreading faster than we thought. The next fragment is in its path.”
“So, what? It’s a race against time?” Mal asked, frowning.
“Essentially.” Liam’s gaze fell on me, his unease evident. “If we’re not careful, getting this fragment could mean diving straight into enemy territory.”
The clearing fell silent, the reality of his words settling over us like a dark cloud. A race against time. An impossible task. And no guarantee of success.
“I guess we’d better move fast, then,” I said finally, drawing strength from the determination that flickered back to life in Logan’s gaze.
Mal’s scoff broke the tension, though her eyes were sharp as she sheathed one of her knives with a deft motion. “Fast is fine, but I’d rather we didn’t rush into a deathtrap. Getting killed isn’t much of a strategy, is it?”
“No, but sitting around debating won’t help either,” Logan said, his tone curt as he stood and stretched. Despite the weariness on his face, there was a resolute energy in the way he moved. “The longer we wait, the stronger the void gets, and the more likely we are to lose this thing for good.”
“Right,” Liam said with a nervous chuckle, “because rushing straight toward the enemy always works so well.”
Logan’s gaze hardened. “If you’ve got a better idea, spellcaster, now’s the time.”
“Logan,” I interrupted, my voice steady despite the storm of unease churning inside me, “Liam’s right. Charging in blind is going to get us killed. If we’re going to do this, we need a plan-a real one.”
For a moment, the tension hung heavy between them, the fire crackling softly in the background. Then Logan sighed, running a hand through his tousled hair. “Fine. But we don’t have much time, Audrey. If that fragment falls into the wrong hands…”
“It won’t,” I said, more firmly than I felt. “We’ll make sure it doesn’t.”
Mal leaned back on the log, one leg draped lazily over the other. “You two done flexing yet? Good. Let’s talk strategy. Liam, what do we know about this place? And spare me the riddles-I don’t speak cryptic.”
Liam exhaled slowly, visibly collecting his thoughts. “The next fragment is deep in what used to be a forested valley, about two days from here on foot. Problem is, that valley’s been swallowed by the void’s influence. The closer we get, the worse it’ll be. We’re talking corrupted terrain, hostile creatures, the works. And if the fragment’s radiating power like this one is…” He hesitated, looking directly at me. “Every voidspawn in the area will know we’re coming.”
“Well, isn’t that comforting,” Mal muttered.
“What about shortcuts?” I asked. “Anything to get us there faster?”
“There’s a river that cuts through the forest,” Liam said, gesturing to a rough map he’d sketched in the dirt. “We could follow it and shave off some time. But it’s risky. Too exposed.”
“Riskier than wading through void-infested terrain for two days?” Logan raised a brow. “We’ll take the river.”
“Hold on,” Mal said, sitting up straighter. “If we’re committing to this suicide mission, I want to know one thing: Do we have a backup plan if this goes south? Because these fragments are great and all, but I’m not dying over a rock.”
“It’s not just a rock,” I said, clutching my pack instinctively. The orb’s weight against my hip felt heavier than before, as if it knew we were speaking of it. “And no, we don’t have a backup plan. But we have to try.”
Mal gave me a long, unreadable look before shrugging. “Guess that’ll do.”
“Alright,” Logan said, slinging his jacket back over his shoulders. “We take the river. With any luck, we’ll make it to the valley before the void overruns it completely.”
“And if we don’t?” Liam asked quietly.
Logan didn’t answer.