Vencian opened his eyes to the color of rust.

The ground around him was uneven and cracked, like wreckage left after some long storm. A faint wind scraped dust across the surface. The air carried no scent, no sound except his own breath.

He pushed himself up slowly. His arms felt heavy, his head hollow.

Beside him lay the sword the village man had given him, the same blade meant for the sacrifice. Its dull metal caught the strange red of the sky.

Another dream?

He blinked, expecting the scene to fade as his mind cleared. The place felt too unreal. The sky looked painted rather than lit. He had dreamed of stranger places before.

Then he saw them.

Roselys lay a few steps away. The little girl was curled beside her, her face, and clothes still marked with dried red powder. Both were breathing.

Memory returned in a rush. The ritual circle. The chalice. The pull that tore the ground apart. His last sight before darkness was him shouting at Roselys to wait while the void swallowed them all.

He reached for the sword and scanned the land again. There was no trace of the village. Only a wide plain broken by collapsed stone shapes that might once have been walls.

So this isn't a dream.

The realization steadied him. He turned his focus inward and called to his power. The familiar current stirred in his chest, answering the command. His skin tingled as the illusion around his body shifted.

He needed to get rid of Ostick's appearance before Roselys woke up. He didn't understand this place well, and using the appearance of someone Roselys would clearly be hostile toward would be foolish.

The air shimmered faintly, but the effect broke halfway through.

A voice spoke behind him. "You don't need to. The illusion has already fallen."

He turned sharply. Quenya stood there, faint light tracing the edges of her form.

She looked calm but faint, like the glow itself cost her effort.

"You couldn't hold the shape while unconscious," she said. "When you blacked out, everything reverted."

Vencian blinked once, then exhaled. "Oh."

He adjusted the sword on his knee. "Why didn't you signal me? You were with Roselys, weren't you? You could have warned me before it came to that."

Quenya's head tilted. "The chalice's field blocked me. Any attempt to project would have exposed my form to them. I suspected it would happen, so I stayed hidden until you were being drawn in."

He frowned, running through her words. The logic matched what little he understood of her limits.

"I see."

Silence hung between them.

Understanding passed without need for more words.

Then a sound reached them: a shallow breath, a shift of cloth.

Vencian looked back. The little girl's fingers twitched. Roselys's chest moved in a stronger rhythm.

"They're waking," he said.

He moved quickly, placing the sword across his lap. The blade's form still screamed of the ritual. Anyone seeing it might recall what it had been meant for.

He focused again, channeling the illusion through the pact's bond. The weapon's dull edge shimmered and changed until it looked identical to his own usual sword—the one he had carried to the village.

Quenya floated closer, inspecting his work. "The disguise will hold. But don't push your limit here. This place drains color faster."

"I've noticed."

He studied the horizon. The red hue seemed to press closer, swallowing depth and shadow. He could feel his heartbeat echo against the silence.

He knelt beside Roselys, half-relieved, half-alert.

Where are we? The question had no answer yet.

Quenya hovered near Vencian's shoulder, voice low. "It's definitely connected to that chalice, or maybe even to the deity the villagers were performing the ritual for."

He didn't fully grasp her meaning, but it sounded like trouble. "Can we get out?"

"Let's wait for that little girl to wake up. Maybe she knows something that could be helpful."

Vencian nodded, forcing his breathing to slow.

His body still ached from the earlier strain. Every muscle remembered the resistance of that pull. The only comfort was the weight of the sword in his grip—solid, familiar, even if only in appearance.

He looked at Roselys again. Her hair clung to her cheek, stained dark with dust.

"Once she wakes, we need to move," he said.

Quenya's light dimmed slightly, her form flickering. "If things go awry, don't hesitate to use your powers."

"Understood."

He kept his attention on the girls.

Roselys's fingers twitched again.

Her eyes began to open.

She blinked at the red glare above her, then sat up quickly, dust falling from her sleeve.

Her eyes searched the wasteland around her until they landed on him.

"Vencian?" Her voice carried disbelief.

He gave a small nod. "Yes."

She looked around again as if trying to place what she saw. "How are you here? You weren't near the circle."

"I was," he said. "I was in the shrine. When that thing pulled you in, I went after you."

Her brow tightened. "You followed me into that?"

"It was either that or watch you vanish," he lied.

She kept her gaze on him, suspicion in her eyes. The silence stretched between them before she gave a short nod.

Before she could say anything else, a small voice broke the stillness.

The little girl stirred, eyes wide and filled with fear. She scrambled backward on the rough ground, breathing fast.

Roselys turned to her at once. "Hey, it's all right," she said, keeping her hands open. "I'm not one of those villagers. I would tell you you're safe if I understood where we are."

The girl's eyes darted between them, wide and uncertain. She crawled back a little, hugging her knees. Her voice trembled. "You... you were there. They said you'd hurt me."

Roselys shook her head. "I stopped them. I wouldn't have let them touch you."

The girl's stare flicked to Vencian, then back to Roselys. Her lips pressed together as if she wanted to believe but couldn't.

Roselys lowered her voice. "We're trapped here too. Whatever that thing was, it pulled all of us in."

The girl didn't answer. Her breathing slowed, but she stayed tense, watching them both.

Vencian took a small step back to ease her fear.

Roselys moved closer, speaking softly. "You're fine now. We'll find a way out of here."

The girl nodded, hesitant but with a trace of hope that hadn't been there before.

Vencian's gaze shifted past them. Something moved at the edge of the broken land.

He straightened, eyes fixed on the horizon.

"Roselys."

She looked up at him. "What?"

He pointed. His voice came out low. "There."

Her head turned, following his gesture. The girl followed too.

What they saw froze all three where they stood.

A serpent-like shape slithered across the far ground, its dark body catching the red sky as it shifted. The length of it stretched beyond sight.

Vencian's breath caught. That thing could coil around a fortress.

For a moment, none of them moved. Then instinct hit all at once.

"Run!" he said.

Roselys grabbed the girl's hand, and they started sprinting across the cracked terrain.

The ground buckled in places, rising and sinking in uneven patches. Each step jarred his legs.

Vencian ran beside them, scanning for any shelter. The earth split in narrow fissures that forced them to jump or veer aside.

Behind them came a low vibration. The serpent was moving faster now, gliding through the wreckage with terrifying speed.

"Keep going!" he called.

Roselys said nothing, only tightened her grip on the girl and kept running.

They passed shapes that looked like people but frozen in place. Vencian caught flashes of faces, bodies clustered together, their skin crystallized into dull blue.

What happened here?

He wanted to look closer, but there was no time.

"Over there!" Roselys shouted.

Through the heat and dust, a structure came into view. It looked half-buried but still intact enough to offer cover.

Vencian pushed harder. The uneven ground made it hard to stay upright.

A cracking sound split the air. He risked a glance back. The serpent's head had risen, massive, smooth-scaled, eyes reflecting the red of the sky.

"Faster!" he yelled.

They were close to the structure now. The surface around it sloped downward, giving them some cover from direct sight.

Then the girl tripped.

Her foot caught in a shallow gap and she fell with a cry.

Vencian stopped instantly, turned, and pulled her up without thinking. She was light, trembling in his arms.

He didn't waste breath. He ran again, the child clinging to his shoulder.

Roselys kept pace beside him, eyes darting behind them.

The vibration grew stronger. The ground quivered under each pulse of the creature's movement.

Vencian's lungs burned, but he didn't slow.

The structure loomed closer—a fractured wall and what looked like an entrance half-covered by debris.

"Almost there," he said through gritted teeth.

The girl hid her face in his shoulder. He could feel her shaking.

Roselys reached the entrance first, shoving loose stone aside to clear space. "Here!" she called.

He ran the last few meters and ducked inside with her.

The light outside dimmed as the serpent's shadow passed over. Dust fell from the ceiling with each vibration.

Vencian set the girl down gently, keeping one hand on the hilt of his disguised sword.

"What is that thing?"

Roselys shook her head. "I've never seen anything like it."

The noise outside slowed, a scraping that seemed to move past them.

They waited in silence.

The girl looked up, eyes wide but calmer now. "Where are we?" she asked in a small voice.

Vencian didn't answer. He didn't know.

He met Roselys's gaze. Her expression told him she was thinking the same thing.

Outside, the ground trembled once more before the sound faded into the red distance.

They were safe for the moment, but the air around them carried the same strange stillness as before.

It didn't feel like safety at all.

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