Chapter 135
Serafine POV
Staring down at the obsidian bowl, I watch as the last flicker of light within it fades from it’s surface. My fingers tingle where they stay hovering over the bowl, still echoing with the energy that it poured into me. This place isn’t just a vault of knowledge, it’s a conduit. The hollow doesn’t want to protect itself anymore, it wants to be used, so that someone else can help.
“I think there’s more,” I say, voice quiet but firm. “More than just vision, this place can help me reach what’s being drained. Maybe even fight it.”
I look toward Xander, and though the concern still lingers in the tension of his jaw, he nods just once. He trusts me, he always has since I returned, even in moments when he should have suspected me as the cause.
Stepping around the pedestal, I move toward one of the silver–lit pools, the reflection in the water isn’t mine when I look into it. Instead, it shows a field in bloom, heavy with golden wheat. The image begins to darken, and the colour drains from the soil as the magic thread beneath it snaps. The wheat blackens and curls in on itself and I watch as it dies.
The thread doesn’t disappear, it moves, somewhere far beneath the land, it’s like it’s been drawn into something else. It’s not destruction, it’s like it’s redirecting. That’s why nothing I have done has lasted, the magic isn’t going, it’s been rerouted, stolen.
“I can follow it,” I whisper.
“How?” Xander asks.
Reaching out, I touch the surface of the water, and the silver veins shimmer, I watch then shift, and form a line, no, a path, leading west. I focus more, and see a stone, a ridge and a buried cavern, it’s miles from here, but the Hollow shows it like it’s next door.
“There’s a place,” I say, my breath catching. “A fracture. That’s where the threads are going, so, if we can get there, we might be able to stop it from spreading.”
Xander shifts his stance. “You’re saying we leave the Hollow and head straight into the heart of whatever’s behind this?”
“I’m saying we don’t have a choice,” I say. “People are going to come for me and Eryx, if we can fix it at the source, then it removes the risk. People won’t see us as the cause, or try to take us to cure land.”
The cavern responds as if it hears me, and the roots above us begin to sway gently. The glowing veins pulse brighter, and the silver thread that had buried itself earlier now rises. It coils through the earth and toward the pedestal like it’s waiting.
Looking down at my hands, I can see the threads of my own magic swirling across my skin, they’re moving faster than they ever have.
I look down at my hands. The threads of my own magic are already swirling across my skin, faster than they ever have. Stronger. More focused.
“It gave me a piece of it,” I whisper. “Of the Hollow. That’s why we were allowed in. We were never just supposed to observe. We were meant to carry it
back.”
Moving back toward the pedestal, I press my hands to the sides of it again. This time, I feel the energy flood up through my palms, it’s not overwhelming, but it does feel different, like it’s bonding with me.
The magic of the Hollow doesn’t just belong here anymore.
It belongs with me.
The stone begins to glow beneath my feet and a sharp sudden pain shoots through my chest, it’s like it’s tethering itself to me, or marking me. I know that it’s something I will carry forever.
Lifting my hands, I feel the threads curling around my wrists, the silver and green entwining, alive and waiting.
“We go west,” I say. “We find where the fracture is and then we stop whoever’s stealing the magic. We stop the rot at the source, we don’t try to fix each
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Chapter 135
bit of land, we fix everything at once.”
Xander nods. “Then we go now.”
I take one last look at the Soulroot above us, the roots shift once more, almost in a bid farewell, the Hollow doesn’t protest to us leaving, it doesn’t need
- to.
It’s given me what was needed, everything that I can use to find the cause and stop it, and the more important thing, now the Hollow is coming, because it’s inside of me.
We walk back up the spiral staircase, and Xander watches me closely. “Are we going to need more guards?”
I don’t know, how can I? I’ve no idea who is doing this, or why. Something tells me that this is someone using it for the magic, which means guards won’t
help.
“If this is a person, and they are siphoning the magic, then guards won’t help Xander,” I explain.
He sighs and nods. “Have you noticed, once we got closer to the Hollow,
the feelings stopped?”
I look at him in confusion.
“I’m no longer drowning in the need to mate with you Serafine, it stopped.”
His words have me searching within myself, and he’s right, the feeling has gone, even for me. Maybe that was the Soulroot, or the Hollow? I need to ask the Hollowfang Raven later, now we’re leaving it has no reason to refuse.
We break the surface and I watch as the stone closes again, hiding the staircase that is beneath it. I place my hand on the Soulroot once more.
“I promise to fix it,” I whisper. I have to, not just for the Soulroot, or for the crops, but for me and Eryx to survive.
