Now that the spiders are taken care of, and Eris has collected their mana cores, we finally return to the real matter at hand—
The one that's never truly gone away.
"Okay, so…" Eris's voice breaks the silence. Calm, but edged with steel. Her expression sharpens, eyes narrowing with focus. "How are you feeling right now?"
The chaos of the battle had numbed it—muted the dread like a buzzing I'd pushed to the back of my mind. But now, as quiet settles once again over the frozen forest, I close my eyes and let myself feel.
Ba-thump.
Ba-thump.
That same pressure clamps down on my chest. Tight. Suffocating.
"It… it's still here," I whisper, my voice shaky. My fingers close tightly around Eris's hand. "That feeling hasn't changed at all. It's still nearby."
"I see," she murmurs, her tone deepening, the playfulness from earlier now completely gone. "So it wasn't the spiders after all."
I nod slowly, my brows knitting together.
If it wasn't them… then what?
