Morning broke slowly over the forest, light filtering through the canopy in fractured gold. Mist still clung to the ground when Kai and Lira finally stopped near a quiet stream, both exhausted but unwilling to fully rest.
They'd been walking for hours—mostly in silence.
Kai washed his face in the cold water. The shock grounded him, but the tight knot in his chest refused to loosen.
The Mark beneath his ribs still tingled faintly.
Alive.
Waiting.
Lira crouched nearby, sharpening her dagger on a smooth stone. "We'll reach the Northern Ridge by nightfall."
Kai nodded slowly. "Do you really think this Seer will talk to us?"
"She'll talk," Lira said. "But you might not like what she says."
Kai swallowed. Probably true.
As they traveled north, the forest slowly changed. Trees grew denser, twisted, ancient. The air grew colder even under sunlight. The birdsong faded until all that remained was the crunch of leaves beneath their boots.
Kai sensed it before Lira did.
A pressure.
Like the air thickened.
"The boundary," Lira murmured. "We're close."
Moments later, they reached a clearing.
Ancient stones formed a broken archway at its center—overgrown with vines, the symbols etched into them faded but unmistakable.
Kai ran his fingers over one of the carvings. "These are the same symbols on the seal fragment…"
Lira nodded grimly. "We're on the right path, then."
She stepped through the arch.
Nothing happened.
Kai followed—
—and the world shifted.
Not violently. Not visibly.
But he felt it. A quiet click, like stepping into a locked room that had been waiting for him.
Beyond the archway, the forest felt heavier. Quiet to the point of unnatural.
"Kai," Lira said softly. "Stay close. The Seer isn't dangerous, but what surrounds her is."
"Meaning?"
"Meaning this place is touched by old Path energy," Lira replied. "The kind predating history."
Kai didn't like the sound of that.
They walked for several minutes more until the trees suddenly opened into a small clearing.
In the center sat a hut—ancient wood, moss-covered roof, smoke lazily drifting from the chimney.
But what truly unsettled Kai was the silence around it.
No insects.
No wind.
Just… stillness.
Lira approached slowly and knocked on the door.
For a moment, nothing.
Then—
"Enter."
The voice was raspy, old, but unmistakably aware.
Lira glanced at Kai. "Brace yourself."
They stepped inside.
The interior was dim, lit by a single flickering lantern. Strange charms hung from the rafters—woven strings, carved bones, shards of broken emblem stones.
A hunched figure sat cross-legged by the fire, wrapped in layers of tattered cloth. White hair spilled down her back, and when she lifted her head—
Kai froze.
Her eyes were clouded white.
But despite the blindness, she turned directly toward him.
"You've brought the Vessel," she rasped.
Kai's stomach dropped. Lira didn't deny it.
"Seer," Lira said. "We need your guidance."
The old woman lifted a shaking hand, motioning them to sit. They obeyed.
For a long moment, she simply stared—unblinking—at Kai, her pale eyes empty yet sharp.
"You carry His spark," she said. "The last ember of the Forbidden One."
Kai forced himself to speak. "What… does that mean?"
She tilted her head.
"Show me the mark."
Kai hesitated.
"Seer," Lira warned, "we don't know if exposing it—"
"Show," the woman repeated, tone sharp as a blade.
Kai exhaled shakily and pulled aside his shirt.
The faint symbol pulsed beneath his skin—white-blue light glowing softly.
The Seer inhaled sharply.
"Alive… still alive…" she whispered.
Kai tensed. "Tell me what it is."
The Seer leaned closer, her breath ragged.
"That mark is not power," she said. "It is a claim."
Kai's blood ran cold. "…A claim?"
"The Seventh Path has chosen you as its host," she said. "It sees through you. It speaks through you. It grows through you."
Kai's hands trembled. "Then how do I stop it?"
The Seer's lips curled into something between a smile and a grimace.
"You don't."
A chill shot down Kai's spine.
Lira stepped forward. "There must be a way to control it."
"There is," the Seer said. "But control requires understanding. And understanding requires truth."
She stretched out a hand.
"Give me the fragment."
Kai hesitated, but finally placed the seal fragment in her palm.
The hut dimmed. The fire flickered violently.
The Seer's eyes rolled back, white disappearing behind her lids.
Her voice shifted—layered, distorted.
"THE SEAL BROKE.
THE VESSEL SURVIVES.
THE SHADOW AWAKENS.
THE WORLD REMEMBERS WHAT IT FEARED—"
"Seer!" Lira grabbed her shoulders.
The old woman convulsed once, violently—
—and went still.
Silence
Kai's heart pounded.
Then the Seer spoke again—but softly this time, her true voice returning.
"The Seventh Path was erased," she whispered. "Buried. Denied. Feared by all other Paths."
"Why?" Kai asked quietly.
"Because it does not evolve like the others," she said.
"What do you mean?"
"It consumes," she said. "Not energy. Not mana. Not beasts. It consumes limits."
Kai stared. "…Limits?"
"All Paths are bound by rules," she continued. "Fire burns. Water flows. Shadow hides. Ether manifests. But the Seventh Path—"
She looked at Kai, trembling.
"It breaks reality to bend the rule beneath it."
Kai felt sick.
"What… does that make me?"
The Seer looked at him with something like pity.
"You are the vessel of the Path that should never awaken. You will not be a wielder."
Her breath shuddered.
"You will become the Seventh Path itself."
Kai's world cracked.
"I don't want that!" he shouted, panic rising. "I didn't choose this!"
The Seer's voice softened.
"Then you must learn faster than the Path grows."
Kai stared at her. "How?"
The old woman leaned close, whispering into his ear.
"Find the lost shrine in the Silverwood Valley.
There lies the first truth of your path."
She pulled back.
"And pray you are strong enough to survive it."
The lantern flickered.
Outside, for the first time in hours…
…the wind moved.
As if the world itself reacted to the Seventh Path stirring inside Kai.