With a final, desperate look, Kael hauled Liora into the twisting tunnels.
Tari turned back to the Order and let the forest's power burn.
The moment Kael and Liora vanished into the tunnels, the forest's fury became Tari's own.
Vines lashed like whips, driving the Order back. Elder Varyn's silver flames flickered weakening as if the very air resisted their burn. But Tari didn't stay to fight.
She ran.
The roots guided her, slithering ahead like serpents, carving a path through the earth. Deeper, deeper until the walls pulsed with a sickly green glow.
And then, she heard it.
Liora screaming.
Tari burst into a cavern and froze.
Kael was on his knees, gripping his sister's shoulders as she convulsed, her Hollow eye spreading, veins of darkness crawling across her skin.
It's taking her again! Kael shouted, voice raw. She's fighting it, but...
Liora's back arched, her fingers clawing at the earth. It hurts
Then, like a dam breaking, the truth spilled from her lips a secret buried longer than the Heartwood.
I was the first.
Kael went deathly still.
Liora's human eye locked onto his, grief-stricken. Not just a victim. Not just taken. A shuddering breath. I was the first success.The first Hollow who kept her mind.
The air left Tari's lungs.
The Order hadn't just hunted Hollows.
They'd made them.
Liora gasped as another wave of pain wracked her. They… they tried to merge human souls with the forest's power. To create perfect guardians. But the corruption… it was too strong. Most went mad. So the Order called them monsters. Started killing them. Her voice broke. But I… I lived. They didn't know. And when they found out...
They tried to burn you too, Kael finished, horror dawning.
Liora nodded weakly. The forest hid me. Let the roots take me. But the corruption never left. It's alive. And it wants out.
A low, guttural growl echoed through the cavern.
Not from Liora.
From the shadows behind her.
Tari's blood turned to ice as glowing eyes flickered in the dark dozens of them.
The Order's failed experiments.
The true Hollows.
And they'd just found their queen.