Into the Nest

The night air stank of iron and smoke as they were marched from the fortress, chains biting their wrists. Torches bobbed around them, carried by Black Maw soldiers whose armor glistened like oil. The forest did not welcome them. It pressed in, skeletal branches clawing at the sky as if trying to tear down the moon. The soldiers marched in a loose phalanx ahead, metallic armour clanking as they stepped through the forest.

Luke felt the pulse of dread beat in his ribs with each crunch of earth under his feet. Luke walked at the head, shoulder-to-shoulder with Commander Veyne who rode on a stallion. The horse accentuated his presence, which cast the air into sharp edges. Even in silence, the world bent around him. The commander hadn’t bound Luke - an insult disguised as trust.
Luke forced himself to break the silence. In a place like this, silence was a weapon, and he refused to let Veyne keep it sharpened.

"So this Vicar of yours," Luke said, pitching his voice somewhere between bravado and curiosity. "What exactly does he want with mercenaries and–" he gestured at the nearest soldier, whose helm sprouted a short horn, "–whatever that is supposed to be ?"

Veyne's smile was a slow incision. "You mistake the order of things. The Vicar doesn't want them. They want him. They beg for a cause greater than coin, greater than conquest. He gives them purpose. He makes them chosen."

Luke let a laugh slip, sharp, a little reckless. "Chosen? Yeah, I've seen your chosen. They look like rejects from a meat grinder."

Veyne leaned in from his mount, eyes narrowing at Luke. "You mock what you don't understand. That's fine. Wherever you come from they probably laugh at the gods... until their laughter is torn from their throats."

Luke bit back his instinct to bristle. Instead, he threw another feint: "Where I come from... we don't see gods. Only men pretending to be them." 

For a heartbeat too long, Veyne studied him. Luke felt as though the man was peeling away his words, trying to glimpse the world behind them. Luke quickly added, softer: "Still... maybe you're right. Maybe I just haven't met the real thing yet."

Veyne's smirk returned - satisfied, but not entirely convinced.

##   ###   ##

Behind them, Michael walked beside Seraphina, his every step a silent vow. She, however, bored her eyes into Luke's back. Rage, betrayal but also... something else. Desperation. Michael's voice finally broke their silence. "You're staring holes in Luke."

Seraphina didn't look at him. "Because holes are already there. He plays at being clever, but he doesn't belong in this war. He's too... naive."

Michael almost smiled, though it was bitter. "And you weren't? Don't forget how naive you were when you trusted that man. None of us truly knows the intent of another person"

That caught her. Her eyes flicked toward him, softer for only a breath. "That's different. I did it to survive. I knew the stakes. He... doesn't even know the type of person Veyne is."

Michael's gaze hardened, but his words carried weight. "He's learning. Faster than most. He reminds me of–" He stopped himself, the name unspoken but thick in the air. Uriel.

"And where did that lead? Uriel gone. You broken. Are you so eager to watch someone else fail?"

Michael's jaw clenched, ignoring her insensitive remark. "No. That's why I'll keep him standing."

The words hung between them, fragile but fierce.

##   ###   ##

The deeper they went, the more the forest changed. The trees bent unnaturally, their bark split into jagged fissures like scars that refused to heal. The air thickened, vibrating with a low hum that had no source, a resonance felt in their bones and teeth.

Luke gradually slowed his pace until he was alongside Michael and Seraphina. Michael's hand brushed against the bars of a twisted trunk, and he pulled back as if burned. "Something's wrong." he muttered, sparks of Kairon twitching across his skin in warning. 

Luke caught the tone and swallowed. "Wrong like... ambush?"

Michael shook his head. "Wrong like this forest isn't supposed to exist."

Ahead, the Black Maw's formation wavered. Their steps faltered, helms turning left and right as if the shadows themselves were hunting them. A few muttered prayers under their breath, old words that had no place in a mercenary's mouth.

Even Commander Veyne's mount grew restless, its stern muscles rippling with unease. Veyne tugged the reigns harder than necessary, jaw set in grim resolve. His voice cut through the growing hum, low and steady but not entirely convincing: "Keep marching. Don't lose the line."

The first bellow did not sound like an animal's cry. It was a wound opening in the air, a sub-harmonic pressure that caused Luke's knees to waver and rattled the Black Maw's formation. Soldiers staggered back while others swore in broken voices.

The path eventually led to a clearing, with two cliffs facing parallel to each other. Jagged rocks protruded from the walls of the canyon with cave openings as dark as the sky above. 

From the treeline, flocks of black-feathered birds erupted, only to collapse mid-flight, their bodies twisting grotesquely before slamming lifeless to the ground. 

Michael's chest heaved. His Kairon surged in sharp, painful pulses as he whispered the word he hoped he'd never speak aloud: "Morz'vicar..."

Seraphina noticed the uncertainty in Michael's usual gait which, to her, clearly meant that something was awry. She firmly gripped the concealed dagger hidden in her waist which she managed to snatch from the Commander's table. 

Another bellow answered, closer this time, shaking the forest floor.

The human soldiers broke into murmurs– 
"Not here,..." 
"too close to the nest..." 
"the wild ones..."
–their voices quivering even under armoured helms. They feared what was coming, feared it more than any enemy blade.

One of the veterans spat into the dirt and hissed,"We shouldn't be here. Not with the wild brood..."

Veyne wheeled on him, his voice sharp, cutting through the panic. "Silence! Hold your ground or be the first offering it takes." But even as he barked the words, his hand lingered too long on the hilt of his blade, and his mount's trembling betrayed the truth: even he didn't command this place.

The forest stilled. The resonant vibration in the air slowly faded into silence that felt like a void.

And then out of darkness multiple human-like figures emerged from the caves.

Wings unfolded. A dozen eyes blinked open in the dark, glowing like runes carved into flesh.

Luke saw Michael brace himself, Seraphina turning pale, the Black Maw faltering - and Veyne, even Veyne, stare too long in the dark, as though seeing not just the beasts but something far worse reflected inside the caves.

In that moment, Luke knew that they had stepped into something they were not prepared for.