Chapter 45: The Hollowveil Tree
The bark opened like breath.
Smooth. Seamless. Alive.
Elric hesitated for only a moment. Then stepped forward, his boots landing softly on silver roots that curved inward like ribs. Lira followed without a word, one hand brushing the bark as they passed inside.
The moment they crossed the threshold, the forest behind them vanished.
No sound. No air. Just silence thick as water.
The tree had swallowed them whole.
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Inside the Sanctum
Light came not from torches but from the walls themselves—soft pulses of white-blue glow, like veins gently glowing beneath skin. The chamber was wide, circular, the ceiling high and hollow.
Etched into the wood above were countless names—spiraling upward, overlapping in layers.
Elric stopped walking.