Chương 46: Chapter 39 – Echoes of the Lost

Cade stepped forward, his body moving on its own. He was drawn by the voice of a sibling he hadn't seen since before the world turned upside down.

"Cade…" Caylee called again, just beyond the mist filled left corridor. Her voice was soft, hopeful, and coaxing. The way she used to sound when they were kids and she wanted him to help her catch lizards in the backyard. He took another step, his breath catching.

"We're here," she whispered.

"You're not alone anymore." Then another voice joined hers.

"Cade." It was Cassandra now, her voice, like the rest of her, was nearly identical to Caylee's but Cade could easily tell the difference between the two.

"Come on. It's safe. We've been looking for you." He stopped at the threshold. The mist curled around his legs like it was reaching for him, beckoning him to step just a little farther. Then came a third voice. This one was rougher, deeper, the unmistakable baritone of his father.

"Cade," he called out, firm but calm.

"You're almost there. Just a few more steps and you'll be out of here. Not just of the maze but out of this whole damned dungeon. We've come to help." Cade's chest tightened. His foot hovered at the edge. He couldn't see through the mist but he could hear them so clearly, like they were just a step away.

"You don't belong here," Cassandra said, almost pleading.

"We miss you," Caylee added.

"We're proud of you," his father said "I'm... I'm proud of you son. I'm proud of everything you've gone through, everything you've had to do to survive since the world turned to shit." Cade blinked. Wait. What had his father just said?

"I'm proud of you," the voice repeated.

"Getting this far on your own—it must have been so hard." Cade froze. No. That wasn't right. His dad had never said that to him. Not when Cade got into the same college as his sisters. Not when he graduated with honors. Not when he earned his doctorate. Not once. Cade had spent most of his life chasing scraps of approval. Doing everything he could to impress the man who lavished praise on his daughters and offered Cade only critique. To hear that now, here, in a mist-filled death-maze?

It was like a bucket of ice water splashed over his head. His gaze sharpened and his focus returned. The mist was thicker here. It licked at his ankles, reached for his waist. And without realizing it, Cade had almost stepped fully into the corridor. His foot hovered just over the threshold. He stumbled back a pace, breath coming hard and uneven. The voices faltered.

"We're here for you, Cade," Caylee said again but it was weaker now, further away.

"You don't have to be alone," Cassandra whispered, fading.

"Come home, son," his father growled, the warmth gone from his voice now, revealing a hollow echo beneath. Cade backed away fast, shaking his head.

"No. No, that's not real." Whatever this maze was, whatever these trials were—he wouldn't put it past the System to try and manipulate him. It had tried worse before, like coercing him into killing a hatchling. It wasn't beyond weaponizing the people he'd lost to fit whatever weird agenda it had. He turned toward the right-hand corridor and took a step closer. And from its depths, something screamed. A low pitched, bloodcurdling scream.

Cade flinched because he again recognized this voice, but this time the voice wasn't from a member of his family. It was Pearl. And she was screaming his name. Pearl's voice rang out again, croaking through pain and panic.

"Cade! Help me!" Her voice was unmistakable. Low with that distinctive froggy rasp. It was the same voice that scolded him for being dense, the same voice that barked orders at him. But now it was raw with desperation. Another scream echoed through the corridor. He winced. It was closer this time. Wet sounds of flesh rending followed by heavy squelching and thrashing. Cade stepped forward, toward the right-hand path. He could understand her.

Not just hear her voice, but actually comprehend the meaning behind her croaks and guttural sounds. That wasn't normal. She wasn't speaking in English—he knew that. But something in him translated her instinctively. Why? Certainly the Second Elder's translation mucus had to have worn off by now.

"Cade!" Pearl's voice cracked.

"It's too strong—I can't—please—!" More thrashing followed by something heavy slamming against the root walls. His feet carried him to the very edge of the right passage, the mist curling around his ankles like the other path, but this time it wasn't gentle. It clung to him like fingers grasping for life. He strained to see something— anything —but the mist remained thick and opaque, giving no hint of what lay ahead.

"Help me," Pearl whimpered. Cade's grip on his tortoise shell tightened as doubt surged through his mind. Would she really call out for him? She barely trusted him in the first place. She'd made it clear he was a burden, an outsider. He was someone she tolerated only because of her people's traditions—or maybe out of obligation to her path or the Cycle she kept mentioning. She'd never called for him before. Not during the leech fight. Not when they were nearly overwhelmed. Why now? Love this story?

Find the genuine version on the author's preferred platform and support their work! And how would she even know he was here? He hadn't made any noise. He hadn't called her name. The mist made it nearly impossible to see a foot in front of you, let alone spot someone across a junction. Another cry for help came, even more strained than the last but Cade's breath was steady now. He didn't flinch. This wasn't real. It couldn't be. First his sisters and father. Now Pearl.

Something was using familiarity to draw him in when he was at his weakest, at his most uncertain. The left-hand path had preyed on his longing for home and family. This one? It preyed on his guilt. On his fear of failing someone again.

"No," he muttered, stepping back from the edge. The mist curled hungrily, as if reluctant to let him go.

"I don't believe you," Cade said. The voice screamed again—but it changed as it echoed. The tone warped mid-cry, turning sharp, almost mocking, before fading to nothing. Cade turned to the center path, the only one left. No voices came from this one. Just silence. He stepped forward cautiously. As if sensing his choice, the mist began to thin. It peeled away from the center corridor in wisps, revealing a, two-meter-wide path that stretched ahead. The air was still. The moss undisturbed.

The walls were as unnaturally smooth as ever. Then, farther down the corridor, he spotted movement. Cade narrowed his eyes. A shape emerged from the mist, large and low to the ground, undulating in a slow but relentless rhythm. The sun crested above the high root walls behind him. Light spilled across the corridor and illuminated the figure ahead. Cade's heart dropped into his stomach. The giant swamp leech. Somehow, impossibly, it was here. Ahead of him. Already waiting for him.

Its bloated form pulsed in the early morning light. It was slick with slime and inched forward with single-minded purpose.

"Nope," Cade whispered.

"Fuck that and fuck all three of these paths." He spun on his heel and ran, bare feet pounding across moss-slick ground as he sprinted away from the center corridor and the monster waiting within it. The image of the giant swamp leech seared itself into his mind. Its round mouth pulsing open and closed like some horrible flower, eager to drink him dry. That thing should have been behind him. It should have still been lost in the mist, tricked by the trail he'd left behind. So how had it gotten ahead of him?

He didn't have time to figure it out. The only thing that mattered was not dying. He bolted back the way he had come, retracing his steps toward the previous intersection. Maybe there was another way. Maybe if he could get back to that last T-junction, he could double back and find a different path around. Behind him, he heard the sound. The wet scraping of slime against the root wall. The heavy, dragging slap of the massive leech pursuing him.

"Seriously?" Cade gasped as he ran. He wasn't even sure his plan earlier had worked now. Had the leech followed him the whole time? Had it circled around somehow and tracked him during the night? Or had the voices in the mist led it right to him? The corridor ahead offered no divots. No places to hide. Just a long, narrow stretch of roots and moss. Cade forced his aching legs to move faster. His whole body protested. His lungs burned. But he couldn't stop. He wouldn't stop. The mist was thickening again.

It curled around him in choking waves, blinding him until he could barely see his hands pumping beside him. The sound of the leech grew louder with each step. The sloshing, slick undulations echoing off the root walls, reverberating in his chest like a second heartbeat. Cade's thoughts narrowed to a single goal. Find the next intersection. It had to be close. He remembered it wasn't far, maybe another hundred meters. He just had to hold out. He just had to keep running. But the mist felt like a living thing now.

It clung to his limbs and dragged against his skin. He felt as if he was running through syrup. The root walls, once wide enough to give him space to maneuver, now felt like they were narrowing with each step. They loomed in on either side, pressing closer, as if the maze itself was conspiring to trap him. Behind him, the sounds of the leech's pursuit rattled louder. Its massive body scraped along both walls now—too big for the corridor, too wide to fit cleanly through.

Suddenly he burst through the mist and stumbled into a vast clearing. Cade skidded to a halt, eyes wide. He'd reached the edge of something else entirely. The root walls opened up in a perfect circle—at least two hundred meters across, maybe more. Mist clung to the entrances scattered along the perimeter, but none of it entered the clearing. It was held back as if by some invisible force. Cade sucked in a breath, chest heaving. He'd made it. Then he heard it.

A tremendous scraping behind him as the leech left the narrow corridor behind and broke through the mist barrier. He didn't wait around any longer and ran down the gentle slope of the clearing, the moss beneath his feet growing thinner, the ground more solid. And at the center of it all—rising like a colossus—stood a massive tree. It had to be the Great Tree Pearl had talked about.

Its massive trunk soared upward like a natural spire, supported by eight enormous root-pillars that curved down and out in every direction. Beneath the tree, where the roots arced, a natural dome formed—a cavernous space ringed in shadow directly beneath the trunk. Cade ran toward it like his life depended on it. The slope carried him downward toward the Great Tree's roots. His legs burned with every stride, but adrenaline kept him moving. The massive root-pillars loomed closer. There had to be somewhere to hide.

Behind him, the swamp leech was now fully in the clearing. Cade risked a glance over his shoulder and immediately regretted it. The creature was enormous in the open, somehow even bigger than when it had chased him before. Its slick body rippled as it surged downhill, mud spraying outward as it barreled toward him with terrifying speed. This was no illusion. No trick of the mist. The horrifyingly large leech was very real and it was coming right for him.

"Shit shit shit shit," Cade hissed, lungs screaming. He veered toward the nearest root pillar and sprinted beneath the Great Tree's canopy. The air changed the instant he crossed the threshold. The soft moss gave way to damp, loamy soil. A strange pressure brushed against his skin, like static before a storm. His breath caught as the sensation crawled over him—every hair on his arms stood on end, and his scalp prickled sharply. A crackle echoed overhead. Cade looked up.

Hanging from the exact center of the dome beneath the Great Tree was a massive stalactite, its surface charred black as if lit on fire countless times. Veins of pulsing purple light ran through it, brightening with each passing heartbeat. Directly beneath it, nestled in the earth at the center of the dome, was a pool of still water smooth as glass. The reflection of the glowing stalactite shimmered faintly in the water's mirror-like surface, pulsing in rhythm with the light above. Hunger slammed into him.

Not the dull ache of an empty stomach, but a hunger at the cellular level. Every part of him strained toward that light. His mouth watered. His hands trembled. The sensation was unmistakable. Lightning was in the air. The same electric tension he'd felt during the storm before Pearl found him. The same crackling presence he'd felt holding the Stormseed. Power. Raw, barely contained power. His gaze locked onto the stalactite, drawn helplessly upward.

At its base, where the light pooled brightest, he thought he saw a flicker in the shadow. Another crack split the air and Cade tore his eyes away. Not now. The swamp leech was almost on him. He could hear it clearly now—the slop of its bulk sliding over earth, the wet suction of its body pulling itself forward. He didn't have time to wonder what hung above him or why his body ached to consume it. He had to survive. Cade dove sideways, throwing himself behind one of the massive root pillars.

He curled instinctively, slamming his tortoise shell shield over his body just as the air detonated with sound. CRACK. Purple-white light flooded his vision and a creature just around the root pillar screamed.