Blood spills from the wound, warm and sticky against Vanessa's skin, as her strength begins to waver.
"I can't use her blood," Eska mutters with a calm, almost detached tone. "So, I'll have to borrow yours."
A green glow envelops Eska's body, bright and pulsating.
Her broken arm snaps back into place with an audible crack and the torn flesh of her leg partially knits together, leaving raw, jagged scars.
The bleeding from her torso slows, but faint streaks of crimson still seep through her clothes.
As the glow fades, her breathing steadies, though she remains visibly battered and far from fully healed.
Eska glances down at her partially restored form and lets out a small, dry chuckle. "Can't heal everything," she murmurs, her voice tinged with sarcasm. "Otherwise, we'd raise suspicion, wouldn't we?"
She turns her glowing, four-pronged gaze toward Vanessa, her tone unsettlingly calm, as if this was all part of a common transaction.
Vanessa's knees buckle, her complexion paling as her strength drains away. Eska retracts her arm, droplets of blood dripping from her fingertips as Vanessa collapses to the ground, struggling to stay conscious.
Eska glances around the chamber, her glowing eyes cutting through the oppressive darkness as if it were nothing. Her gaze shifts upward, lingering on the distant hole they fell from, before settling back on the motionless Queen.
A faint, almost chilling smile spreads across her lips, laced with a quiet, threatening confidence that seems to freeze the air around her.
Hours pass before Eska stirs, her eyelids fluttering open to complete darkness. For a moment, she panics, unable to see anything, the oppressive silence pressing down on her.
Her breathing quickens as she calls out, her voice low and trembling.
"Valen?" she whispers, the nervous edge in her tone betraying her unease.
"Relax," Marina's calm voice echoes in her mind. "He's alright. You've been out for a while."
Eska swallows hard, her thoughts racing as she struggles to piece together what happened.
"Where—" she starts but stops herself as flashes of memory return: the chaos then the fall. "What happened?" she asks instead, her voice steadying slightly.
"You and the others fell through the sinkhole the Thaxil dug," Marina explains. "It led straight into the Queen's Chamber."
Eska takes a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down. She closes her eyes and concentrates, activating her bloodcraft to dilate her pupils.
Slowly, her vision adjusts, the darkness giving way to faint shapes and shadows. She finds herself in a small, jagged cave with an uneven opening leading further into the unknown.
On the floor around her lie four others, unmoving. Her heart skips when her gaze lands on one familiar figure.
"Valen!" she shouts, crawling toward him, her voice tinged with relief and fear.
"He's just unconscious," Marina reassures her. "He used his wind magic to soften the impact of the fall but he still took a beating."
Eska brushes her hand gently against Valen's arm, confirming his steady breathing before glancing at the others.
"How did we end up here?" she asks, her voice quieter now.
"Vanessa," Marina answers. "She was the only one conscious when everyone landed. She dragged you all into this cave, likely trying to hide you. Unfortunately, after she pulled the ones you see here inside, the Queen noticed and executed the others who didn't make it inside."
Eska freezes, her stomach twisting at the words. "She—She killed them?" she stammers, her voice trembling.
"She didn't notice you were here," Marina interrupts gently. "Vanessa managed to get you out of sight before the Queen's wrath could reach you."
Eska's hands ball into fists, her voice rising in frustration. "Couldn't you have done something? Couldn't you have saved them?" she exclaims, desperation and anger clear in her voice as her mind reels from the loss.
"I'm not here to fight your battles, Eska. I'm here to guide you, to teach you. If you want to stop this kind of loss, you can't keep relying on someone else's power. You need to make your own strong enough to matter."
Eska pulls her knees to her chest, sitting silently in the suffocating darkness, her arms wrapping around herself tightly.
"I hope this experience gives you some clarity," Marina continues. "This is just the beginning. Your future will be filled with monsters like these and worse. Grow stronger, Eska. Learn from this."
After a long pause, her tone sharpens, cutting through the stillness like a blade. "Loss is a brutal teacher. If you plan to stay weak, you'd better prepare to learn the hardest way possible."
Eska's gaze shifts to Valen and in that moment, the weight of Marina's words sinks in, their meaning hitting her with undeniable clarity.
"Fine," Eska mutters under her breath, her voice barely audible in the oppressive silence. "What do you want me to do?"
A strange surge courses through her—foreign, yet familiar. It's not her excitement but Marina's, thrumming like a second heartbeat.
"I want you to walk through that opening," Marina's voice echoes in her mind, calm but tinged with challenge. "And I want you to show me that you're more than just another hunter. Prove there's a difference between you and the others."
Eska swallows hard, her grip tightening against her thighs as she steadies herself.
Rising to her feet, she turns toward the jagged opening. The narrow passage looms before her, almost suffocating in its tight confines, but she pushes forward, one cautious step at a time.
The air grows heavier as she approaches the end of the tunnel, the faint hum of Thaxil antennae vibrating just on the other side.
She hesitates, her heart pounding in her chest as she presses her back against the cold rock wall. Slowly, she peeks through the jagged exit.
Her breath catches in her throat.
Just a few feet beyond the opening, six Thaxil soldiers stand motionless, their bladed limbs glinting faintly in the eerie light of the fungus around the hive.
Their antennae twitch in unison, humming a quiet, rhythmic pulse that sets her teeth on edge.
Eska ducks back, her hands trembling slightly as she clenches them into fists. "There's no way," she whispers but Marina's voice interrupts her thoughts.
"No fear, Eska. These are just soldiers. Nothing more. Step out there and prove to me—prove to yourself—that you are something greater."
Eska closes her eyes, inhaling deeply to drown out the creeping panic.
Then, with her claws extending and her glowing eyes narrowing, she steps out of the opening, her presence met instantly by the twitching of the soldiers' antennae. The hum intensifies and the six Thaxil shift, locking their dark eyes onto her.
Eska steps fully into the dimly lit space, her claws flexed and ready.
Eska's heart pounds in her chest as a strange sound reaches her ears—an unsettling clicking noise, almost like laughter, echoing from deep within their thoraxes.
It's mocking, taunting, as though they know something she doesn't.
The soldiers, still calm and collected, take a single synchronized step back, giving her an unobstructed view of the brutal scene they've staged.
Her gaze follows the path they've revealed and her stomach drops. At the end of the line lies Vanessa's crumpled form, motionless and drenched in blood.
Her gear is shredded and her weapons lie discarded. A jagged wound runs across her chest and her pale complexion makes it painfully clear that she's no longer breathing.
The clicking laughter grows louder and Eska's claws spark faintly with bloodcraft energy as she glares at them, her voice low and trembling with rage.
"You think this is funny?" she snarls, her entire body coiling like a spring ready to snap.
Suddenly her corpse is dragged away into the darker depths of the chamber by something unseen.
Eska notices and immediately feels a chill go down her spine. A whistle is heard through the chamber.
Suddenly, Vanessa's corpse is yanked into the shadows, disappearing into the darker depths of the chamber with a sickening scrape.
Eska freezes, her breath catching as a chill races down her spine, the air around her growing unbearably heavy.
The faint sound of a whistle cuts through the oppressive silence, echoing through the cavern like a haunting call.
The Thaxil soldiers begin their eerie, rhythmic clicking again, the sound echoing around the chamber like mocking laughter. They slowly retreat, one step at a time, into the enveloping darkness.
Their antennae twitch and hum in perfect unison, a sickening melody that seems to mock Eska's every breath. Their silhouettes blur as the dim light of the chamber fails to reach them but their presence lingers like a haunting shadow, watching, waiting.
It's as if they know something she doesn't, their retreat more a statement of superiority than an act of fear. Whatever is coming, the soldiers have no intention of interfering—they've left her to face it alone.
Eska tightens her fists, her claws glowing faintly as she struggles to steady her breathing.
The mocking clicks fade into the shadows but the sound is quickly replaced by something deeper and far more menacing. A low, guttural cackle echoes through the chamber, each note carrying a weight that seems to press down on her chest.
From the pitch-black depths, the Thaxil Queen emerges, its towering form illuminated by the faint, sickly glow of the hive's resinous walls. Its serrated claws scrape against each other as it moves, its long antennae twitching erratically.
The Queen's laughter grows louder, its jagged, alien mouth splitting into a grotesque grin as its dark green eyes lock onto Eska. It slowly steps closer as though savoring the moment before the inevitable confrontation.