The Blooming Silence
The forest no longer whispered with dread.
It breathed.
Morning light drifted through high branches, dappling the Circle ruins in shifting gold. Birds returned to the trees. Dream-beasts wandered through the underbrush, no longer feral but watchful, curious.
It was the first true silence the Dreamers had known in weeks.
And not everyone trusted it.
Nox sat on a shattered pillar, sharpening a blade she hadn't used in the battle. Her eyes scanned the treetops with the precision of someone who knew peace was just another kind of trap.
Across the clearing, Isabela knelt near the sprouted tree Cuco had left behind. She traced her fingers along its bark, which pulsed faintly beneath her touch.
"Does it feel… alive to you?" she asked.
Tariq approached, quiet. "More than that. It remembers."
"Cuco?" she asked.
He shook his head. "Everything."
---
Cuco stood beyond the forest's edge.
Not far from the Circle—but not close, either.
He had carved out a new space near the river, where the ground was soft and the dreams didn't scream. Around him, the trees had begun to bend toward his presence—not subservient, but curious, like a child leaning in to listen.
He sat cross-legged by the water, hands resting on his knees, the Tome closed beside him.
The blade remained buried in the clearing.
He didn't need it now.
Not to defend.
Not to command.
But he could still feel it in the roots.
The forest would call when it was ready.
Or when the Hollow returned.
He knew it would.
---
That night, a strange wind passed through the glade.
The stars dimmed.
And in the deepest part of the forest, something opened.
Not a Gate.
Not a wound.
A mouth.
> "One root survives," a voice murmured through the soil.
"The others… awaken."
---
Back at the Circle, Echo sat upright in his cot, gasping for breath.
Isabela rushed to his side.
"What did you see?" she asked.
He swallowed hard, clutching at the blanket. His eyes were wild, but clear.
"It wasn't just me," he whispered. "It never was."
Nox appeared in the doorway. "Speak clearly, Echo. What's coming?"
Echo looked to Cuco's tree, now glowing faintly in the night.
His voice cracked.
> "The Hollow didn't possess me. It tested me.
There are more vessels.
And one of them is already inside our dreams."