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The last flame

Author: R. Mobley
last update Last Updated: 2025-04-30 23:10:38

Inside the Rift — Beneath the Altar Roots

Emily no longer knew how long she had been there.

Time bled in the rift. Days, hours, even thoughts bent like branches in wind. The altar had cracked beneath her. Her flesh was half-gone, devoured by the creeping vines of Vareth’kaal’s presence. Her soul? Stretched thin, but still intact.

She had become less human. More… raw essence. Her voice barely worked. But her mind—her mind still held.

And it defied him.

Vareth’kaal circled her now, no longer hiding behind tendrils or disembodied whispers. He wore a shape.

That of a tall, black-eyed figure of tangled bark and bone, crowned with twisted horns, each etched with the names of the dead. His mouth gaped like a wound — a pit of endless teeth and flame.

“You were a flicker,” he said. “A moment’s resistance. But all lights go out.”

Emily stood shakily. Her body wept sap and blood.

“I’m not a light,” she whispered.

“I’m the spark that burns you down.”

The War of Thought

He lunged. N
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  • A Night at Wildwood   Storm unleashed

    Clara’s heart pounded in her chest as the world around her rippled with a sickening energy. The light that had erupted from the stone seemed to engulf everything, blinding her vision. For a moment, it felt like time itself had stopped. The roots of the massive tree, the embodiment of WildWood’s curse, recoiled as though in pain. The pulse of the earth beneath her feet faltered, but only for a heartbeat. Then, the tremor returned, stronger, fiercer than ever before. Clara was caught between the ancient force of the land and her own will to survive. The stone in her hand burned like fire, and her grip tightened instinctively. This was it. This was the moment where everything would change. The decision to end it all, or to succumb to the darkness. A voice echoed in her mind again, but this time, it was different. It wasn’t the commanding, domineering tone she had heard before. It was weak, almost desperate. “You cannot escape… you are… a part of me now… Clara…” Clara’s eyes burne

  • A Night at Wildwood   Back into the abyss

    Ashani stood frozen at the edge of the chasm, her pulse pounding in her ears as the echoes of Clara’s disappearance reverberated through the air. The earth around them was no longer still. The very roots of WildWood seemed to breathe, pulsating with a life of their own, a rhythm that matched her own heartbeat, and every step she took closer to the hole seemed to make the pull stronger. She reached for the stone that Clara had placed in the earth. It was still glowing, its soft light casting an eerie, otherworldly glow on the surroundings. It felt wrong in her hand—too warm, too powerful—but Ashani knew it was the only link they had left to the woman who had vanished into the depths. The earth trembled again, and the trees surrounding the clearing creaked, their gnarled limbs twisting and curling in unnatural directions, as if reaching toward the hole. Ashani’s heart raced. There was something beneath the ground—something alive, and it was waking. She took a deep breath, summonin

  • A Night at Wildwood   Price of freedom cont.

    The Portal Opens Above the earth, Clara felt the ground tremble beneath her feet. She looked toward Ashani, her face pale, but determined. “This is it,” Clara whispered. “We have to act now.” Ashani nodded, stepping forward to help Clara prepare the ritual that would sever WildWood’s connection to the living world. They had only one chance to succeed, and if they were going to survive, they needed to act in unison. The air around them vibrated, heavy with energy, the very fabric of reality straining under the pressure of what they were about to do. Lucas stood at the edge, his eyes scanning the horizon as the darkness seemed to close in around them. The shadow of Varethkaal loomed in the distance, a swirling mass of inky tendrils, writhing and snapping as if alive. It was coming for them. But Lucas wouldn’t let it win. He moved to stand beside Clara, holding her gaze for a long moment. “We’re doing this together,” he said, his voice low but steady. Clara’s lips trembled in

  • A Night at Wildwood   The price of freedom

    The air was thick, suffocating, with the heavy weight of something ancient and cruel pressing down on them. As Clara, Ashani, and Lucas stood before the portal, the true nature of WildWood’s curse was becoming clear. It wasn’t just a force of nature. It was the embodiment of everything twisted and dark that had been buried for centuries, a dark god festering in the roots of the earth. The spirit of WildWood, once a protector of the land, had become something unrecognizable, consumed by the very hatred and fear it had once shielded against. Clara’s breath came in shallow gasps, her mind racing. The realization of what she had to do was almost too much to bear. The last threads of the Yanuwah bloodline, the last hope of ending the terror, were tethered to the forest itself — and with each passing second, it felt like the forest was tightening its grip. Ashani stepped closer, her eyes locked on Clara. “This is it, isn’t it? The endgame. There’s no going back once we start this.” Cl

  • A Night at Wildwood   The heart beneath the roots

    The stone felt heavier in Clara’s hand than it had any right to. As she turned it over in her fingers, the soft glow beneath its surface seemed to pulse, rhythmic and slow—like the beating of a heart far beneath the earth. She stared at it, a knot of dread tightening in her stomach. This wasn’t just an artifact, a relic from the past. It was a key. A key to something far older, far darker than anything she had encountered so far. Ashani watched her with a mixture of apprehension and fascination. “What now?” she asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Clara didn’t answer at first. She couldn’t. The weight of the stone felt as though it was pulling something from her, something that she hadn’t realized was still there—the remnants of the power Varethkaal had left in the land, in her. She hadn’t fully understood until now how intertwined their fates were, how the forest’s roots had burrowed so deeply into her soul. But this stone—this small, unassuming object—was more than just a

  • A Night at Wildwood   The weight of silence

    The aftermath of the battle was heavy, a suffocating silence that stretched over WildWood like a blanket. The trees, once gnarled and malevolent, stood still, their branches limp as though the life had been drained from them. The air felt different — clearer, as if the earth itself had exhaled a long-held breath. But beneath that stillness, there was something else, something unnerving. Clara stood at the edge of the once-destructive forest, the weight of what they had done pressing down on her chest. She had known the cost of their actions, but now, in the quiet that followed, the reality of it felt more suffocating than the battle itself. Ashani stood beside her, silent for once, her eyes scanning the forest as if waiting for something to emerge from the depths of the trees. “It’s over,” Clara whispered, though the words felt hollow in her mouth. “It’s over for now,” Ashani corrected quietly, her voice tinged with a quiet wariness. “But that doesn’t mean it’s done.” Clar

  • A Night at Wildwood   The heart of the darkness

    As they ventured deeper into the forest, Clara and her companions could feel the land shifting beneath them. The trees were no longer just trees; they were living, breathing entities, their bark cracking and splitting, black veins running through them like the body of some ancient, cursed creature. The roots had begun to move of their own accord, swaying in rhythm with the unnatural wind that whipped through the forest. And then, they found it. In the very heart of WildWood, at the base of a massive, gnarled tree, the roots had grown into a massive portal, a swirling vortex of dark energy that seemed to lead deep into the earth. The air around it buzzed with an unnatural hum, and the ground was slick with a strange, tar-like substance that bubbled and shifted. Clara could feel the pull of it, as if the darkness were reaching for her, beckoning her to step closer, to give in to it. “That’s it,” Ashani said, her voice barely audible as she stepped forward, her eyes wide with awe

  • A Night at Wildwood   The darkness unleashed

    The forest had been quiet for so long, but now it was alive — or rather, it was dying. The air was thick with the stench of rot, the world around them feeling like a wound that refused to heal. As Clara, Lucas, and Ashani struggled to push through the rising tide of shadows, they could feel the darkness closing in, pressing down on them from every side, pulling at their very souls. The air itself seemed to whisper with forgotten words, old and malevolent, like the earth itself was speaking to them in a language that none of them could understand. Beneath their feet, the ground was no longer solid. The once-familiar dirt had turned to something viscous, black and sticky, like tar. It seemed alive, pulsing beneath their steps, eager to drag them deeper into the earth. The roots of the trees had twisted and expanded, creeping like serpents from the soil, stretching and reaching toward the sky, wrapping around anything they could find. The trees, once towering and proud, now seemed bent

  • A Night at Wildwood   The price of choice

    The Decision Clara’s hand hovered over the altar, her fingers aching with the weight of the choice she was about to make. She could feel the darkness beneath her fingertips, pulsating like a living thing. It wanted to consume her, to pull her down into its depths, and for a brief moment, Clara felt a terrible temptation — to let it take her, to let it all end. But then, she heard Emily’s voice again. It was faint, like a whisper carried on the wind, but it was unmistakable. “Clara… please… help me…” Clara clenched her teeth, her heart swelling with pain and resolve. She could still feel Emily in the darkness, trapped but alive, somewhere far beneath the surface, caught between the realms of the living and the shadowed abyss. The creature had taken Emily, yes, but it hadn’t consumed her entirely. There was still hope. With a breath that tasted like ash, Clara made her choice. “We finish what we started,” she said, her voice low but firm. “We bind it. We bind it all.” ⸻ The Bind

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