The scout, Natana, ran as fast as she could, dragging the mage, Akel, close behind. The walls shifted all around them. It was as if the byrinth itself was responding to their fear, like hungry sharks in bloodied waters.

  The sliding walls were passing at dizzying speeds. For a brief moment, Akel saw a mural, bckest ichor spread across its face like rotting veins. He only caught a glimpse before the walls reconfigured themselves, closing off the entryway.

  “We can’t just keep running,” the mage gasped.

  Natana was silent, the sound a crunching gravel filling the hall as the ground beneath their feet pulsed rhythmically.

  “Natana!”

  “What,” she screamed.

  The two stopped, chests heaving, adrenaline coursing through their veins.

  “We have to go back! We can’t just leave them there! We have to—”

  “We have to do what, exactly?”

  “They were our friends Natana!”

  “Exactly, were,” she hissed. “Did you see those things?” Tears welled in her eyes, “What could we possibly do? Petra died before I even knew we were under attack! We couldn’t even reach Henrick before we were completely overwhelmed! His screams…” She shuddered at the thought.

  “Love,” he started, “This isn’t your fault, we—”

  She looked up, fear and anger in her eyes. “You didn’t lift a finger through it all! Not a single spell! Where were your fmes when we needed them? Not a single bolt of lightning. No enchantments, no ice to freeze anyone in pce. You were just as fearful as Henrick…” Her voice cracked as the memory of their dismembered friend pgued her, “I couldn’t let them take you too,” she whispered.

  Akel took a moment to soak in their surroundings. “You’re right. I froze, and it cost Petra and Henrick their lives. It won’t happen again. We know what we’re up against.”

  “Do we though? Do we? The stench of death has flooded every hall since we entered this pce and those things the killed Petra were in another league entirely.”

  “We just need to find our way out of this pce; we can still survive this mess as long as we can follow the—"

  A wet, crackling sound permeated the silence.

  Natana’s eyes went wide as she looked up and wiped the tears from her eye.

  Akel’s lips still moved, voicelessly, blood trickling down the corners of his mouth. His eyes were hazy, unfocused. Bck veins extended from the obsidian hand that protruded from his stomach.

  For one final moment, Akel locked eyes with Natana, a fading sense of presence leaving his face as he reach out a trembling hand, and unspoken spell covering her in warm protection.

  The moment passed.

  The obsidian hand flung Akel’s body against the wall, breaking limbs and crushing bone. His blood filled the air, covering Natana’s face in a thin mask of her lover’s essence.

  Footsteps echoed down the hall as Zeek and Verris closed the distance.

  But they were far too te.

  Natana inhaled to let out a primal scream for her beloved but was stifled by the same bckened hand. The shadowy veins continued to expand on Akel’s limp corpse as it convulsed in a mangled mass. Her tearful eyes watched on as his body twitched and pulsed before slowly beginning to move.

  Zeek stopped dead in his track as ughter filled the halls. “We need to go. Now.”

  “It’s just a woman,” Verris snapped, “We can—”

  Natana’s jaw colpsed in Lilliana’s hand, her body falling to the floor, her crushed face the st to hit touch down. A faintly glowing ring illuminated the blood on her hands.

  Zeek saw the divine wedding ring he’d once pced on her hand, ever dimming as she fell deeper and deeper into corruption.

  “Yes,” Lilliana teased, “Stay, cleanse these halls and put an end to this pce once and for all.”

  Zeek grabbed Verris; the time for questions, bravado, arrogance, was over. He pulled his brutish companion with a strength he’d rarely shown, and a desperation he’d become all too familiar with.

  Verris stumbled, his first step taken off bance by his companion’s exertion. He fell in step, the ughter still echoing behind them.

  “No, wait,” Lilliana moaned, a facade of who she’d been so long ago, “Oh Zeek, don’t go.” The ugh that followed was guttural and hysterical. It bounced off the walls, reverberating through every corridor as Zeek tried desperately to extract the map from his dagger’s sheath.

  “There’s a turn ahead, and then a wall,” Zeek said between paced breaths.

  They veered left, a wall slid from in front of them just inches before they smmed into it and revealed a winding corridor. Ahead of them was nothing but darkness and grime met by a dead end.

  “Your map is useless,” Verris roared, “The trail ends up ahead!”

  “Shut up and follow me, or your path ends here!” Zeek ran as swiftly as his legs could carry him, careening towards the wall. As his body made contact, the wall shimmered like an ocean’s surface, allowing him to pass through. Verris, less sure, braced himself with his forearms ahead of him, ready to crush the wall if need be.

  He passed through without so much as a scratch.

  Lilliana stood in the hall where they’d left her, chuckling to herself before a dark wave came over her.

  “Run…my love,” she whispered to herself, “Leave this pce; leave me here, like you have so many times before.”

  With a wave, Lilliana sent death blossoms and undead sauntering after the few survivors within the byrinth’s walls. Her body twitched, bck inky lines falling like tears from her eyes as she made her way back to her throne. Back to the Bck Garden.