The Dailom Forest was quieter than most people imagined.
Tall trees stretched upward with thick bark and tangled branches. Their leaves filtered sunlight into soft, broken patches across the ground.
Avery walked ahead with steady familiarity.
A woven basket resting against her hip. She moved from patch to patch. Crouching occasionally to pluck leaves or snap thin branches with practiced fingers.
Henry followed nearby, carrying another basket without complaint. While Roland trailed slightly behind them.
Roland walked carefully, stepping over twigs and uneven roots. Without shoes as always.
He had wrapped a cloth loosely around one foot but the other remained bare, pressing cautiously against the forest floor.
"This is humiliating. First I get attacked by a living sandal, now I am walking barefoot."
Avery suppressed a laugh while reaching for a cluster of long, narrow leaves.
"Consider it training. It Improves balance, strengthen nerves and toughens the feet. Ancient monks used to do worse."
Roland frowned. "I am not a monk."
Henry allowed a smirk to pass across his face but didn't speak.
Avery moved toward another patch. Gently brushing aside low plants before plucking small green stems and placing them into the basket.
"These ones are safe. Just good medicinal base material." She glanced briefly toward them.
"And don't worry. There's no problem harvesting here."
Roland raised a brow. "No problem?" he repeated.
"This forest was seized by multiple organizations years ago." Avery replied.
"Joint territory. Too many Grandiors sightings back then. Instead of burning it down, they locked it under supervision."
She snapped another branch cleanly and placed it inside the basket.
"So technically, we are stealing from nobody and helping everybody."
Roland sighed.
"That somehow doesn't make me feel safer."
Avery chuckled softly while continuing her harvest.
By noon, the sunlight had climbed higher, pushing through the canopy in brighter shafts.
The coolness of morning had thinned into a gentle warmth that settled over the forest floor.
Henry stood nearby with handful of leaves before placing them neatly into his basket.
Roland worked a little farther off, crouched near a patch of low plants, trying to copy Avery's earlier instructions without damaging anything.
Then Henry spoke quietly. "Roland."
Roland looked up instinctively. "What?"
Henry glanced toward him, expression calm but carrying that faint seriousness he always had when speaking directly.
"You planning to stay here long? In the Organization."
Roland hesitated slightly. "Yes. Why?"
Henry shifted one of the stems inside his basket, voice still even.
"Because staying here isn't about strength alone. You will see things that don't make sense. Things that don't feel fair. If your mind goes insane before your body does, you won't last."
Roland blinked, caught off guard by the sudden weight of the words.
"I… I know." Roland replied, "I'm not planning to quit."
Henry studied him for a brief second.
"Then prove it. Mentally."
Roland straightened a little, jaw tightening as if something inside him had been nudged awake.
"I will. Soon enough."
Avery, who had been listening the entire time, let out a short laugh.
"Oh wow. Look at you two acting like old veterans giving life lectures in the middle of herb picking."
Roland frowned slightly. "What's wrong with that?"
Avery smirked. "Nothing," she replied. "It's just funny watching two quiet people try to sound intimidating while holding baskets full of leaves."
They had almost finished.
Only a few patches remained. The baskets were heavy now, filled with carefully gathered leaves and stems.
The sunlight had begun to lean westward.
Avery reached for another cluster of thin-stemmed herbs. Fingers moving with the same calm rhythm she had kept all morning.
Roland stood nearby, brushing dirt from his hands. Already thinking about the walk back.
Henry, however, had stopped moving.
At first, it was subtle... so subtle that it could have been mistaken for fatigue or distraction.
His hand hovered midair above the basket. His eyes narrowed slightly, not at anything specific but at everything around them.
Something was wrong. He looked up.
The leaves above them.... once green and lively, had begun to dull.
Ash-colored.
A slight grayness spread along the edges of the leaves like rot creeping across a wound.
The bark of nearby trees seemed to pale, their rich brown faded into a lifeless, powdery gray. Tiny flakes drifted down from above. Floating in the air like dry dust.
Then came the smell of heavy smoke. It was creeping and unwelcome.
A deep, wordless discomfort crawled up his spine like instinct screaming before the mind could understand why.
He turned sharply toward Avery and Roland.
"Stop."
His voice was low but firm enough to freeze both of them mid-motion. Avery looked up first.
"What happened?"
Henry didn't answer immediately. His gaze moved slowly across the forest. Observing the trunks, the ground, the atmosphere.
No leaves rustled naturally. Even the light wind that had drifted through earlier had vanished, leaving behind a suffocating stillness.
"Avery, look at the trees."
She followed his gaze. Her expression changed almost instantly.
"What…?"
Roland turned next, confusion shifting into unease as he noticed the gray spreading across the bark.
"The color—" Roland whispered. "Why are they—"
Henry inhaled slowly. Then he spoke again, louder this time.
"Run..."
Both of them looked at him.
"Run east," Henry ordered, "Straight east. The entrance is that way. You will find guards posted there."
Avery stiffened. "What about you?"
Henry didn't look at her. His gaze remained fixed deeper into the forest into the growing gray, into the thickening smoke.
"I will stay." he said. Roland's face tightened.
"No," he replied immediately. "If something's wrong, we need to go together."
Henry shook his head once.
"Something enormous is coming. I can feel it."
The ground beneath them gave the faintest tremor.
Avery's grip tightened around her basket.
"We're not leaving you here alone." she said firmly.
Henry finally turned toward them. His expression had changed completely.
Gone was the quiet, distant calm.
What remained was urgency. "I said RUN!"
The shout cut through the smoky air like a blade. Roland flinched slightly, stunned by the force of it.
"You don't understand!" If you stay here, you will get hurt before you even realize what's happening!"
Another tremor rippled through the ground.
Closer this time. A deep cracking sound echoed somewhere in the distance.
Sound of wood splitting, trees snapping, something vast forcing its way forward.
Henry stepped back slightly, positioning himself between them and the direction of the sound.
"I will come back. Just go east. Find the guards. That's an order."
Smoke thickened faintly around them, curling between tree trunks like fingers searching for prey.
They finally walked on.
Reluctantly at first like their bodies refused to obey what their hearts rejected but survival forced their legs forward.
Avery grabbed Roland's wrist and pulled him along. Both of them breaking into a run toward the east, baskets shook violently in their grip as leaves scattered behind them.
Roland kept glancing back.
Henry stood alone. The gray ash drifted around him like falling snow.
Slowly, he reached beneath his coat and pulled out his revolver.
The metal catching what little light remained. His grip tightened, jaw setting firm as the distant tremors grew heavier.
Whatever was coming... he was going to face it...