"Let's go. We'll be traversing through the Void from now on."
Hykee's voice was rough. He crouched slightly so Lokee could climb onto his back. In the dim woods, he looked like a mountain of muscle. Lokee climbed on without a word. Hykee reached out and gripped the air.
The space around them rippled and folded. Within seconds, the twins vanished into the pressurized dark of the sub dimension, leaving Kaola alone at the edge of the forest.
She stood still for a moment, listening to the sudden silence. Then she reached back and unslung the long curved bow from her shoulder.
Her father had made it for her. It wasn't like the blunt weapons her brothers favored. It was a tool of precision.
She pulled a single focal point from her quiver and closed her eyes. A low, steady hum left her lips as Void energy began coating the surface.
When she opened her eyes again, the world looked different. She filtered everything through energy signatures.
Far to the southeast, she spotted it.
A jagged grey tear in the sensory field. It flickered in and out like a dying flame.
He's finally trying to suppress his Yen.
The effort was making the trail unstable. Kaola's head throbbed from the strain of holding the lock.
"I'm losing him," she projected through the telepathic link.
"The signal is blinking. He's fighting to keep it inside. I need more focus. Stay close to the veil."
A cold pulse of confirmation came back from Lokee. They were moving with her in the dark.
Kaola slipped into the shadows and kept going. The further she moved, the more the forest decayed. She passed a squirrel frozen mid-leap, its body turned brittle and grey. Even when he tried to hide, the world around him still broke.
Kota was a walking hole in reality.
She slowed down when she reached a small clearing. In the center stood a massive ancient cedar tree, split perfectly down the middle. The wood wasn't burned. It was cauterized. Clean. Precise.
Kaola stopped.
"Wait," she projected sharply. "Look at the cedar. It's split clean in half."
The air rippled as Hykee and Lokee paused in the Void.
Lokee examined the signature.
"This wasn't the boy," she said quietly. "This is a controlled strike. Old energy. Kota doesn't have that kind of focus."
Hykee's voice growled in her skull.
"If it wasn't him, then who the fuck else is out here?"
The three of them fell silent.
The realization settled over them like a weight. They weren't the only ones hunting in these woods.
Kaola broke the silence first.
"There," she thought, pointing her bow toward the slope. "Kota and Leiya's footprints. They walked right past this. They're descending into the basin."
She could feel it now. The inversion was beginning. Every step Kota took was pulling life out of the ground.
He was reaching for Leiya, trying to keep her close while his power slowly consumed everything around him.
"I see the distortion in the mist," Lokee said. "They're deep in the valley now."
Hykee's voice came through, heavy and impatient.
"I'm breaking the veil. We jump them now."
"No," Kaola shot back immediately.
Her heart was pounding.
"Do not break the veil. If you jump them now, he might panic. He might trigger a full collapse before we're ready. We track them through the valley. Once they're isolated, I'll pin the girl with a suppression shot. Then you take the boy."
Hykee's laughter rumbled through the link.
"You talk like you still have authority here, Kaola. If the girl dies bringing him in, then that's the price. We're moving to the flank. Do your job with that bow. Don't let that signal die."
Kaola watched the air ripple as the massive shape of Hykee carrying Lokee moved through the Void toward the edge of the valley.
She was alone again.
The scout. The leader.
Surrounded by wolves who were waiting for any excuse to tear her apart.
She took a deep breath and stared down into the mist.
"I have eyes on him," she signaled. "We maintain the chase."