Run: 2026-02-17-01KHMQGMHBXKCR8MVS6RQWE89J

Aurora Carter paused at the threshold and inhaled, as if she could taste the realm beyond the Veil on her tongue. The sky above her rippled in warm amber light, like molten honey pooling across an endless dome. It pressed down on her shoulders with a weight as tangible as any stone ceiling. She brushed a strand of straight black hair from her face and let her bright blue eyes drift across the vineyard before her. Hefty clusters of grapes, the size of her fist, dangled from vines thick as a man’s arm, their skins iridescent with colors she could not name. A low hum vibrated through the ground—part insect chorus, part distant machinery—giving life to this place of excess. Beside her, Nyx hovered between shadow and substance. They drifted forward first, a slender silhouette whose edges wavered like smoke in a breeze. Their faintly glowing violet eyes locked onto Aurora’s Heartstone Pendant, the deep crimson gem at her throat now pulsing with warmth. Aurora felt its tremor against her chest, each beat tugging her deeper into the vineyard’s thrall. “This is Dymas,” Isolde Varga murmured behind them, her voice carrying the hush of falling petals. She stood at the edge of the standing stones that marked the boundary, though here they looked more like gnarled older oaks than the great monoliths of Richmond. She fingered the silver moonsilver dagger at Aurora’s hip, a ghost of moonlight glinting along its edge. “Growers of gluttony, princes of palate. We step into Belphegor’s own table.” Aurora nodded, her fingers curling protectively around the Fae-Forged Blade’s hilt. The air smelled of candied citrus and roasting meat, as if a hundred kitchens had flung open their doors at once. Somewhere ahead, a distant laughter rose, warm and playful, then strangled back beneath a clang of metal and a guttural shout. A faint scent of smoke curled around the sweetness, so sharp it singed her nostrils. Nyx drifted lower, their form coalescing into something almost solid. A hand extended, pale fingers brushing a vine heavy with fruit. The grapes gave way, dripping juice like blood between Nyx’s fingertips. The shade tasted it, lips parting in a soundless sigh, and then turned to Aurora. “The harvest never ends,” they whispered, voice a breeze that slithered through the leaves. “Each fruit carries a debt.” Aurora swallowed. She flexed the muscles in her forearm, feeling the small crescent-shaped scar on her wrist ache with memory. Beyond these vines lay orchards hung with fruits she had only heard of in legends: pears the size of apples, their flesh shimmering opal-white; pomegranates that spilled black seeds like spilled ink; apples wired with copper veins pulsing a faint electric glow. The branches drooped low under the weight, as if bending to welcome them. Isolde drifted forward next, her silver hair catching the amber light. She stepped between two trunks and vanished momentarily, leaving no footprint in the soft, spongy ground. Aurora watched her pale lavender eyes through the wood, then caught sight of her again a dozen paces on. The oracle’s lips curved in a cryptic smile. “When hunger sits at your shoulder, offer her a crumb—and she will demand the loaf.” “Then we feed her carefully,” Aurora replied, voice low. She forced her curiosity back into check. She had come seeking a rift point in the Veil, a tear that might lead them toward Hel’s darkest corners. The pendant pulsed stronger here, as if urging her forward. Nyx drifted ahead, ever a few steps in the gloom beneath the vines, and Aurora followed, pressing her blade’s hilt until its cold light shivered through her palm. They broke through the last of the vines into a courtyard of marble tables, each groaning under a feast beyond comprehension. Platters held peacocks roasted whole, jeweled cumquats, towers of sugar spun into impossible shapes. Fountains spouted liquid wine that bubbled like hot springs. Strings of flickering lamps hovered overhead, each flicker revealing another monstrous delicacy: conch shells the size of shields filled with glowing broth, loaves of bread patterned like fungal lace, grapes that glowed softly from within. A chorus of indistinct voices rose from behind the nearest table—chefs, their skin pale and eyes hollow, heaped dishes upon ornate china. Chains tied their ankles to the marble floor. They raised their pitchforks and knives in a gesture half-salute, half plea, then bent back to their labor, hands trembling. Aurora’s heart clenched. Each soul here—she recognized the empty gaze—had been brought from Earth and bound to cook for an audience of tasteless aristocrats. “Abomination,” she breathed. “Delight, to some,” Nyx said, drifting past a young man whose wrists glowed with runes as he carved flesh from bone. The apple-silver blade hovered at Aurora’s side. “Do you sense this portal yet?” the shade asked, voice breathless as wind through reeds. Aurora closed her eyes, letting the Heartstone’s warmth anchor her. She raised a hand and placed it on the nearest table’s edge. The marble was warm, alive even, like the skin of a giant beast. She felt the fabric between worlds shimmer beneath her fingertips. Through the feast she saw a fissure: a crooked slit in the countertop’s grain, edges glowing with pale violet light. It called to her like a siren. The gods of gluttony did not guard their rifts with steel or flame. They offered excess instead—enough indulgence that you forgot you sought anything else. Aurora’s breath caught as she pictured giving into the feast, tasting a single bite of those jeweled fruits, then another, until she had no will left but for more. Isolde drifted up behind her, voice soft as moss. “The Veil thins for those who devour the world. But you know what devouring does to the devourer.” Aurora nodded, tasting bile at the back of her throat. She glanced at Nyx, whose violet gaze shone with something that might have been sympathy—or anticipation. The shade’s form quivered as if eager to slip through first. Aurora pressed the blade’s point into the marble beside the rift. The stone yielded, as though cut through butter, revealing an archway of living shadow. A breath of cold air spilled from the opening, even here in Dymas’s warmth. It carried a hint of brimstone and ice-bound grief. Aurora felt the pendulum of her own heartbeat quicken. The Heartstone trembled against her skin, and she could swear it whispered, Go. She turned to Isolde, who stood silent beneath the hovering lights. The seer’s pale lavender eyes were unreadable, as though she peered through time to weigh each outcome. Finally, she spoke: “The passage demands sacrifice. What will you leave behind?” Aurora swallowed hard. In her mind’s eye she saw Eva’s face—her friend who had plucked her from London’s dark alleys—and the promise she gave to protect the living. She felt the weight of Brendan Carter’s quiet pride and Jennifer’s gentle warmth. She thought of the souls chained to these stoves, each of them once a person with a name. Her fist tightened on the blade’s hilt. She would not leave any of that behind. She held out a single grape, plucked from Nyx’s earlier sweep. It glowed dusk-purple, veins of amber. The shade leaned close, squeaking a whisper: “This debt…” Aurora pressed the fruit into the fissure. For a moment the rift shimmered, the arch widening. The air turned colder still. The distant laughter from beyond the feast faded into a single clear tone: a bell tolling before midnight. Nyx alighted beside her, solid as dusk. “Then we go,” they said, voice low. “Before the banquet remembers you.” Aurora stepped forward through the arch of living shadow. The world tilted beneath her, the heavy amber sky folding like parchment. The taste of honey vanished, replaced by the sharp tang of iron. She crossed the boundary, blade first, and felt the Veil’s ragged edges peel back. Behind her, Isolde’s voice drifted through the rift, a soft crumbling echo of leaves in winter wind: “Remember, Aurora Carter—some hungers never sleep.” And then the world snapped shut behind them, leaving only the faintest pulse of the Heartstone to mark the passage between realms.