Run: 2026-02-19-01KHTR2E0A4QCSQ6H54ETM13VT

The air hung heavy and thick as soup, the night sky obscured by a pall of clouds that blotted out the moon and stars to leave Aurora walking in almost complete darkness. She didn't dare turn on a torch, not with so many unmarked footpaths criss-crossing the park. Who knew who might spot its bobbing beam and come to investigate? She moved as silently as she could, picking her way with care over the uneven ground in the darkness. One hand gripped the Heartstone pendant at her throat, using it like a dowsing rod to guide her steps. The crimson gem pulsed faintly, drawing her inexorably onward into the unknown. The music she had followed from the road had faded minutes ago, but now new sounds reached her ears. Snatches of distant laughter. Human voices, pitched high with excitement or distress she couldn't tell at this distance. They seemed to dance and flicker around her like will-o'-the-wisps as she approached the heart of the ancient oak grove. Aurora stopped and listened intently. The laughter had changed now, lower and slower, the shrill notes of panic drowned out. What could make even the most hysterical revelers fall suddenly silent? Her pulse quickened as she scanned the churning shadows ahead. W Better get my arse out of here before I end up living down another recession-panic legend... Just then, a faint gust of wind stirred through the branches of the standing stones, carrying with it a reek of corruption so overpowering it made Aurora gag. Mallorn trees, ancient apple orchards, pungent earth resigned to nature's cycle. Mixed within their ancient boughs was an undercurrent of dark rot. Something that didn't belong. Aurora felt a terrible presence manifesting in the shadows ahead, and her hand tightened instinctively on the Heartstone amulet. It pulsed once, a sickening crimson glow in the darkness. With it as her sole beacon, she pressed forward into the night. Her skin crawled as she stepped out from between the standing stones and into the ley line-enchanted Fae grove proper. The air here seemed to pulse and twist, the shadows darker and more solid than they had any right to be. Everywhere she looked, the gnarled roots and knotted boughs of the ancient elder trees twisted like slowly roiling serpents. The wildflowers that blanketed the grove were strangely inarticulate, like the shadows of an aurora that never spoke. And then she saw the source of the corruption. Lurking at a distance was a hulking form, blacker than the night that pressed in on all sides. It moved with a languid, rolling gait, and then stopped when it caught sight of her. Lumbering forward, the creature came into view with each step. A figure stepped from the shadows, bundled in a rough cloak and hood that obscured their face. The stranger was tall and spare, moving with a glacial slowness that raised every hair on Aurora's neck. They spread their arms wide, and their voice echoed as if from the bottom of a deep well. "Welcome, Mortal," the figure rasped, and pointed a skeletal finger at Aurora. She faltered, fighting the shreds of sanity that screamed at her to run. But the Heartstone at her throat pulsed, and a surge of righteous ferocity overwhelmed her fear. "What do you want with me?" Aurora spat, betraying only a flicker of the terror that gripped her heart. She thrust out her chin, angling the lone bright point of the Heartstone through the darkness like a defiant beacon. The cloaked figure laughed again, a sound like dead leaves crunching underfoot. "You came seeking the light, did you not? Then come and tea, little fae-ling. Let us parley, you and I, and see if we cannot reach an accord."