Run: 2026-02-19-01KHVP3RCWQ1K2X4JYA003P0Y9

The rough bark of the ancient oak standing stones scraped Rory Carter's shoulder. She squeezed between the colossal twin trunks, boots slipping on the damp London mud. The chill of Richmond Park vanished as a wall of shimmering air rippled in front of her. The distortion resembled spilled oil floating on a puddle, twisting the winter landscape behind it into a funhouse mirror. Isolde Varga glided toward the anomaly. The Fae seer's silver hair cascaded down to her waist, catching a strange, ambient luminescence. Her bare feet brushed the frost-coated grass, leaving the blades uncrushed. She left absolutely no footprints in the wet earth. "Step through the glass. Leave the mundane rot behind." Rory glanced back at Nyx. The shade towered behind her at an imposing six feet two inches. Violet light bled from the empty eye sockets within their shifting, ink-black silhouette. "The boundary wears thin tonight." Rory turned her attention back to the ripple. She pushed her hand forward. The barrier offered a faint, gelatinous resistance. The world beyond sucked her in with a sudden, vacuum-like pop. Her boots hit solid ground with a heavy thud. The air immediately flooded her sinuses with the smell of crushed lavender, ozone, and wet copper. Instead of the bleak, leafless park, an explosion of color assaulted her eyes. Blankets of azure and magenta wildflowers choked the forest floor. The blooms stretched infinitely among towering oak and ash trees. The bark on the trunks shimmered with an iridescent sheen. Isolde stood waiting in a patch of impossibly bright, golden sunlight. Pale lavender eyes locked onto Rory. "A beautiful snare catches the most flies." Rory checked her wristwatch. The second hand ticked backward, froze in place, then spun in a dizzying blur. She tapped the glass face. "Forget the machine. The sun weaves a different path here. A heartbeat is a century. A day is a dying breath." Nyx oozed through the shimmering boundary. The shade coalesced into a solid humanoid shape beside Rory. The shadows under the strange, iridescent trees stretched toward them, drawn like iron filings to a magnet. "Fascinating. The darkness breathes in this place." Rory unzipped her thick jacket. The ambient temperature matched a balmy midsummer evening, making her sweat. She adjusted her shirt, revealing the small crescent-shaped scar on her left wrist. "You live here. In a pocket dimension right off the A3 motorway." Isolde smiled. The expression lacked any trace of human warmth. "The roots drink from two rivers. One of mud, one of starlight." Rory rubbed her chest. Beneath her shirt, the Heartstone pendant pulsed against her sternum. The crimson gem sent rhythmic waves of heat into her skin. She pulled the silver chain out, laying the thumbnail-sized stone over her collar. A faint inner glow illuminated the intricate facets. "It senses the seams. The magic bleeds here. Other realms tug at the fabric." Rory dropped the stone back inside her shirt. "Lead the way, Isolde. Show us the heart of the grove." Isolde turned and drifted deeper into the woods. She hovered inches above beds of blooming, alien orchids. Rory followed, boots crunching on fallen leaves that shattered with the distinct noise of breaking green glass. The foliage ahead thickened into an impassable jungle. Trees twisted into unnatural corkscrews, their branches forming dense organic archways. Glowing moss dripped from the canopy in thick, emerald tendrils. The light in the grove did not originate from a sun above, but seeped directly from the flora. A low hum vibrated through the soles of Rory's boots. The sound mimicked an entire choir of tuning forks humming in perfect unison. Nyx glided past a cluster of silver ferns. The shade extended a smoky hand. The ferns shrank away, curling their fronds tightly inward. "Life rejects the void. The rampant growth here recoils from my nature." Rory touched a massive, twisted tree trunk. The pale bark mimicked warm human skin. A pulse throbbed beneath her palm, matching the rhythm of the ambient tuning-fork hum. She snatched her hand away, wiping her palm on her jeans. "Everything is alive. Too alive." Rory scanned the dense canopy, tracking a sudden scurrying sound. "The earth remembers every footstep. It speaks your name before your mother gives it." They stepped into a narrow ravine flanked by walls of pure, unpolished amethyst. Vines thick as pythons crisscrossed the path, coated in venomous-looking purple thorns. Rory gripped the moonsilver hilt of the Fae-forged dagger strapped to her belt. The metal radiated a localized chill, biting through the leather sheath against her hip. She drew the slender, leaf-shaped blade. The weapon emitted a faint, ghostly luminescence. "Allow me." Rory stepped ahead of Isolde. She swung the dagger at the thickest cluster of vines. The moonsilver sliced through the thick, woody plant matter with zero resistance. The severed vines shrieked like boiling kettles, snapping back against the amethyst walls. Clear, sap-like fluid sprayed the rocks, hissing and dissolving the crystal on contact. "Hostile landscaping." Rory kept her blade raised, watching the remaining vines slither out of her path. "They taste the iron in your blood. They mistake you for a meal." Nyx drifted through the gap, stepping over the bubbling sap. "Your blade carries the authority of the Fae Courts. The lesser flora understands submission." Rory wiped the flat of the glowing dagger on her jeans to clean off a drop of sizzling sap. She sheathed the cold weapon. "Good to know I rank higher than a weed." They emerged from the ravine into a wide clearing. A colossal structure of entwined ancient roots formed a natural amphitheater. The flowers here bloomed in shades of pitch black and deep obsidian, petals shimmering with an oil-slick rainbow sheen. A thick mist rolled across the ground, completely obscuring their ankles in a dense white cloud. Rory kicked through the mist. The fog parted, revealing a glassy obsidian floor beneath the dirt. Shadows danced inside the dark stone under her boots, swirling in hypnotic, dizzying patterns. The Heartstone scorched Rory's chest with sudden ferocity. She hissed, lifting the silver chain away from her neck. The gem glowed bright cherry-red, the light visible right through the cotton fabric of her shirt. "The fabric tears completely." Nyx pointed a long finger toward a jagged anomaly hovering in the air at the center of the amphitheater. Rory squinted. A gash in spacetime hovered three feet off the ground, edged with a harsh, warm amber light. The fresh, lavender-scented air of the grove instantly shifted. A heavy breeze rolled out of the rift, bringing the smell of roasting meats, fermenting fruit, and dark, exotic spices. "Dymas. The dominion of Prince Belphegor. A rift leading straight into gluttony." Rory gripped the cold hilt of her dagger again. Isolde stopped at the edge of the obsidian floor. She stared directly into the amber glow. "The hungry mouth opens wide. The endless feast calls out to the empty stomach." Rory stepped closer to the jagged tear. The amber light washed over her face, painting her straight black hair in shades of fiery gold. The oppressive heat radiating from the rift felt heavy. Muted sounds of raucous laughter, clinking crystal goblets, and crackling hearth fires drifted through the gap into the peaceful grove. "A backdoor into Hel. Unmonitored. The Wardens missed this tear." Nyx dissolved their solid legs into a swirling stream of smoke, floating over the unnatural black flowers. Rory inspected the perimeter of the rift. The edges of the tear sizzled, burning the localized air into a wavy mirage. Deep scorch marks marred the glassy obsidian ground directly below the anomaly. "Someone forced this open from the other side. Look at the spacing. Those are claw marks." Rory pointed at a series of massive gouges carved deep into the indestructible stone near the scorch marks. Nyx drifted down, hovering beside the ruined stone. The shade traced the deep grooves with a wispy, shadow-formed appendage. "Violent entry. A frantic scratching to escape the amber skies." Isolde knelt next to a crushed black flower on the perimeter of the claw marks. She brushed her pale fingers over the absolute ruin of the petals. "The pig breaks the sturdy pen to find the buried truffle." Rory stepped back from the amber light. The intense heat pouring from the Dymasian rift clashed violently with the cool, magical air of the Fae Grove. The contrasting temperatures created a turbulent miniature vortex of wind that whipped her hair across her face. "We need to report this to a Warden. Or figure out what crawled out." Rory drew the moonsilver blade a second time. The icy metal hissed as it met the hot wind spilling out of the rift. "Metal forged in moonlight cannot sew reality back together. It only severs." Isolde stood tall, her silver hair whipping in the vortex. "Then I plan to sever whoever carved up the floor." Rory examined the blade. The luminescent dagger glowed blindingly white, feeding off the dense ambient magic saturating the amphitheater. A low, guttural growl echoed from the dark trees located just beyond the rift. The deep sound vibrated right through Rory's jaw and teeth. The amber light spilling from the tear flickered as a massive, hulking shape blotted out the glow for a fraction of a second. Nyx solidified their human form entirely. The violet light in their eye sockets intensified, casting an eerie purple hue over the dark side of the clearing. "Company approaches." Nyx raised both hands. Thick black smoke began to curl and writhe around their elongated fingers in preparation. Rory adjusted her grip on the moonsilver dagger. She planted her boots wide on the slippery obsidian, lowering her center of gravity. The heavy scent of cinnamon mixed with rotting meat washed over them in a suffocating, nauseating wave. "Whatever is out there, it completely reeks." Rory tracked a heavy rustling sound in the canopy directly above the twisted root structures. Isolde tilted her chin upward, her pale lavender eyes reflecting the shifting amber light of the rift. "The uninvited guest arrives, carrying a bottomless hunger in its miserable belly." A snapping branch cracked through the air like a rifle shot. A colossal thud resonated across the obsidian floor, sending a visible shockwave through the shifting white mist.