Chapter 1005

The wives no longer needed to hunt. The island fed them. It clothed them in silken moss and crystalline threads. It watched and learned and grew. One evening, as the sun dipped low and the air turned gold, a faint rumble stirred beneath the earth, not violent, but purposeful. Jude stood at the river's edge and watched as the water split, parting just enough to reveal a stone path descending beneath. 

Without hesitation, he followed it. The path led to a chamber of glowing blue stone, carved with symbols that pulsed gently at his approach. At the center was a mirror. Not glass, but liquid, suspended in an arch of root and light. When he looked into it, he saw not his reflection, but another version of himself, standing atop the volcano, eyes burning with power, the island aflame. Then it shifted, showing a him that walked alone, aged and broken, the island overgrown and hollow.