Chapter 15: A Door Beneath the Roots
The forest was silent.
Not the normal kind of silence. Not peaceful. Not still.
It was the silence of something watching.
Something waiting.
Elara's breath was unsteady. The runes beneath her fingertips still glowed faintly, as if whispering some half-forgotten truth.
She felt it.
The connection.
The way the forest had recognized her.
And she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a very, very bad one.
Astra sheathed her dagger, still eyeing the ground warily. "Alright, kid. Mind telling me how you did that?"
Elara hesitated. "I… don't know."
Not a total lie.
Because she wasn't sure how she remembered something she'd never learned.
The runes, the symbols—they had been waiting for her.
And when she touched them, they responded.
Like a key fitting into a lock.
Astra narrowed her eyes. "Not buying it."
Elara exhaled. "It's the truth. Kind of."
Astra crossed her arms. "Uh-huh."
Elara sighed. "I think… the forest knows me."
Astra let out a sharp breath. "Great. Love that for you."
She rubbed her temples. "Alright. Plan?"
Elara glanced down at the runes again.
They pulsed faintly.
A slow, rhythmic heartbeat.
Elara felt it in her bones.
A memory she shouldn't have.
A whisper in her mind.
Follow.
She swallowed hard. "I think… I know where to go."
Astra groaned. "Oh, that's not ominous at all."
But she followed anyway.
---
The deeper they went, the heavier the air became.
It was thick.
Not just with magic—with history.
Elara's fingertips brushed the trees as they walked.
They were ancient.
Their bark was etched with symbols, layers upon layers of stories.
She could almost hear them whispering.
Telling her secrets.
Astra frowned. "Where exactly are we heading?"
Elara hesitated.
Because she knew.
Not in a logical way.
Not in a way that made sense.
But in the way you remember a dream.
Faint and distant—but undeniably real.
She glanced at Astra. "There's a door."
Astra stared. "A what?"
Elara gestured ahead. "Buried beneath the roots. Under the oldest tree."
Astra opened her mouth. Closed it. "And you know this how?"
Elara didn't answer.
Because how could she explain it?
She just felt it.
And the closer they got, the stronger that feeling became.
The forest recognized her.
And it was leading her home.
---
The tree was massive.
Its roots twisted like veins, weaving through the ground in an unbreakable network.
Elara stepped forward, pressing a palm to the bark.
A faint hum vibrated beneath her skin.
This was it.
She knew it was.
Astra whistled low. "Okay. Big tree. Now what?"
Elara didn't answer.
Because she already knew what to do.
She knelt, running her fingers over the roots—searching—until she found it.
A mark.
Not carved.
Not drawn.
Grown.
A symbol embedded in the wood itself, older than anything else in the forest.
A keyhole.
Elara exhaled. "Help me move this."
Astra raised a brow. "You want me to help you dig up a tree?"
Elara gave her a look. "Yes."
Astra muttered something under her breath but crouched beside her. "This better not get us killed."
They dug.
Roots and dirt tangled around their hands, thick and unyielding. But the moment Elara's fingers brushed the mark—
The ground trembled.
Astra cursed. "Oh, that's not good."
Elara barely had time to react before the earth split open.
The roots pulled apart—not breaking, but moving, unraveling like threads.
And beneath them—
A door.
Not wood.
Not stone.
Something else.
It shimmered like liquid metal, reflecting the light in strange, shifting patterns.
Astra stared. "What in the hell?"
Elara's chest tightened.
She recognized it.
Even though she'd never seen it before.
This was the place.
The one she had dreamed of.
The one that had called to her.
And for the first time since stepping into this forest, she knew—
This wasn't just about her mother.
This wasn't just about the past.
This was about something much, much older.
Something that had been waiting for her long before she was born.
She reached for the door.
And it opened.