Ren had officially decided that today was not his day.

The mountain had eyes. Multiple eyes. They blinked open across the jagged rock face, glowing like embers in a dying fire. The ship lurched violently as another pulse of unnatural wind struck the hull, sending ropes whipping and sails twisting.

"We are going to crash!" Keldrin shouted over the wind.

"Really?!" Ren yelled back. "I thought we were just landing aggressively!"

Mira grabbed him by the collar. "If we die, I’m haunting you first."

The ship pitched downward.

Ren barely had time to brace himself before they hit the trees.

Ren Wakes Up. Eventually.

Everything hurt.

Ren groaned, peeling his face off the dirt. His brain felt like it had been drop-kicked by fate itself. He could still hear the ship creaking somewhere behind him, but more importantly—

Mira was standing over him, arms crossed. "You survived. Unfortunate."

Ren blinked up at her. "Good morning to you too."

Mira crouched, shoving a waterskin at him. "Drink. Then explain."

"Explain what?" Ren croaked.

Mira gestured very dramatically at the very haunted, very wrong-looking forest surrounding them. The trees were twisted, unnatural, their bark glowing faintly with golden runes. The air felt off, as if reality itself wasn’t quite stable here.

Keldrin sat nearby, muttering to himself as he tried to fix a very broken navigational device. "We shouldn’t be here. This place shouldn’t exist."

Ren forced himself upright, ignoring the sudden dizziness. The watch in his pocket felt heavier than ever, almost pulling toward something deeper in the forest.

Then he heard it.

A whisper. Faint. Hollow. Familiar.

"Ren Valtheris."

Ren froze.

He turned to Mira and Keldrin, but neither reacted. They hadn’t heard it.

Another whisper. "Time bends here. Reality fractures. You should not have come."**

Ren swallowed hard. "Noted."

A branch snapped in the distance.

Mira’s daggers were already in her hands. "We’re being watched."

Keldrin groaned. "Of course we are."

Ren sighed, standing up and brushing dirt off his coat. "Well. Nothing to do but go deeper into the cursed, reality-breaking nightmare forest, right?"

Mira gave him a long, deadpan stare. "I hate you."

"That’s fair."

And with that, they walked straight into the madness.