The prison was coming apart at the seams—roots tearing through steel and stone like wet parchment. Kael moved through the chaos like a storm given flesh. Every step sent vines lashing. Every breath made the air tremble with pollen-thick echoes.
But the bear wasn't following him anymore.
It had stopped.
Massive body heaving, crown-scars flickering like dying embers. Its muzzle pointed toward a shattered cell, its breath coming in ragged, wet bursts.
Kael knew before he even stepped inside.
Kane.
His brother was curled against the far wall, half-buried in writhing roots. His chest was hollowed out, ribs splayed like broken petals. His skin was pale as birch bark. But he wasn't dead.
No.
Worse.
He was growing.
White flowers pushed through the gaps in his ribs, stems twitching like nervous fingers. His eyes—when they opened—were no longer human.
Just black pits, blooming.
"Took you long enough," Kane rasped, voice like wind through dead leaves.
Kael's flower shrieked in response, its vines snapping taut.
[Warning: Symbiotic Resonance Detected]
[Root System Synchronization: 78%]
The bear let out a low, broken sound and nudged Kane's shoulder with its muzzle.
Kane didn't react.
Kael crouched, fist pressing into the blood-soaked earth. "What did they do to you?"
Kane's laugh was a dry rattle. "Planted me. Watered me. Same as you."
His head lolled, petals drifting from his lips.
"But you're the seed that takes.
I'm just… the one that rots."
The roots around them trembled.
And memories surged—
—Kane, younger, pressing a white flower into Kael's hands. "They'll come for you. But you'll grow anyway."
—Sarnel's scalpel, glinting. "We don't bury the dangerous ones. We graft them."
—A throne, swaying. A voice (theirs?): "Break it. Eat it."
Kael snarled, dragging himself back.
The flower in his palm was biting into his skin now, roots threading through his veins.
Kane's hand twitched toward him.
Fingers splitting at the tips into thin, seeking tendrils.
"She's not done with us," Kane whispered.
"The garden remembers."
Outside, the prison groaned.
Something massive shifted in the depths—roots knitting together, forming something new. Something old.
The bear snarled.
Crown-scars flared like dying stars.
Kael stood.
"Then we burn it all down."
Kane's black-bloom eyes stared through him.
"You can't."
"…Watch me."
Kael pulled.
The roots obeyed.
And the prison screamed.