Chapter 597: Into the North.

Arion entered the northern forest shortly after sunrise with Matthias on his left and Marius already complaining about human knees.

The complaint lasted less than twenty minutes.

By the time the old service road disappeared beneath exposed roots and wet leaves, Marius stopped beside a fallen cedar, handed Matthias his cane, and looked toward Arion with the expression of a man who had already made a decision.

"My human body was nearly seventy when you restored it. I appreciate having it back. I do not appreciate mountains."

Arion glanced ahead.

The terrain rose sharply beyond the trees, where thick moss swallowed stone and old-growth trunks stood close enough to block most of the grey November light. They had barely reached the beginning of the northern sector Matthias remembered.

"You want to shift."

"I spent sixty-three years crossing this forest without worrying about my knees."

Victor’s voice came immediately through Arion’s earpiece.

"I object."

Marius looked upward as though Victor were personally hiding among the branches.

"You object professionally to everything."

"I object medically to an elderly restored patient changing into an infected form because he finds walking inconvenient."

"It is very inconvenient."

Arion almost smiled.

Marius stepped away from the others before allowing the change.

His human shape folded beneath corruption with a familiarity that was still unsettling to watch. Shoulders expanded, clothing disappearing beneath darkened tissue as his spine lengthened and his limbs changed proportions. Within moments, the older man had been replaced by the beast Arion remembered from the forest: massive, low through the shoulders, hide dark beneath ridges of hardened growth, with black eyes that caught almost no light.

The creature shook itself once.

Leaves scattered.

Matthias handed the cane to one of the two special-troops officers accompanying them.

"Useful?"

Marius answered through the link rather than aloud.

Extremely.

Victor swore.

Arion continued walking.

Hendrik had been unhappy with the entire expedition before they left Roslew and had apparently decided remote supervision permitted him to remain unhappy without interruption.

"You have six special-response officers, Matthias, Marius, satellite support, two drones, and me telling you this remains a terrible idea."

Arion stepped over a thick root.

"You forgot Victor."

"I was listing useful protection."

Victor’s offended silence lasted several seconds.

Matthias laughed.

The special troops spread through the trees behind them without needing instruction, dark field uniforms breaking between trunks while the drones moved far above the canopy. Otto had transferred full authority over the specialized forest units to Arion three weeks earlier as part of the imperial transition.

Hendrik had objected to that too.

Mostly because it meant he could no longer prevent Arion from personally doing things Hendrik considered stupid.

He could only document his disagreement.

"I have complete command authority now," Arion reminded him.

"I am painfully aware."

"That sounded disrespectful."

"It was meant to."

Arion smiled and pushed deeper north.

He had waited years for this.

Not because he feared the ancient creature enough to avoid it, but because there had always been someone more urgent.

Living infected begging to be restored.

Elders whose minds were deteriorating.

The forest itself stabilizing after Claudia.

Theo being born.

Theo growing.

The ancient one had survived centuries in whatever place it had chosen beneath the northern forest.

It could wait.

Now, for the first time in months, Arion had an entire day without a council session, transition meeting, foreign delegation, medical appointment, or household relocation problem waiting behind him.

Dean had told him to go.

More precisely, Dean had told him that if Arion spent another free morning reorganizing imperial files instead of satisfying the curiosity that had annoyed him for four years, Dean would lock the office.

So Arion went.

The forest changed gradually around them.

Trees became older and farther apart, their trunks broad enough that three men together could not have surrounded them. Moss covered everything, softening fallen branches and broken stone beneath thick green layers. No maintained road reached this far north.

Eventually even the birds became scarce.

Matthias slowed.

"This is where it begins."

Arion felt it too.

The hundreds of familiar impressions behind him—the beasts, remaining infected, older minds resting deeper inside the network—became distant as though someone had placed heavy walls between them.

Marius stopped.

His enormous head lifted.

I hate this place.

"That feeling survived over a century?" Arion asked.

Improved with age.

Matthias studied the ground.

"We came this far once."

Arion looked toward him.

"You said the elders tried investigating."

"Dominic first. Later, several of us."

Matthias moved around a tree whose exposed roots formed a wall nearly to his waist.

"The deeper we went, the less we could feel each other. For infected, that was worse than darkness. We were accustomed to always knowing something was around us."

Marius moved ahead in his beast form, claws sinking quietly into wet earth.

Nothing lives normally here.

Victor’s voice became sharper.

"Define normally."

Marius paused.

His black eyes moved through the trees.

Listen.

They did.

There was wind high in the canopy.

Water somewhere farther downslope.

No small animals. No birds close enough to hear. No insects despite the damp ground.

Hendrik spoke after several seconds.

"Arion, I dislike silence."

"So does Marius."

"I am not reassured by sharing instincts with an infected beast."

Former infected beast, Marius corrected.

Arion continued.

The barrier around Theo remained intact even here.

He checked it almost unconsciously, finding the structure he had placed months earlier still firm between his son and whatever waited ahead.

Nothing pressed against it.

That bothered him more than resistance would have.

The ancient being knew he was here.

Arion was certain of it.

They descended into a narrow ravine where dark stone broke through the soil in long shelves. Matthias needed one of the officers’ hands twice. Marius moved easily, his beast body built for terrain that his restored human form would never tolerate for hours.

Near midday, they found the first mark.

A tree.

Arion stopped beneath it.

The trunk was enormous, ancient enough that the bark had folded into deep ridges, but one entire side had been polished smooth from ground level to several meters above Arion’s head.

Matthias stared.

"That wasn’t like that."

"When?"

"The last time I came here."

Arion looked at him.

Matthias’s mouth tightened.

"That was more than seventy years ago."

Marius approached the trunk and smelled it.

His body became rigid.

Through the link came a sensation Arion had almost never received from him since restoration.

He is awake.

Victor immediately spoke.

"Return."

Arion lifted his gaze toward the forest ahead.

Something moved through the muted connection, but it was different from the pressure he had felt when the creature reached for Theo.

This was closer.

Physical enough that Arion felt it through the soles of his boots before he understood it through pheromones.

A vibration traveled beneath the forest floor.

Matthias turned pale.

Hendrik’s voice sharpened in Arion’s ear.

"Your Highness."

Arion raised one hand, stopping the special troops from advancing.

The vibration came again.

Farther north.

A low, enormous grumble rolled beneath the trees.

Arion stared into the forest.

For the first time, the ancient one was not calling his son.

It was answering him.