The Southern Wastes

The Southern Wastes
The forest fell away behind them, giving birth to a barren stretch of land where even shadows seemed hesitant to linger.

The Southern Wastes.

Once, it had been farmland. Fertile. Full of light and laughter.

Now, it was dry and silent—scorched by war, magic, and things that had no names. The ground cracked beneath their boots. Twisted trees reached like claws from the soil, their bark blackened, their leaves long since fallen.

“This place is cursed,” Saris muttered, hand on the hilt of her sword. “Even my hair feels sad.”

Jace scanned the ridgeline, bow in hand. “No birds. No wind. Nothing.”

Kael nodded, senses on high alert. The further they moved into the Wastes, the more the world… thinned. Magic didn’t hum here—it jittered, like a heartbeat skipping.

Seraphine walked beside him, silent. Her eyes blazed softly, reflecting the distant shimmer of heat off the dust. She hadn’t said much since they left, but her energy wrapped around him like flame trying not to burn.

“We’re close,” she said quietly, her gaze narrowing toward a stretch of jagged rock and black sand ahead.

Kael glanced at her. “You feel it too?”

She nodded. “Like something watching… but from inside the air.”

The group stopped near a broken stone arch—half-buried, half-destroyed. Old runes lined its spine, faded and cracked.

“That’s fae work,” Jace said, touching the stone. “From before the Wastes became this.”

Kael raised a hand to silence them.

And then they heard it.

Not footsteps. Not breathing.

Just… absence.

A patch of stillness so complete, it was louder than noise.

Saris whispered, “Is that what I think it is?”

Kael’s eyes narrowed. “It’s here.”

The Umbrin.

Not visible. Not yet. But its presence coated the back of his throat like ash and ice.

Seraphine drew a slow breath. Fire sparked at her fingertips.

“No sudden moves,” Kael warned. “Let it show itself.”

The silence stretched.

Too long.

Kael turned slightly to glance at Jace—only to find he was no longer there.

“Where’s Jace?” he snapped.

Saris spun. “He was just—”

Then she froze.

Because Jace stood twenty feet away, staring blankly into nothing. His body was rigid, one hand raised as if touching something no one else could see.

“Jace?” Seraphine called out. No response.

Kael took a step forward.

Seraphine grabbed his arm. “Wait—”

But it was too late.

The moment Kael stepped past the rune-carved arch, the air changed. A shimmer, like heat off glass, bent reality around him. The world fractured—and Jace was gone again.

Now Kael stood alone… in a forest that didn’t exist.

His mother was there.

Alive.

She turned and smiled at him, just like she used to when he was a boy.

“Kael,” she said softly, arms open.

It was wrong. It was so wrong.

He could feel the lie—clawing at the edges of his mind like rot under skin. But the illusion was good. The scent, the voice, even the heartbeat—it was all perfect.

Too perfect.

And then… fire.

Not from the dream—but from the real world bleeding through.

Kael focused. Held onto it.

Seraphine.

Her power called to him like a flare in the dark.

He growled, forced himself forward—shattering the illusion like glass beneath a fist.

Reality snapped back.

He dropped to one knee.

Jace was on the ground nearby, groaning. “What… the hell…”

Seraphine stood with flames curled around her fists. Her eyes glowed gold, heat radiating from her skin. “It was inside your head.”

Kael stood slowly. “It tried to make me stay.”

Saris moved to Jace, helping him sit up. “I don’t like this, Alpha.”

“I do,” Kael said darkly. “Now we know how it works.”

He drew his blade, ice trailing along the steel’s edge.

“Let’s see how it likes a little fire and frost.”

The air dropped ten degrees.

The runes on the shattered arch glowed briefly—then blackened.

And then it stepped into view.

The Umbrin didn’t walk. It unfolded. Pulled itself from shadow like a figure being remembered. Its form twisted as if made of ink and nightmares—flickering with edges that didn’t obey natural law. No face. No eyes. Just a smooth, shifting mask that shimmered like obsidian smoke.

Saris raised her sword. “What is that?”

The Umbrin opened its arms.

The shadows behind them moved.

And lunged.

Seraphine reacted first—fire blasting from her hands in a white-hot arc. The flames met the creature mid-leap and it screamed, not with sound, but with a wave of psychic pressure that made everyone flinch.

It wasn’t dead.

It wasn’t even slowed.

“Split up!” Kael barked.

Jace rolled to the side, notching an arrow glowing with fae enchantment. He let it fly—it hit, but the Umbrin’s body simply absorbed the impact, the shadow rippling like disturbed water.

Kael stepped in next, blade gleaming with frost. He slashed—and this time, the Umbrin recoiled.

It hated cold.

“Seraphine! With me!” Kael shouted.

They moved together. Ice across the ground, fire through the air—his blade arcing with glacial shards while her flames spiraled like wings. Their powers tangled in a dance of destruction.

And for the first time, the Umbrin screamed in pain.

It lunged again, aiming for Seraphine’s chest—

Kael dove, blocking the blow.

Claws raked his side, drawing blood.

He hissed. “It’s fast—”

Seraphine snarled. “So am I.”

She raised her hands—and summoned not flame, but light. Blinding, golden, searing as the sun.

The Umbrin shrieked, real this time, staggering back—its form flickering. Cracking.

Kael surged forward, blade now burning with fire and ice together.

He drove it into the creature’s center.

A sound like a bell tolling in the dark echoed through the Wastes.

The Umbrin collapsed into smoke.

Gone.

Dead.

Or banished.

Everyone stood in silence, breath heaving.

Kael turned to Seraphine.

“You good?”

She gave a faint smile. “Better now.”

Jace leaned against a boulder, dazed. “One down. How many to go?”

Seraphine’s expression darkened. “Two more… for now.”

Saris wiped blood from her cheek. “Next time, we bring more fire.”

Kael nodded—but he looked out across the Wastes, where the shadow still lingered like a stain in the air.

“They know we’re coming.”