The rain finally stopped two days later.
Norvale smelled different afterward.
Cleaner.
The sickness that once clung to the village like rot had vanished completely, replaced by wet earth, smoke, and fresh wood from ongoing repairs.
Yet despite the peace surrounding the village now—
Seren couldn’t sleep.
Every time she closed her eyes, she heard it again.
That sound.
Low.
Distant.
Almost like breathing beneath stone.
She sat quietly near the window inside Clara’s house while pale moonlight spilled across the floorboards.
The sound came again.
A faint hum.
Seren’s eyes slowly shifted toward the forest outside.
Toward Underground.
“…You hear it too, don’t you?”
Clara’s voice broke the silence softly.
Seren glanced behind her.
Clara stood near the doorway holding two cups of steaming tea. Her expression looked tired, but not frightened.
Not anymore.
Seren looked back toward the window.
“It’s quieter now.”
“So I’m not imagining it.”
Clara handed her one of the cups before sitting beside her.
For a while neither spoke.
The silence between them no longer felt uncomfortable.
Just heavy.
Eventually Clara leaned back slightly against the wall.
“I went back near the entrance earlier.”
Seren’s eyes narrowed faintly.
“…Alone?”
“I didn’t go inside.”
“That wasn’t my question.”
Clara ignored the remark.
“The symbols are still there.”
That caught Seren’s attention immediately.
“The ones on the walls?”
Clara nodded slowly.
“I thought maybe after Underground stopped… they’d disappear too.”
Seren lowered her gaze toward the steaming tea in her hands.
But instead of seeing the cup—
she remembered the markings deep beneath the tunnel.
Strange curved symbols carved into black stone.
At the time, Clara called them meaningless.
But Seren still remembered the feeling she got while looking at them.
Not confusion.
Recognition.
Like hearing a forgotten song.
“…Take me there tomorrow,” Seren said quietly.
Clara blinked once.
“You want to go back?”
“Yes.”
“That place nearly killed us.”
Seren stared silently into the tea.
“…I know.”
The next morning arrived cold and fog-covered.
The two walked through the forest path in silence while dead leaves cracked softly beneath their boots.
Underground’s entrance stood exactly where they left it.
But now—
it felt hollow.
The pressure that once crawled beneath Seren’s skin had vanished completely.
Clara lit a lantern before the two slowly descended into the tunnel once more.
The deeper they walked, the stranger the silence became.
No whispers.
No pulsing walls.
No feeling of being watched.
Only dripping water and footsteps echoing endlessly ahead.
Eventually Clara stopped near one section of the wall.
“There.”
Lantern light spilled across ancient carvings etched deep into the stone.
The symbols twisted unnaturally across the surface like roots frozen mid-growth.
Clara crossed her arms.
“I still can’t read any of it.”
Seren stepped closer slowly.
The moment her fingers brushed the wall—
the tunnel hummed.
A low vibration echoed softly beneath the stone.
Clara immediately stiffened.
“…Seren?”
But Seren barely heard her.
The symbols no longer looked meaningless.
They moved.
Not physically.
Something worse.
Her mind understood them before her eyes did.
Fragments.
Pieces.
Feelings disguised as language.
Her lips parted slightly.
“…To abandon desire…”
The words slipped out unconsciously.
Clara froze completely.
Seren’s hand trembled faintly against the wall.
“…is to survive eternity.”
Silence swallowed the tunnel immediately afterward.
Clara stared at her.
“…You can read it?”
Seren stepped backward slowly.
“I… don’t know.”
Another hum echoed through the tunnel.
Lower this time.
Almost responsive.
The symbols beneath Seren’s hand glowed faintly red for half a second before dimming again.
Clara’s expression darkened immediately.
“That didn’t happen before.”
Seren looked back toward the markings silently.
More fragments pushed into her mind now.
Not sentences.
Memories.
Cold halls.
Crimson eyes.
Voices speaking beneath candlelight.
And underneath all of it—
grief.
Ancient grief.
Seren pressed a hand suddenly against her head.
The noise grew louder.
Not in the tunnel.
Inside her.
“…Seren?”
Clara stepped closer immediately.
The moment Clara touched her shoulder—
the humming stopped.
Completely.
Seren’s breathing slowly steadied again.
The tunnel fell silent once more.
Clara looked between Seren and the symbols uneasily.
“…What exactly are you?”
The question lingered heavily between them.
Seren lowered her gaze quietly.
For once—
she looked genuinely afraid of the answer too.
Then somewhere deeper within Underground—
something knocked once against stone.
Not loud.
Not aggressive.
Almost deliberate.
Both of them turned instantly toward the darkness ahead.
And for the first time since the curse ended—
Underground answered back.