Jason and Ylva sprinted down the dimly lit corridor, hearts pounding. They had barely made it twenty steps from Tauriel’s room when a tall, regal female elf stepped out from a side passage ahead of them. Her robes were ornate, glowing faintly with embedded runes, and her presence radiated power. This was no ordinary guard — this wasn’t a high ranking elf of the sanctuary, but judging from her energy, she might have been a rank above the foot soldiers.

The elf’s eyes widened the instant she saw them. "Intruders!" she screamed at the top of her lungs. In a swit motion, she grabbed a strangely shaped spear from a nearby alcove and hurled it straight at the wall beside them, the loud crash echoing like a thunderclap through the palace halls. "They are escaping! Alert the entire wing!"

The spear missed Jason by an inch only because Ylva pulled him out of the way at the very last second.

The sound of running footsteps erupted from every direction.

Jason didn’t think. He shoved the elf hard with both hands. She stumbled backward, her heel catching on the edge of a rug, and slammed the back of her head against the stone wall with a sickening crack. Her eyes rolled back and she crumpled unconscious to the floor.

"Move!" Ylva barked, grabbing Jason’s wrist and yanking him forward.

They ran.

The courtyard beyond the hallway was already swarming. Dozens of female elves in battle robes poured out of doorways, weapons drawn, voices shouting orders. Jason and Ylva skidded to a halt at the edge of an open archway.

"Shit, shit, shit," Jason hissed. "They’re everywhere!"

Ylva’s ears flattened. "This way!" She dragged him toward the nearest side building — a smaller tower connected to the main palace. They burst through the door and slammed it shut behind them, but the shouts were already growing louder outside.

They ran down the stairs, boots slapping on stone. "Why the hell did you push her?" Ylva growled between breaths. " If she is dead, we are completely screwed!"

"Because she was about to get us killed!" Jason shot back, lungs burning. "I panicked, okay? You saw her throw that damn sex toy looking spear at me like a war cry!"

They kept descended lower, floor after floor, the sounds of pursuit echoing down the stairwell. When they thought they had finally put enough distance between them and the chaos, they shoved open a heavy wooden door at the very bottom, hopimg to find something to defend themselves with.

Instead, they stepped into darkness.

The door slammed shut behind them with a final, echoing thud. The air was cold, damp, and heavy with the stench of blood and waste. Torches flickered weakly along the walls, revealing rows of iron-barred cells. This wasn’t a tower. It was a dungeon.

Ylva froze. Jason’s stomach dropped.

The sight that met their eyes terrified them both. Inside the cells were male elves — dozens of them. Most were malnourished, ribs visible under pale skin, eyes sunken and lifeless. Some were completely stripped naked, chained to the walls. Others had their skin flayed from their bodies in long, deliberate strips, raw muscle glistening in the torchlight. One elf in the nearest cell had his abdomen sliced open, organs hanging out like grotesque decorations, still twitching faintly as he breathed.

"What the..." Ylva whispered, voice cracking. She took a step back, claws trembling. "This... this is worse than anything I’ve ever seen."

Jason felt bile rise in his throat, but he forced himself to breathe. He was scared — terrified, actually — but he knew he had to compose himself. If he panicked now, they were both dead.

"Ylva, look at me," he said firmly, grabbing her shoulders. "We are getting out of here. This place is even scarier than anyone would have imagined, but we’re not dying in some elf torture dungeon today. You hear me?"

Ylva’s eyes were wide with fear, her usual confidence shattered. "They... they’re experimenting on them. These males... there is nothing we can do for them now, they’re dissecting them, they are killing them! What are these elves!?"

Jason nodded grimly. "Exactly. Which means this whole place has subjugated their males to some sort of sadistic ritual and control. But we’re not part of their system. We can still think. We can still fight. Come on, wolf girl — you carried me through half the damn forest. Now help me find a way out of this shithole."

They moved quickly but carefully between the cells. The male elves inside barely reacted, too broken to even lift their heads. Jason and Ylva found a loose grate in the floor at the far end of the corridor. With Ylva’s strength and Jason’s desperate tugging, they pried it open, revealing a narrow drainage tunnel that smelled like sewage but led downward and away from the main dungeon.

They dropped in and crawled as fast as they could. The tunnel eventually opened into a small service alley behind the palace. They were still deep within elf territory, but at least they were no longer trapped underground.

Gasping for fresh air, they ran up the nearest building — a tall storage tower. Higher and higher they climbed, floor after floor, until they reached the top. For some reason Jason felt it calling to him again, that same irresistible pull from his dream. It was coming from this specific building. He didn’t question it. He just ran toward it with Ylva right behind him.

They burst through the final door at the top floor. Jason stopped dead in front of a heavy wooden door exactly like the one from his dream. The same magical lock glowed faintly around the edges.

He stood there, chest heaving, staring at it.

"Isn’t this... where it ends?" Jason whispered, voice shaky. "That dream... that was where it ended, right?"

Ylva stepped up beside him, claws still out, eyes scanning the door warily. "Jason... what the hell are you talking about?"

He didn’t answer. His hand slowly reached for the handle because he knew, it was no longer just a dream.