Their path twisted downwards, the very air growing heavier with every step. The light from their marrow fire flickered dimly against the jagged walls, casting monstrous shadows that slithered alongside them. Riven tightened his cloak around him, the damp air scraping against his lungs like broken glass. It wasn't just the cold. The oxygen was thinning, barely enough to keep the marrow flame alive. Even their breaths came shallow and slow now, a reminder that they weren't meant to be here—not this deep.
They had been walking for hours. Maybe more. Time had become an illusion in the dark.
It was she who spotted it first—a collapsed checkpoint carved into the side of the stone corridor. An old patrol site. Abandoned but not entirely forgotten. The crumbled remnants of stone benches and shattered mask fragments lay strewn about. A rusted Warden spear jutted from the cracked wall, a relic of the days when Soul Hunters had fought to hold these tunnels.
Riven ran his fingers over the broken spear's shaft. "This place..." he murmured. "They used to patrol here."
She nodded once.
There was no natural light anymore. No fungal glow, no faint shimmer from cracks above. The deeper they went, the more the world forgot the concept of illumination. Riven reached into his satchel and pulled out another piece of marrow. He struck it against the ground, and it hissed to life with an eerie pale flame.
"Wasting marrow to breathe and see," he muttered. "Feels like bleeding yourself dry to keep walking."
But they had no choice. Without marrow, they couldn't see. Without fire, the darkness would swallow them whole.
They sat for a moment, letting the fire crackle. She rested, sharpening the edge of her weapon with slow, deliberate motions. Riven watched her in silence. The way she moved—efficient, precise. No wasted effort.
"You've done this before," he said.
"I've done worse."
Silence hung between them, thick as the dark. Then Riven tilted his head, listening.
A distant sound. Faint scratching. Maybe claws on stone.
"Wraithspawn?" he asked.
"No," she said, standing. "But close.it time to go."
They rose, leaving the broken patrol site behind. The fire dwindled until only embers remained, swallowed by the dark once more.
Their journey continued, deeper into the silence. Toward a city no one should find.
Toward the truth that waited beneath.