The wind howled across the ravaged plain, whispering through broken stone and scorched earth. Kael stood at the edge of the chasm, boots planted on the fractured cliffside as the sun bled red over the ruins of a once-great city. His fingers tightened around the worn leather strap of his satchel, the Echoheart pulsing faintly against his chest like a second heartbeat.
"We're losing light," Elira said, her voice cutting through the silence as she descended the slope behind him. Her cloak snapped in the wind, dark eyes scanning the horizon with a practiced wariness.
Kael didn't move. His gaze remained locked on the shattered spires below—half-buried in dust, half-cloaked in shadow. "This is it," he murmured. "The Shrine of Sareth. The Echoheart led us here."
Tovan, bringing up the rear with a rifle slung over his shoulder, let out a skeptical grunt. "You're sure that little glowing rock of yours knows where it's going?"
Kael didn't answer immediately. The Echoheart—relic of a forgotten age—had brought him visions, dreams, and feelings he couldn't explain. It had dragged him from the edge of despair after his sister's death and whispered a purpose into the hollow left behind. He didn't understand it. But he believed it.
"It brought me here," he said finally. "That has to mean something."
They descended into the ruins, shadows growing longer as the last light faded. Cracked mosaics glinted beneath dust, and broken statues of winged figures loomed like watchmen over the streets. The air grew colder, heavier.
"This city was supposed to be a myth," Elira said, brushing ash from a mural. "A relic war stronghold. Hidden beneath centuries."
Kael knelt before a worn pedestal, the Echoheart beginning to glow brighter. He pressed it into a hollow at the center—and the earth trembled.
Stone ground against stone. Dust cascaded from the ceiling as a portion of the floor gave way, revealing a stairwell spiraling downward into pitch darkness.
Tovan swore. "You had to poke the cursed thing, didn't you."
Kael stood slowly, a flicker of something old and electric humming in his chest. "Whatever's down there... it's what we came for."
Elira lit a torch. "Then let's not keep it waiting."
They descended into the dark, unaware that with each step, the past stirred. And something beneath the ruins remembered their names.