The ruins didn't appear on any map.
They weren't supposed to exist anymore—buried beneath war, time, and the thick silence of forgotten things. But Kai could feel them. Like a call buried in his bones, louder now since the oracle's whisper had slipped through the trees.
He walked at the front this time.
Not Rhydian.
Not Lucien.
The path they followed wasn't a trail—just broken terrain winding through forests that grew darker and colder with each passing mile. The air felt thinner. Shadows longer. Every now and then, Kai could sense movement beyond the trees, something just out of sight. Something watching. Lucien and Rhydian kept close, but tension pulled between them like a taut wire. Not hostile. Not even resentful. But heavy with unspoken weight.
Kai felt it more than he heard it. The way Rhydian's eyes lingered on Lucien when he thought no one noticed. The way Lucien, once so composed, now struggled to look Rhydian in the eye at all. But there wasn't time to untangle their hearts. Not when something ancient was waking beneath their feet.
They set up camp on the edge of a hollow, where the forest thinned into wide, rocky hills. The sky above had taken on a gray-blue glow, the ash moon just beginning to rise—full, pale, ringed with frostlight. The fire flickered between them.
No one spoke at first.
Then Lucien broke the silence. "That shrine. The Oracle. What it said—about the northern ruins... what exactly are we walking into?" Kai stirred the fire, eyes lowered. "A place where the last lock was sealed. By my mother. Maybe by others before her." Rhydian nodded. "They buried the truth to keep it from spreading. Or waking." Lucien's jaw clenched. "And we're going to wake it?" Kai looked up. "No. I think... it's already waking. And we have to be there before it opens on its own."
The wind howled low, stirring ash from the fire's edge.Kai wrapped his arms around himself. He felt exposed beneath the moonlight, as if every secret inside him was being drawn upward into the stars. Lucien stood and walked toward him, kneeling quietly beside him. "You're shaking."
"I'm fine."
"You're not." His voice was soft. "You haven't slept in days. And every time you close your eyes, your magic stirs." Kai didn't answer at first. Then, quietly, he admitted, "I'm afraid of what I'll see."
Rhydian stood across from them, silent.
Lucien brushed his fingers against Kai's wrist. "You don't have to face it alone." Kai met his eyes—warm and bright in the firelight, glowing faintly gold. Rhydian finally spoke. "You both feel it, don't you? The way magic is changing around him." Kai swallowed. "It's like... the bond is alive. Not just ours. Something older. Something deeper." Lucien hesitated. "Then we use it. Shape it. Before it shapes us."
Later that night, sleep came restlessly.
Kai drifted in and out of dreams that didn't belong to him—visions of crumbling towers, of fire licking across stone, of a voice whispering his name from behind mirrors. At one point, he jolted awake, breathless, clutching his chest. And in the silence that followed— He heard it. A footstep. Not from Rhydian. Not from Lucien.
From the trees.
He sat up. Beyond the campfire, in the woods just at the edge of the clearing, something stood motionless. Tall. Shrouded. Watching.
It didn't blink. Didn't breathe. Its face was obscured, but its presence pressed against Kai's skin like a hand. Lucien stirred in his sleep beside him. Rhydian, across the fire, didn't move—but Kai saw his fingers twitch toward his blade.Kai stood. The figure didn't react. But then—
Its head tilted. Slow. Unnatural. And its mouth opened. No words came out. Only a whisper, carried straight into Kai's mind.
"You opened the thread. Now the pattern begins."
Suddenly, Rhydian was beside him, eyes burning. "Inside the circle," he said firmly, pushing Kai back behind the firelight. "Now." The figure stepped forward— But the flames roared upward like a wall, pushed by Rhydian's power. The Watcher stopped just short of the fire's edge. For one horrible second, Kai thought it would cross.
But it didn't.
Instead, it lifted one hand, and with a motion like smoke drifting upward, it traced a symbol in the air. A spiral. Then it vanished—gone with the wind, as if it had never been there at all.
Lucien didn't sleep again that night.
None of them did.
They sat close by the fire, warding spells glowing faintly between their palms. Rhydian held his ground with the quiet focus of someone born for war. Lucien studied the symbol in the dirt. And Kai— Kai leaned into the silence, listening to what his heart wasn't ready to say.
"They're getting bolder," Lucien murmured. "They didn't even try to hide tonight." "They wanted him to see," Rhydian said. "To remind him it's not over." Kai looked between them. "That symbol... it's from the shrine murals." Lucien frowned. "What does it mean?" Rhydian answered. "It's a herald mark. It means: the gate is near." Kai's breath hitched. "Then the final lock... is almost broken."
And the fire crackled like it was answering.
By morning, the light broke silver across the hills. The forest behind them felt quieter now. Not peaceful—just... watching. They broke camp quickly. As they packed, Rhydian pulled Kai aside.
"We're close. You'll feel it when we're near the ruins. But it won't be like the shrine. It won't be welcoming." Kai nodded. "I'm not expecting comfort." Rhydian's eyes softened. "Still... you won't be alone." He reached forward, brushing hair from Kai's face. Kai leaned into the touch without meaning to, his heart caught between old warmth and new flame.
Then Lucien called out, his voice low but steady. "Ready when you are." Kai turned, smiling faintly. "Let's go wake the truth."
And together, the three of them walked into the ash-silver morning—toward the final lock, and the fire that waited beneath the ruins.