The wind was quiet, but it never felt still this close to the edge.
Kael Riven crouched on a rocky ledge, staring out across the valley. Below him, the ruins of an old city stretched through the dust—arches half-buried in sand, towers leaning like broken fingers. Whatever name this place once had was long gone, lost to time and silence. But something lingered. A kind of pressure in the air. Not enough to hurt.
Just enough to remind him he wasn't alone.
He pulled out a leather-bound journal and flipped it open.
The page was filled with sketches, lines, and notes scribbled in small, precise handwriting. Kael drew another mark with a piece of charcoal, adding the shape of a wall he hadn't seen on earlier maps. It was curved, oddly smooth, untouched by age or weather.
That's not right, he thought.
Behind him, someone cleared their throat. "Nothing's moved," Senna said. She stepped up beside him, arms crossed. Her black cloak fluttered behind her in the breeze, and the hilt of her blade peeked over her shoulder. "But it feels off."
Kael nodded. "It's active. The ruins still have charge. Low, but there."
Senna narrowed her eyes. "How can you tell?"
He held up a small brass device strapped to his glove. The needle on the dial twitched. "It's not stable. The air's humming, just enough to interfere with the gauge."
"Great," she muttered. "Let's hope it doesn't hum us to death."
Another voice called from behind. "You're both enjoying the view while I nearly fall off a cliff?"
Elior clambered up the last few steps of the path, red-faced and panting. His coat was neat, too clean for field work, and his boots looked like they belonged in a library, not a ruin.
Kael glanced at him. "You're late."
Elior rolled his eyes. "I was busy making sure we weren't walking into a death trap. This entire basin has traces of resonance."
Senna raised an eyebrow. "You say that like it means something to us."
"Means it could trigger," Elior said. "A memory trap, a field surge, even a pulse flare. That ruin down there? It's still breathing."
Kael didn't respond. He was watching the curved wall again. The way it caught the light. The way it didn't match anything else.
"It's not on the Guild maps," he said quietly.
Elior blinked. "What?"
Kael pointed. "That wall. It's new. Or old in a different way. Something's been added—or left behind."
Senna shifted her weight. "So what now?"
Kael hesitated. Then he packed away the journal and stood. "We go down. I want a closer look."
Elior threw up his hands. "Of course. Why wait for a proper team when we can just dive into untested ruins with barely functional gear?"
Kael turned to him. "You didn't have to come."
"I came for the relic traces," Elior muttered. "Not to babysit suicidal mapmakers."
Senna smirked. "Good. Then we all have something to complain about."
Together, they began the slow descent toward the basin. The rocks shifted under their boots. The air grew colder, thinner. And with every step, Kael felt it again—that strange pulse. Faint, but steady. Like something buried was waiting. Not asleep. Just listening.
They passed through a dead archway overgrown with dust-cloaked vines. At some point, Kael realized there were no birds here. No insects. Just wind. And that hum.
He reached out and touched the stone. It felt warm.
Resonance? Maybe. Or maybe his nerves were finally catching up to him.
Senna moved ahead, blade half-drawn. She moved like a soldier who'd fought before, and Kael wondered again why someone like her was stuck on a half-sanctioned ruin crawl with two scribes.
Elior was muttering behind him again. Counting something. Glyphs, maybe.
Kael kept walking, eyes scanning every pattern in the stone, every strange seam. There was a logic to it, he was sure. A pattern underneath all the decay.
He lived for that kind of mystery. That was why he did this.
Not for relics. Not for glory. Not even for the Guild's silver.
He mapped the unknown because someone had to.
Because once, a city he lived in fell into the earth. And no one had seen it coming.
No one had known the cracks were already there.
He paused near a doorway. The inside was pitch black, but something flickered deep inside. A faint light, pulsing once every few seconds.
Senna stopped beside him. "That wasn't there before."
Kael nodded. His heart was beating faster now.
A whisper drifted out from the dark.
Not a voice. Not exactly.
But it knew his name.
Kael didn't speak. He just stepped through the doorway.
And the ruin answered.