The fire had died down to a whisper of heat, its glow barely reaching the walls of the ruin. Morning had not yet come, and the darkness between stars felt heavy, too thick to be natural.
Kael stood with his back to the broken archway, sword drawn. The others had formed a quiet perimeter around the camp, eyes scanning the treeline. But nothing stirred. No wind. No movement. Just silence.
"We should move," Aeren said, his voice a hushed edge. "If something's watching, we're sitting ducks here."
Lorent frowned. "And if it's a trick? Draw us into the open while it closes in?"
Kael's eyes flicked to Seris. "What do you feel?"
She didn't answer immediately. Her hand gripped the circlet at her brow. It pulsed warm, faintly glowing. "It's not just watching. It's listening." She looked up. "It knows who we are."
Kael's chest tightened. "The circlet?"
"No. The thing beyond the trees." Her eyes narrowed. "It remembers."
A cold breath rippled through the camp, enough to stir ashes and send the last embers scattering. Then a voice echoed, so faint it could've been imagined, or a whisper caught in the hollow of bone.
"She bears the Flame. He carries the Wound. The dead will not sleep while you walk."
Aeren paled. "Tell me someone else heard that."
Kael raised his sword higher. "We're leaving. Now."
They moved fast. Bags packed with quiet precision, fire snuffed out with dirt. The path ahead was uncertain, but every instinct screamed to get away from whatever watched from the woods.
Seris pulled her cloak tighter, falling in step beside Kael as they made for the break in the trees. "That voice… it wasn't human."
"No," Kael said, jaw set. "But it remembered our names."
The morning mist clung low to the ground, heavy and damp, making the world seem muted, like it held its breath.
Kael led the way, his steps swift, but measured, scanning every shadow beyond the tree line. Lorent flanked Seris protectively, occasionally casting glances back the way they'd come. Whatever that voice was, whatever ancient warning stirred, it had driven the last remnants of rest from their bones.
They didn't speak for a long stretch. The forest closed around them in dense silence, save for the soft rustling of leaves underfoot and the occasional call of distant birds. But beneath the silence, tension buzzed like a wire pulled too tight.
Finally, it was Aeren who broke it.
"You know," he muttered, adjusting the straps of his pack, "I never thought I'd be running from disembodied voices in ruins guarded by ghosts. My life used to be simpler."
"Did it?" Lorent asked, raising a brow. "You were robbing nobles in the upper rings, weren't you?"
"Still simpler," Aeren said with a smirk. "At least the only whisper I had to fear was the sound of palace guards finding my trail."
Seris allowed a breath of a smile. "Keep talking like that, and I might believe you're not entirely useless."
"High praise," Aeren said, dramatically placing a hand over his heart. "From a Warden, no less."
Kael shook his head but said nothing. His focus was fixed ahead, on the path barely visible between the pale, ghostly trees. Something tugged at him. A feeling, soft but persistent. Not fear. Not exactly. A calling.
Seris reached forward suddenly and grabbed his arm, halting him.
"What is it?" he asked, quietly.
She frowned, eyes narrowed at the stretch of earth ahead. "It's… I don't know. That same feeling from the ruins. Something ancient."
Before them, the trail curved sharply down into a gulley shrouded in thick fog. The trees bent low there, warped as if from great heat, or time.
Kael took a slow step forward. The moment his boot touched the downward slope, the whisper returned, not aloud, but inside him. A shiver chased down his spine.
Come home, child of flame...
He froze.
"Did you hear that?" he whispered.
Lorent and Seris exchanged glances.
"No," Seris said slowly. "But I felt something. Like…" Her words faltered, as if the air itself resisted speech.
"Me too," Lorent muttered, hand drifting to his blade. "Like walking into a story half-told."
They descended cautiously, each step feeling like a trespass.
At the heart of the gulley, they found it.
A stone gate, half-buried, cracked by time and ivy, loomed from the slope like the bones of a forgotten titan. Ancient carvings lined its surface: spirals and runes neither of them could read, but Seris instinctively stepped forward.
I"t's old Valedran," she murmured, tracing a finger over one of the symbols. "This gate… it was meant to keep something in."
"Or out," Kael said.
The wind shifted. A faint sound, like a sob, echoed from behind the stones.
Aeren paled. "Tell me that was the wind."
It wasn't
The air was thick with tension as Kael, Seris, Lorent and Aeren pressed forward, their footsteps muffled by the soft, ashen ground beneath them. The narrow path had narrowed further, the jagged remnants of ancient stone structures looming on either side, their once-mighty walls now weathered by centuries of neglect.
"Stay alert," Kael murmured, his voice low, a steady cadence beneath the weight of the moment. He could feel the presence of something, someone, watching them. The sudden stillness of the forest around them only heightened his senses.
Seris's eyes flickered over the path, scanning every shadow. "Do you think it's really here? The gate...?"
"There's no doubt," Kael replied, his voice calm but firm. "We're close."
As they moved further into the ruins, an unsettling chill seemed to linger in the air, an unnatural cold creeping into their bones. The gate, hidden for centuries, had been nothing but whispers, fragments of forgotten lore. Now, it felt like the very earth beneath them was holding its breath.
Seris stopped. Her hand instinctively went to the circlet around her neck. Her fingers brushed its surface, and a sudden vision flashed through her mind, a swirling, turbulent image of stone, fire, and distant voices. She gasped, stepping back.
"What is it?" Kael's voice was immediate, sharp with concern.
"I... I don't know," Seris breathed, her brow furrowed. "Something's happening. It's ..." She faltered. "It's like the circlet is… pulling me in."
"Pulling you in?" Lorent asked, his voice skeptical yet tinged with curiosity.
Seris's hand tightened around the circlet, her eyes darting around. "It's... like I can hear them, voices. Something ancient."
Kael's gaze darkened. "We need to move, now. We don't know who or what's behind this."
They quickened their pace, the ruins growing more oppressive with each step. The stone walls began to thin, revealing a large stone archway half-covered in vines and ash. At first glance, it seemed like nothing more than a forgotten entryway—but to those who knew where to look, it was unmistakable.
Kael's heart raced, but his gaze remained fixed on the stonework. "This is it."
Before they could approach further, a noise, a soft scuffling, barely a whisper, reached their ears. Kael's eyes snapped to the shadows ahead, and his grip on his weapon tightened.
Suddenly, a figure emerged from the gloom. A tall man, cloaked in dark, tattered robes, his face obscured by a hood. He moved with a predator's grace, every step deliberate and calculated. His eyes glinted beneath the hood, but there was no warmth in them, only a cold, unsettling gaze.
"You seek the gate," the stranger's voice was smooth, almost melodic, but laced with a dangerous undertone.
Kael's hand instinctively went to his sword, but he remained still, eyes narrowing. "Who are you?"
The man smirked, tilting his head slightly. "I'm someone who's been waiting a very long time. Someone who has been watching."
Seris stepped forward, her brow furrowed. "Watching us? Why?"
The stranger's smile deepened, but it wasn't a kind smile. "Because you are about to awaken things that should stay asleep."
"What do you mean?" Kael's voice was low, a sharp edge to it.
The stranger chuckled darkly. "The gate is not just a doorway, it's a prison. A seal. And you, dear ones, are far too eager to open it."
"Then you'll stop us?" Lorent's voice was laced with disbelief, his hand already reaching for his weapon.
The stranger's laugh echoed through the silent ruins. "I don't have to stop you. The gate will do that for me."
Without warning, the ground beneath them trembled—a soft, distant rumble that seemed to reverberate through the air. The stranger's gaze never left them, his lips curling into a knowing smile.
Kael's pulse quickened. The tremor was more than a warning, it was the beginning of something much darker.
"You've made a grave mistake," the stranger continued. "This gate is not meant for you. Not yet."
Before any of them could react, the air around them seemed to shift, the shadows lengthening unnaturally. It felt like the very space they occupied was shrinking, warping, pulling them into something far more dangerous than they'd expected.
Then, as if triggered by his words, the ground split open. A sudden force of wind burst from the gate, whipping through the ruins with a violent force. Kael, Seris, and Lorent were thrown back, stumbling as the gusts knocked them off their feet.
"What is this?" Seris cried, her voice strained against the roar of the wind.
"It's... it's not just a gate!" Kael shouted, struggling to regain his footing.
The stranger's laugh rang out again, a cold, mocking sound. "No, it's more than that. You've unleashed something far worse than any of you realize."
Kael's mind raced. The stranger wasn't just an obstacle, he was a part of something much larger, something far more dangerous.
And as the wind howled louder, the gates before them creaked ominously, as if something inside was stirring—waiting to be freed.