The silence shifted.
It was not loud. Not sudden. But it was complete. Like the sound had been peeled away from the room in a single, invisible motion.
Kaien opened his eyes.
The crystal ring above had stopped turning. The glyphs carved into the floor around the central platform glowed with a pale, silver-blue light. Columns surrounding the ring pulsed once, then dimmed to stillness.
A voice followed.
It did not echo from a mouth. It came from the walls. From the floor. From the ring itself.
"Kaien Vale."
The chamber did not react.
No one gasped. No one turned. No one knew his name.
He stood slowly.
His legs felt steady. His chest did not. The cold behind his ribs was no longer soft. It pressed outward, slow and patient, like a breath waiting to be released.
He walked toward the platform.
The circle of black stone accepted his steps without sound. The glyphs rippled once beneath his feet. The crystal above began to glow brighter, but it did not move.
Kaien stepped into the center and stopped.
The ring above lowered.
Not far. Only a few feet.
But the weight of it dropped like iron.
Light poured from its edges, wrapping around him in slow spirals. The air felt thicker. Each breath drew resistance, like he was inhaling through cloth soaked in oil.
The stone beneath his feet shifted.
Not visibly. Not enough for others to notice.
But Kaien felt it.
A pull.
Not upward. Not downward. Inward.
His heart beat once. Hard.
Then again.
Then everything went still.
A pulse of white light burst from the crystal ring, blinding and soundless. The glyphs across the platform flared.
The scribe's hand twitched.
In the far corner, one of the robed figures from Hollowspire leaned forward.
Kaien did not move.
He felt heat in his chest, but no burn. He felt pressure behind his eyes, but no pain.
Something was searching him.
Not his blood.
His name.
His memory.
His place in the world.
Whatever had been built to read divine lineages could not find what it expected. The structure hesitated. The process slowed.
Then, quietly, a hairline crack spread through the edge of the crystal ring.
Just one.
Thin.
Silent.
But it was there.
Kaien's eyes opened wider.
The light flickered once, then faded.
The crystal ring lifted.
The glyphs dimmed.
And the voice returned.
"Chamber Two."
No applause. No commentary. No reaction.
Kaien turned without a word and walked toward the far exit.
But behind him, one of the Hollowspire envoys stood.
Watching.
Still as stone.