They found a seam just past the shattered glass corridor, a thin cut in the wall that led into a hollow barely big enough for three.
Riven slumped down at once, sword clattering beside him. "Fuck mirrors," he muttered. "Next time I see one, I'm pissing on it."
Kael lowered himself onto the stone, throat raw but steady. His chest still carried the echo of the word the reflection had mouthed — Hollow. He pressed the Key tight in his fist until the metal bit into his palm.
Seren crouched by the wall, pulled out her scraps, and wrote neat lines even as her hand trembled. She passed one to Kael: Trio recorded. Means we matter.
Kael stared at the words. Or it means we're targets, he thought, but he didn't say it.
Riven leaned over his shoulder, squinting at the note. "Trio recorded? Sounds like we're a band. We need a name. How about 'The Idiots of Doom?'"
Seren wrote fast: One idiot only. She handed it to him with a flat look.
"Pfft," Riven said, grinning even with cuts on his face.
The fire they built was weak, fed by scraps. Riven gnawed on dry bread, complaining loud. Seren sprinkled a little salt to shut him up. Kael chewed in silence, letting the warmth of small food and smaller fire fill a crack in the dread.
For a moment, it almost felt normal. Like people just eating together.
Then, faint and low, a sound rolled through the stone.
BOOOONG.
The gong made the coals jump. The fire hissed.
Riven groaned. "Even when we're quiet, it has to remind us. Like an old landlord checking rent."
Seren scribbled one more note: We rest anyway. She tore it in half and let the pieces burn.
Kael watched the scraps curl into ash. His throat ached, but for once, the silence didn't feel like a curse. It felt like a choice.
They sat there a while, three against the Ledger, waiting for the stone to settle.