The hills lay in a peculiar silence, not the soothing kind that calms the mind, but an unnatural stillness, as if even the wind hesitated to intrude.
Soft grass blanketed the rolling slopes like a green sea frozen mid-wave, interspersed with clusters of pale trees whose leaves barely stirred in the faint breeze drifting through the valley.
From afar, the landscape appeared ordinary and gentle, a place where one might envision shepherds guiding flocks or weary travelers resting beneath shady boughs.
But at its center rose a circular stone platform, emerging from the earth like the crown of a long-buried monument. Its surface was etched with intricate patterns that seemed less carved than grown.
Lines of mana-infused runes spiraled outward from the center, overlapping and intertwining like a living script. They glowed softly beneath daylight, veins of light pulsing rhythmically as if the stone itself possessed a dormant heartbeat.
