✦ Chapter 29✦
The room was quiet in a way that felt deliberate, as though sound itself had been instructed to tread lightly.
Stone walls curved inward, smooth and pale, catching the dim glow of candlelight that flickered from unseen sconces. The air was cool, faintly metallic, and carried a scent Elian couldn't place—something clean, sharp, and old. Not dust. Not magic exactly. Something in between.
"What is this?" Elian asked softly.
His voice seemed too loud in the stillness, though he barely breathed the words.
He stood beside Philip at the threshold of what Esper had called his room, though it felt less like a bedroom and more like a sanctum. At the center of the chamber rose a cement pillar, thick and ancient-looking, its surface worn smooth by time or ritual. At its peak was a shallow, bowl-like hollow, carved with faint, unfamiliar markings.
Inside it lay a liquid unlike anything Elian had ever seen.
