We didn’t move right away.
Mostly because I was still trying to process what just happened.
First, we barely survived a void monster. Then, we got attacked by a shadowy guardian who tried to kill us. And then—because life just loves throwing curveballs—I somehow did magic.
Which, uh. Pretty sure I wasn’t supposed to be able to do.
I stared at my hands. They looked normal. No glowing runes. No mystical dark energy. But I knew what I saw. I felt it—something had woken up inside me.
And the guardian? They noticed.
“Hey, uh…” I rubbed the back of my head. “What just happened?”
Dad adjusted his coat like we hadn’t just barely escaped death. “We need to keep moving.”
“Wow,” I said. “Fantastic answer. Really clears everything up.”
He gave me the Look. “I’ll explain later.”
Spoiler alert: He wouldn’t.
I sighed but followed him anyway. My legs felt like jelly, and my ribs ached from whatever the shadow tendrils had done to me earlier. But I wasn’t about to sit around in a creepy underground cavern and wait for Round Two.
We moved cautiously, the only sound being our footsteps echoing off the stone walls covered in glowing runes. The symbols pulsed faintly, like they were breathing.
in glowing runes. The symbols pulsed faintly, like they were breathing.
I wasn’t sure which was worse:
The guardian trying to obliterate me, or
The fact that the entire cavern felt like it was watching us.
“…So,” I said, trying to ignore the fact that my skin was crawling, “what exactly are we looking for?”
Dad glanced at me but kept walking. “Your pendant.”
My stomach twisted. Right. The thing keeping me alive. The thing that shouldn’t be missing in the first place.
I exhaled slowly. “And you think it’s here?”
He hesitated. Just for a second. But I caught it.
“No,” he admitted.
I stopped walking. “Wait, what? Then why are we here?”
Dad turned to face me fully, his silver eyes unreadable. “Because we need answers.”
Great. Because so far? All I had were more questions.
Still, I didn’t argue. Mostly because I didn’t know what else to do.
We kept walking, deeper into the ruins. The air grew colder. The glow from the runes flickered. And somewhere in the distance, I swore I heard whispers.
I shivered. “This place sucks.”
Dad didn’t respond.
A few more steps, and then—the hallway ended.
We stepped into a massive, circular chamber. The ceiling stretched so high I couldn’t see the top, lost in the shadows. But the floor…
The floor was covered in bones.
I froze. “Uh. Dad?”
His eyes scanned the room, tense. “Stay close.”
Yeah. No problem.
The bones looked old. Some were humanoid. Others? Not so much.
And in the center of the room, resting on an ancient pedestal, was something shrouded in dark mist.
I squinted. “Is that—?”
Then the mist shifted.
And suddenly, I wasn’t so sure we were alone.
A low growl echoed through the chamber.
The shadows moved.
And then—a pair of glowing red eyes snapped open.
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