The four of them moved deeper into the shrine, their footsteps soft against the wide stone floors. The silence of the place pressed around them, thick and steady, broken only by the faint rustle of their clothing and the distant groan of old wooden pillars settling under the weight of time.
Haze, Elena, Adam, and Verrin spread out slightly as they walked, but not far enough to lose sight of each other. Every corner seemed to open into another corridor, another chamber, another stretch of darkness that swallowed the thin moonlight drifting in through narrow windows.
They discussed quietly as they went, their voices echoing with a hollow resonance that made the shrine feel even more enormous. The deeper they moved, the clearer it became that the interior was far larger than the exterior suggested. Hall after hall, room after room, the place expanded like a labyrinth carved out of shadow and forgotten prayers.
