The light struck them like a balm and a blade. Warmth poured across their faces, banishing the subterranean chill from their limbs—yet it bore no comfort. Rather, it carried the sting of revelation, of something lost and now uncovered.
As they crossed the fractured threshold, the ruin's cold breath behind them gave way to the pulse of open air. Before them sprawled a hollowed ravine, a crevasse so vast it seemed carved by the hand of a grieving god.
Sunlight streamed down from jagged heights above, where clouds snagged on stone teeth, but far below, the abyss stirred with mist and shadow—an ocean of silence. The passage of time had not affected the surroundings of this place.
This subspace, this cleft of the earth, bore the marks of agelessness. It had been centuries since living humans had wandered this place, and that was evident in the state of everything.
