The underground chamber was silent, except for the steady drip of water echoing through the stone tunnel. The boy sat by a dim lantern, the ancient book open in front of him. Faded ink covered the pages, but some symbols now glowed faintly as if reacting to his presence.
The girl, sitting across from him, watched closely. "What did you remember?" she asked.
He hesitated. "I saw a city burning. I was standing at the top of a tower… and someone was calling my name. It felt real."
She leaned forward. "The city was Ruvara. It fell ten years ago. That was the night the god beneath the ruin awakened."
He looked at her. "How do you know that?"
"I was there," she said, her voice low. "I saw it happen. You were at the center of it all."
He stared at her, struggling to understand. "Why don't I remember any of it?"
"Because the mark took your memories," she said. "It chooses a vessel every hundred years. When it finds one, it protects them… but at a cost."
The boy looked down at his hands, the mark glowing faintly on his chest. "So I'm just a puppet?"
"No," she said firmly. "You're more than that. You just have to wake it up."
He blinked. "Wake what up?"
Suddenly, the lantern's flame flickered wildly. The air grew warmer. The mark burned on his chest, not painfully, but with pressure, like something stirring inside.
He leaned closer to the flame. A voice, soft and ancient, whispered from it.
"Child of ash, seeker of ruin... remember."
He gasped and fell back. The flame calmed. The girl rushed to his side.
"Did you hear it?" she asked.
He nodded slowly, shaking. "It spoke to me."
She helped him sit upright. "That's the first step. The god inside you… it's waking up."
The boy's heart pounded. "Is that a good thing?"
She didn't answer.
Instead, she stood and pulled a scroll from her bag. Unrolling it, she revealed a map, marked with ruins, old cities, and strange symbols.
"There are five seals," she said. "They keep the god asleep. If you want your memories back, if you want to control this power… we have to break them."
He looked up at her, uncertain. "And if I don't?"
"The hunters will catch you. And they'll rip the god from you, piece by piece."
A long silence followed.
Then the boy stood, trembling slightly but stronger than before. "Then we find the seals. All of them."
The girl nodded. "Then we start with the Temple of the Drowned."
Together, they rolled up the map and packed their things. The path ahead was dangerous, but no longer hidden.
The god beneath the ruin had spoken.
And its voice would not be silenced.