The march slowed as the path narrowed into a gully choked with bramble and fog. The Southern Marches had been growing stranger by the day—colors fading, sounds warped. Birds no longer sang. Even the wind seemed to hold its breath.
Then they saw it.
A stone archway—half-buried, moss-covered, and carved with runes older than the Kingdom of Evermere itself.
"This isn't on any map," Kael muttered, stepping forward.
"That's because it's not supposed to be found," Auren replied.
Inside the ruin, cold silence wrapped around them like a shroud. Shattered statues lined the walls—warriors with missing heads, kings without thrones, and strange beasts with too many eyes.
At the center stood a shallow pool, still as glass, and in its reflection... there was no sky. Only bones.
Dozens of them.
Human. Twisted. Burned by a fire long dead.
Auren's shardstone pulsed violently.
He approached the pool. The moment his hand touched the edge, the ground trembled. Whispers rose from beneath the stone.
"You were never meant to come here..."
The voice wasn't his. It wasn't anyone's.
It echoed from the walls and from inside his skull.
The shard glowed bright.
Then the vision hit.
He saw a battle—ancient and brutal. Shardbearers locked in combat, lightning and flame rending the sky. At the heart of it all stood a boy not much older than him, holding a blade of light… and weeping.
Then he saw himself.
Not as he was—but cloaked in black, face hidden, watching it all unfold.
"Is that... me?"
The vision ended.
Auren collapsed, breath ragged.
Kael caught him before he hit the floor. "What did you see?"
Auren didn't answer.
He wasn't sure he could.
Outside the ruin, the land began to shift. Cracks snaked across the soil like veins, and strange green fire flickered beneath the surface.
Lys looked toward the horizon. "This place is waking up."
Kael unsheathed his blade. "Then we better be ready when it stands."
Far away, in the Whisperglass Tower, Queen Thalira stood before the royal seer.
"You felt it too?" she asked.
The seer nodded grimly. "The Bones have stirred. The boy is touching things no mortal should."
"What do you advise?"
The seer's eyes glowed silver. "If he learns the truth too soon… not even the Shard will save him."
Auren stood last at the ruin's exit, hand resting on the ancient stones.
"I know now," he whispered, "this Shard wasn't given to me to protect the kingdom."
He looked down at the shard, now cracked and dim.
"It was given to remind it what it once feared."