It began as a faint heat beneath the skin.Kaelis felt it first just above her collarbone, where the Hunter's gaze had lingered longest. When she brushed her fingers there, they came away faintly glowing, as if dusted with embers.
"Kaelis…" Elyon's voice was tight. He pointed to her neck. "You're burning."
She staggered back, heart hammering. The glow pulsed once, twice then a thin pattern bled across her skin. Not flame, but a sigil, jagged and spiraling like the fracture in the sky.
"It's on you too," Aloysius said grimly, turning to reveal his own mark flaring along his jawline. Even through his composure, his voice carried strain.
Elyon cursed under his breath. "This isn't just a brand. It's tethering us to something."
The air in the ruins shifted. Whispers stirred along the corridors, in no tongue Kaelis knew but thick with intent. The stone itself seemed to lean closer, as though eager to hear their next breath.
Aloysius's eyes narrowed. "I can feel… pulling. Like we're being drawn somewhere."
Kaelis gritted her teeth. "Then we go where it wants on our terms. Better to face it than let it drag us."
The path ahead narrowed into a tunnel of carved black stone, the walls alive with faint movement. Not carvings shadows, slithering like oil under glass.
Elyon tightened his grip on his weapon. "Once we cross in there, there's no coming back until we see what waits at the end."
They stepped forward, the marks on their skin glowing brighter with each pace, until the light around them was their own. And the tunnel swallowed them whole.