The air pressed tighter the farther they moved down the trench. The world above felt distant, swallowed by the grass canopy overhead. The wind died. Even the insects had gone silent. Only their faint footsteps and the muted thud of Ravel's heartbeat remained.
Seris slowed her pace. Every sense she had sharpened to a razor edge. One hand hovered near the hilt of her blade, the other steadying her steps along the narrow floor.
Ravel trailed close. The sphere hammered inside his satchel, steady and insistent. It wasn't a warning or panic. It was alignment. As if something ahead matched its frequency.
Ravel didn't like that thought.
Seris raised a hand. Stop.
Ravel froze.
She pointed toward a darker patch around the next bend. A hollow. A widening in the trench.
"Stay behind me," she whispered.
Ravel nodded.
They moved as one, slow and deliberate.
When they reached the opening, the smell hit Ravel first. Metallic. Sharp. Something like burned copper mixed with damp soil. He squinted through the dim light.
Then he saw the second body.
Another scout. Slumped backward against the wall. Armor scorched like the first. Hands stiff. Eyes wide.
But this one hadn't died cleanly.
A thin black mark stretched across his chest, carved like a lightning strike down the length of his armor. His mouth hung open in a silent cry.
Ravel's stomach twisted.
Seris crouched next to the corpse. Her fingers hovered over the scorch mark, tracing its shape without touching.
"This is worse," she murmured. "The impact was stronger. More focused."
Ravel's voice came out low. "The sphere reacts to energy, right?"
Seris met his eyes. "You're thinking someone has another artifact."
"It feels like resonance. But not familiar. Not imperial. Something older."
Seris inhaled slowly, then stood. "Which means we're walking toward it."
Ravel nodded. The sphere pulsed again as if confirming.
Seris tightened her grip on her blade. "Stay close. And if anything moves, don't try to reason with it."
Ravel didn't argue.
They continued forward.
The trench widened slightly, then narrowed again. Every bend felt like stepping deeper into something hidden beneath the surface of Serrin. The walls of packed earth gave way to patches of exposed stone. Strange striations ran through the rock, glowing faintly with a pale sheen that Ravel had never seen in natural formations.
He ran his fingers over the stone.
It hummed.
Seris frowned. "Natural?"
"No," Ravel whispered. "Not at all."
The sphere throbbed so hard Ravel felt its rhythm in his bones. It matched the vibration in the stone perfectly.
Seris lifted her head sharply. "Hear that?"
Ravel listened.
At first, nothing.
Then he caught it.A faint rhythmic clicking. Slow. Unsteady. Like two stones tapping together at the end of a long tunnel.
Seris's expression hardened. "Someone is ahead."
But Ravel wasn't sure it was someone.
They approached the next bend cautiously. The clicking grew louder. Faster. Then it stopped abruptly.
Seris exhaled, barely audible. "Be ready."
They turned the corner.
And the world opened.
The trench had collapsed into a shallow underground chamber. The ceiling sagged with tangled roots and broken stone, but light filtered in through gaps above, casting sharp beams across the space. Dust floated in the air like drifting ash.
At the center of the chamber stood a pillar of dark stone. Fractured. Unearthed. Its surface covered in etched lines that pulsed with the same pale glow as the streaks in the trench walls.
Ravel's breath hitched.
The sphere went silent. Completely. As if holding its breath.
Seris whispered, "What is that?"
Ravel stepped forward, drawn in despite himself. "I don't know. But it's not imperial. And it's older than anything I've ever seen."
The pillar's cracks glowed brighter.
Something had awakened it. Or damaged it. Maybe both.
Around the base of the pillar lay pieces of shattered armor. Imperial scout armor, broken into jagged fragments. No bodies. Just remnants. As if whatever struck them had burned away flesh but left metal behind.
Seris inhaled sharply. "By the walls…"
Ravel moved closer, kneeling beside a fragment. The edges were warped, melted, almost organic in shape. He ran a hand over the surface.
A low hum vibrated through the floor.
Seris tensed. "Ravel. Step back."
He stood, eyes fixed on the pillar. The lines carved into it began to brighten.
A beat.
Another beat.
Then a flare.
A pulse of light shot outward, racing through the engravings like fire through veins. The chamber flooded with pale radiance. Seris raised an arm to shield her eyes. Ravel reached for the sphere.
The moment his fingers brushed it, the sphere erupted in response.
A blast of energy collided with the pillar's pulse. The air rippled like heat over sand. The lights clashed in a whirl of force that shook dust from the ceiling.
Then everything froze.
Ravel hung suspended in place. Seris too. The dust around them hung in midair. No sound reached his ears. No breath left his lungs.
Only the sphere moved, floating upward from his satchel. It glowed with a clear white light that swallowed the chamber's pale hue.
A voice echoed in his head.Not words.A memory that wasn't his.
A star.Silent. Cold. Watching.
Waiting.
The light swirled, pulling toward the pillar. The pillar pulsed back. The chamber strained under the pressure.
Then, as suddenly as it began, the light snapped inward.
Everything collapsed.
Ravel fell to his knees. Seris stumbled beside him, coughing hard.
The chamber's glow faded. The pillar dimmed. The sphere returned to his hand, warm but quiet.
Seris wiped dust from her face. "What in the emperor's name was that?"
Ravel stared at the sphere, heart pounding.
"I think," he said slowly, "we didn't awaken something."
Seris frowned. "Then what?"
"We found something that was already waking up."
A distant horn sounded above the chamber, faint but urgent. Soldiers were still searching.
Seris grabbed his arm. "We need to move. Now."
Ravel let her pull him away. But as they fled the chamber, he glanced back one last time.
The pillar's cracks faintly shimmered.Like something inside was breathing.
And for the first time, Ravel realized the truth:
The empire wasn't chasing him because of his bloodline.
It was because of what the sphere meant.
And what he had just awakened beneath their feet.