The dust cloud stretched across the plain like rolling fog. Ravel and Seris pushed through it, coughing, hands over their faces. Each breath tasted like crushed stone. When they finally broke free of the haze, the world looked strangely clean and open. The sinking sun painted the far hills in burnt orange. Wind swept across the grasslands, cool and steady.
Ravel stopped to catch his breath. Seris scanned the sky.
"No gliders in range," she said, though she didn't relax. "That won't last. The empire doesn't retreat after deploying a siphon. They double down."
Ravel nodded weakly. His ears still rang from the valley collapse. His mind buzzed too, replaying the breath, the light, the pull from the fissure. The world had shifted in a way he couldn't unfeel. The sphere inside the satchel still emitted a faint warmth, as if alert.
"What was that thing?" he asked.
Seris tightened the straps of her cloak. "We don't know. No one does. Not the empire, not the rangers, not the scholars."
"That light felt like…" Ravel hesitated.
"Like what?"
"Like it was looking at me."
Seris didn't speak for a moment. Then she said, "You're not wrong."
Ravel shivered.
Seris pointed to a jagged line of rock stretching across the horizon. "That's the ravine. Once we cross, we'll follow the fault line south until we reach the Thornwater route. From there, we can disappear."
"Disappear where?"
Seris gave a dry half laugh. "Anywhere that isn't currently full of elite hunters aiming unstable weapons at your head."
Ravel forced a shaky breath and followed her toward the ravine.
The plains were quiet except for the wind. The closer they got, the more the landscape changed. The ground dipped sharply, as if carved by an ancient blade. Grass gave way to gravel. Loose stones tumbled down steep slopes. The ravine stretched wide and deep, its walls jagged, its bottom lost in shadow.
Seris crouched near the edge and scanned the distance. "No bridges for miles. Good. That buys us time."
Ravel peered down. The drop was brutal.
"How do we get across?"
Seris smirked. "We climb."
Ravel's stomach turned. "Down? Then up again?"
"Unless you want to leap. Which I do not recommend."
The wind rushed through the ravine. Ravel gripped the edge, nerves tightening. He'd climbed trees and roofs before, but this was different. The walls were steep and uneven. One slip meant a long fall into darkness.
Seris knelt to secure the rope at a sturdy outcropping. "You go first. I'll be right behind you."
Ravel swallowed. His palms were sweating. "What if soldiers reach the ravine while we're inside?"
"Then we climb faster."
Not comforting.
But he nodded anyway.
Ravel swung his legs over the edge and lowered himself onto the first foothold. The rock was cold. The wind tugged at his shirt. His heart pounded hard enough to hurt.
Seris called down, "Keep three points anchored at all times. And don't look straight down."
So of course, he looked down.
The ravine stretched into a blackness that seemed to move.
Ravel squeezed his eyes shut, steadying his breath. "This is fine. This is… completely fine."
"You're doing well," Seris said. "Better than most recruits."
"That doesn't make me feel better."
"Wasn't meant to."
They descended slowly. Dust trickled past them, drifting like falling ash. The deeper they climbed, the colder the air became. A strange hum echoed from below, too faint to place. Ravel flinched when a pebble bounced past his hand and vanished into the dark.
"How far down is this?" he asked.
"Long way," Seris said. "But there's a ledge halfway."
Ravel kept climbing, muscles burning. His arms shook. His fingers ached. The rope rubbed his palms raw. Sweat dripped down his back despite the cold.
He was so focused on not slipping that he didn't notice the light at first.
A faint glow beneath him.
Ravel slowed. "Seris… do you see that?"
"See wh—"
She stopped mid-sentence. "Hold."
Ravel froze.
The glow grew brighter, a soft silver-white radiance rising from below like mist. It wasn't sunlight. It wasn't fire. It wasn't natural.
"Not again," Ravel whispered.
The light curled upward in thin strands, brushing the ravine walls. The stone reacted to it, lines of faint patterns emerging under the glow like veins through skin.
Seris's voice was low. "The ravine is resonating."
"With what?"
She didn't answer, which frightened him more than anything.
The sphere vibrated again, stronger this time. It pulsed in rapid bursts against Ravel's chest.
And then, as if responding to the sphere's signal, the light from the ravine rose in a sudden gust. It swirled around them in long ribbons, weightless and warm.
Ravel pressed against the wall, heart racing. "Seris—"
"I know," she said, voice tight. "Keep your grip. Don't let it touch you."
But the light was already curling around Ravel's free hand. He tried to pull away, but it followed, brushing his fingertips.
His pulse stuttered.
Images flashed in his mind. A sky filled with falling stars. A hand reaching toward him. A gate of light. A heartbeat that wasn't his.
Seris shouted something, but her voice sounded distant.
Ravel gasped as the visions snapped away.
The light receded instantly, as if startled.
Seris climbed down rapidly until she was level with him, gripping his arm. "What did it show you?"
"I… I don't know." Ravel trembled. "But it felt like… a memory. Not mine."
Seris looked into the ravine, jaw clenched. "We're leaving. Now. No more slow descent."
Ravel tried to steady his breath. "What if the empire gets here?"
"Then the empire can climb into the jaws of whatever this is."
She guided him downward faster, urgency sharp in her tone.
By the time they reached the ledge, the light had faded. Only faint silver patterns remained on the rock, like echoes waiting for a new pulse.
Seris sat beside him, letting him catch his breath.
"We crossed into something," she said quietly. "Something old. Something buried beneath the empire long before it ever existed."
Ravel leaned against the wall, exhausted. "Why is it waking now?"
Seris stared at the satchel. "Because you touched the sphere."
Ravel looked at the sphere glowing faintly through the fabric.
And for the first time, he wondered:
Had he awakened it?
Or had it awakened him?