The map did not exist on paper.
Aethric discovered it in silence beneath the ruins of an observatory long buried under collapsed stone and forgotten prayers. The structure had once measured stars that no longer appeared in the sky, its foundations aligned to constellations erased during the First Era's collapse.
Nyra felt it before she saw it.
"There's something wrong with the air," she murmured as they descended the spiral stair. "It's… circling."
"Not circling," Aethric corrected. "Orienting."
At the chamber's center stood a plinth of black crystal veined with faint gold lines. No dust lay upon it. Time had passed around the object, not over it.
Aethric rested his palm above the surface, never touching.
The crystal responded.
Lines of light unfolded outward, forming a three-dimensional lattice that hovered in the air. Shapes layered upon shapes, coastlines that no longer matched the world, mountain ranges broken and reforged, cities marked by sigils instead of names.
Nyra's breath caught. "A map?"
"A compass," Aethric said. "The First Era did not chart locations. It charted importance."
He gestured, and the lattice rotated smoothly.
"Each node represents a convergence of power, history, or consequence," he continued. "Relics were not hidden randomly. They were placed where the world could not forget them."
Nyra stepped closer.
The map shifted.
Aethric still.
"That should not happen," he said quietly.
He examined the lattice more closely, eyes moving across layers invisible to Nyra. Symbols nested within symbols wards that only responded to authority older than modern magic.
Aethric read them effortlessly.
"Restriction layer," he murmured. "Memory-lock. Hierarchical filter… clever. They assumed only First Era architects would ever return."
Nyra hesitated. "And yet… it's reacting."
"Yes," Aethric said. "To you."
At his gesture, a section of the map dimmed while others flared brighter, seven points emerging from obscurity. Each pulsed with a distinct rhythm.
"Seven primary relics," Aethric said. "Anchors, regulators, or failsafes depending on who last held them."
Nyra studied the lights.
One burned colder than the rest.
She gasped.
The hum in her chest surged, synchronized with the pulsing node. Her knees weakened as a sensation like vertigo washed over her, distance collapsing, direction becoming meaningless.
Aethric caught her arm instantly.
"Focus," he said.
"I didn't do anything," she whispered. "It just… called."
The cold node flared brighter.
Aethric's gaze hardened.
"That relic is not merely dormant," he said. "It is aware."
He extended two fingers, tracing invisible lines through the lattice. As he did, hidden pathways revealed themselves as routes that did not exist on any physical map. Corridors of probability, folded distances, sealed thresholds disguised as ordinary terrain.
"Each relic lies behind layered misdirection," Aethric explained. "Geographical. Temporal. Conceptual."
Nyra swallowed. "Conceptual?"
"Places the world refuses to acknowledge," he said. "Ruins built into collective denial. Paths that only open when certain truths are accepted."
The lattice trembled.
New sigils bled through corruptions, subtle distortions eating at the edges of several nodes.
"The Hollow Sovereign has been here," Nyra said instinctively.
"Yes," Aethric replied. "Or something it controls."
He straightened slowly.
"These relics were safeguards," he said. "Not weapons. They regulated excess. Balanced hierarchies. Prevented entities like the Hollow Sovereign from overwriting reality."
Nyra's blood ran cold. "And now?"
"And now," Aethric said, "they are being sought."
The cold node pulsed again, stronger this time.
Nyra cried out softly as an image flashed across her mind: a vast chamber of ice and stone, a broken crown embedded in crystal, and a doorway sealed by sigils that waited.
Aethric felt it too echoes bleeding through her resonance.
"That relic is responding to your presence across distance," he said. "Which means"
"It knows me," Nyra finished.
Aethric closed his hand.
The lattice folded inward, collapsing back into the crystal plinth. The chamber fell silent, pressure lingering like a held breath.
"We cannot ignore this," Nyra said. "Whatever it is, it's tied to what I touched before."
"Yes," Aethric agreed. "And that makes it dangerous."
He turned toward the stairs.
"We move before the Hollow Sovereign realizes what you are to these relics."
As they ascended, the plinth pulsed once more.
Far away, beyond mountains and seas, a sealed chamber shuddered.
The ice cracked.
And a relic that had not awakened since the First Era turned its attention toward Nyra Vellin.
A First Era compass-map reveals multiple ancient relics, one of which resonates directly with Nyra across a vast distance. The awakening suggests a deeper connection between her and the relics, one that may decide who controls the world's hidden safeguards.