I didn't stop running until my lungs burned.
When I finally slowed, the hall was quieter—not safe, but empty. The blue veins in the ceiling pulsed softly, stretching shadows across the stone. I leaned against the wall and tried to steady my breathing.
That thing should have killed me.
After a moment, I turned back.
The corridor twisted before opening again into the wider hall. Cold air rushed toward me, sharp with the smell of metal and wet stone.
The floor ahead was gone.
A section had collapsed inward, leaving a wide, dark pit. No sound came from below—just silence, deep and absolute.
A bottomless gap.
I edged closer and looked down.
The creature hadn't fallen cleanly.
Most of its body was gone, swallowed by the dark, but part of it had struck the jagged rim on the way down. A limb and half its torso were wedged between broken slabs of stone, dripping dark fluid into the void below.
It had hit hard enough to tear itself apart.
I waited, watching for movement.
Nothing.
Then I saw the glow.
Something pulsed faintly inside the torn remains—a shard of light, caught between flesh and stone just above the pit's edge.
My breath caught.
I knelt carefully, keeping my weight away from the broken rim. The stone looked unstable. One wrong shift and I'd follow the rest into the dark.
Slowly, I lay flat on my stomach and reached out.
Cold air brushed my face as I stretched forward. My fingers brushed torn, wet flesh. I swallowed, reached farther, and touched something warm.
The shard came loose with a faint scrape, almost slipping from my grip. I closed my hand around it and pulled back quickly, heart pounding.
I rolled away from the edge and lay still for a moment, staring up at the pulsing ceiling.
Then I looked at what I held.
A fragment, glowing faintly in my palm. Warm. Almost alive. Light shifted beneath its surface like something breathing.
As I held it fully, a strange sensation traveled up my arm.
Not pain. Not pleasure.
*Awareness.*
My heartbeat sharpened. My breath deepened, as if my body had woken to something it had always been missing.
Then the feeling faded, leaving only a dull ache in my chest.
"This came from you," I said quietly, glancing back at the remains.
No answer.
I wrapped the shard in a strip torn from my sleeve and tucked it into my pocket. Even through the cloth, its warmth pressed against my leg.
As I stood, the realization settled, heavy and cold:
If this place wouldn't recognize me…
If it wouldn't guide me or reward me…
Then anything I gained here wouldn't be given.
It would be taken.
I turned from the pit and walked deeper into the hall, leaving the broken body behind.
Whatever that shard was, it wouldn't be the last thing I'd have to claim with my own hands.