on. Here, the city didn't bustle or breathe. It remembered. Ancient stone watched in silence as ivy clawed across windows long

nt, the louder th

atched her without eyes, whispered without sound. Her skin prickled with the same sensation she'd felt since the ele

ines, until a narrow corridor of crumbling brickwork brought her t

aintly under her gaze. Mythical creatures twisted among elemental glyphs, flame licking water, ea

couldn't name, Elowen

ed with a rel

glass windows. Shelves lined the walls, books bound in cracked leather, scrolls sealed with wax sigils, cr

ancient design, aged wood wrapped in tarnished silver fili

forward, her

tate. Her finge

oomed, soft and golden, and laced w

lvet interior was

th spiraled toward a center stone that shimmered with no single color but all of

ched it, the wo

invaded

erupting

eneath tidal wav

ing tattoos, standing unbending agai

ud, but deep within her: E

ions va

er knees, the amulet

chose

inheritance. It

this relic than prophecy, it was a key, a map, a weapon. It

wasn't

anym

raced up her sp

perception, there was movement. A shift

nside pocket of her cloak. Every hair

the chamber and out the ancie

ide was thic

eps down the al

it was

t hers. A footfall tha

idn't tu

ach pace measured. Eac

uld fe

ething, was

ey wer

used before. Her boots barely whispered against the stones as she sli

hadow

across the mouth of the al

oa

ld her

me, closer. Hooded. Gli

The amulet must have ignited her elem

of the B

order long thought extinct, swore

re joined th

been t

ausing. As though sensing her

didn'

utting through an abandoned atrium. Vines tore at her cloak. She

w Flame. You should

intly with residual magic. "Then yo

cing. How much did they know? Had they followe

cloak. She spun, dagger drawn,

e Sentine

w, and struck, not to kill, but to break the contact. The blade met cloth and shatte

't stay

to the maze of

octurnis, the street lights had dimmed and t

ed one l

le

were

r

ssage had

park had drawn attention. And some intende

fingers trembling as she lit a single candle. She pulled

faintly, as t

ble," she wh

carried someth

so

ifted. The stak

Sentinels w

was the

de her had only j

refully. Learn fast. Forg

lic had awakened... it w

a lon