Every step left behind in the Frozen Depths had now become nothing more than a memory. Aarya looked back for a moment — where now there was only cold mist, and within it a silence that had once screamed. Riya walked beside him, not behind, not ahead — beside him, as if an invisible line of protection had formed between them. Rudrak was a little ahead, but with each of his steps came a strange rhythm of warning, as though some ancient memory beneath the ground blinked open for a moment.
The path ahead had transformed into a glowing tunnel, but this glow wasn’t from any celestial light. It was as if someone had captured the colors of every heartbeat and sealed them inside the crystals. Around Riya, her flame-frost beast’s projection floated, but for the first time, it wasn’t calm — its move
