Elaras POV
No one spoke after that.
Not because there was nothing to say.
Because the space didn’t feel like it would allow it.
The silence inside the temple wasn’t empty, it pressed in from all sides, thick and deliberate, like even sound had to move carefully here, like it had to be allowed before it could exist.
I could still feel it deep in my chest, but this time it wasn’t the pull from earlier - it was something quieter, something watching and waiting.
I caught it… the faint glow along the walls as it pulsed again… It was subtle but still steady enough to make it clear that the markings were shifting, that whatever was etched into the stone wasn’t just decoration or memory.
It was active.
Alive in a way that didn’t follow the rules I understood.
Kael moved first. He t
