Chapter 69 — Into the Abyss
The ridge no longer slept.
Beneath its peaceful facade, the mountain trembled like a heartbeat too large for its chest. Cracks glowed faintly along the valley floor, pulsing red and black in rhythm with something unseen, something vast, buried beneath the roots of the world.
Arin stood at the edge of the old cavern, where the air shimmered faintly and the scent of iron hung thick. Lyra was beside him, her cloak drawn tight, her expression calm but her eyes wary.
“Once we go down,” she said, “we might not come back.”
He nodded slowly, his hand brushing the hilt of his blade — the one forged from the fragments of the three Hearts. “Then we go together.”
The entrance gaped before them, breathing faint mist that coiled around their feet like smoke. With a fina
