The tunnel yawned behind them, black and wet with dripping water. The air inside had been thick, suffocating, and heavy with the memory of chains and blood. But now the survivors stood at the mouth of the wound, where broken stone gave way to open night.
Kael stepped out first.
His boots pressed into the dirt, and for a moment he just stood there, staring at the sky. The stars looked dim and far away, scattered over a canvas of endless black. He inhaled deeply, drawing in the cold air of freedom, though it still smelled faintly of ash. The shard inside him pulsed with every breath, whispering. The world waits. Walk it. Bind it.
The survivors followed in fits and starts, stumbling as if they had forgotten how to walk beneath the heavens. Some stopped as soon as their feet hit the dirt, s
