The crevice narrowed fast, forcing them sideways, stone scraping Gad's shoulders as he pushed forward, Mira ahead of him, Bellan struggling behind.
"Keep moving!" Mira shouted, glancing back at the widening dark spilling into the chamber they'd just left.
The cold reached the crevice's mouth seconds after they'd squeezed through, pressing against the narrow gap like something testing its own limits, unable to follow further into stone too tight for its shape.
‘You cannot outrun what already knows your name,’ the voice called after them, fading with distance but no less certain. ‘This is only a delay.’
They kept moving until the sound of it disappeared entirely, the passage widening again into a low tunnel that led upward at a steep incline.
Nobody spoke until they'd climbed far enoug
