Sonder stepped across the threshold of the house with care.
Dust, leaves, and stray branches littered the ground.
Each step left behind a wet squelch and a faint crunch.
She called out more than once, to anyone or anything.
But no answer came, no matter how often she called.
No signs of life were present at all.
After she was sure it was empty, she began her search.
Room after room lay hollow, their walls stripped bare by time, their shelves and cupboards overturned long ago.
Spiderwebs clung in arches and corners, though Sonder tried not to disturb the spider that spun them.
At last, when the sky beyond the broken windows had darkened and the flame in her hand trembled low, she slumped against a fallen pillar.
Weariness pressed on her. She meant only to rest a moment, to breathe once, but beyond the heavy stillness, she heard something.
A sound like movement, slow and careful.
She doused her flame with a twitch of her fingers and let her eyes adjust to the dark.
The faintest moonlight bled through the cracks in the ceiling, sketching broken walls and splintered beams.
And then something came into view.
In the dark she could not make it out fully, but it was neither beast nor man.
It shifted slightly with each step as though it could not hold on to the form it was in each moment.
It was slow and patient, as if it were sniffing out some invisible trail.
Sonder pressed herself low behind the fallen pillar.
The creature paused, head lifting as though listening.
The room seemed to close in around Sonder.
Whatever it was did not seem wholly right, and though she was not helpless, she had no wish to clash with it.
Then, after a long moment, it moved on.
Though its shape was not wholly human, its movements carried the sound of one.
She breathed out quietly. When she raised her head, she could catch another glimpse of it leaving.
The thing was strange, yes, Sonder thought, wrong in its shape, unsettling, but it was the only sign of movement she had seen in all the empty halls.
And if the House of Lustre still held the tears, then perhaps this creature, whatever it was, might know of them.
The ruin itself had given her nothing. So she steadied herself with the clarity that this was her only lead.
She rose, as quiet as she could, and began to follow.