The ruins gradually thinned, their shapes dissolving into lower silhouettes half-swallowed by mist. What remained felt less like a city and more like the memory of one. Stone paths narrowed, winding between collapsed walls that leaned inward, forming corridors that funneled him forward whether he wanted to go that way or not.
He noticed the ground changing beneath his feet. The smooth stone gave way to layered slabs, each one slightly raised, as if stacked over centuries. Water had pooled in the grooves between them, reflecting the bluish glow above. When he stepped into one of those shallow pools, ripples spread out slowly, unnaturally slow, lingering longer than they should have before fading.
