Stepping across the threshold, Nova felt the cool air pressing against her skin. The cave mouth swallowed the firelight behind them, vines falling back into place, concealing what lay within. Stone arched overhead, slick with moisture, roots threading down from unseen soil above like veins.
Nova lifted the torch. The flame hissed softly, casting trembling light across the walls where drawings stretched across the stone vividly. Jaguar figures, painted in deep ochres and blacks, somehow resistant to time were splayed along the stone.
She stepped closer, heart thudding, breath growing shorter as she recognised the posture of one giant figure. The proud curve of the spine, the watchful tilt of the head. Yohuali.
Her breath caught.
Beside him stood a petite woman marked with symbols she knew too well. A figure with First Mark raised, her stance defiant, her gaze lifted toward a sky carved with stars and swirling shapes that hinted at worlds overlapping.
