The platform groaned as it continued its descent through the abyss.Three days.That's how long it had been since they triggered the ancient mechanism. Three days without food. Three days without water.
Lucas lay flat on the platform's cold surface, eyes half-lidded, staring at the void above. His lips were cracked. His throat felt like sandpaper. Every breath scraped.Even lifting his head felt like a chore.
Lyss sat nearby, motionless, back straight, her expression distant. She wasn't unaffected—her movements were slower, her skin a shade paler—but she endured it better. Maybe her upbringing had taught her to handle deprivation.Maybe she just hid the pain better.
Neither of them had spoken in hours.Not because there was nothing to say—but because they physically couldn't. Their throats were too dry. Even swallowing hurt.
Lucas blinked slowly, his body trembling from the smallest motion.'This is hell… A very quiet, very thirsty kind of hell.'
The hum of the mechanism beneath them had become a constant presence, like the breath of some ancient beast slowly exhaling beneath the world.They had no idea how much farther it would go.If it ever stopped at all.
Lucas didn't know if he was awake or dreaming anymore.
Time had stopped meaning anything somewhere between the first and second day. Now everything was a blur—a haze of hunger, thirst, and dull pain settling deep in his bones.His mouth felt like it was filled with ash.His tongue stuck to the roof of his mouth like parchment, and every breath rasped as if drawn through a cracked flute.He stared blankly at the swirling dark above, pupils sluggish.
Shapes drifted past his mind's eye—some real, some imagined. He thought he saw Shadow once, lurking near the edge of the platform, watching him with its eternal silence. Another time, he saw his father's silhouette. Then… nothing at all.Just black.Just the endless fall.
He tried to sit up, but his limbs felt like stone. Heavy, distant, like they belonged to someone else.'Fuck… this… place…'His thoughts were broken. Fragmented.
He turned his head slightly toward Lyss. She was still seated, unmoving, her breathing slow and steady. Her expression didn't change—but even now, he could see the tension in her jaw. The way she was forcing herself to remain upright.She was fighting just as hard to stay conscious.They both were.And still, the platform fell.
Lucas didn't register the moment the platform slowed.His mind had gone numb, drifting between broken thoughts and half-sleep. So when the grinding noise stopped, when the ever-present hum of descent faded into silence…It felt wrong.His body tensed instinctively.
Eyes half-open, he blinked slowly and realized that the air felt… different.There was light—soft, natural, and strangely warm against his skin. Not the cold blue glow of energy veins, not the dead pulse of ancient metal.Real light.
Slowly, painfully, he lifted his head.
"What the…?"
The shaft had opened.
Above them stretched a night sky—no, not the same black abyss they had descended through. This was something else. A dome, impossibly vast, glittering with countless stars. It looked like the sky, but it wasn't.There was no moon. No clouds. Just a sea of unfamiliar constellations.Like someone had painted a dream and brought it to life.
He heard Lyss shift beside him. She, too, stared upward in disbelief, lips slightly parted.Then the platform shuddered once more… and stopped completely.
But Lucas barely noticed.He couldn't tear his eyes away from the sky that shouldn't exist.
As their eyes adjusted to the starlit dome, the rest of the world came into view—slowly, like a curtain being pulled back.
Before them stretched a sprawling land of stone and crystal, nestled deep within the colossal cavern. Towers and cliffs rose around them, formed by nature or something close to it. Glowing vines hung from tall rock formations, and strange plants pulsed with faint, bioluminescent light. A river of silver light wound through a narrow valley below, its calm waters shimmering beneath the false stars.
It was breathtaking.Untouched.Alive.
Lyss inhaled, sharp and sudden. "Lucas," she murmured, "do you hear that?"
He frowned. "What?"
"Water," she said, eyes wide. "I can hear it. Come on."
Too tired to argue, he forced his aching limbs to move, staggering after her.
They followed a worn path leading away from the platform, flanked by twisting stone spires and root-like outgrowths that curled from the ground like claws.And then, over a gentle rise, they saw it.
A river.
Clear, cool, and impossibly clean. It sparkled like liquid moonlight under the cavern's starlit ceiling. Its current flowed gently through the ancient rocks, bordered by moss-covered boulders and long-forgotten stone markers swallowed by time.
Lucas didn't say a word.He dropped to his knees at the edge, cupped his hands, and drank.
The cold water hit his throat like fire—sharp, painful, and overwhelmingly welcome. He drank again. And again. And again.Next to him, Lyss did the same, lowering her head to the surface to gulp down long, desperate mouthfuls.
Nothing had ever tasted so perfect.
When he finally leaned back, chest heaving, Lucas wiped his soaked lips with the back of his hand and let out a breathless laugh.'We're not dead… not yet.'
They remained there, silent and trembling, allowing the cold water and the surreal beauty of their surroundings to wash away the worst of the past three days.
Eventually, Lyss sat back and looked up at the false stars."No one's ever written about this place…" she whispered.
Lucas lay down on the mossy ground beside the river, arms spread out, soaking in the strange warmth."No shit," he muttered, voice still hoarse. "If they had, I wouldn't be here."
Lyss chuckled faintly. "Fair point."
And for the first time since they started their descent… they rested.