The silence that followed was no mercy.
It was weight. It was verdict.
The cavern, once alive with screams, now held a stillness so suffocating that it pressed against the skin like a tomb of stone. The echoes of agony that had torn through its hollow depths bled into nothing, leaving behind a silence that devoured. Even the silver flames that had once raged along the walls seemed to retreat, curling inward, timid, as though the very essence of light dared not intrude upon what had just been bound. Yet the Hollow's hunger did not dissipate. It lingered in the air like smoke after a fire restless, simmering, aching for more even after it had been fed.
