Chapter 4: Maps of the Vanished
Two days later, they crossed the last ridge of the Arken Spine.
The descent into the Verdant Vale was steep and treacherous—serpentine trails, sudden rockfalls, mist pooling like ghosts in the ravines below. But for the first time in weeks, Shu could see green. Real green. Trees twisted like living sculptures. Roots gripped the cliffs like claws. Everything smelled of moss, iron, and thunder.
And far beyond it all, nestled like a jewel in the earth, lay the ruins of Kireth Hal—the last known skyport before the Collapse.
"You sure this place isn't just another myth?" Shu asked, adjusting the wrap around his arm. It was still bruised from the temple escape.
Kael walked ahead, as tireless as ever, his cloak barely stirring despite the wind. "The myths are built from bones. And Kireth Hal has many."
Sera's voice crackled through the comm. "Satellite scans confirm partial infrastructure still intact—but no known energy signatures. If something's down there, it's dormant."
Shu squinted into the distance. The ruins looked like a drowned city frozen mid-fall. Great towers, bent sideways, pierced the earth at impossible angles. What were once docking arches now lay twisted like the bones of titans. Overgrowth had claimed most of it, but strange structures still glinted beneath the vines—things that didn't belong to any age Shu had seen.
As they made their way down the cliff path, Kael finally spoke.
"Do you know why the Sky Order vanished?"
Shu shrugged. "War. Collapse. Betrayal. Take your pick."
Kael shook his head. "All of that came later. The truth is simpler. We disappeared because we chose to."
Shu raised an eyebrow. "That's not comforting."
Kael continued. "After the Eclipse Wars, the Order realized the sky cities were becoming too powerful. Too disconnected. So they created a failsafe: dismantle the network, seal the vaults, hide the Keys. Then scatter."
"They shut everything down?"
"No. They buried it. Waiting for someone who remembered why it mattered."
Shu glanced down at the Sky Key. Its light was faint now, pulsing in slow rhythm like a heart at rest.
"I didn't come here to be chosen," he said.
"No one ever does," Kael replied.
They reached the outer rim of Kireth Hal just as the sun broke through the clouds. Rays of light struck old alloy, turning shattered buildings into gold-spined towers. Shu stepped carefully over a collapsed walkway, following Kael into the crumbled main thoroughfare. The old signage was still visible in places—spiraling glyphs from a language long extinct, and yet Shu found fragments of it strangely familiar.
"Why is this place so quiet?" he asked.
Sera answered this time. "Nothing's pinging on thermal, sonic, or infrared. It's like the place is sleeping."
"That's what worries me."
Kael led them deeper, past an ancient plaza where airships once docked. Rusted frames hung above them like dead insects. They passed into a shattered hall—once grand, now filled with vines and collapsed stone—and finally reached what looked like an intact vault door, half-covered in moss and dust.
Kael placed his hand on it. The glyphs sparked to life.
Shu stepped back.
The glyphs shifted across the surface, forming concentric patterns that spun like turning gears. The vault hummed.
"Energy signature rising," Sera warned. "Something's waking up."
Kael didn't flinch. "This was always meant to happen."
With a hiss of decompression, the door slid open. Inside was not a chamber of relics or weapons—but a map.
A single hovering sphere filled the room. Suspended in a cradle of light, it spun slowly, revealing a starfield with hundreds of points marked in deep blue. Some blinked. Most were dark.
Shu stepped closer, awestruck.
"What is this?"
Kael exhaled. "This is the Sky Lattice. The full map of every city, vault, and sanctuary once connected by the Order. It's also a war map."
"Why show me this now?"
"Because," Kael said, "you're not the only one searching for the Keys."
The map shifted—highlighting three locations in red.
Shu stared. "What are those?"
"Places where the Empire is already digging," Kael answered. "They've recovered one Key. Maybe two. But they don't know how to use them."
Sera chimed in again, her voice tense. "And if they figure it out?"
"They'll have access to skyports, armories, tech that could level continents. They won't rebuild the world. They'll burn it and claim what's left."
Shu turned to Kael. "So what now?"
Kael reached into the light and pulled a thin shard of crystal from the base of the map. It pulsed once in his hand. "Now, we find the next Key before they do."
He handed the shard to Shu.
The moment Shu touched it, his vision blurred.
Suddenly, the map wasn't just light—it was memory.
He stood on a platform of starlight, wind howling around him. Cities floated in the clouds above, fractured and burning. Ships swarmed the skies like hornets. A great black engine—twice the size of any structure he'd seen—loomed in the heavens, absorbing the stars.
The world screamed.
And then he was back—kneeling in the vault, sweat cold on his skin.
Kael looked at him with knowing eyes. "You saw it."
Shu nodded. "That was… the Fall?"
"A piece of it," Kael said. "The Lattice doesn't just show locations. It stores the past. The truth the world forgot."
Sera's voice returned, quiet this time. "Then we really are running out of time."
Shu stood. The Sky Key floated to his side again, a little brighter now.
"Mark the closest red site," he said. "We move by nightfall."
Kael smiled.
The ruins of Kireth Hal faded behind them as the stars overhead began to turn once more.