Chapter 610: The Shrine That Remembers
The shrine did not feel the same when she was alone.
Snow drifted down in slow, patient sheets outside. The wind moved through the surrounding trees with a hollow hush, but even that sound felt muted here, like the world had agreed—without consent—to lower its voice.
Sophia stepped inside anyway.
Her boots made soft contact with the stone floor.
Then silence swallowed her whole.
The air inside the shrine was colder, but not in a natural way. It was the kind of cold that didn't just bite skin—it settled into thought, into memory, into places the mind tried to keep closed.
She exhaled slowly.
Her breath lingered longer than it should have.
The altar stood ahead of her, pale and smooth, its surface etched with faint carvings that curved like sleeping symbols.
Sophia walked toward it.
Her fingers lifted as she reached it, brushing against the stone. Just beneath this stone was the place where the goddess had been buried.
