The air grew thicker as they pressed into the second zone.
Mist clung to their skin, swallowing the path ahead, and even the guards who were usually loud with chatter kept their mouths shut.
Steel scraped against gauntlets as the battle mages tightened their grip on their weapons, while Selise and Nyra had their aether drawn close, ready to release at the first ripple of movement.
Zephyra's ears twitched every other step, her low growl humming like a warning no one needed words to understand.
Even Arden, who normally walked like the road itself would bend for him, carried a different weight. His senses stretched wider than before, his eyes scanning a world only he could feel.
The strange part wasn't that beasts lurked in the mist. It was that they didn't. Not a sound, not a rush of paws, nothing but silence. And silence here was never a gift.
