The Pillar's song vibrated in Sunrei's bones as the black glass surface rippled like water beneath his touch. The rune glowed brighter, its light cutting through the sea mist as the ancient structure revealed its secret not a prison, not a weapon, but a gate.
Kaelis's knives caught the eerie glow. That's new.
The rune reshaped itself before their eyes, becoming a doorway of liquid shadow. From within came the scent of salt and something older the damp breath of deep places that had never seen the sun.
Liri's fingers brushed the symbols framing the arch. This isn't Eclipse writing. Her voice held a tremor Sunrei had never heard before. This is older.
Ryna tested the edge of the threshold with her boot. Do we
The decision was made for them.
The sea heaved.
And the gate swallowed them whole.
Darkness.
Then
Light.
Sunrei gasped as the world reassembled itself in shades of bioluminescent blue. They stood in a cavern of living crystal, its walls pulsing with slow, rhythmic light. The air tasted metallic, thick with the scent of deep earth and something unnervingly alive.
Kaelis cursed, wiping black fluid from her blades. Not the welcoming committee I expected.
The bodies lay scattered around them skeletons clad in armor unlike anything Sunrei had seen. Their breastplates bore a familiar sigil:
The First Brand's mark.
But these warriors had died defending the gate.
From something inside.
Liri knelt beside the nearest skeleton. They weren't Eclipse. Her fingers traced the strange engraving on its vambrace. They were keepers.
A sound echoed through the cavern.
Drip.
Drip.
Scrape.
Sunrei's missing brand burned like fire as the crystals dimmed one by one
and the thing in the dark began to move.
It had no true shape.
At times a shadow. At times a man. At times something with too many teeth and eyes that reflected the cavern's dying light a thousandfold.
It spoke with Liri's voice.
You're late.
Ryna's tattoos flared to life, glowing violet for the first time in months. What the hell is that?
Sunrei stepped forward, his scar blazing. The reason the First Brand existed.
The thing laughed, its form rippling like disturbed water.
The brand was the lock, it whispered. I am the key.
Then it lunged.
Kaelis moved first always first her knives carving through the shadow-flesh. Black ichor sprayed, sizzling where it struck the crystals. The thing barely flinched, reforming around the blades like smoke.
Sunrei's fists found better purchase, his scarred wrist burning with each strike. Where he landed blows, the shadow stuck, writhing as golden light spread through its form.
Liri didn't fight.
She sang.
A single, piercing note that made the crystals shiver and the thing scream. Its form destabilized, edges fraying like cloth in a storm.
Ryna grabbed Sunrei's arm. The gate's closing!
The shadow-thing howled, its voice fracturing into a chorus:
You don't understand! They're coming! The ones who made the Maw! The ones who
Liri's song cut it off.
The last crystal went dark.
And the gate spat them back into daylight.
The Pillar was gone.
Only calm sea remained, reflecting the afternoon sun like nothing had happened.
Kaelis wiped ichor from her cheek. What in the seven hells was that?
Liri's hands shook. A messenger.
Sunrei stared at his scar, where faint golden light still pulsed. And we just silenced it.
Ryna studied the horizon, her tattoos faded again. No. We delayed it.
The words hung heavy over the quiet waves.
Somewhere, in the dark between worlds, something ancient stirred.
And it remembered the way home.