The air grew still as Hine stepped through the overgrown archway, the weight of centuries pressing down on her shoulders. The ruin sprawled before her like the hollow skeleton of a forgotten kingdom. Its once-proud spires lay shattered, their jagged remains cloaked in moss and lichen. The ground was littered with cracked marble tiles, their faded carvings whispering of glories erased by time.
Silent Soul hovered at her side, its faint, luminescent form casting soft ripples of light across the walls. "This place," it murmured, its tone lower than usual, "is older than even the Archons you seek. These walls have seen the first dawn of Teyvat… and the wars that followed."
Hine ran her fingers along the cold surface of a crumbling pillar. Faint grooves shaped like stars spiraled around its circumference. They glowed faintly at her touch, like they remembered her presence. "It feels alive," she whispered. "Like it knows we are here."
"Not alive," Silent Soul corrected. "Awake. The stones here were forged in the first era. They carry memories. Listen carefully, and they will speak."
As they ventured deeper into the ruins, the vines gave way to ancient murals. Faded colors stretched across walls that curved like the ribs of a great beast. Hine tilted her head, her eyes tracing the images: winged beings descending from a fractured sky, their faces solemn as they looked down on the world below.
"The Heavenly Principles," Silent Soul said. Its voice was neither awe nor reverence, only quiet acknowledgment. "They were the first law, the first order. Before the Archons. Before mortals walked this land."
Hine paused, her gaze catching on a scene carved in deeper detail. A figure, cloaked in threads of light, stood at the center of a swirling maelstrom. The figure held a crystal... familiar in its shape, almost identical to the shard that pulsed softly against her chest. "That…" she breathed, reaching out, her fingers trembling just above the stone, "that is the shard. My shard."
Silent Soul hummed, almost hesitant. "Yes. That is the essence of what you carry. It is not merely a fragment. It is the key to what was once whole. To something far beyond even the Rulers of Teyvat."
The mural shifted in tone as they moved along the wall. The once-bright colors darkened, crimson bleeding into shadow. Battles raged across vast landscapes: mountains collapsing, oceans boiling, skies splitting apart. Beings of impossible scale clashed, their power shaking the very foundation of creation.
Hine swallowed hard. "This… this was war."
"The first war," Silent Soul said softly. "The war that nearly tore Teyvat apart. The Heavenly Principles fought to maintain balance. The Rulers rose to challenge them, believing the world should not be bound by laws written in stars. Mortals… they were only caught in between."
Hine's breath hitched when her eyes found another figure etched in stone. This one was slender, her hair a cascade of silver, her gaze sharp yet sorrowful. A sigil shone at her throat, the same symbol that had appeared to Hine in her dreams. "Mavuika," she whispered. Her sister. She had no doubt.
"Yes," Silent Soul said, its light dimming slightly. "Your sister stood here once. She bore the same shard you now carry, though hers was complete. She… chose a path that changed the tides of that war."
Hine's legs felt unsteady as she stepped back, staring at the mural. "She was part of this. She fought… against the Principles?"
"She fought for freedom," Silent Soul replied. "But freedom is not so simple. The cost was high, and history remembers her in fragments... some call her savior, others traitor."
The next section of the mural was fractured, the stone splintered into sharp, broken edges. But the shapes were clear enough: a great sundering, a shattering of heavens, and from that chaos, five figures emerged.
The Rulers.
Naberius, wreathed in golden light, cradling a blooming seed that pulsed with life.
Ronova, cloaked in shadow, carrying a blade forged from the silence of graves.
Istaroth, eyes burning like twin eclipses, holding an hourglass that spilled infinite sand.
Asmoday, towering and still, hands shaping the void like clay.
And Mavuika… standing apart, a shard of radiant power in her grasp.
Hine stared, her throat tightening. She had seen glimpses of these beings before, in dreams and in whispered visions, but never with such clarity. The weight of it was almost unbearable, pressing against her chest like a storm ready to break.
"They were not just rulers," Silent Soul said quietly. "They were architects. Teyvat is not what you think it is, Hine. It was made, molded, and bound. And those bonds… are breaking."
Hine turned sharply toward the wraith, her voice sharp. "Then why am I here? Why did she leave me with this shard? What am I supposed to do with it?"
The ruins seemed to hum around her, as though the stones themselves were listening. Silent Soul hesitated, its light flickering faintly. "Because you are the last thread. Whatever she could not finish, she left for you. Whether to mend what is broken or tear it apart… only you can decide."
The thought lodged deep in her chest, heavy and unrelenting. Hine closed her eyes, trying to steady her breathing. She thought of the icy peaks they had crossed, the endless star-lit plains, the beasts that had nearly killed her, and the way the shard had healed her wounds like it had chosen her.
And beneath all of that, she thought of her sister's voice in her dreams, soft but insistent, telling her to keep moving forward.
When she opened her eyes again, they burned with quiet fire. "Then I need answers," she said. "All of them. I will find the Rulers. And I will find her."
The Silent Soul studied her for a long moment, its faceless gaze unreadable. Then it inclined its form, just slightly, in something that felt almost like respect. "Then you will need to listen to the stones," it said. "They will not lie. But they will not make the truth easy."
Hine turned back to the murals, running her fingers along the lines of cracked stone, tracing the story of gods and mortals, of rebellion and ruin. The air felt charged, the weight of the past pressing down, but beneath it, something else stirred. A faint hum, like a heartbeat, resonating deep in the walls.
She pressed her palm flat against the stone. For a moment, the world blurred. She saw glimpses, fleeting and fragmented: Mavuika standing at the edge of a broken sky, shouting words Hine could not hear; a great city crumbling into dust; stars bleeding into black void. And then, nothing.
Her hand fell away, trembling. She sucked in a sharp breath. "I saw her," she whispered. "Just for a moment."
Silent Soul's light dimmed further, as though in thought. "Then she is calling you. Whether you are ready or not."
The ruins seemed to exhale, a soft, hollow sigh that carried through the empty chambers. Outside, the wind picked up, carrying with it the scent of rain and distant thunder.
Hine squared her shoulders, her pulse steadying as her gaze hardened. "Then I will answer her call. No matter where it takes me."
The Silent Soul drifted beside her in silence, its light steady now, unwavering. Together, they turned from the mural and stepped deeper into the ruin, the echoes of ancient wars following them into the dark.
Far above, beyond the clouds and the quiet, the stars began to shift.