The ruin groaned like some wounded beast, its death rattle echoing through every broken wall and splintered arch. The last collapse had sealed them in dust and darkness, and for a time none of them moved, caught in the stunned stillness that follows near-death. The silence was so thick it pressed on the lungs, heavy as the rubble itself.
Kaelen did not stir.
His body lay half-buried beneath the jagged teeth of fallen stone, blood trickling from a cut at his temple, seeping into the dust that clung to his skin. A shallow rise and fall of his chest was the only proof that he still lived.
Elian knelt at his side, every motion stiff from the bruises and scrapes of the fall. His fingers pressed to Kaelen's throat, searching. Relief came in the faint flutter beneath the skin. Alive. Barely, but alive. He closed his eyes briefly, breath hitching. The weight on his shoulders eased for only an instant before returning doubled. Alive meant responsibility. Alive meant choices.
"Damn it, Kaelen," he muttered under his breath, more prayer than curse. "Why won't you wake?"
Lyra stood a short distance away, bow raised though the dust had already hidden all enemies. Her eyes were sharp, scanning every shadow in the shifting haze. Not once since the ceiling had come down did she allow her weapon to lower. Even now, as her lungs fought against the grit in the air, her vigilance did not waver.
And then there was Seren.
The rogue leaned against a fractured pillar, her posture loose but her eyes calculating. She wiped grit from her dagger with the corner of her sleeve, though one of her blades had been lost to the collapse. Where Elian looked at Kaelen with worry and Lyra with taut restraint, Seren's gaze was clinical—measuring what worth an unconscious man might still hold in this crumbling fellowship.
The silence grew unbearable. Finally, Elian spoke.
"We can't stay here. The ruin's not done collapsing. One more tremor and we'll be buried alive."
Lyra's bowstring relaxed, though she did not lower the weapon entirely. Her voice was sharp, cutting through the gloom like broken glass. "And where, exactly, do you propose we go? We're under half a mountain."
Seren gave a short laugh, low and humorless. "Not trapped. There are cracks. Passages. This place is older than it looks—built on bones of something deeper. I know how to find the veins that run beneath."
Elian turned sharply, suspicion already thick in his tone. "And that knowledge just comes to you now? After all this time? You claimed to be nothing more than a stowaway looking for safe passage."
Her smile was thin, her teeth catching the light. "Safe passage requires knowing paths others don't. It's the only reason I'm alive. You can believe me, or you can carry your fallen leader on your shoulders until this tomb swallows you whole."
Lyra's arrow lifted, the tip twitching toward Seren. "Say one more word like that, and I'll put this shaft through your throat. He is no bargaining piece."
The rogue raised her hands in mock surrender, though the amusement in her eyes never dimmed.
Elian cut in before blood could spill. "Enough." His voice cracked through the chamber, iron beneath the grit of dust. "We don't have the strength to waste on each other. Seren may be a liar, but if she knows a way out, we'll use it. Kaelen's survival depends on it."
The ruin gave another low moan, dust drifting from the ceiling in thin, whispering streams. The sound alone silenced further argument.
They moved together after that, bound by necessity if not trust. Lyra slung her bow and stooped beside Elian to drag Kaelen's limp body from the rubble. His weight was unwieldy, every step a fight against both gravity and their own exhaustion. Seren slipped ahead, vanishing through narrow gaps, her movements more shadow than flesh. Every so often she called them forward, guiding them through broken corridors and collapsed stairwells, always knowing just where the cracks widened enough to allow passage.
The air grew colder as they descended, biting at lungs and skin alike. Breath turned to mist. Even the dust seemed frozen, falling in slow, crystalline patterns. Somewhere deeper, water dripped steadily into unseen pools, the sound echoing like a clock marking their dwindling time.
Kaelen muttered once in his unconscious haze, lips shaping words that made no sense. Elian bent close, desperate to catch them, but all he heard was fragments: "…shadows…not yet…forgive…"
Lyra's face tightened at the sound, though she said nothing. She only shifted her grip on his arm and pressed forward.
After what felt like hours, they emerged into a vast chamber. Moonlight filtered down through a jagged break in the ceiling, silvering the ruined stone. It was not freedom, but it was air, and light, and space enough to breathe.
They lowered Kaelen onto a slab of stone. Elian immediately pressed fingers to his throat again. Still there—the pulse, faint but steady. He let out a long breath, but his relief was short-lived. Kaelen was alive, but with every passing hour of silence, he seemed to slip further into whatever shadows gripped him.
Lyra knelt beside him. Her hand, pale against the grime, brushed dust from his hair with unexpected gentleness. Yet when her eyes lifted, there was no softness left in them. "If he doesn't wake soon, we'll have no choice. We can't fight and carry him both."
The words froze the air around them.
Seren broke the silence with a soft chuckle. "Cold truth. Sharp tongue. I like you, archer."
Lyra's glare was answer enough.
Elian rose to his feet, shadow stretching long across the stone. "We'll find a way. With him, not without. I won't hear otherwise." His tone was final, iron meant to silence doubt, but he felt the crack it left inside him.
Kaelen stirred then, a shiver running through his body. His lips parted, whispering again, words thick with dream. "…the star falls…don't…don't let them…" His eyes flickered beneath their lids, as if he were seeing something none of them could.
Elian leaned down, desperate. "Kaelen—what are you seeing?"
No answer came. Only silence.
Lyra's jaw clenched. "How much longer before he breaks? Or before we do?"
No one answered. The moon slipped behind a cloud, plunging the chamber into shadow once more.
Above them, the ruin groaned, a low and shuddering sound. Dust rained down like falling ash, and all three instinctively reached for their weapons. For an instant, it felt as though the whole earth leaned in to listen to their grim silence.