The portal spat them out into silence.
Lyra steadied herself, her boots crunching on brittle soil. She had expected warmth, sunlight—something alive. Instead, the sky sagged like a rotting bruise, and ash drifted in the air like endless snow.
Kairis stood a step ahead, her golden eyes cutting across the horizon. Her hand hovered near her blade, tension in every line of her stance.
Lyra swallowed. "What… happened here?"
The world before them stretched in ruin. Blackened trees clawed upward. Roads cracked and split into nothing. Homes lay collapsed, their frames skeletal, their doors yawning like empty mouths.
Kairis didn't answer right away. Her jaw tightened, shoulders rigid, as if holding back a flinch.
"Is this… our home?" Lyra asked, her voice soft, almost afraid.
Kairis finally spoke, low and brittle. "This was Eryndor."
The words struck heavier than stone. For a moment, Lyra thought Kairis might hold strong, but then she crouched, pressing her hand to the dead soil. A faint glow flickered in her palm—weak, like a candle choking in smoke.
Nothing answered.
Her composure cracked. "The Dieties should've been here.our companions Azel. Ilythra. They should've protected it." Her fingers dug into the dirt. "But they're gone. All of them."
Lyra's chest tightened. She still didn't remember everything—her mind was scattered, fragments refusing to align—but she didn't need memories to understand Kairis's grief. She knelt beside her, steady where Kairis wavered.
"It isn't over," Lyra said, her voice firm. "If the Deities are gone, then we'll find a way to bring them back."
Kairis blinked at her, startled by the quiet certainty. For a fleeting instant, in Lyra's eyes, she saw the queen she once followed—the one who carried them through fire and war.
The ground trembled. A sound, low and guttural, rolled through the silence.
Lyra froze, instincts sharpening. Kairis grabbed her wrist. "Hide. Now."
They pressed into the hollow of a broken wall as shadows stretched across the ruins.
A monster lumbered past—wolf-shaped, but wrong. Its flesh was gone, its body a cage of bone fused with blackened iron. Inside its hollow chest burned amber fire, leaking through cracks with each step. Its sockets glowed faintly, searching.
Lyra's breath hitched, but Kairis pressed a finger to her lips.
The creature sniffed, claws scraping stone. It lingered, searching. Then, slowly, it stalked away.
Silence.
Kairis exhaled shakily. "That was corrupted essence. A soul twisted until nothing but hunger remains."
Lyra didn't speak. She only glanced up at the ashen sky, her thoughts unreadable. Then she stood, brushing dust from her hands.
"We should search this place," she said. Her tone was calm but edged with resolve. "It was a village once. There might be something left—supplies, records, anything."
Kairis hesitated. She looked as though she wanted to protest, but instead she rose too. "Fine. But we move carefully."
Lyra gave her a faint smile. "When don't we?"
Together, they slipped deeper into the ruins.
The ruins swallowed their footsteps.
Lyra walked ahead, her eyes scanning the wreckage with quiet focus. Shards of pottery crumbled under her boots, and scraps of faded cloth clung to collapsed beams, fluttering faintly in the still air. Every shadow whispered of lives long gone, and yet she searched, as though something worth holding onto might still linger.
Kairis followed close, her hand never far from her blade. Her golden eyes swept the rooftops and alleys, sharp, restless.
"This was a farming village," she said softly, her voice carrying the weight of memory. "If anything survived, it'll be in the storehouses near the square."
Lyra glanced back at her, lips curving faintly. "Then that's where we start."
Kairis frowned. "You sound sure. What if nothing's left?"
"Then we keep looking," Lyra replied, firm but not unkind. "Ruins keep secrets. We just have to dig deep enough."
For a moment, Kairis almost smiled, almost let the tension ease. Almost.
They reached the center of the village, where a well sat cracked and dry. Beyond it stood a small cluster of sturdier homes, leaning together as though clinging to survival. Unlike the hollow shells they had passed, these carried faint signs of use—patched walls, timber replaced in places, trails worn faintly into the dirt.
Lyra slowed. "Someone's been here."
Kairis's hand went to her sword. "Or something."
Before Lyra could answer, the air split with a whistle. She moved on instinct, seizing Kairis's arm and pulling her aside.
A knife struck the wall where her head had been. The metal hissed faintly against the stone.
"Poison," Kairis muttered, her blade flashing free.
A figure stepped from the shadows, deliberate in every movement. He looked young but worn, his dark-blue hair untamed, his clothes patched from long travel. A second knife spun idly between his fingers, catching what little light broke through the clouds.
"Well," he drawled, his smirk sharp but steady. "New faces, walking straight into Eryndor's graveyard."
Lyra moved subtly in front of Kairis, mirroring the way Kairis had shielded her countless times before. Her gaze stayed on his hands, calm but watchful.
"You nearly killed us," she said evenly.
The man tilted his head, knife still twirling. "If I wanted you dead, I wouldn't have missed. Call it a test." His eyes flicked over them, assessing with a predator's patience. "You're not from here. Too steady. Too… clean."
Kairis's voice was cold. "We're looking for answers. Not trouble."
The stranger chuckled low in his throat, unbothered. "Answers, in a place like this? Brave words." His gaze shifted to Lyra, and his smirk sharpened into something almost curious. "But bravery breaks quickly. Which are you—brave, or desperate?"
Lyra's voice held steady. "Neither. Just determined."
That made him pause. The knife stilled, and his eyes sharpened as if testing her truth. Then, with a flick, he tucked the blade away and slung a battered satchel across his shoulder.
"Name's Kael," he said at last. "And this village…" He gestured broadly at the broken houses. "…belongs to those strong enough to claim it. So tell me—are you strong enough to walk these ruins, or will they swallow you like the rest?"
Kairis's grip on her sword tightened, words rising sharp to her lips. But Lyra laid a light hand on her arm, steadying her before she spoke.
"We'll survive," Lyra answered, her tone unyielding. "Because we don't have another choice."
For the first time, Kael's smirk softened into something closer to genuine. Brief, fleeting, but real. He gave a single nod.
"Then follow me. But remember—survival here isn't free."
Kairis shot Lyra a wary glance, but Lyra only returned a calm nod. Together, they trailed Kael into the shadows of the sturdier homes, the air heavy with ruin.
And though the silence pressed close, it no longer felt like an ending.
It felt like the beginning of something dangerous.