Ellie's POV
When I got back to the guesthouse, my whole body felt heavy, like my bones carried the weight of everything I had just discovered. My head throbbed with all the words and warnings I had read in the records. They matched my father’s letter perfectly, like puzzle pieces sliding into place. And the truth that came from it was worse than I had imagined.
The artifact wasn’t a gift. It wasn’t a treasure or a weapon to win wars. It was a prison. A cage. Something dark and dangerous was trapped inside it. Something that was never supposed to be set free.
I sat on the edge of the bed, my notes spread across my lap, pages bent and smudged from where my fingers had gripped them too tightly. My thoughts spun in circles, faster and faster, until I felt dizzy. I tried to breathe slow, tr
