The chamber had not known breath in centuries.
It was carved deep beneath the mountain’s spine, where the world’s heartbeat slowed and magic pooled thick as blood. Stone walls curved inward, etched with symbols so old they had no spoken names left—only meanings. Wards layered upon wards. Seals meant to outlast empires.
Tonight, they stirred.
Candles burned low in iron sconces, their flames bending inward as if the air itself were folding. Shadows pooled unnaturally along the edges of the chamber, stretching where no light should reach, recoiling where it should linger.
At the center of it all, a man knelt.
His robes brushed the cold stone floor, black fabric embroidered with thread that caught the candlelight like dying embers. His hands rested flat against the carved circle beneath h
