The trek toward the northern ridge felt like walking across the shattered skeleton of a dying world. The air carried a strange metallic cold that clung to the back of my throat with every breath I took. The ground beneath us shifted with eerie whispers as the Heartline pulsed beneath the broken crust of the valley. Silver veins throbbed across the cracked earth like glowing arteries belonging to something vast and unseen. The deeper we walked into the northern cliffs, the heavier my mark burned under my skin.
The girl moved ahead with steady steps across the fractured terrain. Her silver eyes glowed faintly as she guided us through the broken landscape that had once been a quiet forgotten valley. She walked with unsettling certainty as if the path existed in memories only she could still
