The world around Kaelen felt unnervingly still.
The faint flickering of torchlight danced along the stone walls of the ancient underground chamber, casting twisting shadows that seemed almost alive. Dust clung to the air, the scent of age and forgotten history pressing into his lungs. The deeper they descended, the heavier the silence became, thick and unnatural, as if the very air refused to carry sound.
He exhaled slowly, fingers tightening around the hilt of his blade. There was something wrong about this place. It wasn't just the emptiness—it was the weight of unseen eyes, the cold prickle of a presence lurking just beyond perception.
Rina moved beside him, her usual confidence tempered by a quiet wariness. "I don't like this," she murmured. Her voice barely echoed, swallowed by the surrounding dark. "Feels like something's waiting."
Kaelen didn't respond immediately. He scanned the chamber—an expansive circular hall, its domed ceiling cracked with time, its walls lined with inscriptions that pulsed faintly with old magic. At the centre stood a raised stone dais, upon which rested a single pedestal, its surface etched with runes.
He could feel it. The pull of something ancient, something powerful.
Rina stepped forward cautiously, running her fingers along the pedestal's markings. "It's a conduit," she whispered, eyes narrowing as she traced the carved sigils. "A focusing point for mana. But this… this isn't just some forgotten ruin, is it?"
Kaelen inhaled, the weight of realization settling in his chest. "No," he admitted. "It's a vault."
A vault meant to contain something. The very idea sent a chill down his spine. This was no mere relic of history - it was a prison. And whatever had been sealed away here had been done so for a reason.
Rina's fingers hovered over the center of the pedestal, where a single indentation rested - a place for something to be placed, or perhaps something that had once been removed. She frowned. "Whatever was locked away here… it's gone."
The words sent a surge of unease through Kaelen's core. Before he could respond, a sound—low and hollow—rippled through the chamber. A whisper. Not words, not voices, but the feeling of something speaking without sound.
Rina froze, her eyes wide as she felt it too. Then, from the edges of the chamber, the shadows shifted.
Kaelen reacted on instinct, drawing his blade as the darkness itself began to move. A slow, creeping pulse of unnatural energy seeped from the cracks in the stone, pulling together like ink bleeding through water. And then… they formed.
Figures, featureless and elongated, their bodies little more than twisted silhouettes of humanoid shape. Their presence drained the warmth from the air, the temperature dropping sharply as they took form, their movement unnatural—jerking and flickering, as though they were struggling to exist.
Rina took a sharp step back, gripping the dagger at her hip. "Kaelen…"
"I see them," he muttered, his muscles coiling.
The whispering intensified, filling the chamber with a soundless pressure that pressed against his skull. This wasn't normal magic. It was something deeper, something that had been here long before this place had been built.
The shadows lunged.
Kaelen moved, his blade flashing as he met the first creature's attack. The steel sliced clean through, but instead of falling, the being shuddered, its form splitting apart before reforming a heartbeat later.
"That's not fair," Rina hissed.
Kaelen gritted his teeth. This was bad. If they couldn't be cut down by normal means, then...
One of the creatures twisted unnaturally, reaching out toward the pedestal. The runes upon the stone flared violently, reacting to its presence. It's trying to activate something.
Kaelen didn't think—he just acted. In one fluid motion, he reached for the latent energy within him, the power he had always known lurked beneath the surface but had rarely dared to touch. A pulse of darkness surged through his veins, an instinctive reaction rather than a conscious choice.
The moment it did, the shadows hesitated. The whispering halted. And then… the creatures turned their heads toward him.
Recognition.
Kaelen's pulse hammered in his ears. He had no idea why they reacted that way, but he knew an opening when he saw one. He took a step forward, focusing on that power within—letting it coalesce, sharpen, become a blade of its own.
The whispering resumed, but this time it wasn't hostile. It was curious. The creatures watched him now, their forms flickering, as if uncertain whether to attack or bow.
Kaelen didn't lower his stance, but he spoke through clenched teeth. "What are you?"
For the first time, the whispering became words.
"Not what… but who."
A pulse of something ancient surged through the chamber, and in that moment, Kaelen understood—
This was not a fight. This was a test. And he had just taken the first step toward something far larger than he had ever imagined.