The campfire crackled softly, casting flickering shadows across the forest clearing. Exhaustion gnawed at me, but rest was impossible. My mind buzzed with questions, fears, and the haunting weight of our recent failures. Raven and Zara huddled over the ancient relic that Leif had uncovered, their faces etched with concentration. The markings on it—so eerily similar to those we saw in the ruins—glowed faintly in the firelight, as if they were calling to something within me. Or perhaps it was the crystal.
I shifted uncomfortably, feeling its pulse inside my pack, a constant reminder of what we'd just narrowly escaped. My fingers twitched toward it, itching to understand its power and the danger it held. Zara's voice cut through the silence.
"There's old magic here," she said, her tone quiet but resolute. "Very old. It's part of something larger—likely a mechanism tied to what we're up against."
