The staircase before them was ancient, carved from stone so dark it seemed to drink in the faint light that filtered down from above. The air grew colder with each step, thick with something that clung to their skin like unseen fingers. Ryn led the way, his grip tightening on his sword, the pulse of the amulet in his palm steady but insistent.
Lyara glanced back up at the opening they were leaving behind. "If we die down here, I just want to say—I told you so."
Korin snorted. "Noted. But let's try to avoid dying first."
Their footsteps echoed unnervingly, the walls narrowing as they descended further into the abyss. The flickering lights from above had vanished, swallowed by the oppressive dark. Serafina raised her hand, conjuring a small orb of flame to illuminate their path. The fire's glow cast shifting shadows along the walls, revealing ancient inscriptions—words from a language long lost to time.
Ryn ran his fingers over the symbols, the resonance thrumming beneath his skin. "This place... it wasn't just a city. It was something more. A sanctuary, maybe. Or a prison."
"Why not both?" Lyara muttered, eyes scanning the darkness ahead.
Then, the whispering began.
Faint at first, like wind through hollow bones, but soon the voices grew clearer—echoes of the past, fragments of forgotten lives. Ryn strained to make sense of them, but they overlapped, a chorus of lament and warning.
"...He will return... the bloodline... the name must not be spoken..."
Serafina frowned. "I don't like this."
"No one does," Korin said grimly, daggers drawn. "Stay sharp."
The staircase finally ended, opening into a cavernous chamber. Massive pillars stretched toward a ceiling lost in darkness, their surfaces lined with more of the ancient script. At the center of the room stood an altar, jagged and broken, as if something had torn through it from within.
The amulet in Ryn's palm pulsed harder, its resonance syncing with something beneath their feet. He stepped forward, drawn by an invisible pull.
"Ryn, wait—" Lyara's voice was cut off as the ground trembled.
From the shadows, figures began to form. Not the spectral warriors from before—these were different. Twisted. Their bodies were wrapped in chains that rattled as they moved, their hollow eyes burning with an unnatural hunger.
Korin swore. "Why is it never something friendly?"
The first of the chained wraiths lunged.
Ryn barely had time to raise his blade before the creature's chains whipped toward him. He dodged, the iron links striking the stone where he had stood, leaving deep scars in the rock. Lyara loosed an arrow, but the projectile passed through the wraith's form, embedding uselessly in the far wall.
Serafina raised her hands, chanting an incantation. Fire surged from her palms, engulfing one of the wraiths. It shrieked, its form distorting, but it didn't vanish. Instead, the flames clung to its body, illuminating the dark symbols seared into its skin.
"They're bound!" Serafina realized. "Something is keeping them here!"
"Then we break it!" Ryn roared, activating his resonance.
The sigil on his chest flared, the amulet's pulse merging with his energy. He struck at the nearest wraith, his blade slicing through its chains. The creature recoiled, its hollow scream shaking the chamber as the severed links dissolved into nothingness.
"It's the chains!" Ryn shouted. "Destroy the chains, and they fall!"
Korin moved like a shadow, his daggers flashing as he targeted the bindings. Lyara switched to an energy-infused arrow, loosing a shot that shattered another wraith's chains. One by one, they broke their prison, the wraiths dissolving into mist with every severed link.
But the final wraith did not attack. Instead, it turned its gaze toward Ryn, its hollow eyes narrowing in recognition.
"You... bear the mark... the Silent Name..." its voice was barely a breath, yet it echoed through the chamber.
The air turned heavy. Ryn's vision blurred, a deep pressure pressing against his skull. Images flickered through his mind—ancient halls, a throne bathed in darkness, a name carved into stone and erased by time.
He staggered, gripping his head. "What... what is this?"
Serafina grabbed his arm. "Ryn, what's wrong?"
The wraith took a step closer, its chains falling away on their own. "The past remembers you... but do you remember it?"
The chamber shook, a deep rumbling from beneath them.
Something else was waking.
The last thing Ryn heard before the world shattered around him was the wraith's final whisper.
"The throne is waiting."
And then everything went dark.