Kael's breath came slow and measured, the air thick with an elusive pressure. The enormous chamber around him somehow felt suffocating, despite it's breadth. Stone walls slick with something that gleamed dully in the low light, giving the illusion that the walls were breathing, alive. His knife felt small in his grip, a useless talisman against whatever had chased him through the Maw's shifting corridors.
The silence was deceptive. It wasn't empty.
Something was listening.
A flicker of movement at the edge of his vision. Kael stiffened, his jet black hair falling in front of his eyes. He briskly brushed it away, to clear his vision. The shadows didn't sit right. They pressed in too closely, lingering just beyond the reach of his awareness. He turned his head slightly, muscles coiled, straining to catch whatever lurked beyond sight.
A whisper.
Not a voice. Not exactly. Something that strained the frays of his mind, threatening his sanity.
A ripple in the air threading through the heavy silence, making the echo's of a whisper seem like an illusion. The impression weighing on Kael was neither an invitation nor warning, merely… 'The maw is observing... watching' Kael shuddered at his own thoughts. The implication was dreadful. Frightening.
Kael took a step forward, his boots scraping against the stone. The chamber pulsed, a slow, deliberate movement beneath his feet, his feet felt frozen to the ground. Whether by fear or some outside force, Kael couldn't tell.
Then, a breath that was not his own brushed against the back of his neck.
Too close. Fear gripped Kael's chest as his body moved reflexively on it's own. He spun with grace and slashed the short blade where a mans neck would be. Having killed his fair share of human faced monsters, he was used to defending himself and was no stranger to callously taking life.
His blade whistled through air. Nothing. No one.
His pulse thundered in his ears. He was not alone.
The walls flexed.
He stepped backward. Another whisper curled around him, closer this time. It teased the edge of language, but the words dissolved before they could take form. Kael clenched his jaw. The Maw wasn't just playing tricks on his mind.
It seemed as if the Maw was trying to understand him. To understand what drove him. Kael wasn't sure why he had this impression of this mysterious dungeon he voluntarily threw himself into, but he knew it to be true the same way that he knew how to breath and move. Instinct.
His hands were steady, but his thoughts roiled. He had faced death before, but this was something else. A force beyond reason, something that observed without eyes, that communicated without a voice.
Kael had been so sure of himself before he stepped into this place. The Maw was a mystery, yes—but all mysteries had answers. Even the darkest abyss could be measured, understood, conquered.
This was different.
This was alive.
The chamber shifted around him and an opening, jagged and uneven, yawned at the far end. It hadn't been there before.
An invitation.
Or a trap.
Kael exhaled through his nose. He had no choice.
With his knife held tight, he stepped forward. The darkness swelled like ink in water and swallowed him whole.