The chamber predated history.
Stone columns loomed like frozen sentinels, etched with glyphs that gleamed in the gloom. Narrow windows, set shoulder-high, slit the chamber’s walls and peered out onto a fog-veiled jungle. The miasma pressed against the foliage like a living thing, but near the ruin, it thinned to a ghostly sheen.
Along the chamber’s edges, alien machines jutted from the walls, half-sunken, their surfaces humming with unreadable design. Between them, alcoves held worktables and tools of impossible purpose, glowing faintly with ancient logic. Overhead, filtered light fell through strange skylights, dust motes drifting like ash.
A narrow stair rose to a mezzanine carved from the same stone. Benches lined one side. Tables and storage shelves stood arranged like a communal mess, though what once passed for food, none could guess. Ancient implements sat like offerings to gods long dead.
Commander Jaxon Hurst stood by a window, arm braced against the frame, his steely gaze fixed on the cliffs beyond. His steel hand hovering in the strange doorway Korr had stumbled open, an invisible threshold that repelled the miasma, yet let a hand pass through like mist.
He clenched and unclenched his fist, decisions forming. The detector at his side beeped. The cliffs were rich with quadrivium thalorite. His thoughts turned to what he needed, the steps to take, and the hope that the Nether beasts would keep avoiding the ruins.
Korr Draven crouched by a towering machine in the corner, fingers dancing above the faintly glowing runes etched into its skin. His lips moved in a low murmur, lost beneath the device’s erratic hums and clicks. Dr. Elara Voss stood beside him, holding a scanner, though her violet eyes kept drifting back to Thalyn on the throne.
When the throne eased upright, Thalyn gasped, the sharp sound cut through the hum of machinery. Elara was already beside her, one hand outstretched, the touch gentle but firm against Thalyn’s temple.
“How do you feel?”
Thalyn blinked, her eyes flickering as she reoriented. “Confused,” she said. “But not broken.”
Across the chamber, Korr’s head snapped up. “Anything interesting?”
Thalyn’s lips parted, but she hesitated, gathering the fragments of the vision. “I was there. The city... it was gutted, shattered. Bodies, debris, and twisted metal everywhere. The dome above was cracked, miasma seeping in, smothering everything.”
Korr stepped closer, hands twitching at his sides. “And?”
“I went deeper, streets filled with wreckage. The only sound was my boots on the rubble, and the howls. Nether beasts, grotesque, fighting over remains. Eyes like embers.”
Jaxon turned from the window. “Beasts?”
She nodded. “Kept my distance. There was a... medical facility. Barely standing. Found a safe inside. Arvie, the voice in my head, helped me crack it.”
Elara’s voice was calm, but her fingers tightened around the scanner. “What did you find?”
“Mutacell,” she said, the word heavy with significance.
Elara inhaled sharply. “By the divines!”
Even Jaxon’s brows lifted. Korr just stared, his mind already racing.
“That city…” he said at last. “I know that city. It’s called Solastis. A fortress city built to withstand the worst the Nether could throw at it… or so they thought.”
Thalyn was intrigued. “Solastis? What brought it down?”
Korr’s gaze drifted into some unseen past. “Nobody knows,” he said. “That was a long time ago. Something went wrong. The records are broken, lost in time. All that’s clear is the city fell, taking a chapter of history with it.” He exhaled. “This... this could be the key to understanding it.”
His tone shifted. “Let me try the throne.”
Elara lifted an eyebrow. “Really.”
“If it shows us the past, I need to see,” Korr said.
Jaxon crossed his arms. " We all take a turn. We need to know what we’re dealing with."
One by one, they attempted to use the throne, but each time, nothing happened. The ancient device remained inert, unresponsive to their touch. Frustrated, they discussed the possibilities, their theories clashing in the dim light of the chamber.
In the end, they agreed on one thing: Thalyn would try again. Whatever this thing was, it had chosen her. As she settled back into the seat, Elara hovered close, her hand resting lightly on Thalyn’s shoulder.
Thalyn closed her eyes, the crown’s cold weight pressing down on her. The chamber around her blurred, sounds thinning to whispers, until they disappeared altogether. A new scene took shape, the past pulling her deeper, spinning her back into the shadows of a life she had never known, a story waiting to be uncovered.
The last thing she heard before the memories took over was a soft whisper in her thoughts. “Ready to continue our grand adventure?”
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