The throne groaned back to life, stone grinding beneath it like something roused from deep slumber. Machinery stirred around the chamber, a low thrum pulsing like a buried heart. Thalyn’s eyes fluttered open, but she remained still, watching the glyphs gleam faintly before her, echoes of ancient power humming below.
At a nearby table, Korr muttered to himself, relics strewn like bones across the surface. His hands moved with precision, turning a device over, tracing worn runes. The dim light sculpted the angles of his face.
Thalyn drew a long breath, the last taste of the memory still heavy on her mind. She rose and staggered a step, found her balance. Her gaze drifted to Elara at the window, brow furrowed, fingers tapping a quiet rhythm against her thigh.
She stepped beside the medic and looked out.
The world beyond spilled into fractured terrain and mist-choked plateaus. Moss-veined stones jutted from the earth like the knuckles of buried giants. Vines twisted around shattered pylons that might once have been roads or conduits, now overgrown with luminous mold. The fog thinned near the ruins but never lifted, pressing against the jungle’s edge like a tide held back by something unseen.
Commander Hurst stood outside, motionless. One boot braced on a fallen slab, exo-mask hissing with each breath. He was a silhouette against the shifting haze, one hand tight on the rifle’s grip, the other resting on a stone spire.
Something stirred in the underbrush.
The rifle barked, a sharp report that echoed off the cliffs. A group of Nether beasts staggered into view, twisted forms with glowing eyes, spines bristling. They snarled but held, wary of the ruins.
He waited until they retreated into the dark, then holstered the rifle with a grunt of satisfaction. After a final scan of the shrouded jungle, he turned and stepped back into the chamber, eyes cutting to Thalyn. “Ka’el, you back with us?” His voice rumbled through the mask.
Thalyn nodded. “Yes, Commander. But it’s... strange,” she said. “When I’m there, I don’t remember myself. I become him.”
Hurst pulled off his mask and clipped it to his belt. “Interesting. What did you see this time?”
He moved to the nearby tools table, set the rifle aside, and unrolled a compact toolkit. Without a word, he began checking and assembling a core drill, each piece clicking into place with smooth, practiced motions.
Thalyn’s hand brushed her blond temple absently. “I found a plasma rifle, half-buried beneath a broken droid. The city was a labyrinth, turrets malfunctioning, spitting fire without aim. And the beasts...” Her voice caught, the memory clawing at her throat. “They were relentless.”
Elara tilted her head. “You fought them? With the plasma rifle?”
Thalyn nodded. “I kept moving. The rifle didn’t have much charge, but it held them off. Long enough to find a way through the city.”
Korr’s hand froze. A small black prism of Elder alloy hovered in his fingers, forgotten. He didn’t speak, but his eyes never left her.
Elara’s fingers twitched to hold a plasma rifle, a hunger in her eyes. “But Thalyn, how long were you there?”
Thalyn hesitated. “From before midday to twilight. Maybe longer. The sun was dipping when I emerged.”
“Morning to twilight?” Korr blurted. “That’s not right. You weren’t gone that long.”
Thalyn frowned. “No,” she said, voice low. “I’m sure. I moved through that city. Hid. Fought. Waited. Watched the light change.”
Korr rubbed the back of his neck with a sharp motion. “That throne… it’s not just playback. It’s fast forward, or something like that.”
Hurst didn’t look up from the drill. “It’s stretching your mind across a seam,” he muttered, mostly to himself.
“Which would explain the aftereffects,” Elara murmured. She tapped her thigh again, faster now, her eyes flicking toward the crown.
The drill’s power cell chirped as Hurst slid it into place. “I’m going to drill quadrivium while you research in here. No sense wasting time while Ka’el naps with ghosts.”
“You’re going outside again?” Elara asked.
“We came here to salvage, didn’t we? She’ll be in that throne anyway.”
Korr tilted his head, eyes bright. “Did none of you notice it?”
“Notice what?” Elara asked.
“The droid,” he said, voice dropping. “The damn thing watches her. Tracks her. Not us.”
Thalyn’s eyes flicked toward the chamber’s entrance. The sealed door sat as it always had, layered in ancient script.
Beyond the narrow viewport, the sentinel droid still stood, shoulders half-sunken in shadow. Its coal-green optics pulsed slow and steady, twin candles behind glass. Unmoving.
Until Thalyn shifted.
Then its head tilted, just slightly. Barely perceptible.
Jaxon noticed it too. He straightened from the bench. “Well. That’s new.”
Korr exhaled sharply. “It’s responding to her. And only her. Been quiet since we came here. Now it twitches every time she breathes near that damn thing.”
Thalyn stared back at it. The optics never blinked. Not hostile. But not inert either. A presence behind the glass. Measured. Patient.
“Why me?” she asked softly.
Jaxon packed the drill into its sheath and slung it over his shoulder. “Well, you’re the one who sits on the throne.”
Elara arched a brow. “Interesting.”
Silence settled like a fog.
Thalyn turned back to them. The weight in her limbs hadn’t eased, but her voice was steady. “We need to keep going. There’s more to uncover. I have to go back.”
None of them argued.
Jaxon just gave a grunt and moved to the far wall, collecting a pack of mineral charges. Korr returned to his relics, muttering under his breath. Elara watched her for a long beat, then simply nodded once and stepped back.
Thalyn turned to the throne, feeling its cold grip even before she approached. The air felt heavier around it, with the low thrum pulsing from stone and metal. Light caught strange angles as it struck the carved surface, shadows folding into impossible geometries, never quite where they belonged.
She lowered herself into the seat. The shape of it was known to her now, but the weight of it never eased. Her fingers reached for the crown. It rose to meet her with a subtle deliberate pull, like it remembered her.
As it settled onto her brow, the lights dimmed. The chamber faded. Sounds stretched into silence. Her breath slowed.
A whisper brushed against her thoughts. “Ready for more, Thalyn?” The voice carried a weight beyond the tease.
She didn’t answer aloud, but her mind whispered back. “Yes”.
And the world peeled away.
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