Vol. 3/Chapter 17: In Tomes and Ashes

Luca's POV:

The forest was quiet — eerily so.

The basilisk’s corpse was far behind us, and the adrenaline had faded. The night air was crisp, filled with the rustle of leaves and the distant calls of nocturnal beasts. We were heading back to the tribe, bruised but alive. Every step we took was laced with fatigue.

That’s when we saw it — a crooked shed, half-sunken into the earth, hidden behind a curtain of ivy and trees.

“Strange,” said Hassan, tilting his head. “This wasn’t here before.”

“No scent of recent life,” Theo sniffed. “But something’s… off.”

Curiosity, or perhaps fate, pulled us toward the structure.

The door creaked open to reveal shelves upon shelves of tomes, all aged, brittle, and written in a language even Bournace and Miko couldn’t decipher.

“This… isn’t Elvish, not ancient Demi-script either,” Miko murmured, flipping through a dusty volume.

“Something older,” Bournace said gravely. “Maybe even pre-divine.”