Chapter 24: Realization

The cavern was still.

The only sounds were the shallow breaths of the gathered warriors, the distant drip of water, and the faint, rhythmic pulsing of the crimson runes that lined the black stone door.

Reynard didn't lower his blade.

Orin didn't step away from Luther.

For a moment, no one moved.

Then, Amara's voice cut through the silence. "He's alive."

She knelt beside Luther, pressing two fingers to his throat. Though his face was ashen, his pulse was steady, his chest rising and falling in slow, ragged breaths.

Orin exhaled, his grip on his sword relaxing—but only slightly. "I told you. I didn't kill him."

Darius scoffed, crossing his arms. "You expect us to believe that?"

Orin's gaze hardened. "Believe what you want. It doesn't change the truth."

Reynard studied him carefully. Orin was injured, bloodied, but still standing. That alone was strange. Luther had the advantage. He should have won.

So why was Orin the last one standing?

Then, Selene spoke. "Wait."

Everyone turned.

She was crouched beside Luther's wrist, her fingers gently tracing the faint, bruised markings along his skin.

"These aren't wounds from a fight," she murmured. "They're restraint marks."

Reynard frowned. "What?"

She looked up. "Luther wasn't just attacked. He was held. Bound."

A cold silence settled over them.

Darius narrowed his eyes. "By who?"

Orin exhaled. "That's what I've been trying to figure out." He hesitated, then added, "Before he collapsed, he said something."

Reynard's grip tightened on his sword. "What?"

Orin's gaze flickered to the black stone door.

"He said, 'He is listening.'"

A shiver ran through the group.

Then, as if on cue—the whispers began.

Faint at first. Like wind moving through unseen cracks.

Then louder. More distinct.

Reynard's vision blurred for a moment. A flicker of something—not sight, but knowledge—pressed against his mind.

Something was watching.

And it had been watching for a long time.

The whispers didn't stop.

They slithered at the edges of their hearing, a constant hiss of unseen voices, weaving in and out of their thoughts. They weren't words—not exactly. Just impressions. Suggestions.

A question pressed into Reynard's mind, unspoken but heavy.

Why hasn't the Academy sent help?

Darius was the first to say it aloud. "Something's wrong. We should've been found by now."

Selene nodded, her brows furrowed. "The Academy monitors all labyrinth expeditions. The moment we fell, they should have sent a retrieval team."

"And yet," Amara muttered, "no one came."

The realization settled uncomfortably over the group.

Reynard frowned. "Even if we fell deeper than expected, the Academy should have felt the mana disturbance when the void appeared. There's no way they wouldn't notice something like that."

Orin exhaled, shifting his weight. His wound still ached, but he forced himself to speak. "Unless… they can't reach us."

Darius scoffed. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Orin gestured to the cavern around them. "We're in a part of the labyrinth that wasn't supposed to exist. What if it's not just hidden from us—but hidden from the Academy too?"

Silence.

No one wanted to admit it, but it made sense.

Selene's fingers twitched. "Or worse," she murmured. "What if the Academy knows… and they're staying out of it?"

That thought sent a chill through them.

Amara's jaw tightened. "You think they'd abandon us?"

"We don't know anything yet," Reynard said, though the words felt hollow. "But we need to assume we're on our own for now."

Orin let out a dry chuckle. "Welcome to my world."

Reynard glanced at him, expecting defiance, but instead, there was something else. Not hostility.

Resignation.

It occurred to him that Orin was always alone. Even now, when he was standing among them.

The whispers curled around them, pressing closer.

A cold presence stirred behind the black stone door.

And as Reynard looked at it, an unwelcome thought crept into his mind.

What if the Academy isn't ignoring them?

What if something else is keeping them away?

The silence following their discussion about the Academy's absence felt heavier than before. No one wanted to say it out loud, but the reality was clear—they were alone down here.

The only question was why.

Orin shifted uncomfortably, keeping a wary eye on the black stone door. The whispers had faded slightly, but they still lingered, curling around them like a presence waiting to be acknowledged.

"We need to move," Reynard finally said. "Standing around isn't going to get us answers."

Selene nodded. "There's a passage ahead. I sensed a mana disturbance coming from it earlier."

Darius grunted. "As long as it's not another bottomless pit."

Amara rolled her eyes. "If it is, I'll push you first."

They followed the narrow tunnel leading away from the door. The deeper they went, the colder the air became. The walls changed, the blue veins of energy fading into carved symbols, ancient and glowing faintly crimson.

Reynard ran his fingers over one of the glyphs, his mind clouded with familiarity.

He had seen these symbols before.

Not in the labyrinth.

In the Academy's restricted archives.

His pulse quickened, but before he could process the thought—

The tunnel opened into a chamber.

---

The moment they stepped inside, the atmosphere shifted.

The room was massive, stretching into darkness, but at its center stood a stone pedestal.

And atop it, a metallic artifact pulsed with crimson light.

It wasn't the only thing.

Scattered around the chamber were other artifacts, some broken, others glowing faintly with the same runes carved into the walls. The air here was different, filled with something old and waiting.

Darius whistled. "I don't like this."

Selene's gaze was locked onto the main artifact, her fingers twitching as if she were resisting the urge to reach out.

"This is… powerful."

Orin frowned. "That's not a good thing, is it?"

"No," she admitted. "It's not."

Reynard approached the pedestal slowly. Every instinct told him to turn back.

And yet—the artifact was calling to him.

Then, the whispers returned.

But this time, they weren't coming from the door.

They were coming from the artifacts themselves.

Something in this room was alive.

And it had been waiting for them.