Chapter 2: Temple Pathway Discovery

Ruins of the Sky Temple — Daylight filters thin through broken stone ribs arching toward the heavens. Dust drifts in sheets. The hush of height settles over everything.

[Auren'thal brushes fingers over a fractured pillar.]

Auren'thal: "The air... it remembers. Even if no one else does."

Seren (sitting cross-legged on a half-collapsed plinth): "Or it's holding its breath. Either way, it's not eager to tell us anything."

Auren'thal: "It never does. Not upfront. But the temple's bones are humming today. Subtle, but there. You feel it too."

Seren (glancing sideways): "I feel cold toes and suspicion. Also, you're doing that brooding thing again."

Auren'thal: "Introspection. Try it sometime."

Seren: "Tried it once. Got bored. Didn't like the view."

[They circle the ruin slowly, each moving with practiced rhythm. Seren hums idly while brushing dust from carved stone; Auren'thal pauses often, gaze drawn to ancient lines and faint markings.]

Auren'thal: "Here. This pattern again. Curved lines within a square sigil. We've seen it before—drowned vault, obsidian wall, desert doors."

Seren: "Same maker? Or same message?"

Auren'thal (thoughtfully): "Doesn't matter. The shape survives. The meaning clings."

Seren (knocks on stone): "No hollow sound. No lever. Just old rock pretending it's important."

Auren'thal (with a faint smile): "It is important. We just haven't asked the right question yet."

**[She rolls her eyes, then joins him as he kneels beside a sigil inset into the floor. Unlike the rest, this one is recessed, cleaner.]

Seren: "That one's different."

Auren'thal: "More preserved. Maybe meant to last until... now."

[They begin gently brushing dust from around it, revealing a sequence of worn runes. Auren'thal traces one with a glove-covered hand.]

Auren'thal: "These weren't just decorations. They're part of something—like a script, or a circuit."

Seren: "Circuit? Gods above, don't start with the old 'everything connects' theory."

Auren'thal (quietly): "You joke, but it's working. Look."

[He steps back as a faint pulse ripples through the stone. Lines of soft blue begin to crawl outward from the sigil.]

Seren (standing quickly): "Alright. That's new."

Auren'thal: "Reaction to pressure, or presence. We activated something."

Seren: "This is when the old stories say run."

Auren'thal: "And yet you're still here."

Seren: "Don't read into it. My boots are stuck."

[More lines light up. A circular pattern forms around the center dais. Stone shifts beneath the dust, trembling as part of the floor lowers inward—a spiral descent is revealed.]

Seren (deadpan): "There it is. Creepy ancient hole in the floor. Like clockwork."

Auren'thal: "This place isn't dead. It's asleep. And we knocked."

Seren: "Could've sent a letter. Or not come at all."

**[The temple structure groans. Along the walls, collapsed arches start mending slowly, pieces drawing together in glacial rhythm. Dust falls in curtains.]

Auren'thal: "It's rebuilding... because of that pathway."

Seren: "So... the temple's been waiting for someone to trigger the door so it can wake up?"

Auren'thal: "That's what it looks like."

[They both stare down into the now-open spiral stair. The wind is gone. Silence blooms.]

Seren (uneasy): "You know protocol. We send word. Wait for approval."

Auren'thal: "By the time a guild envoy gets here, that opening may be gone."

Seren: "Or worse—someone else finds it first."

Auren'thal (tense): "Do you want to be the footnote? Or the name on the map?"

Seren (pause, then a sigh): "You're making that face again. The one that says, 'I'm going in, consequences be damned.'"

Auren'thal: "Tell me I'm wrong. Tell me we're not meant to see what's below."

Seren (quieter now): "You're not wrong. I just don't like being right with you."

[They look once more at the glowing descent. The temple murmurs around them.]

Auren'thal: "So?"

Seren: "Fine. But you're carrying the snacks. And if we die, I'm haunting you with interpretive dance."

Auren'thal (grinning faintly): "Deal."

[They step into the spiral, fading into the dim below. The ruins hum, shifting. The temple continues to rebuild, slowly, piece by piece.]