rayn_k

The Zmrylian Mountains awake from the mist once every twenty years, calling to dreamers, warrirors, and fools to seek it’s power.
To save her life and regain her freedom , a spirited assassin, burdened by ghosts of her past, is forced to escort the dying prince of Zmryt into the land of old magic to find Eternity, the wish-giver. 

The mission is simple: keep him alive long enough to reach Eternity 

But she doesn’t know that they are sent with ulterior motives.

In the land of old magic, truth twists and in the fight for  survival, something fragile blooms.
But as monsters stir in the mountains and old magic awakens, Lyra starts to wonder where the real enemy is.

BOUND FOR ETERNITY

Lyra wasn't about to let it finish whatever it was building, she ran straight for the light from it's chest.

Which obviously looked like a weak point.

She struck it and sent it a few steps back.

Lyra hit the ground hard, rolled, came up with blood in her mouth and fury in her limbs.

The construct wasn't slowing. But it did distract it from whatever it was building. It faced her and walked towards her

Every step it took rang through the valley like a bell tolling for something long dead. Runes across its back flashed, faster now, desperate. The ward wasn't winning.

Kaal was on his knees, face pale, magic still flickering under his skin like lightning bottled.

Thalin crouched behind a cracked pillar, hands stained with ink and grit, muttering something as he traced a symbol into the stone.

Lyra darted toward the construct, drawing it away from Kaal. "Come on, statue-face," she spat. "I'm right here."

The ward reared back, then punched the ground.

A crack ran between the pillars, wide, glowing faintly blue at the edges.

Thalin shouted, "It's destabilizing the magic line!"

"Perfect," she muttered. "Just what I wanted for breakfast."

His eyes burned silver, bleeding light. "It's tethered to this place. If we break the seal..."

"We fall into a death hole," Lyra finished.

"No," Thalin said, stepping forward with a piece of broken stone in his hand, still inscribed. "We fall forward."

The ward lunged again, arm swinging wide, arc of force enough to shatter a tree behind them. Kaal raised his hand. Another blast, smaller this time, weaker.

Slid low, slashed behind the construct's knee joint, used the momentum to carry her up and over its back. She landed hard, breath knocked out, but the hit worked. The thing staggered.

Lyra stepped closer, blade raised.

Silence rang louder than the fight had.

Lyra stared at the place where it had stood.

Kaal limped toward her. "You good?"

"I think it complimented me," she said breathlessly.

He smiled. "It tried to kill you."

Thalin knelt beside the runes, brushing dust with reverence. "It's gone."

Because the seal, whatever magic had held this place together, broke.

A wall of stone on the northern edge collapsed inward, revealing a narrow path between cliffs, one that hadn't been there before.

Lyra swore. " What's one more unnatural thing."

"Everything here is," Thalin said.

By the time night fell, the air had thinned, the wind had changed, and the terrain sloped toward softer forest. Less jagged. Less cursed.

They found a hollow between stone faces and camped without speaking much. Even Thalin was quiet. He tended to Kaal's burns without comment.

Lyra sat with her knees drawn up, staring into a dead fire.

She didn't look at him, but her voice was steady. "That wasn't normal magic."

Behind them, Thalin murmured as he turned the last of the cracked stone piece in his hand. Just one word, over and over, under his breath.

Things that break the ground