Silence.
No wind. No air. No sound.
Only a strange, resonant stillness.
The ruin floated in a void that shimmered like liquid memory. The Interlace—an extradimensional thread between the fabric of Exarune and… something older.
Kael stood at the ruin's edge, peering out into the endless mist. Threads of reality pulsed in distant lines, like glowing veins in a colossal, sleeping beast.
"I expected void," Dren muttered, stepping cautiously behind him. "Not... architecture."
Tessia crouched beside a fractured rail. "It's building itself."
Indeed, far off in the mist, platforms floated into alignment. Bridges made of luminous script formed paths between chunks of impossible geometry. Ruined arches drifted lazily, echoing sounds not heard since the world's creation.
"It's not just a pocket dimension," Kael said. "It's a storage vault. A memory bank. Possibly… an entire sub-network of ruins never built physically."
Zarith spun slowly in place, eyes unfocused. "So many voices. Some want out. Some… don't know they're dead."
Kael raised a hand, and the platform beneath them responded—sigils lighting in sync with the Primed Lens embedded in his chest.
A beam of logic fired forward, opening a crystalline path into the deeper Interlace.
Further In — Chamber of Reflection
They walked for what felt like minutes… hours... time bled strangely here.
At the center of a spinning atrium, a globe hovered. Inside, maps flickered—then stabilized into a projection of Exarune.
But something was wrong.
The continent was larger. Older. Familiar structures were missing. Others existed where deserts now lay.
"This is Exarune…" Sera said slowly, "... but from the past."
Kael's eyes narrowed. "No. Not the past. The original. This is the version before the world fractured."
Tessia drew a sharp breath. "You're saying the Exarune we know is… broken?"
Kael nodded. "Reset. Rebooted. And the ruins? They're the remnants of the original system. Safeguards. Maybe even countermeasures."
As he spoke, the globe fractured—and a second sphere formed beside it. This one showed the current Exarune.
And between them… thin red lines.
Corruption threads.
"That's what the ruins were trying to detect," Kael murmured. "A mental virus. A corruption spreading across the system of the world itself."
Zarith dropped to his knees, clutching his head. "It's speaking again. The Whisperer. But it's… louder."
Kael turned toward him. "Where is it coming from?"
Zarith looked up, sweat dripping. "Not here. But it's… looking for you."
Elsewhere — Kingdom of Veinhold
In the Veinhold capital, the Aether Seer's tower shook violently. The Council scrambled as their scrying mirrors exploded one by one.
"We lost the ruin completely!" one mage screamed.
Elira Vein stood with arms crossed, cloak flaring as lightning licked her fingertips. "Then someone has bridged to the Interlace."
"Impossible," the archmage said. "That requires a Lens. A key—and only the Architects had—"
His voice faltered. Everyone turned to her.
"That boy has it," Elira said.
Back in the Interlace
Kael approached the center of the chamber. The globe fragments pulsed—welcoming, or warning.
"We're not the first to come here," he said. "But we might be the first to leave with answers."
He pressed his palm to the data core.
In that moment, every ruin lit across the world.
Briefly. Blindingly.
And Kael saw.
Flashes of unknown ruins buried beneath oceans.
Pillars that whispered thoughts.
Tombs that grew new thoughts like gardens.
And at the center of it all, buried beneath an island that no longer exists—a ruin unlike the others.
One that was never meant to be found.
"There's a central node," Kael breathed. "The place where it all began."
Sera asked quietly, "Can we get to it?"
Kael turned to her. His expression wasn't calm anymore.
"No. We have to make it come to us."
[ END OF CHAPTER 13 ]