Passing behind the waterfall was like stepping through the veil between worlds. The deafening roar became a muffled hum, and the cold spray coated their skin. They emerged into a cavern so vast it defied comprehension.
And it was not dark.
The ceiling, impossibly high above, was covered in colossal, branching colonies of phosphorescent fungi, which cast a soft, blue-green twilight over everything. The ground was carpeted in a moss that glowed with a gentler silver light, and strange, pale flora—ghostly trees with broad, translucent leaves and flowers that pulsed with faint luminescence—grew in silent groves. It was a subterranean forest, a garden nourished by chemistry and geology instead of a sun it had never known.
"Incredible," Chloe whispered, turning in a slow circle. "It's a complete, self-sustaining ecosystem. Chemo-synthesis. The minerals in the water, the gases from deep-earth vents… it's a blueprint for life on a world without a star."
Dotted throughout this luminous garden were the ruins of a settlement. But these weren't ruins of rubble and decay. Elegant structures, curved and organic, were carved directly out of the living rock and colossal stalagmite formations. Windows like hollowed eyes stared out over the silent forest. Doorways beckoned. It was a city built in perfect harmony with its bizarre environment.
They had found it. The kingdom that fell from the sun.
As they walked the silent streets of the ghost city, a profound sense of melancholy settled over Ethan. This was the culmination of his life's work, a discovery that would rewrite human history. Yet, it was a graveyard. A beautiful, majestic tomb.
Maya, her camera clicking softly, was the one who broke the spell. "Wait. Look."
She was pointing at the entrance to one of the larger carved structures. There, on the stone floor, was a fire pit. That in itself wasn't surprising. What was shocking was that a thin, almost invisible tendril of smoke was still rising from the ashes.
Ethan rushed forward and knelt. He held his hand over the pit.
It was warm.
His blood ran cold. He shot to his feet, his eyes scanning the empty windows and shadowed doorways around them. The silence of the city was no longer peaceful. It was watchful.
"They're not gone," Chloe said, her voice barely a whisper. "They're still here."
The prophecy on the wall flashed in Ethan's mind—the large-eyed figures, waiting at the bottom of the great staircase. They hadn't been waiting for him as a guest. They had been waiting for him as an intruder.
A twig snapped in the glowing forest behind them.
They spun around, flashlights cutting uselessly through the ambient twilight. They saw nothing but the ghostly trees. But they were no longer alone. The owners of this lost world had come home.