OBSCURA

skeletal trees. The tower that loomed in the distance-Caldrithan Spire-

d found beneath the theatre now hung around her neck, its weight both familiar and f

since their encounter with the Dancer-more protective, yes, but also more rev

t sleep," he sa

her head. "Too

loc

All of it. It's like my memories are whisp

ith dark ivy and thistle. In the centre stood an ornate pedes

s is what the Weaver meant. T

brow. "And wh

ght over the ruins. The light didn't spread normally-it bled into the cracks of realit

pered. "It doesn't lead to t

h damp. The deeper they went, the stranger the air became, rich wi

o faces, dancing under moons with too many eyes. At the centre of every mur

len muttered, tracing

aid. "She wasn't just a bearer of the mask.

passage. Not threatening-musical. Li

a great cir

agged pieces. Suspended above the well was a bridge of bone and vine

lence," the figure said.

ped forward.

rning Eye. The gatekeeper

us

gaze passed over Kalen. "He carrie

"I'll wait here. If thi

Beneath his strength, she

want to l

And when you return, I'll

issed

werful one-like the strike of

rd, Virelith stepp

rinth wa

walls became mirrors, then flesh, then stone again.

r whispering lullabies in a forgotten tongue. She saw herself as a child, laughing in

, she

r, she di

f them, she

yrinth, she found a thr

wned with antlers of glass. H

of fire. Y

't kno

you. You are the one who escaped the

and the a

to know you

itated.

a single hand. A shard of

n lo

the shard. Saw h

e was b

terr

scre

ror sha

n recoiled. "Yo

aid, fire curling

ern, and its light

throne split. The walls

e

through broken time,

into the circular

ll there. He

came

"I saw it. My face. My name.

from her brow.

rough tears.

outside the labyrinth. Virelith lay bes

want me?" s

than

nestled in

t time in years,

s a m

nning to understan