The ruins above the temple groaned, a long, low sound like the sigh of an old beast roused from sleep. Stones cracked under invisible strain, fissures spiderwebbing outward from the valley's heart. Dust lifted from the ground in pale ribbons, curling and twisting like smoke, shimmering faintly in the moonlight as though even the earth bled fragments of memory into the air.
The mountain seemed restless. Every ledge, every broken terrace quivered with an unease that had nothing to do with the night wind. It was as though the land itself had felt the chain's breaking, and recoiled.
Far above, beneath the open sky, watchers stirred.
