The shadow carried him forward and released him into a different kind of silence.
The foothills gave way almost immediately to vertical stone, to steep walls that rose too close together and turned the world into narrow corridors of rock. The light faded faster here, not because the sun had set, but because the mountains stole it. Even the wind changed. It didn't flow freely anymore; it slipped through cracks and channels, making low, restless sounds that never fully repeated the same way twice.
Noel continued moving with "Shadow Step," but the rhythm had to change. Out on the plains, shadows had been long and generous, laid out across open ground like a road meant for him. Here, they were shorter, broken apart by jagged surfaces and shifting angles. A shadow could vanish behind a ridge line after a single step. Another could distort as the stone face narrowed, forcing him to pick his landings with more care.
He slowed.
