The labyrinth changed with every step.
What had been a narrow hall of cracked bricks now opened into a spiraling staircase, stone steps slick with age and moss. Faint blue runes pulsed on the walls, each beat echoing in time with the mark over my heart.
Sophia moved ahead of me, her silver hair swaying with each careful step, dagger always ready. Though she said little, her ears turned, listening to sounds I couldn't yet sense: distant rumbling, shifting walls, and perhaps even whispers only she could hear.
"How much further?" I asked, voice low.
"Not far," she said. "You'll know when we're close. Everyone does."
The staircase ended at a massive stone door, its surface etched with spirals that shimmered faintly. Age had stolen most of its meaning, but as I laid a hand on it, I felt something stir inside me — an answering pulse, as though the labyrinth recognized me.
Sophia pushed against the door. It groaned open, heavy as regret, revealing a cavern unlike anything I'd seen before.
The Echo Chamber was vast — its ceiling lost in darkness, walls covered in runes glowing pale blue and silver. Cracked statues of ancient robed figures lined the edges, and between them, small waterfalls trickled from unseen springs, feeding a shallow pool at the chamber's heart.
At its center stood a single black obelisk, taller than two men. Its surface drank in the light, and though it looked lifeless, I felt something alive within — slow, patient, older than memory.
Sophia stopped beside me. "Place your hand on it," she whispered. "If your Echo is real, it'll answer."
Heart pounding, I stepped forward. The air around the obelisk felt different — colder, heavier, as though it pressed against my skin. I hesitated, then laid my palm against the cold stone.
At first, nothing.
Then — warmth flooded my chest, racing up my arm. The mark over my heart blazed, and the runes around the chamber pulsed in answer.
Voices filled my mind, layered and distant:
"Child of two worlds… bearer of the forgotten mark… remember…"
Images flashed before my eyes:
A tower swallowed by roots.
An elven girl standing alone in a burning forest.
A blade of shifting shadows, carried by a figure whose face I couldn't see.
My breath caught. The warmth turned to pain, sharp as a blade, and I staggered back, breaking contact. The visions vanished, leaving only the sound of my racing heartbeat.
Sophia caught my shoulder. "You saw something, didn't you?"
"I… don't know what it means," I gasped. "But it felt real. Like memories, but not mine."
She nodded slowly. "That's how it begins. The Echo shows us pieces — truths buried in the labyrinth, or… futures that might come."
"Why me?" I whispered. "Why did it choose me?"
She shook her head. "No one knows. But the fact it answered you… means you're meant to climb. To remember what was lost — or what's still hidden."
As we left the chamber, I looked back at the obelisk, its surface now dull and still.
Somewhere, deep in the labyrinth, I felt something watching.
Not with eyes, but with memory itself.
And though fear curled cold in my stomach, another truth burned brighter:
I could not turn back. The labyrinth had chosen me. And I would find out why — no matter what waited in the dark.