Gray sat slumped in the corner of the truck, body wrapped tightly in several layers of coarse blankets. His breath fogged in front of him with each slow exhale. The frostbite in his legs still hadn't eased. His joints ached with every shift of movement, and the cold felt deeper than skin. It had reached something inside him. Something he could not name.
The others kept their distance. Not out of malice. Not out of kindness either. Since his return from the tower, since he had spoken about the fractured sky, the eye embedded in the frozen ceiling, and the ice giant that moved with thought instead of instinct, silence had wrapped around them like a second storm. No one had asked him to repeat the tale. No one had questioned the impossible things he claimed to have seen. They simply looked away, as though afraid that acknowledging it might make it real.
Outside, Glacierfang's winds screamed across the slopes, keening through crevices and broken peaks. The truck pushed forward slowly, its frame shuddering with every jolt from the uneven path. The wheels fought to stay upright against the slick terrain. A distant groaning noise echoed from the mountainside as something heavy shifted within the ice above them.
The sky overhead remained an ashen grey. What little sunlight remained fractured as it touched the atmosphere, bending at impossible angles. It reminded Gray of cracked glass above a dying world.
Renn sat at the wheel, both hands clenched tight enough that his knuckles had gone pale. His eyes flicked between the road and the side mirrors, as though something might appear at any moment. Korr sat beside him in tense silence, his weapon resting across his lap. Though his eyes were closed, his posture remained alert. Ready. Watching. Adel leaned near the far window, fingers tapping out some restless rhythm on her leg. Her eyes were unfocused, but she wasn't daydreaming. She was thinking, calculating. And Lira sat quietly, back straight, the hilt of her sword propped against her shoulder. She didn't look at anyone. Not even Gray.
None of them had spoken since he climbed back into the truck hours ago, still shaking, still bleeding from the encounter.
Eventually, it was Adel who pierced the silence. "Where are we going now?" Her voice was low but calm, as if she had been waiting to ask for some time.
Renn cleared his throat. "There's a junction ahead. If we take the east ridge, we'll descend back into the previous valley, where the narrow path is."
Korr opened his eyes. "And if that thing follows us?" His voice was quiet but hard. "You heard him. It was no mindless beast. It saw him. It looked through the tower. It's a Rank A for God's sake!" He shouted, his voice hinted at some panic.
Gray said nothing. He kept his gaze fixed on the floor of the truck.
Lira finally turned to face them. "We keep moving. That's the rule. And furthermore, we don't know if it's following us. We survive, that's the priority. That's all."
Outside, the snow thickened again. The fog slithered across the ice, thick enough to turn everything beyond the glass into white haze. The truck's tires ground against the path, sending vibrations up through the floorboards.
Then the engine began to sputter.
Renn cursed. "Feels like we're climbing again."
Ahead, the slope rose gradually from the fog, nearly invisible in the muted light. The vehicle continued forward, tires crunching against hardened snow.
A dark shape appeared in the fog, jutting up from the white.
Renn slowed. "Do you see that?"
Adel pressed her face to the window, squinting. "It looks like... a gate? But... how come we didn't see that before?"
"No idea." Korr whispered.
Gray stirred and leaned forward, squinting through the icy glass. The outline grew clearer as they approached. A semi-circular arch of dark stone and aged metal stood partially buried, emerging from the snow like the spine of some ancient creature. Strange carvings twisted along its surface. Time had not weathered it. The snow around it didn't even touch the metal.
"Stop the truck," Lira said, already reaching for the door.
"I thought we were meant to continue, no matter what?" Korr's voice was filled with scorn.
"It'll only take a moment."
They all stepped into the cold. Gray struggled, pain flaring as he limped toward the structure, using a broken shard of metal as a makeshift cane. The air was colder here. He could feel it in his lungs.
Adel knelt by the base of the arch, wiping snow from one of the symbols. Her eyes widened. "This... This is the same as the mark on the sword Gray found."
Lira's head snapped toward her. "Are you sure?"
"Look here," Adel pointed to a spiral pattern broken in three places. "It loops, then fractures. Same pattern. Same structure."
Gray moved closer, examining the carving. Recognition flickered inside him. Not from memory. From his strain. The Hollow inside him reacted. A silent pulse spread through his veins, subtle and cold.
"It responds," he muttered. "Just like before."
"This place might be older than any of the Sanctuaries," Lira murmured.
"Or older than Vyre itself," Adel added, her voice barely above a whisper.
Then came the sound.
Snow shifting.
All of them froze.
Nothing moved. The fog thickened. No sign of an intruder. Only wind.
They returned to the truck in silence. Whatever that place was, it had been waiting too long for answers. They were not ready to give any.
They drove again, moving cautiously into the growing night. The cliffs narrowed. The fog clung tighter.
When the sun vanished behind the peaks, they finally stopped for the night. They parked between two jagged rocks that offered slight shelter from the wind. Inside, they lit a small heater. The light from it flickered across their faces.
Korr sat near the front, polishing his weapon. Adel jotted notes into a thin notebook. Lira rested with her eyes half-lidded, lost in thought. Gray remained still, his mind unsettled.
His strain remained unstable. Every time he tried to channel Vyre, it came differently now. Heavier. More draining. The Hollow inside him shifted with thoughts not entirely his own.
He tried to rest, but something kept pulling him back to awareness.
Then the truck jolted once.
Everyone reacted.
Korr stood immediately. "What now?"
Renn looked through the windshield. "Nothing moved. Might have been wind."
Gray stood, wincing at the pain, and opened the rear door.
Snow greeted him. Quiet. Still.
Except for one thing.
In the snow behind the truck, barely a meter from the rear tires, was an imprint.
A perfect human-shaped indentation. Not a footstep. Not a fall. As if someone had been standing still, and then vanished straight down.
He stepped back.
"Lira..." he called out.
She came quickly, saw it, and immediately drew her blade. "It came from below. There are no prints around it."
Adel joined them, pulling her coat tighter around her shoulders. She stared at the imprint, her breath catching.
Renn approached and looked beyond them into the snow. "We have to move. Now."
Korr hesitated, but one look at the imprint ended the argument. He climbed back inside without a word.
They started the engine.
As the truck lurched forward into the dark, Gray kept watching the snow behind them. The path they had traveled no longer seemed quiet. There was something under it. Something old. Something cold.
A faint shimmer passed through the snow behind them.
Nothing visible. But something was shifting.
Was this another remnant of the tower? Had the eye awakened something when it looked through him? Or had something else been watching long before he ever stepped into that place?
The truck pressed onward, rattling through the narrowing ridge.
Gray turned for one last look.
Beyond the white mist, faint and high above, just where the cliffs bent into storm, a yellow eye pulsed through the haze.
Watching.
Waiting.
Beneath the snow, the mountain began to breathe.
And the cold, once a silent killer, now felt like a whisper.
Not alone.