They continued walking, and the noise behind them gradually faded, replaced by the steady rhythm of the city…
Footsteps. Laughter. The scrape of metal. Vendors calling out their goods.
Rai slowed slightly, as if arranging her thoughts.
"Arin… before we delve deeper into this city, there's something you need to know."
He looked at her in surprise.
"Again… something dangerous, isn't it?"
She shook her head lightly.
"Not in the way you're imagining… but it's deeper than it seems.
Rotana isn't just a city of craftsmen and trade like it appears.
It's not merely furnaces, iron, and a market overflowing with coins."
She paused, then lowered her voice.
"The other races call it… the City of Pulse."
Arin stopped walking without realizing it.
"City… of Pulse?"
The name was strange.
Not the name of a fortress.
Not a marketplace.
But something… alive.
He inhaled slowly.
"Why?"
Rai looked at the smoke towers rising from the foundries, then at the ground beneath their feet.
"Because it holds what they call… the Crimson Vein."
The name trembled in Arin's ears, as if it were more than mere words.
"The Crimson… Vein?"
She hesitated, then continued.
"That's what the legends say.
And it's only what I've heard—nothing more.
No one has undeniable proof."
Arin stepped closer.
"Tell me."
Rai exhaled softly.
"They say that in the First Era…
Before empires rose, before the races split as we know them…
there existed primordial entities.
Beings that were not gods… yet stood above the highest heavens."
She paused, choosing her words carefully.
"They didn't possess bodies as we understand them.
They were embodiments of something…
Few know of it."
"And the Crimson Vein was one of them?"
"So it is said."
A carriage passed beside them, forcing them to shift aside, but Arin didn't take his eyes off her.
"What did they represent?"
"No one knows exactly.
Some claim they embodied the life flowing through veins…
Others say they were the origin of raw mana before its laws were shaped."
A faint chill ran through him.
"What happened to them?"
Rai smiled slightly, though it wasn't reassuring.
"They were defeated."
"By whom?"
"Stronger entities."
Silence.
Arin swallowed.
"Stronger… than something that stood above the heavens?"
"Yes."
There was no exaggeration in her voice.
"And when they fell, they didn't vanish completely.
To preserve their consciousness, they scattered most of their power into the mortal world… our world."
Arin looked around—at the stones, the people, the streets.
"You mean… here?"
"Here.
And elsewhere."
She raised her hand slightly.
"Five of them, according to rumor.
Five primordial cores scattered across the world.
They're called… the Celestial Bells."
"Bells?"
"They say each one has a 'ring.'
A pulse unique to it.
If it awakens… those close enough can hear it."
Suddenly, the ground beneath Arin's feet no longer felt like mere earth.
"And the Crimson Vein… is one of the five?"
"Yes."
"And it's here… in Rotana?"
"Beneath it."
She said it calmly.
Arin stopped completely.
"Beneath it?!"
She nodded.
"That's what they say."
He looked at her, then at the streets, the buildings.
"A city… built over the core of a primordial entity?"
He laughed shortly, uneasily.
"That's madness."
"Perhaps."
"Then why build a city over something like that?!"
"Because dwarves don't flee from fire…
They build their furnaces over it."
Her words settled heavily within him.
"Is it… awake?"
"No one knows.
Some say it's been dormant for centuries.
Others claim its ringing can sometimes be heard… deep within the mines."
Arin lowered his voice.
"Have you seen it?"
"No."
"Have you felt it?"
She paused.
"No."
Then added, her tone deeper:
"But I felt something in this city… long ago."
He noticed the growing curiosity in his gaze.
"What does this have to do with us?"
She sighed.
"Maybe nothing.
Maybe it's just another legend.
But lately, rumors have begun spreading…
that something has changed."
"Changed how?"
"That the pulse… has grown clearer."
The word "pulse" was no longer metaphorical.
Arin felt his own heart beat harder.
"Do you think it will awaken?"
"I don't know."
Then she looked at him deeply, as if testing something.
"But we'll know soon… won't we?"
He froze.
"What do you mean?"
She smiled faintly, her tone lightening.
"I mean we're here now.
And if there's truth behind the legend… it won't remain hidden forever."
Arin ran a hand through his hair.
"Primordial entities… Celestial Bells… a core of power beneath a city…
And I thought my biggest problem was learning how to use a sword."
She laughed softly.
"Don't worry.
The sword will remain your problem for a while."
He breathed slowly, then asked suddenly:
"Rai…
If these things are real…
If one of them awakens…
Can a human approach it?"
She looked at him longer than necessary.
"Humans approach everything…
Sometimes out of greed.
Sometimes out of destiny."
"And you?
Do you believe in destiny?"
She answered without hesitation.
"I believe in choice…
even if the path is partially drawn."
Silence lingered.
"Five entities…
Five bells…
And one beneath our feet."
He felt a weight—not fear, but realization.
"Why tell me now?"
She smiled faintly.
"If you ever heard about the 'City of Pulse' from someone else…
I'd rather you not look at me as if I hid it from you."
He studied her face.
"Are you hiding anything else?"
Their eyes met for a second.
"Always."
She said it simply.
Then continued walking.
Arin followed, but his mind was no longer the same.
"The Crimson Vein…"
The name refused to leave him.
A pulse beneath a city.
Entities fallen from the heavens.
Power scattered across the world.
And him…
A young man who had only just begun his new life.
He clenched his fist slightly.
"If this world hides things like this…
I won't remain a mere passerby."
Even though Rai had closed the matter with:
"We'll discover what we need when the time comes. For now… let's focus on finding shelter."
Something in the air…
Deep below…
Suggested that Rotana was not merely a stop along the way.
But the beginning of approaching…
a ringing not yet heard.