The mist did not close.
It lingered in its parting, as if waiting for something else to be said. But Kael and Elira remained silent. The names had been spoken. The realm had heard.
And now, it would respond.
The ground beneath the ruin shifted slightly, not violently, but rhythmically, like a slow heartbeat rising from deep within the stone.
Kael stood, scanning the edges of the clearing.
Elira took the twins into her arms. They did not sleep, but they did not cry. Nyra's silver eyes blinked slowly. Riven's hand clenched around a thread of air that shimmered like spun glass.
A presence returned.
Not the Watchers.
Something heavier.
The trees at the edge of the ruin bent, not from wind, but weight.
Kael moved to the archway. "Something comes."
Elira stepped beside him. "Not from above."
"No," he said. "From below."
The moss beneath their feet pulsed once. Then again.
Then, from the far side of the ruin, the ground cracked.
A jagged seam split the stone, opening a narrow passage leading downward, into darkness laced with violet light.
Elira looked at Kael. "This wasn't built."
"No," he agreed. "It was awakened."
The path waited.
And the earth no longer slept.