Zarekth’s gaze was unwavering, cold and detached as Lyra’s words hung in the air. The weight of his skepticism pressed down on her, making her feel as though the very concept of friendship was somehow trivial, unworthy of his understanding. His expression remained impassive, and for a brief moment, Lyra felt the sting of his indifference.“Your friends?” he echoed, his voice laced with disdain, as if the idea was beneath him.Lyra’s frustration surged. She stood straighter, trying to push back against the god’s towering presence. “Yes, my friends,” she repeated, sharper now, anger flaring in her chest. “We were exploring some ancient ruins for a history project. None of us were trying to summon gods or meddle with forces we didn’t understand. We were just—” She hesitated as the memory of the storm returned to her mind ever so vividly. "A storm occurred," she managed to say, although the peg of her voice quivered as that image played out in her mind.“The ruins started collapsing.
The moment Zarekth returned to the world, it became immediately clear that this was no ordinary event. He wasn’t just any being—he was a god, stirring from a sleep of a thousand years. Laying eyes on him for the first time was a shock to Lyra’s system. Towering at six feet eight inches, he made her feel minuscule, insignificant even, at her five-foot-seven frame. Standing next to him was akin to standing beside a force of nature, rather than flesh and blood. The darkness seemed to churn around him, enhancing his imposing presence, a reminder that she was now in the presence of a god.Muscles adorned every single part of him, and he emanated strength from his core. His silver hair fell over his hefty shoulders, framing a face that was stunning yet frightening simultaneously. His lobes were pierced and he sported ear-rings. Thick, dark brows shadowed sharp, sculpted features that seemed almost too perfect, as though the gods themselves had chiseled him from marble. Even in the dim lig
There was a striking attraction that pulled her towards the tomb, and it was similar to how a moth would be drawn to a flame. Every single one of Lyra's instincts screamed at her to back away, but she turned her mind off and her feet began to move, taking her into the dark. The closer she got to the stone structure, the more she could feel something like a current vibrating in her body, as if it were beating in time with her heart. It was getting heavier, the dark of the night settling in, yet something in her gut—something old and primal—pushed her on.The tomb loomed before her, its presence overwhelming. Its massive stone surface seemed to breathe with life. The carvings etched into it appeared to move in the dim light, as though frozen in time, waiting for someone like her to release their secrets. Lyra hesitated, her fingers trembling as they brushed against the worn stone. The rough surface felt ancient, pulsating beneath her fingertips, as if it held a life of its own.What lay
Lyra groggily awoke, her voice muffled by a crushing weight compressing her chest. Eyelids flailed open against the encroaching shadows, pierced by thin slivers of light. All was a blur—a diffused haze of shapeless something and indistinct shadows that seemed to twist about her vision. She blinked, fighting for clarity, and yet her body felt impossibly heavy, as if iron weights had been tied to her limbs.She took a sudden, sharp breath in, clenching her teeth, and heaved herself upright. Pain exploded through her muscles like fire, sharp stabs radiating from every inch of her body. She winced, bit back a curse, forcing herself to sit. Her breathing came in shallow, ragged gasps, and she glanced around, disoriented. One question plagued her mind, insistent, chilling.Where am I?It struck her like a thousand-pound weight, expelling the breath from her chest.Her friends were gone. Panic clawed up her throat as she yelled hoarsely and desperately, "Ivy? Rhett? Harrison?"The greeting s
Rain lashed down in relentless waves, drenching them all as they fought their way through the ruins. Lyra's clothes were slick on her; her skin prickled with the cold as the storm strengthened. Each raindrop seemed to be a needle, sharp and unyielding, piercing her skin. The wind whipped through the crumbling stone structures, howling between the ancient columns and shattered walls. The noise was something that resonated not just in the ethers, but the very ground, sending vibrations down to the rocks around them, as if something underground was moving back and forth uneasily, waiting. Rhett was leading the way, water dripping from his hair which was sticking to his forehead, and was narrowing his eyes against the rain. “I can't see a damn thing!” he voiced out, annoyance beginning to show in his tone. He turned back to look at Lyra and shook his head. "This is insane! I never signed up for this."Lyra found herself struggling to keep up, her boots sinking into the mud on every st
An unbearable iciness stood heavy in the atmosphere around the group who were petrified in front of the monumental figure of Zarekth, shrouded in all directions. The sculpture remained dilapidated but there was a strong feeling, a force, which made the very ground and the rocks they stood and walked in vibrate with the ancient eldritch energy that had long been erased from time. Lyra found it rather hard to ignore how it was working its way towards her epicenter, an irksome oscillation that brought all kinds of creeps to the back of her neck.Harrison shone his flashlight on the inscription carved into the pedestal of the statue. He wore a frown as if concentrating hard on something. His fingers ran over the other symbols as if trying to make sense of the hundreds of years that lay in the past. The first mechanism in his breath spoke about hope inside which a strange excitement girth had wrapped around it. Generally, it looked like that of a person who became an area in which people
Every step seemed an intrusion, as if they were treading a sacred floor that had not seen living souls in centuries. Lyra's boots crunched over the gravel-strewn floor, every sound sharp, far too loud against the eerie stillness of the ancient ruin. She stuck close to Ivy and Rhett, taking comfort in the nearness of the others, yet the weight of the ruin bore down upon her. It was as though the air had thickened with the history of the place, clinging to her skin and seeping into her lungs with every breath.Harrison led the way, practically buzzing with excitement. He moved with a reckless energy, the same kind that had gotten them into countless risky situations before. His flashlight beam cut through the darkness ahead, momentarily distracting Lyra from the oppressive weight of the place. But only for a moment.“Anything yet?” she asked, her voice cutting through the silence that had settled over the group like a suffocating fog.Harrison turned, his grin flashing in the dim light
They stood at the threshold of the ruin where fragments of what had once been a towering structure now lay in crumbled heaps, overtaken by wild shrubs and moss. The air was colder here, sharper, as if the ruin itself carried the chill of its ancient past. Lyra instinctively pulled her jacket tighter around her body, trying to fend off the cold that bit through to her bones.Rhett, standing next to her, seemed unaffected by the wind. At six feet three, he loomed tall against the darkening sky, his broad frame almost motionless despite the gusts. Harrison, looking somewhat impatient as he bounced on the balls of his feet, his hands stuffed into the pockets. He surveyed the wreck excitedly, almost oblivious to the cold breeze that was blowing around.“Where’s the crew?” Lyra’s voice barely carried over the wind.Harrison shrugged, his gaze fixed on the ominous stone structure ahead. “Packed up for the night, probably,” he replied. “Not like they’re expecting company out here anyway.”R
The wind howled through the night, whipping through the trees like a feral thing, its chill biting through even the thick layers of Lyra’s jacket. She zipped it up tighter, fingers brushing against the delicate tattoo on her wrist, the one that read “Lyra” in elegant, black ink. A small reminder of who she was, especially in moments like this when nothing seemed certain.She gazed out the window, watching the darkened shapes of trees blur by. The distant glow of Evervale was a memory behind them now, the town’s lights barely visible through the thickening clouds. The night had that sharp, biting cold only autumn could bring, and Lyra silently thanked herself for wearing the thick jacket and boots. The last thing she needed was to be underdressed for an ill-advised adventure into a restricted ruin.Her absent-minded fingers had pulled her sun kissed brown hair into a ponytail, attempting to keep it from whipping into her face. The wind had other ideas, though, and no matter how tightl