I left Raina's quarters with the map clutched tightly in my hand. The academy's halls felt colder than usual, their once-familiar silence now filled with shadows I hadn't noticed before. Every student who passed me was a blur—noise and light and breathless energy—but my focus tunneled in on the only sound that mattered: the pulsing of the seal beneath my chest.
The Hollow was waiting.
And I had no choice but to answer.
I didn't inform the faculty. Not Roderick. Not even Headmaster Yvain.
The fewer eyes watching, the better.
There was a path that wound out of Noctis Ardentis's northern boundary—a forgotten trail that led through old, skeletal trees and into the ruined vale known as Vel Ruin. Beyond that? The Hollow.
Not marked on any official maps.
Not guarded.
Because no one wanted to go there.
Not even the scavenger crews.
