Lira stepped cautiously into the cavern mouth carved into the ash-covered cliffside. Her suit's lights cut through the choking darkness, revealing faint inscriptions etched into the stone walls — symbols she recognized from Vaelari archives, long thought lost.
Her breath hitched. This was no ordinary ruin. It was a vault.
Deep inside, the air grew colder, charged with an energy she could feel humming beneath her skin.
At the heart of the cavern, she found it: an ancient console pulsing with dormant power. Her fingers brushed the control panel, and suddenly the room lit up with cascading data streams—visions of the past, the Vaelari's forgotten experiments on the Void, and a chilling revelation.
The Council had not only exploited the Vaelari—they had twisted their legacy into a weapon.
Lira's comm crackled to life, Kaela's voice urgent: "Lira, what have you found? We're picking up unusual readings from your location. Be careful."
Lira swallowed hard.
"Something... more than we imagined. This changes everything."