The Hollow City
Days stretched into weeks as Lena, Elric, and Bram pursued the trail of distorted magic and shifting signs. The world around them no longer obeyed its former laws. Trees bled silver sap. Shadows moved without light. Time slowed in certain valleys and raced in others.
But always, the same sigil appeared: etched in rocks, burned into tree bark, carved into dreamscapes—Mira's mark. Proof that she was still moving, still acting across some unseen boundary.
Their path led them to the Hollow City.
Nestled in a crater of stone and starlight, the Hollow City was a ruin untouched by time. Its towers floated inches above the earth. Its streets glowed faintly underfoot, forming patterns that responded to thought, not movement. And at its center stood an obelisk of clear crystal, humming with the sound of voices long lost.
"This place," Lena whispered, "it's older than the Balance."
Bram stepped forward, one hand outstretched. The crystal pulsed at his touch.
Suddenly, the city responded. Lights flared across the ruins. Phantom figures appeared—echoes of the city's last inhabitants. They walked the streets, silent, translucent, their lives replaying in an endless loop.
A woman tending a garden that bloomed with music. A child painting stars into the sky with a brush of light. A council gathered around a model of the Tree, arguing in a language older than sound.
Then came the last image: a spiral gateway opening in the sky above the obelisk, and a great flood of darkness pouring through. The phantoms fled. The lights dimmed. The city hollowed.
"This was a crossing point," Lena said. "One the Keepers forgot—or were made to forget."
Elric approached the obelisk and placed his hand upon it. A single voice whispered:
"The Hollow endures. The Dream waits. The Key remembers."
In that moment, Bram staggered.
"I saw her," he said. "Mira. Not here, not fully—but she was walking the Dreaming Path. She's near. And not alone."
The sigil on the obelisk pulsed once more, and a new trail revealed itself—silver dust spiraling eastward, toward the Cradle of Ash.
And beyond that… the heart of the Between.