Chapter 16. The Echo Rift

The tolling of the ash bell echoed through the valley for hours. It was not a sound meant for ears. It resonated in bones, in memory. When it faded, it left behind a silence more deafening than its chime.

Aria stood beneath the high tower where the Ash had spoken. Her skin still prickled. The glyphs etched across the keep’s stone had quieted, but not vanished. They pulsed with waiting.

“Assembly,” she whispered. “But for what?”

Jules arrived beside her, carrying the parchment from the glade. “There’s something else.”

She unrolled it. The empty page now bore a map.

A canyon cleaved into the earth beyond the eastern ridge. No such landmark had existed before. But the Ash, apparently, had drawn it into being.

“The Echo Rift,” Jules said. “I’ve only heard it mentioned once. In the journals of a seer who vanished mid-sentence.”

Kade joined them, adjusting his gauntlet. “Sounds inviting.”

Aria studied the lines. The map pulsed once, then fad