Aether ran.
The ground beneath his feet was uneven, scattered with fractured stone and the pale remains of old paths that no longer remembered where they once led. Dust rose with every step, clinging to his boots and trailing behind him like a faint echo of pursuit. The air was cold in a way that felt intentional, pressing against his lungs as if the land itself were holding its breath.
Ahead, the tower dominated the horizon.
It rose from the earth like a wound that never healed, its immense body leaning slightly, not from weakness but from age that had outlived purpose. The structure had once been smooth, its stone carefully fitted and shaped by hands that believed it would last forever. Now, entire sections had collapsed inward, leaving gaping hollows where walls had caved and floors had given up. Cracks ran along its surface like veins, some thin as hairlines, others wide enough to swallow light.
