[First POV-Theo]
The cave did not feel like a cave.
It felt carved, shaped with intention.
The passage widened gradually as we walked, the ceiling climbing higher and higher until the darkness above swallowed the light from Astrae's faint glow. The walls were not rough in the way natural stone should be. They had been cut, then left to age. Tall ridges rose like frozen waves, and broken columns stood half-formed from the ground as if someone had tried to build something holy here and then abandoned it.
Water dripped somewhere far above us. The sound echoed longer than it should have.
Each step we took felt small.
The air was damp and heavy, thick with the smell of stone and old decay. It clung to the back of my throat.
"This doesn't feel like we're in the palace anymore," I muttered.
Kyrene glanced around, eyes sharp.
"We're not within the palace grounds like I initially assumed. We might already be far from Solcarth, somewhere near mountains and rivers."
