Chapter 14: Silent Field
The fog got thicker sometime after midnight, not the same kind of fog they were used to.
This one felt different, colder and heavier than the rest, but they didn't think about the possibility of something being in it.
They crossed a ridge of broken stone, both of them worn out, silent since the last campfire. The sky above was dull gray—there were no stars or moon, just the kind of colorless dark that left you without any direction.
Even Veyla looked uneasy, her hand kept hovering over the hilt of her blade, not like she expected something to happen but she didn't trust her environment enough not to be cautious.
"Still wanna keep going?" she asked softly, sounding a bit tired.
He didn't answer her, just kept walking ahead, and he wasn't sure why.
His body didn't feel tired anymore, and that was because of the rune, but he remembered Veyla's warning:
"Strength that came with silence was never free."
They reached the edge of a large slope, and Riven stopped walking, pausing right on the edge.
The fog parted just enough for him to see what lay below, and it wasn't a battlefield—it was quiet. Spread out in all directions, across a sunken stretch of land, were what looked like hundreds of figures. Some crouched in the dirt, while others stood, but none seemed to be moving.
Each of them wore a Rune just like his, different shapes but they had the same curse. Most of them were old, worn out, and split.