The hidden passage breathes around them, blue stones steady in the dark. Dust sifts from the ceiling in slow veils. In Cero’s shoulder, the dim pulse answers the ruin like a second heartbeat.
Sable
Cero... I feel it tugging again. The ruin wants us still.
Sable braces one pawed hand against the wall, fighting for balance as the glow in her eyes flickers. The corridor hums under their feet, a pressure building in the stone.
Cero
The blue light is strongest where the stones meet.
Sable
If there is a wound in this place, it is ours too. Help me hold it open, or shut it.
A seam of blue light runs along the floor ahead, thin as a blade. The walls tighten with a low grind, as if the passage itself is deciding whether to swallow them.
Sable
Cero, choose. Reach for the light, or pull away before it takes us both.
“I stutter telling sable I feel my teeth sharpening”
SUCCESS (Legendary Willpower, rolled -1)
Cero
I... I feel my teeth sharpening.
The words leave Cero thinly, under the grind of the stones. His jaw tenses as if he is testing the change against the air.
Sable
Thank you for saying it. I can hear the fear in that, and I am still here.
Sable eases one step closer, keeping her balance against the narrowing wall. The blue in her eyes steadies, not gone, but less wild.
Sable
He trusts me with the ugly part first. That matters.
Cero’s shoulder gives off a faint blue pulse in time with the seam below, and the echo of it runs once through both of them like a shared breath.
Sable
Then we watch for the next sign together. No hiding it from me.