Chapter 39: Truth Buried in Stone
The light in the lowest chamber was thin and cold. Ashen stood over the crumbling tiles and watched the assistant breathe in the open air for the first time since Ashen broke the stasis barrier. The man's chest rose and fell slowly. He looked weaker than any living person Ashen had seen, but he was alive.
Ashen held his hand out as if to steady him. The assistant's fingers brushed his palm, small and clammy.
"Thank you," the man said. His voice was rough, like someone who had not spoken in a long time. He forced a tired smile. "You freed me without tearing me apart. I owe you a debt."
Ashen did not smile back. He sank to one knee carefully, helping the assistant sit against a ruined pillar. The man's robes were torn. His face was thin, but his eyes were sharp and clear. Even like this he seemed aware of everything in the room.
"You said the valley is not natural," Ashen said. He kept his voice low. He wanted the truth in clear words.
The assistant huffed a weak laugh. "You don't want riddles. Good. I'll tell you plainly. This place is not a forest or a mountain. It is a cage. A seal built by people long gone. They made it to hold the aftermath of a terrible fight."
Ashen blinked. "A seal?"
"Yes." The assistant nodded. He tried to sit up straighter. "Long ago, a great fighter fought here. His power was huge—so big it ripped the land apart. Mountains broke. The sky bent. People feared what would happen if that power spread. So they sealed it. They made a valley that could hold the broken pieces. They built layers of stone, runes, formations—everything to keep that power locked inside."
Ashen listened and watched the assistant's mouth move. The words were plain, but they carried weight. Ashen had seen the murals up above. He had felt the place respond to him. Now the pieces fit together in a simple, hard way.
"So the valley holds the leftovers?" Ashen said. "The things left behind after the battle?"
"Exactly," the assistant said. "After that fight, fragments of power stayed here. They did not die. They hardened into strange things. Not spirits in the usual sense. Not animals. More like echoes—leftover wills that took shape. They feed on feelings. On strength. On quiet minds. They made monsters that belong to the valley, not to the outside world."
Ashen's hands tightened into fists. He thought about the beasts and the reflections he had fought. None of them had been natural. They had felt like the valley's echoes. He had brushed their forms away, but they had kept coming.
"Why are they drawn to me?" Ashen asked. He kept his voice even. He did not want the assistant to see his worry.
The assistant's face showed real worry now. "Because you carry something the valley recognizes."
"What do you mean?"
"You carry a broken piece of power inside you," the assistant said. He touched his own chest with a trembling hand. "I could feel it through the barrier—like a warm pulse against cold stone. Not many things can break a stasis sign like that. You did not break it by force. You spoke to it with your Qi. But your Qi is not clean—there is a crack inside it. A part of you is not whole."
Ashen's throat tightened. He did not like the words. He had felt the crack since the mirror-illusion. He had pushed it away. But the assistant said the same thing in a calm, clear voice. Not a judgment. Just fact.
"You mean the thing that follows me?" Ashen asked. He kept his eyes on the assistant's face.
"Yes." The assistant did not look away. His gaze was sharp for a moment, tired but clear. "Something follows you. It is born from what you carry. It is not the valley's native thing. It is part of you that has become its own being. It moves like a shadow, but it learns. It eats the pieces it finds and grows."
Ashen swallowed. The room felt colder. He remembered the mirror that mimicked him, the beast that learned mid-fight. All those things were linked now.
"If that thing grows strong," the assistant said, "it will press against the seal. The valley can hold many things—but it cannot hold a force that can walk out. If your shadow pushes hard enough, it will weaken the cage. If the cage breaks…"
He let the sentence hang.
"If the cage breaks," the assistant finished, "the things buried here will be free. The valley will not stay quiet. The world beyond will feel the cracks. Things worse than the monsters you have seen could spread out."
Ashen's hands moved without his permission. He placed them on his knees, steadying himself. Everything in him wanted to deny it. But the assistant's eyes were steady. The man was telling the truth.
"How did you know this?" Ashen asked. "Who are you? Where is the doctor?"
The assistant's face changed. It tightened like a drawn string. "I am the assistant of the Divine Doctor. I traveled with him for many months. The doctor went deeper in than I did. He studied the stones, the formations, the seals. He knew more than I can put into words. He warned us—he warned us all that this place would test people." The man coughed and spat a little blood. "The doctor is alive, but he has been pushed even deeper. We were searching for medical methods and safety, not treasure. Then something happened—things went wrong. He tried to stay behind to study, and I tried to protect his work. The valley struck back. It trapped me in the stasis field so I wouldn't die from the damage."
Ashen remembered the doctor's name in rumors: a person who repaired wounds others said could not be healed. He had believed the doctor might be a legend. Now the assistant confirmed the doctor existed, and was still lost in the deep.
"Can the doctor be saved?" Ashen asked.
The assistant's shoulders shook. He looked small and tired. "If we can get him out before the seal fails—maybe. The doctor is clever, but he cannot hold on forever. He is weakened, too, by this place. This valley bends time. Days feel like minutes. Minutes feel like days. I cannot say exactly how long he can hold on. But there is a chance if we move fast."
Ashen thought about the rogues trapped above, about the trials, about the shadow that followed him and the fissure in his will. He had come to this valley for the Divine Doctor, or at least that was how the story had started. Now the valley and his own shadow had become far more dangerous.
The assistant gave him a thin smile that was mostly pain. "One more thing. The valley does not like the unstable. That is why it gives tests. It makes people face what they fear. If someone is balanced in heart and steady in soul, they may pass. If they have cracks—like you—those cracks will be shown to them to be fixed or exploited."
Ashen closed his eyes briefly. He felt the memory of the Trial of Reflection like a stone at the bottom of his chest. The emotionless version of himself had been too real. The crack the assistant mentioned was not a guess. It was a mark that had already made itself known.
He opened his eyes. "How do we move him? How do we get the doctor out?"
The assistant's lips thinned. "Carefully. We move with control. You will need to use your Qi again—more than you did for me, but still not with force. The stasis and the deeper seals respond to precise rhythm. If you force them, the seals close tighter or explode. If you guide them gently, they will open like a healed wound."
Ashen nodded. The plan was clear and dangerous. Gentle work in a place that did not like ease. The assistant looked at him with sudden urgency.
"There is one more danger," the man said. "The shadow that follows you — do not let it leave the valley. If it does, the seal can be weakened from outside. It will be a second force pushing the broken pieces apart. If your shadow goes beyond the valley, the seal will break more quickly."
Ashen tightened his jaw. He thought of the emptiness in that illusion, the killing machine he had seen. He thought of how the valley made things from fractured will. He felt the weight of the warning like a stone set on his chest.
At that moment, the floor vibrated. A low, heavy rumble rolled through the chamber. Dust sifted from the ceiling. The assistant's eyes widened with fear. He clutched the remains of his robe and whispered, "No. Not yet."
Another tremor came, stronger this time. Stones above them cracked. The old pillars shuddered. The glow that carved lines across the floor brightened and raced like a heartbeat.
Ashen stood up fast. "What is that?"
The assistant's voice was almost a scream. "The seal is weakening!"
Outside the hall, far above, another rumble rolled through the earth. The sound traveled like a warning. Ashen pictured the valley like an old cage. He pictured the cage splitting at a seam. If the seal broke, the whole valley might become a wound in the world.
Ashen's fingers clenched. He felt the crack inside him like a live thing. For the first time he did not only fear what the valley would do. He feared what the thing following him could do if it escaped.
"We need to find the doctor now," Ashen said. "We cannot let the seal fall because of me or anything else."
The assistant nodded, very small, but he found strength to speak. "He is in the lower sanctum. The doctor marked a path, but the paths are changing. We must go down and move quickly. But listen — the trials could be worse now. The valley reacts to any force that moves within it. If the seal is failing, the trials will become more violent. We have little time."
Ashen looked at him. The urgency in the man's voice made the air feel thin. He had to choose. Go deeper with hope and danger, or go nowhere and wait for the world to break outside the valley.
He stood. He took the assistant by the elbow gently and helped him to his feet. The man was heavy with sickness, but he did not fall.
Outside, the ruins creaked and shifted. Another tremor hit, stronger than the last. A crack opened along the far wall and dust fell in a steady rain.
Ashen felt the truth settle in his stomach. The valley was fragile. The seal was a thin thing that time and force had already weakened. He had to move. The doctor was waiting. People outside were in danger. The creature that followed him might grow strong enough to push the seal and break it for good.
He gathered his Qi in small, steady waves, feeling the faint fracture in himself like a pull. He told himself the crack did not make him weak. It made him careful. It would not be allowed to spread.
He placed one hand lightly on the assistant's shoulder. "We move now."
The assistant nodded. A weak hope lit his eyes.
They stepped toward the stair that led deeper into the dark. The ruin groaned as if in answer.
Above them, the valley shuddered again. The seal was losing its strength. The world around them tightened like a held breath.
Ashen had no certainty of success. He had only one aim: reach the doctor, stop the shadow from leaving, and hold the valley together long enough for both to escape if that was possible.
They moved forward into the dark.