Nobody moved.
The sound of the bell still seemed to linger in the cold night air long after it had stopped ringing.
The camp had fallen completely silent.
Soldiers stood frozen beside campfires. Students exchanged uneasy glances. Even the crackling of flames somehow sounded quieter than before.
One bell.
Three rings.
Then silence.
Kael slowly rose to his feet.
Around him, dozens of expedition members were doing the same.
The ruins stretched endlessly beyond the camp's perimeter, their broken silhouettes illuminated by moonlight and scattered firelight. Ancient towers rose above the darkness like skeletal fingers reaching toward the sky.
Somewhere within those ruins, something had rung that bell.
The question was simple.
What?
A familiar voice broke the silence.
"Please tell me bells naturally happen in abandoned cities."
Nobody answered.
Aren sighed.
"I already know the answer."
General Caelan appeared moments later.
The military commander moved through the camp with calm purpose while officers gathered around him.
The atmosphere immediately shifted.
Not because anyone felt safer.
Because people finally had something to focus on.
Orders.
Plans.
Direction.
One of the officers approached.
"Source location unknown."
General Caelan nodded.
"Distance?"
"Several hundred meters."
The officer hesitated.
"Possibly farther."
The military commander looked toward the darkness.
For several seconds, he remained silent.
Then:
"No pursuit."
A murmur spread through the camp.
Aren looked relieved.
Several students did not.
One of the military academy students stepped forward.
"We're ignoring it?"
General Caelan's gaze shifted toward him.
"We're surrounded by unknown ruins."
The officer remained silent.
The military commander continued.
"It's dark."
A pause.
"We know nothing about this city."
Another pause.
"And somebody wants our attention."
The meaning became obvious immediately.
Following the bell would be exactly what whoever rang it expected.
Nobody argued after that.
The camp slowly settled again.
Slowly.
Not completely.
The tension remained.
Nobody was sleeping easily tonight.
---
Two hours later, Kael was still awake.
The ruins felt wrong.
Not dangerous.
Not yet.
Wrong.
The sensation had only grown stronger since sunset.
He stood near the edge of the camp watching the darkness beyond the perimeter.
Moonlight illuminated sections of the ancient city while the rest remained hidden beneath layers of shadow.
The silence bothered him.
Ancient cities should make sounds.
Wind through broken buildings.
Snow shifting.
Stone settling.
Something.
Instead, the ruins felt unnaturally still.
A soft crunch of snow reached him.
Kael glanced sideways.
Lyra approached carrying two cups.
"Couldn't sleep?"
He accepted the drink.
"No."
She nodded.
"Me neither."
For a while, neither spoke.
The warmth from the cup felt pleasant against the freezing night air.
The camp behind them remained quiet.
Most expedition members had returned to their tents.
A few guards patrolled the perimeter.
The rest of the city remained silent.
Then Lyra frowned.
"Do you hear that?"
Kael listened.
At first, nothing.
Then—
A faint sound.
Not a bell.
Footsteps.
Slow.
Distant.
Moving somewhere beyond the camp.
Both immediately looked toward the ruins.
The sound came again.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Like someone walking through snow.
The footsteps continued for several seconds.
Then stopped.
The silence that followed somehow felt worse.
Lyra's expression hardened.
"You heard that."
It wasn't a question.
Kael nodded.
A communication crystal suddenly activated nearby.
One of the perimeter guards spoke quietly into it.
Several moments later, another guard responded.
Then another.
Then another.
The entire perimeter had heard the same thing.
The realization spread quickly.
Something was moving through the ruins.
The footsteps returned.
This time from a different direction.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Crunch.
Several guards immediately turned.
Weapons appeared.
Mana stirred.
The footsteps stopped again.
Aren emerged from his tent looking half asleep and entirely annoyed.
"Why is nobody sleeping?"
Nobody answered.
The footsteps returned.
The boy froze.
"Oh."
A pause.
"Oh, that's bad."
The sound moved again.
Never close.
Never far.
Always somewhere beyond sight.
Like someone circling the camp.
Watching.
Waiting.
General Caelan appeared shortly afterward.
The military commander listened to the reports without interrupting.
Several guards described hearing movement.
None had seen anything.
The pattern felt disturbingly familiar.
Frostwatch.
The tower.
The silhouette.
Now this.
Always something nearby.
Always just out of sight.
General Caelan eventually looked toward the darkness.
Then gave a single order.
"Maintain positions."
No pursuit.
Again.
Aren approved immediately.
"Finally."
Selene rolled her eyes.
"You say that every time."
"Because every time somebody suggests chasing mysterious noises."
The golden-eyed girl couldn't argue with that.
The footsteps continued intermittently throughout the night.
Sometimes from the north.
Sometimes from the east.
Sometimes from directly beyond the camp.
Never close enough to identify.
Never far enough to ignore.
The effect on morale was immediate.
Nobody relaxed.
Nobody slept properly.
By dawn, the entire expedition looked exhausted.
---
The morning revealed just how massive the ruins truly were.
As sunlight spread across the frozen city, details hidden by darkness finally became visible.
The sight stole everyone's attention.
The city was enormous.
Far larger than anyone had realized.
Ancient roads stretched toward distant districts buried beneath snow. Massive structures rose above the landscape, some partially collapsed, others somehow still standing despite the passage of centuries.
Aren stared.
Then stared some more.
Then pointed.
"That's a city."
Nobody corrected him.
Because he was right.
This wasn't a settlement.
This wasn't a fortress.
This wasn't an outpost.
This was a city.
A real city.
The kind that once housed thousands.
Possibly tens of thousands.
The discovery raised a disturbing question.
Why wasn't it on any map?
General Caelan organized exploration teams shortly after sunrise.
This time, however, nobody complained.
Everyone wanted answers.
The bell.
The footsteps.
The tracks from Frostwatch.
Somewhere within these ruins, answers existed.
The expedition divided into groups.
Kael's team received an assignment near the city's central district.
Apparently several of the larger structures were located there.
Including what appeared to be a temple.
Aren immediately hated that.
"I don't trust ancient temples."
"Why?" Lyra asked.
The boy looked offended.
"Have you ever heard a story where entering an ancient temple was a good idea?"
Nobody answered.
Because nobody could think of one.
The journey toward the center of the city took nearly an hour.
The deeper they traveled, the stranger the ruins became.
The architecture didn't resemble anything found in modern kingdoms.
The buildings were taller.
More elaborate.
Covered in symbols no one recognized.
Massive statues overlooked entire districts.
Many had been damaged.
Others remained intact.
Yet all of them shared the same feature.
Their faces.
Or rather—
Their lack of faces.
Every statue had been deliberately defaced.
Every single one.
Aren stopped beside one of them.
The damaged monument towered nearly fifteen meters overhead.
Its body remained intact.
Its face had been completely destroyed.
The boy frowned.
"Okay."
Nobody liked that tone.
"This is definitely important."
Draven nodded slowly.
"It probably is."
The damage wasn't random.
It wasn't natural erosion.
Someone had done this intentionally.
Every statue.
Every monument.
Every carving.
The same pattern repeated throughout the city.
As though someone had wanted to erase every trace of whoever these figures represented.
The realization lingered in everyone's minds.
Then Serena suddenly stopped.
The military student raised one hand.
Immediately, the group became alert.
"What is it?"
She pointed toward the snow.
Everyone looked down.
Tracks.
Fresh tracks.
The city fell silent.
Aren stared.
Then slowly looked toward the others.
The footprints weren't old.
They weren't frozen.
They weren't buried beneath snow.
They had been made recently.
Very recently.
The tracks continued between the buildings ahead.
Leading deeper into the central district.
Toward the ancient temple.
Nobody spoke for several seconds.
Then Aren sighed.
"I knew it."
"What?"
The boy pointed at the footprints.
"We finally found the thing making mysterious noises."
A pause.
"Which means we're definitely going to regret following it."
Unfortunately—
The tracks were heading in exactly the same direction they needed to go.