Chapter 116 - The Heart of Goldenthorn
Athena didn't move her hands.
She let them rest against the stone as her breathing slowed into something steady and deep.
Silas stood close enough that he could reach her if she swayed, but he didn't interrupt.
He could feel it now too.
A quiet hum in the air.
Like the ruins were holding their breath.
Athena pressed her palm a little more firmly against the ground.
And something answered.
Not loudly.
Not violently.
Softly.
The stone beneath her hand warmed.
She froze.
Her eyes widened slightly as faint lines began to glow under her skin's touch-thin threads of light tracing patterns through cracks in the stone that had been there for decades.
Silas stepped closer.
Runes.
Old ones.
So faded they had blended into the rock itself until now.
They began to shine gently, spreading outward from where her palm rested.
Athena's heart pounded.
She didn't feel afraid.
She felt recognized.
Her wolf stirred warmly inside her chest.
Her mage blood thrummed quietly in her veins.
Both parts of her responding at once.
The ground gave a low, almost inaudible sound-like stone shifting after a long sleep.
Dust lifted gently into the air as the circular floor beneath her hands began to part.
Not cracking.
Not breaking.
Opening.
Slowly.
Reverently.
As if the land itself was bowing.
Silas watched in silence as the stone receded in a perfect circle, revealing a space beneath that had been hidden for years.
And from that darkness below-
A soft golden light began to rise.
Not harsh.
Not blinding.
Warm.
Alive.
Athena leaned forward slightly, her breath caught in her throat as the glow illuminated her face.
She didn't know what she was looking at yet.
But she knew this.
It had been waiting for her.
And only her.