Then they opened their eyes.
The green light slowly faded, leaving behind a soft, warm radiance that settled over the shattered chamber like a gentle blanket. Dust and small fragments of the broken stone still drifted in the air, but everything was now strangely quiet. The cave walls glowed with frantic magic circles — the ancient patterns had gone brighter, as if the ritual had completed its work and released its power.
In the exact center where the ten-foot monolith had once stood lay a girl.
