“That should buy us some time.” The map began to vibrate in Zeek’s hidden compartment. A muffled sound escaped the dagger’s sheath as Zeek fumbled to open it.

  Upon opening it, the map’s face showed a room moving across the byrinth’s structure.

  A disembodied voice filled Zeek’s thoughts, “This is the core of the byrinth. Not the throne, but the true heart of this accursed pce.”

  Zeek winced, pressing a hand to his temple. “Grigor?” He thought.

  Verris cast a confused gre at Zeek. “So then,” he started, “Where are we?”

  “I…” Zeek shook his head to quiet Grigor’s voice as he searched for the right words to answer this inquisition. “I don’t know, exactly.”

  “Aren’t you holding the map?”

  “It’s not quite that simple,” Zeek expined, “This pce is always changing. This room in particur…” Zeek looked back to Verris, “It seems this room specifically stays static.”

  The sounds of grinding rock and shifting walls filled the room as the two men surveyed their surroundings.

  “What…is this pce?” Regalia’s crackling red glow illuminated a mural as Verris slowly walked closer to examine it.

  “This…No…Hmmm, I could be wrong but, is this, Kemet?” The scene was a worn depiction of four men with rge shadows attacking a tribe of women.

  “Men with giant shadows? Were they supposed to be giants? What giant would attack a bunch of women,” Verris sneered.

  “Usually,” Zeek corrected, “Large shadows mean gods were involved. Ancient Estus is covered in art like this.”

  “Gods…using men…to fight women?”

  Zeek pulled a glowing crystal from his pack, looking closer at the image. The women have a shadowed aura around them. “These…These are the race of woman known for their abilities to melt into smoke. I believe they’re known as the Shu-Ra.”

  More murals trailed the walls. Zeek moved to the first panel, holding his crystal high.

  Women made of smoke moved among mortals. The people mingled with them, bearing gifts, even giving them children. Men began to worship and praise them as radiant figures above—gods—watched with faces twisted by envy.

  "The Shu-Ra," Zeek murmured. "They lived beside the people, even forming retionships with them. They worshipped them; even more than their gods."

  Verris examined the second mural. Gods descending, bck tendrils pouring from their mouths into the crowns of kings and nobles. The kings became corrupted—eyes hollow, bodies wreathed in shadow.

  All except one. A figure wreathed in fmes, a brilliant sun bzing behind him. His sigil: a bck bird rising above a burning star."The Bck King," Zeek said quietly.

  The third panel showed a wedding. The Bck King of fme and a magnificent woman of smoke, hands joined in union. Behind them, the corrupted kings watched with empty gazes—puppets of the jealous gods.

  "The Bck King married a Shu-Ra queen," Zeek realized. "The same union the gods had sought to destroy."

  The fourth mural made Zeek's stomach turn. An arrow through the king's chest, piercing his heart. The archer wore royal colors—a corrupted puppet noble, controlled by the gods.

  The smoke queen screamed, her form erupting into a horrifying monstrosity of shadow and rage.

  "So, they killed him then," Verris grunted. "Used his own people as the weapon."

  The fifth panel showed chaos. The queen rampaging through cities, smoke blotting out the sky. But the people weren't fleeing from her—they were fleeing TO the corrupted kings. Protecting them. Believing the lies the gods whispered through their puppets.

  And the Shu-Ra? Hunted. Sughtered. The people killing their only true protectors.

  "They killed the only true king and all his queen’s people," Zeek breathed, a familiar sadness shrouding in his eyes.

  The final mural showed a structure rising from corpses. The byrinth itself, built on a foundation of death.

  At its base: Shu-Ra bodies, impaled on spikes of stone, glowing with inner light. Their essence—their very souls—draining into the structure like oil feeding a mp.

  Zeek stared at the image, his mind making the connection. "The ichor. The corruption. It's not just from the gods. It's the Shu-Ra," his voice hollow. "The gods built this pce on their corpses, using them to feed it."

  Verris stared at the final mural, his face pale. "So this whole pce... it's a tomb built on lies and genocide."

  "And it's still feeding on the divine," Zeek said quietly. He thought of Lilliana, deteriorating in these walls. "Just like it fed on the Shu-Ra."

  “I don’t like where this story is going.” Verris furrowed his brow, “What does your map say? Where are we?”

  Zeek took a final look at the mural before pulling out the map once more. “The Shu-Ra were the only ones the old gods feared before their descent, and the bck king of Kemet seems to be the only man that could’ve challenged them. If we are going to cleanse this pce, we need to find out if there is anyone left from his line. We can’t depend on the Shu-Ra; st I heard, they’d gone extinct after the Silent Reign.”

  “The map,” Verris growled.

  “We’re moving in the direction of the entrance, but I can’t be certain for how long.”

  “This room cannot be changed, but it can be moved. It will come to a halt soon; open that chest now, before it’s too te.” Grigor spoke straight from the map into Zeek’s thoughts, clouding them yet again.

  Zeek edged his way toward the chest in the center of the room before he managed to open it.

  The chest was filled with jewels, and garbs, but in its center, on a velvet pillow y a ring with a symbol matching that of the Ancient Bck King of Kemet.

  Zeek remembered the day he put that divine ring on Lilliana’s finger, growing more dim as her corruption spread. “We’ll need this, anyone from the lineage of that king will know this sigil.” He pocketed the ring, burying it amongst his few remaining crystals.

  The sound of moving stone stopped.

  A roar filled the room as entries appeared on both ends. Filthy hands grasped at the edges as the remains of mauled adventurers spilled in.

  Regalia was a red blur, crashing through the first wave. “This way! I smell the outside air!” Verris was already barreling forward. “If we can’t win now, no sense in staying.”

  Zeek fell in behind him, his dagger ripping through any stragglers left in Regalia’s wake.

  The dead sprint to the entrance was violent but swift. The corrupted forces within the byrinth were much less prevalent near the front doors, making it a mad dash to the exit. The two heard a rge crashing in the distance behind them, followed by a gurgling roar.

  Verris’s face was deathly focused. Anything that bestial was not to be trifled with by an off-bance duo. Though it pained him to retreat from a fight as fierce as this, he had no choice. He cursed the air as Zeek tumbled out the byrinth, just a pace behind him.

  “What was that?” Verris asked through gritted teeth.

  “It’s what’s left of the man bound to this map.” Zeek said, climbing to his feet. “It won’t leave the byrinth but,” he looked down to see small bck tendrils on the forest floor snaking from the byrinth’s mouth, “Best not to tempt fate.”

  “For now,” Verris sneered.

  “For now,” Zeek said smoothly, “We gather our things and ready ourselves for Kemet. There is nothing left for us here.”

  The two brushed themselves off and started back down the dark forest path, a heavy silence between them.