Corvin woke up screaming.

Not dramatically.

Not theatrically.

Like a man being dragged out of a nightmare against his will.

The entire camp reacted instantly.

Kael was already standing.

Rowan’s hand was on his weapon.

Daren somehow fell out of his bedroll and onto a rock.

Atlas rose with a low growl.

Tax launched himself out of a tree.

Only Seraphina looked annoyed.

"What time is it."

"A bad time."

Kael answered.

Corvin sat upright.

Breathing hard.

Sweat covered his forehead.

For several seconds he didn’t seem to know where he was.

Then reality returned.

The forest.

The camp.

The group.

The explorer buried his face in his hands.

"Wonderful."

Nobody believed that statement.

Daren pointed.

"You did the nightmare thing."

"The nightmare thing?"

"The waking-up-and-scaring-everyone thing."

Corvin groaned.

"Right."

A pause.

Then:

"Sorry."

The apology surprised everyone.

Especially Seraphina.

She narrowed her eyes suspiciously.

"You apologize?"

"Occasionally."

"Interesting."

"No."

"Fair."

"No."

The conversation died immediately.

A healthy outcome.

Kael crouched beside the fire.

"What did you see?"

Corvin didn’t answer immediately.

The hesitation lasted long enough to become its own answer.

Finally—

"The stairs."

Nobody spoke.

Not because they were scared.

Because they knew exactly which stairs he meant.

Corvin looked toward the trees.

"The deeper levels."

Rowan’s expression sharpened.

Levels.

Plural.

New information.

Useful information.

Finally.

"You didn’t mention that."

Corvin laughed once.

A humorless sound.

"I was trying not to."

Unfortunately that made everyone more interested.

Especially Seraphina.

A terrible development.

The sky slowly brightened.

Morning arrived.

Reluctantly.

The camp packed faster than usual.

Nobody needed motivation anymore.

Not after hearing "deeper levels."

Not after hearing "door."

Not after everything.

Even Atlas seemed aware that this wasn’t a normal travel day.

The bear remained unusually quiet.

Which somehow felt more alarming than roaring.

Several hours later—

The trail changed.

Again.

The markers became frequent.

Too frequent.

Every few minutes another appeared.

A carved arrow.

A cloth strip.

A mark on stone.

The work of people who desperately didn’t want to get lost.

Corvin noticed it too.

His expression darkened.

"This wasn’t here before."

That stopped everyone.

Immediately.

Rowan turned.

"What."

The explorer pointed.

A fresh mark.

Cut recently.

Not weathered.

Not old.

Fresh.

The realization hit simultaneously.

Someone had come through after Corvin’s group.

Recently.

Very recently.

Daren looked around.

"How recently."

Kael examined the cut.

The bark still looked pale.

"Days."

Nobody liked that answer.

Because it meant they weren’t following history anymore.

They were following people.

Current people.

Living people.

The trail narrowed.

Then narrowed again.

Until eventually it became little more than a path between roots.

The forest grew older.

Stranger.

Less natural.

Not because the trees changed.

Because of what appeared between them.

Stone.

Small pieces at first.

Broken blocks.

Fragments.

Then larger sections.

Walls.

Foundations.

Ruins.

The remains of something buried by time.

Seraphina crouched beside a cracked stone column.

A symbol had been carved into it.

Not the silver bird.

Not the twisted crown.

Something older.

Worn away beyond recognition.

She touched it.

Then looked around slowly.

"People lived here."

Corvin nodded.

"Long ago."

Rowan frowned.

"Connected to Golden Nest?"

"Maybe."

An answer nobody enjoyed.

Then Atlas stopped.

Again.

This time everyone noticed immediately.

The bear stared ahead.

Completely still.

Not afraid.

Alert.

Very alert.

Tax landed on Seraphina’s shoulder.

The crow’s feathers puffed slightly.

No stealing.

No nonsense.

A truly horrifying sign.

Kael moved forward first.

Carefully.

One step.

Then another.

The trees opened.

And suddenly—

The trail ended.

Not at a building.

Not at a ruin.

At a cliff.

A massive cliff hidden deep within the forest.

Everyone froze.

Because the view beyond it was impossible.

Far below—

An enormous stone complex stretched across the valley.

Not a mansion.

Not a village.

Not a fortress.

Something between all three.

Broken towers.

Collapsed bridges.

Ancient walls.

Sections rebuilt.

Sections abandoned.

A place that looked as though multiple generations had fought over whether it should exist.

Nobody spoke. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Not immediately.

Because after weeks of clues...

After wagons...

After records...

After symbols...

After rumors...

They were finally looking at something real.

Corvin stepped beside them.

His face unreadable.

"There."

Rowan stared.

The compass in his hand trembled.

Once.

Twice.

Then pointed directly downward.

Toward the valley.

Toward the ruins.

Toward the place below.

Corvin’s voice was quiet.

Almost lost in the wind.

"That’s Waystation."

The name meant nothing to Seraphina.

Which was unusual.

By this point, every mystery name had accumulated at least three rumors, two conspiracies, and one dramatic warning.

Waystation had none.

Just silence.

The dangerous kind.

Rowan was the first to break it.

"Waystation."

The word felt strange in his mouth.

Corvin nodded.

"That’s what my group called it."

"Not its real name?"

"No idea what the real name was."

A pause.

"Most of the signs were destroyed."

Daren squinted toward the valley.

The complex stretched farther than expected.

Pieces of it vanished into the trees.

Other sections disappeared beneath collapsed stone.

The scale felt wrong.

Like seeing the skeleton of something much larger.

"That’s not a station."

"No."

Corvin agreed.

"It isn’t."

Seraphina pointed.

"That thing has towers."

Another point.

"And walls."

Another.

"And enough buildings to support several terrible decisions."

A fair observation.

Very fair.

The wind shifted.

For a brief moment, everyone thought they heard something.

Not voices.

Not movement.

A distant metallic sound.

Like a chain dragging across stone.

Then it vanished.

Rowan tightened his grip on the compass.

The needle had stopped trembling.

For the first time since finding the wagon—

It pointed with complete certainty.

Down.

Straight toward the ruins.

No hesitation.

No movement.

No confusion.

Like it had finally reached the place it wanted.

Kael noticed Rowan staring.

"What are you thinking?"

The merchant didn’t answer immediately.

Then:

"If my uncle came here..."

The sentence stopped.

Because nobody needed him to finish it.

If his uncle came here—

Everything changed.

The mystery stopped being a story.

It became a person.

Someone waiting.

Or someone lost.

Or someone dead.

The possibilities sat heavily between them.

Corvin looked away first.

Because he knew exactly what those thoughts felt like.

"My group thought the same thing."

Everyone turned.

The explorer laughed softly.

Not happily.

Just tired.

"We all had someone."

Silence.

Interesting.

Because that was new information.

Corvin continued.

"One guy was searching for his brother."

Another pause.

"One woman thought there was treasure."

Daren nodded.

Reasonable.

Corvin looked at him.

"She was the smartest among us."

Daren immediately looked proud.

Then confused.

Then suspicious.

A healthy emotional progression.

"What happened?"

Corvin stared at the valley.

"We went down."

Nobody liked how simple that sounded.

Not after everything.

Not after the nightmare.

Not after the fear.

Just:

We went down.

The statement felt incomplete.

Like a sentence missing its ending.

Seraphina noticed too.

"What aren’t you saying?"

Corvin looked at her.

Then at the ruins.

Then back again.

For several seconds he seemed to debate something internally.

Eventually—

"We weren’t the first."

The wind seemed colder.

Rowan frowned.

"What do you mean?"

Corvin pointed.

Not at the entire complex.

One section.

A collapsed courtyard near the western edge.

"There’s another camp."

Everyone looked.

From this distance it was difficult to see.

Then Kael spotted it.

A tiny shape.

Canvas.

Wood.

Movement.

Not ruins.

People.

Actual people.

Daren froze.

"Those are tents."

"Yes."

The explorer’s answer came immediately.

"We found them three days ago."

That changed everything.

Instantly.

Because until now—

The mystery belonged to history.

Old records.

Old families.

Old secrets.

Now?

People were already here.

Living people.

Searching.

Investigating.

Possibly finding answers before them.

Seraphina smiled.

Kael immediately hated that smile.

Competition.

Of course.

The one thing capable of motivating her more than curiosity.

"Good."

"No."

"Very good."

"Absolutely not."

She pointed dramatically toward the tents.

"We are racing now."

Daren buried his face in his hands.

"We don’t even know who they are."

"Which makes victory easier."

"That’s not how anything works."

"It can be."

Atlas huffed.

Supportive.

Traitor.

Rowan ignored all of them.

His eyes remained fixed on the camp.

Because another possibility had appeared.

A dangerous one.

What if those people knew something?

What if they had already found evidence?

What if—

The thought stopped there.

Hope was dangerous.

He’d learned that weeks ago.

Months ago.

The merchant exhaled slowly.

Then looked toward Corvin.

"Why didn’t you go back?"

The question surprised everyone.

Including Corvin.

The explorer stared.

Then laughed once.

A real laugh this time.

Small.

Bitter.

"Because I did."

Silence.

The answer landed differently.

Corvin gestured toward himself.

"My group didn’t leave together."

The words grew quieter.

"Some stayed."

A pause.

"Some didn’t come back."

The valley below suddenly felt larger.

Much larger.

Not because of the buildings.

Because of the people inside them.

The people searching.

The people disappearing.

The people refusing to leave.

Kael studied the ruins carefully.

Analyzing.

Measuring.

The walls.

The entrances.

The camp.

The possible exits.

Old habits.

Useful habits.

Then he noticed something else.

Interesting.

Very interesting.

A road.

Half-buried.

Almost invisible.

But there.

A proper road leading toward the complex.

Not a hidden trail.

Not a secret passage.

An actual road.

Someone had built this place to be reached.

Which raised a different question.

Who wanted people coming here?

Seraphina followed his gaze.

Then froze.

Not dramatically.

Actually froze.

Rare.

Very rare.

"What."

Kael pointed.

The road.

She stared.

Then stared harder.

Then slowly smiled.

A different smile.

Not the competition smile.

Not the chaos smile.

The realization smile.

Dangerous.

Extremely dangerous.

Because she’d noticed the same thing.

"This wasn’t hidden."

Nobody spoke.

She pointed toward the valley.

"Everyone keeps talking like somebody buried this place."

Another point.

"Like somebody erased it."

Another.

"But look at it."

The group did.

And suddenly—

The obvious became obvious.

The complex wasn’t hidden.

Not really.

It was huge.

Visible.

Built around roads.

Built around travel.

Built around movement.

People weren’t meant to avoid it.

People were meant to find it.

The realization spread slowly.

And none of them liked it.

Because if Waystation was supposed to be found—

Then the real question wasn’t:

Why is it here?

The real question was:

Why did everyone stop talking about it?

The sun dipped lower.

Shadows stretched across the valley.

The camp below remained active.

Tiny figures moved between tents.

Lanterns began appearing.

The mystery had finally become real.

Visible.

Reachable.

No more maps.

No more rumors.

No more chasing symbols through forests.

Tomorrow—

They would go down.

And for the first time since this journey began—

Nobody needed a clue to know where to go.

The answer was waiting right in front of them.

Which was somehow much more terrifying than not knowing.