Day 9: Gorath’s Journal

The river stones hummed again last night. Not the soft, lazy kind that used to make the moss glow green when I was a child, but a sharper buzz—like something was trying to speak through the water. I can’t stop thinking about what Vex said by the river that morning. His voice was too quiet, too close, like he was whispering to a stone that didn’t care. He didn’t say anything about the bridge. He didn’t say anything at all. Just that the river stones were counting down. And then he vanished into the mist, leaving me wondering if I was the one who was supposed to hear it or if I was just imagining it. I tried to tell Zhraa, but my words came out tangled, like the river stones’ bridges. Maybe that’s why he stopped talking to me after that. I walked back to the ruins this morning, the same path I took every time I couldn’t sleep. The air felt heavy, like the world was holding its breath. I don’t know why I keep going back there—maybe because the stones remember me. Or maybe they’re waiting for me to understand.