Day 15: Kron’s Journal

The river’s smell clung to my clothes even after I washed it off. Vex stood there by the water, his voice low like the stones beneath us. ‘You keep coming back to the ruins,’ he said. Not angry. Just… tired. Like he’d been waiting for me to ask why I do it. I didn’t say anything. My throat felt tight. I remember how the water was cold, how my fingers were numb when I touched the riverbank. I thought about the stone in my pocket—Gorath’s last gift, a smooth pebble that felt like it was speaking. I tried to tell myself it was just a rock, but it wasn’t. It knew things I didn’t want to know. I’ve been here before. I’ve been here since before I could remember. The ruins don’t feel like they’re old. They feel like they’re waiting. And I keep going back, even when my legs ache from walking the same path. Maybe that’s why I’m still here. Maybe the world’s not broken, but I can’t see it.