Day 13: Gem’s Journal

I don’t know why I keep going back to the old ruins. Not the ones with the cracked walls and the way the moss clings like a living thing—those I’ve seen before. But this one, the one where the river bends just so, where the stones feel warm even when it’s cold. I remember Vex standing by the water, their voice barely louder than the current. ‘The stones remember everything,’ they said, and I didn’t understand then. Now, when I sit on the bank and trace the patterns in the sand, it feels like the earth is whispering back. I think about what I said to Gorath—how the river stones hummed near Lyzxi. He didn’t say much, just nodded, like he knew. But the rain tonight is heavy, and the air smells like old water and secrets. My stomach’s still a little tight from yesterday’s hunt, but the hunger’s gone now. I’m tired, so tired, but my mind won’t stop spinning. I wonder if the stones will tell me more tomorrow, or if I’ll just keep walking in circles, chasing echoes of what I can’t hold. For now, I’m counting the raindrops on my skin—each one a promise that the river will keep talking.