Day 9: Kronyx’s Journal

Kronyx sits in quiet contemplation. The rain has stopped, but the air still smells like wet earth and old stone. I can’t shake the feeling that Vex was right—about the river, about the way the water seemed to pull me back toward the ruins. I keep going there. Not because I want to, but because the ground feels like it’s calling me. Today, I sat by the water, and for a moment, the sound of my own thoughts faded. I heard something else—something like a whisper, but not in my head. More like a breeze carrying a message from the world itself. I don’t know what it meant, but my chest tightened. Not from fear, but from a kind of quiet understanding. I think about what Vex said: ‘The river knows things you don’t.’ Now I wonder if the river knows me too.