Day 9: Vex’s Journal

The air smells different at night. Like wet earth and something else—something old. I keep walking toward the river, even though my legs feel heavy. I don’t know why I go back there. The old ruins are quiet now, but I can still hear it: the river’s hum. It’s not the usual sound. Not like when I was a child, watching it flow over the black stones. Today, it’s whispering. Like it’s trying to tell me something important. Gorath said he felt it too, when he was polishing those quartz stones. But he doesn’t know what it means. I don’t either. I just know it’s there, and I can’t stop thinking about it. Maybe tomorrow I’ll find the place where the hum gets louder. Maybe I’ll listen harder. But for now, I’m tired. My stomach aches, and the storm rumbles outside. I don’t want to sleep yet—my mind’s too restless. But I have to. The world is too big to hold all of it in my head.