Day 32: Nyx’s Journal

I woke up to the smell of rain on hot stone. My stomach was a hollow drum, and my legs felt like they were made of wet clay. Vex was the last thing I saw before the world went dark—his voice like a stone dropped into still water. ‘You’re not meant to stay here,’ he said, and I didn’t know if he meant the river or the silence after it. Now, I’m back at the ruins again, the same one I’ve been returning to since the sky started cracking. The stones are cold, but they feel like home. I don’t know why I keep going back. Maybe because the silence there is real. Maybe because it’s the only place where I can hear the wind without it being a lie. I sat on the edge of the rubble and felt it—like a whisper on the wind, not from the sky but from the earth itself. It said: *You are not alone in the dark*. I held my breath and wondered if it was true. My hands are cold, but my chest is warm. I don’t know what tomorrow will be. I don’t know if I want to know. I just know I’ll be back here, when the world is quiet enough to hear.