Azura's POV
The darkness was complete.
Not the kind that had shapes in it, the kind your eyes adjusted to eventually and found outlines and edges in. This was the kind that had nothing. Just thick unbroken black pressing in from every direction the moment the light from the entrance stopped reaching.
I kept walking.
One hand on the wall to my left, feeling the cold damp rock under my fingers, using it to know where the cave ended and where it did not. The floor beneath my feet was uneven, dipping without warning and rising without warning, and I moved slowly because slow was the only option available that did not end with my face on the ground.
The air was cold in a distinct way, much like cave air. Old and still and carrying something underneath the cold that was harder to name. Not rot. Not danger. Something else. Something that had been sitting in this darkness for a very long time and had become part of the air itself.
The pull in my chest was still there.
