Eric had barely gotten over the fact that he'd survived that carriage ride he was dragged—yes, physically dragged—by two silent, stone-faced soldiers through the winding streets of a deserted palace sector. Their boots clomped against cracked stone paths overgrown with brittle weeds.
The area felt... off. Haunted, even.
Like someone had died here and never truly left.
"Where are we going?" he asked for the tenth time.
His captors, predictably, didn't answer.
They stopped in front of a gloomy, sprawling complex with flaking red columns, curling wooden eaves, and faded murals that might've once shown graceful dancers but now just looked like weird ghosts mid-sneeze.
The once-elegant structure had clearly seen better days.
