The carvings do not end at the platform but continue along a narrower passage that branches from the central nexus, and the etchings there are less ceremonial and far more deliberate because instead of depicting rings of wolves encircling a spiraled force they show smaller groups gathered in secrecy with symbols carved hastily into stone as if time was short and the decision they faced carried unbearable weight.
I move slowly along the wall with Layla steady but alert inside me while Axel and Atticus follow close behind, and the air grows heavier with every step as if memory itself lingers in the stone rather than fading with time.
Halfway down the passage I see something that does not belong to a century past, because the lines are sharper and the grooves less eroded, and beside the spi
