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h4. [b][u]Beneath Sand and Stone[/u][/b]

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The ruins were older than either of them had expected.

Kael stepped lightly over a fractured sandstone block, his bow resting across his shoulders, the curve of it brushing against his back with each careful movement. The weight was familiar, comforting, even. The sun had dipped low before they’d arrived, casting long orange shadows across the dunes and lending the cracked pillars a firelit glow as they pressed deeper into the temple’s shade.

"Still think it’s just a tomb?" asked his companion, voice light, almost amused.

Kael didn’t answer immediately. His eyes were on the massive statue that had toppled near the entrance, its face worn smooth by wind and time. One glowing red stone remained embedded in the eye socket, catching the last rays of light and glinting like a warning. The silence of the place wasn’t natural; too complete, as though the air itself was listening.

"I think it's more than that," Kael replied finally, his tone low. "Too much care went into hiding this place. And we’re not the first to come looking."

Hiona shifted her staff in her hands. She was dressed for movement, her style ornate but functional. Kael had traveled far with her; she was competent and clever. Tapping her staff against the stone floor, a faint pulse of blue-green light followed the motion. Subtle, but enough to stir something in the dust-laden air ahead.

They had tracked this place for days through the shifting sands, following fragments of a map Kael had bartered for in a coastal market. The temple, if it could still be called that, had been lost for generations, swallowed by dunes and memory. Its purpose was unclear.

Together, they stepped forward to find out...
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