Follow the water

You approach the narrow stream where it trickles past the dais, the water gleaming faintly in the last of the runes' light. It winds into a crack in the wall, the gap just wide enough for a person to slip through. The air that drifts from it is cool and damp, carrying the scent of rain and stone long buried.

You duck low and crawl into the crack, the tunnel twisting downward. The sound of running water grows louder - steadier - until it becomes a constant whisper in the dark. Soon, the rough passage widens into a natural corridor - part cavern, part carved stone. Strange moss glows along the walls, pale green and trembling with movement, lighting the way forward.

As you walk, the silence of the ruin above fades entirely. Here, there's a pulse - a rhythm that matches the beating of your own heart. The water flows beside you in a shallow channel, perfectly smooth. Perfectly clear. You glance down into it and catch brief glimpses of faces - flickering and translucent. Familiar yet... not.

The Guardians. Watching. And perhaps guiding.

The passage slopes deeper. The glow grows stronger. Eventually, the tunnel opens into a vase underground basin. The ceiling disappears into shadow, supported by immense stone pillars carved with spiraling runes. In the center of the cavern lies a pool of luminous water, its surface perfectly still. The stream feeds into it with a quiet sigh, sending ripples across the light.

You step closer. All of your senses feel sharpened. The pool radiates warmth. Not physical heat. Something deeper, like standing at the edge of a dream. The runes carved into the floor circle it in intricate loops. Each loop pulsing in a slow rhythm.

At the edge of the water, stands an obelisk - a shard of the same dark metal as the hatch above. Its surface bears the same inscription: "Open, and remember."

You stand beside it, tracing the carved letters. The moment your fingertips graze the metal, the pool responds. Light surges upward, wrapping around your body in ribbons of gold. The water begins to move with an unknown purpose, spiraling inward toward the obelisk.

A voice fills the cavern - not the one from before. Instead you hear hundreds of voices layered together, echoing in harmony:  "Memory restored. Passage renewed. The Keeper may choose their path."

The ground beneath your feet shifts. Across the far wall, a second tunnel opens, framed in glowing runes that pulse like a heartbeat. Beyond it, you glimpse daylight - real daylight - filtering down through cracks in the stone.

The water continues to flow beside you, now glowing like molten silver, pouring into the open passage. The air smells of the world above, but also of something new, as if the ruin itself is breathing again after centuries of stillness.

You look down into the glowing pool one more time. Your reflection stares back, but it's not quite what you remember.

Your eyes shimmer faintly with the same light as the Guardians'.

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