Cartography of Echoes

The mural stayed still, but Kai could feel it moving—beneath his skin, in the spaces behind his thoughts. Each symbol, each shape, carried a weight. Not just meaning. History.

Sienna stood with one hand lightly against the golden wall, her eyes scanning the branching lines that extended out from the central well. “These are coordinates,” she said softly. “Or… something like them.”

Kai traced one of the spirals. “This isn’t just about memory. It’s a map.”

The orb flickered in agreement, the shimmer within it tightening into threads that mirrored the mural behind it. Dozens of well-like symbols pulsed gently—each a distant echo, waiting.

One was opened.
Others are flickering.
Some are failing.
Some are calling.

Sienna’s breath caught. “This is bigger than us.”

It always was.

Another symbol lit up. Not near. Not even on the same arc. But insistent. Flickering red like a heartbeat too fast.

Kai stepped closer. “That one’s unstable.”

The orb dimmed for a moment, then pulsed once.

It is breaking open without stewardship.
It will remember wrong.

Sienna flinched. “You mean it’ll become something dangerous?”

It will become something that consumes instead of carries.
You must decide:
Are you keepers of echoes…
…or carriers of distortion?

Silence hung between them. The kind that only comes before choice.

Kai finally spoke. “Show us the way.”

And the orb did.

A new passage opened behind the mural—dark, narrow, waiting.