Chapter 536: The Building That Should Have Been Empty I
The wind moved through the dry grass in long whispers, bending the brittle stalks against one another. Somewhere far off, a bird cried once before falling silent again. The land beyond the road stretched empty and dark, broken only by scattered stones and the occasional crooked tree clawing its way out of the earth.
At the top of one such hill stood a building.
From a distance, it looked abandoned.
The walls were blackened with age and lacquer that had long since lost its shine, the structure sitting atop the ochre stone like something left behind by a world that no longer remembered it. Its windows were shut tight.
No lanterns burned in the upper floors.
No voices drifted from the halls.
Only the faint wind moved through the cracks in the old stone.
Yet Tobias knew the place was not empty.
He could feel it even before they reached the steps.
Something about the silence was wrong.
