The terrain shifted again before any of them acknowledged it out loud.
The jagged highlands tapered off into a stretch of uneven ground that looked deceptively manageable at first glance. The stone underfoot flattened into broad slabs, cracked but stable, arranged in no discernible pattern. Sparse vegetation clung to the seams—short, dark plants with rigid leaves that bent slightly when stepped on and then returned to their original shape without breaking.
Arios noticed that detail immediately.
"They're resilient," he said, more to himself than to the others.
Lucy glanced down as she walked. "Not natural."
"Not accidental either," Liza added.
The air here was different from the forest and the highlands before it. It carried a faint metallic edge, subtle enough to ignore if one wasn't paying attention, but persistent. Breathing it in left a slight dryness in the throat, not unpleasant, but noticeable.
They slowed without needing to communicate it.
