They stumbled out of the arch, boots skidding on pale blue ripples stretching endlessly in every direction. The light here was diffuse, like the world had frozen mid-dawn. Each crest shimmered faintly with names, fragments of voices, and images — battles frozen mid-strike, warriors locked in silent conflict, promises caught in the air as solid waves.
Lyra pressed her hand against the nearest ripple, and it hummed faintly. "It's… enormous," she whispered. "And I swear I can hear people screaming."
"You can," Aric said, crouching to touch the surface. Faint silhouettes shimmered under his fingers — duels frozen mid-air, warriors calling Names he didn't recognize, faces twisted in anger or fear. "These are echoes of old conflicts. Names and contracts crystallized here. Step wrong, and you wake them."
Lyra rolled her eyes. "Wonderful. So we're walking on a graveyard of invisible sound."
"Exactly. Stay light on your feet," Aric said, voice tight. Every muscle tensed, every sense alert.
They moved carefully, boots ringing softly against the frozen waves. Each step released tiny glimmers and ghostly fragments of the past. A ripple under Lyra's boot shifted violently, revealing two warriors locked mid-duel. She yelped. "Aric! Did you see that?!"
"That's exactly why I said step carefully," he replied without looking up.
"You could have said before I stepped there!"
"I wanted to see if you'd survive first," he said flatly, eyes scanning the next ripple.
The bell-eyed child paused. Its bells chimed softly. "Something is here. A resonance map."
Aric crouched. "Show me."
It pointed to a cluster of ripples, faintly pulsing like they were breathing. "Embedded deep. Tune carefully. Break them, and the battlefield will wake."
Lyra groaned. "So we're defusing a sound bomb with our toes?"
"Something like that," Aric muttered. He crouched low, brushing the surface of the nearest ripple with his fingertips. Each crest carried fragments of past names. He hummed a counter-frequency, adjusting until the echoes aligned, forming a faintly visible thread between the ripples — a path leading to the hidden map fragment.
"Don't step on the edges," he said. "They react to vibrations."
Lyra tilted her head. "Edges? Like… the edges of my patience?" she muttered, nudging a ripple lightly. It shivered violently, and a ghostly figure of a warrior jumped straight up, hands mid-swing, mouth opening in a silent scream. She yelped. "Aric!"
"That's why I said don't touch the edges!" he barked, though his eyes twitched with barely restrained amusement. "Step back!"
Lyra muttered under her breath. "You're impossible."
A small smile tugged at Aric's lips, even as he scanned the surroundings. The frozen battlefield stretched endlessly, and faint whispers rose from the surfaces: calls for help, fragments of unspoken words, half-remembered songs. Some seemed playful — a fragment of laughter echoed when Lyra bumped a ripple. She spun around. "Who's laughing at me?!"
"Echoes," Aric said flatly. "They can sense your panic."
Lyra crossed her arms. "I hate this place."
"You've said that about every place we've been," he noted.
Lyra shot him a glare. "I've been right every time."
The child's bells chimed softly. "Focus. The map fragment is near."
Aric approached a central ripple that pulsed differently — slower, heavier, almost alive. He laid a hand on it and closed his eyes, letting the faint vibrations travel up his arm. His mind raced, calculating the proper counter-frequency to align the echoes without shattering them. One wrong note, and the battlefield could wake fully.
Lyra crouched beside him, eyeing a floating echo-phantom — a translucent soldier mid-leap — and whispered loudly, "Hey, over there! Look at me!" She danced exaggeratedly, and the phantom paused, confused, tilting its head. "See?" she muttered. "Sometimes you just have to entertain them."
Aric smirked slightly. "You're lucky I'm patient."
The ripple under his hand shifted, revealing a glowing shard beneath the surface: the map fragment. It hovered like a small prism, pulsing faintly. Aric exhaled and reached for it, carefully lifting it between finger and thumb. "Got it."
Lyra exhaled. "Finally."
But before they could move, a deep rumble shook the frozen waves. Hairline cracks spidered across the surface, and ghostly warriors began to stir, mouths forming silent screams.
"The battlefield wakes!" the child cried, bells clanging.
Lyra's eyes widened. "What did you do?"
"I didn't do anything," Aric said sharply. "The anchor stabilized us, but the fragment activated residual echoes. They know we're here."
From the center of the basin, the frost-woman stepped forward. The shards of frozen sound lifted and circled her like spears. Her hollow eyes glowed, and whispers coalesced into a chant that resonated through the ground beneath their feet.
Lyra grabbed Aric's sleeve. "She's going to… claim us?"
"Not kill," Aric said softly. "Claim. She wants something I haven't given."
The shards whipped the air, slicing through empty space with sharp resonance. One shard split a nearby ripple, sending shards spinning into the abyss below.
Aric's mind raced. The anchor gave them stability, yes, but it also made them a beacon. He whispered a false name — an alias from a past escape — into the resonance, letting the battlefield interpret it as his signature. The shards hesitated. The frost-woman's chant faltered.
"Run!" Aric barked.
Lyra sprinted across the ripples, boots chiming softly. The child followed, bells ringing in panic. Aric leapt after them, map fragment in hand.
Behind them, the basin erupted. Echoes surged like a tidal wave, and the frost-woman screamed a layered word, shattering half the ripples. Shards spun through the air like deadly confetti.
They bolted toward a distant arch of dark metal, the next waypoint on the map fragment's path. Each step brought them closer, but ghostly hands reached from frozen echoes, clawing at their ankles. Lyra tripped once, caught by Aric's quick hand.
He muttered, "Focus. Eyes forward. Feet faster."
They dove through the arch in unison — Aric first, Lyra second, and the child last — just as the basin behind them collapsed in a storm of shards and resonant screams.
White light flared around them, and the world became a blur of resonance, motion, and fear.