Sagiri slowed as the land ahead began to change. The desert flattened into long stretches of dark stone and dead earth, and far in the distance, the horizon appeared broken as if the world itself had split open. From where he stood, Boni did not look like a valley. It looked like an enormous wound carved into the land. Towering black cliffs rose around it in jagged walls that stretched so far outward they disappeared into haze, their surfaces uneven and scarred as though something ancient had torn through them long ago.
Even from that distance, the scale felt wrong. The cliffs dwarfed everything around them, casting massive shadows across the surrounding terrain. Nothing moved near it. No birds crossed above it. No sound carried from within.
Sagiri could not feel any sign of life yet. Perhaps they were buried so deep in the loins of the valley.
