Round 43

The walls breathed in unison with the pressure plates beneath their feet—the entire corridor alive and hungry. Halie pressed her back against the wall, her blue-grey eyes wide as she watched the plates pulse in rhythm. "This is wrong," she whispered, more to herself than anyone else. The stone beneath her hands felt unnaturally warm—living. Jeane's wings shifted restlessly behind her as she unsheathed her rapier. "We need to move fast," she said sharply, crimson eyes scanning for magical traps. "But carefully. These walls feel... hungry." The insistent pulse seemed to match the rhythm of their own hearts now—an unsettling synchronization that made her skin crawl. Silra crouched low, teal eyes fixed on the pressure plates beneath them. Her rogue instincts screamed warnings even as the sweet air tried to pull her mind sideways. "Plates are arranged in a pattern," she reported, voice tight with concentration. "But there's something off about the spacing—too precise for natural form...