Lilith didn’t ask what he meant because she saw it too.

The ruins gradually revealed themselves as the dust mist receded, revealing everything step by step.

It started with broken lines of stones rising slightly above ground. Then, fragments of cracked pillars tilted, cracked down the centre, and half sank into the earth.

The view became clearer, more of everything.

"Just what happened here?" He asked, almost to himself.

The stones weren’t smooth anymore. Time had eaten away at the surface leaving them rough and uneven but the shapes remained.

Platforms and pillars.

Segments of curved walls also stood around the ruins, suggesting something large had once stood there.

Atheline moved between them slowly, scanning for any clue.

"This wasn’t small," he continued to himself, " whatever this was, it covered a lot more ground. "

"It still does," she said.

He paused his exploration.

"What?"

She pointed slightly ahead.

"Look."

He followed her line of sight. At first, he saw nothing, only the dust mist and the pillars but then further away the ground dipped.

It was a shallow depression curved into the terrain with the same stone slabs they had been walking on lining its edges.

He stepped closer and stopped right at the edge.

"Oh."

It wasn’t just a small dip. It was hollow and wide with uneven lining but that wasn’t what caught his eye, it was something else.

Scattered across its surface, something faintly caught the light.

He narrowed his eyes.

"There."

Embedded in a stone, half-buried were clusters of small rounded shapes, dull at first glance almost indistinguishable from the surrounding stones due to dust.

But when the light hit them, it shimmered slightly, a silver-like light he was mildly familiar with.

His senses assessed for any danger but found none.

"I’m going down," he said while moving.

He slid down carefully, wind aiding his descent as loose gravel rolled down with him.

He crouched down near one of the shapes.

"Just as I thought, " he said excitedly, "it’s moon crystals. "

He turned to Lilith, who was still at the top of the crater looking down at him.

The little crystals, shimmered slightly once in a while.

He reached out wind brushing away the dust around them. More were revealed. The vein wasn’t small, it extended deeper into the rocks.

Atheline felt her settle next to him, her scent lingering in the dust filled surrounding.

"What do you think?" He asked skeptically, his brows furrowing slightly," It just feels way too easy. "

Her gaze swept across the hollow.

"There is more."

He followed her gaze. Now that he was looking at it, they were everywhere.

Some were clustered together while others were just lying on the ground, away from the vein.

"Why are they just scattered like that," he muttered," It’s just too weird especially with the warning we got."

He leaned back slightly, taking in the full spread of the hollow.

’This is just too easy’

At the back of his mind, something just didn’t feel right. He glanced back towards the ruin around them, then to Lilith, before it started to dawn on him.

"This wasn’t just left out in the open, was it?" He said quietly.

"No," she responded, quietly.

"They built around it, " he said, and added almost quietly, " like your castle. " 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

Lilith nodded. She looked up at the sky.

"There isn’t any sun so I’m not sure if the moon is present. "

Atheline nodded. He had also noticed that.

"Building over a moonstone vein," he repeated to himself.

"From the looks of it, the islands might have been an isolated land for some individuals, " she said," they might have been using luna Aether hence the stones. "

Atheline nodded.

"I get it, since they aren’t near the world tree, aether wouldn’t just be as abundant just like the palace," he said," they act as a substitute for raw aether and absorb aether faster for storage."

She nodded.

All four mountains stood over a large moon crystal vein that provided sufficient aether for the whole court. He had read that in one of the history books.

Atheline glanced at the stones again.

"What do you think?" He asked her," It looks normal enough."

A small sigh left her.

"Some of it has already lost its value, " she quietly said," with no moon in sight, they cannot regenerate."

Atheline glanced carefully.

"But..."

"We’ll just take the others and move forward," she said cutting him off," I can still feel the stones, these are just one of the many we stumbled upon."

Atheline reached down, gripping one of the exposed crystals more firmly now. Since it was a mine, they were all bunched together.

If harvested they would need to be manually separated.

The crystal didn’t come out free immediately, he twisted slightly applying pressure. The surrounding stones cracked away, and then it broke into pieces.

The crystal came free with a rough snap, breaking off from its counterpart.

He turned it in his hand, feeling its weight.

"This one at least has its aether intact," he said.

"The dull ones are the ones that have already been consumed," she said.

Atheline nodded stepping back.

"People are really trying to kill themselves for this," he said.

She shook her head, a crystal floating towards her.

"We’re just at the entrance, " she said, her gaze moving to the top-most island," we haven’t reached the main one yet."

Atheline followed her gaze. The fourth island seemed to be covered in what looked like mist so they couldn’t see anything except silhouettes.

"Come up here," she said," I want to finish this quickly."

Atheline was beside her seconds later. Below them, the dust moved as though it was being swept away revealing the valley of crystals.

"How are you planning on extraction?" He asked then added, "I can loosen the soil around them."

"No, just watch."

He struggled with his aether retreating into his core. He knew it wasn’t the first time she had done this so it was better to let her do it.

Her hand raised.

Tendrils of shadows sank into the soil around the crater their purpose clear.

Time passed quickly as her shadows started to extract, each disappearing just as fast.

It was at that moment that he felt it, something different. He stilled, looking around.

"Do you feel that?"

She was already still, her eyes narrowed faintly.

"Yes."

The air suddenly felt heavy, and the speed at which the floating dust fell slowed. Everything seemed to have slowed just for a fraction before it went back to normal.

He frowned.

"Something different, " he quietly said, "I just can’t place it."

She nodded but didn’t answer immediately. A shadow pulled out another crystal, and the same change happened.

"It seems there is a limit on how much we can remove, " she quietly said but didn’t stop her shadows.