The eastern vortex smells wrong immediately the moment Yeon Yujun stepped in.
Not the usual wrong of a vortex — the particular thickness of air that doesn't belong to any atmosphere Yeon Yujun knows, the too-bright or too-dark quality of light that never quite resolves into something natural. That's standard. Expected.
And this one is different.
This reeks like the stones.
That sweet-over-metal he'd first noticed in [Swan Lake Paradise], the one that had started appearing at every seeding point he'd found in the district. Here it's concentrated, not ambient, and directional, coming from somewhere specific ahead of them in the terrain.
Then it made Yeon Yujun stop on his tracks.
"Do you feel that?" Chae Yuna says, from his right.
"More like smell it," he says. "Not feel."
"Really? Then, the smell is way too… overwhelming." Chae Yuna covers her nose.
