By late afternoon the storm had grown large enough to swallow the horizon.
William noticed the change gradually. At first the dark mass of clouds seemed no different from when he had last studied it, but as the hours passed the scale became impossible to ignore. What had once been a distant band across the desert now towered over the dunes like a moving mountain, its edges constantly reshaping themselves as violent winds churned through its interior.
Blue lightning crawled through the storm in jagged veins.
The strikes no longer appeared occasionally. They moved constantly now, branching through the clouds and lashing down toward the desert in blinding flashes that turned the distant dunes into brief silhouettes of silver and shadow.
The thunder arrived sooner with each strike.
William remained near the breach in the ruin's wall while he watched the sky darken. The air had grown noticeably heavier, thick enough that every breath felt slightly different from the dry emptiness he had grown used to since waking in the crater.
He stepped outside and climbed onto the same slab of stone he had used earlier for a better view.
From there he could see the desert more clearly.
The dunes ahead of the storm were shifting violently. Powerful winds tore across the sand in broad waves that rolled outward from the advancing wall of clouds. Entire ridges collapsed beneath the pressure of the moving air, sending avalanches of sand sliding down their slopes before settling again.
The storm was still several kilometers away.
But it was moving quickly.
William studied the surrounding ruins again.
Earlier the structure had seemed sturdy enough to survive the desert wind, but now he wasn't so certain. Several of the taller sections of wall had already begun shedding small fragments of stone as the gusts grew stronger. Thin streams of sand slipped through the cracks in the ruin and gathered along the floor of the chamber behind him.
If the wind became any stronger, the exposed sections of the structure might not hold.
He stepped down from the slab and returned to the interior of the ruin.
The difference between outside and inside had become more pronounced. The air within the stone walls carried a faint warmth now, and the glow from the crystal veins had intensified enough to illuminate the carvings across the chamber.
The blue light pulsed softly beneath the surface of the stone.
Clusters of scarabs gathered around the veins like living sparks, their small bodies glowing brighter with every passing minute. Whenever a gust of wind carried blue dust into the ruin, the insects reacted immediately, swarming over the crystals as if drawn by instinct.
William crouched beside one of the veins and studied it more closely.
The crystal itself appeared unchanged in shape, but the light within it had deepened. The glow now spread faintly through the carved patterns around it, tracing parts of the strange symbols etched into the wall.
He followed the path of the light with his eyes.
The patterns were not random.
The veins of crystal intersected with the carvings in deliberate places, running through certain lines while avoiding others entirely. The design reminded him of channels or pathways, though he had no idea what purpose they served.
Outside, another bolt of lightning struck the dunes.
The flash illuminated the entire chamber through the breach in the wall.
The thunder followed almost immediately.
This time the vibration shook loose a scattering of sand from the ceiling above.
William stood slowly and looked toward the opening.
The storm had reached the outer dunes.
He stepped outside again and felt the change immediately.
The wind struck him in sudden bursts now, powerful enough to push loose sand across the stone beneath his feet. Blue dust drifted through the air in thin swirling clouds, glowing faintly before dissolving into the dunes.
The sky had grown darker as well.
The leading edge of the storm loomed above the desert now, its towering clouds stretching upward in enormous spirals of shadow and lightning. The constant flashes of blue light within it made the entire formation appear alive.
Another strike tore through the sky.
This one hit much closer.
A column of blue lightning slammed into a dune less than a kilometer away, blasting sand high into the air with explosive force. For a moment the entire landscape glowed with unnatural light.
When the brightness faded, something remained.
Thin lines of blue energy crawled across the sand where the bolt had struck, spreading through the dune like cracks in glass before slowly fading into the earth.
William watched the phenomenon carefully.
The lightning was not behaving like a normal storm.
It was leaving something behind.
He turned back toward the ruin and stepped inside again.
The change within the chamber was immediate.
The crystal veins were glowing far brighter than before.
The scarabs had formed dense clusters around them, their tiny bodies flickering like scattered embers across the walls. Even the carved symbols in the stone had begun reflecting the light, their edges faintly illuminated by the energy flowing beneath the surface.
William stood near the center of the chamber and took a slow breath.
The air inside the ruin hummed faintly.
It was not a sound exactly, more a subtle vibration that seemed to exist just beneath the edge of hearing. The sensation reminded him of standing near a massive machine, though he had no memory of ever encountering such a thing.
His hand drifted toward the dagger at his belt.
This time he drew the weapon without hesitation.
The moment the blade cleared the sheath, the runes along its surface flickered.
Blue light traced the patterns carved into the metal.
William held the dagger up and studied it carefully.
The glow was faint but steady now.
And the crack near the base had definitely changed.
Earlier it had split across the blade like a thin fracture through glass. Now the edges of the crack had shifted closer together, the gap between them noticeably smaller than before.
The metal was repairing itself.
William lowered the dagger slowly.
Outside, another thunderclap rolled across the desert.
The storm had nearly reached the ruin.
The wind surged through the opening in the wall, carrying a rush of glowing dust into the chamber. The moment the particles touched the floor, the crystal veins flared brighter.
The dagger pulsed in his hand.
For a brief instant the runes along the blade burned with brilliant blue light.
Then the glow faded again.
William tightened his grip on the weapon and looked toward the breach in the wall.
The sky beyond the ruins had turned almost completely dark.
Lightning flashed constantly within the towering storm clouds, and the wind now howled across the desert in violent bursts that shook the exposed stone.
The storm was no longer approaching.
It was arriving.
And suddenly William was no longer sure the ruin he had chosen would survive what was coming.