2. Amiss

The first sign that something was amiss came not with fire or blood, but with silence. Birds stopped singing. Bees collapsed mid-flight. The trees surrounding Ringhaven lost their blossoms overnight, their bark turning pale and waxy. Children woke with fevers and began sketching strange sigils in ash. The town healer, Maedra Wren, claimed a scentless flower had bloomed behind her cottage, one she never planted. It opened only at dusk and faced the Ring. Rumors began, soft and unsure. Then livestock died. Then people. But there was no war, no monster, no bandit raid. Just decay, as if the town had slipped out of time into a dream slowly rotting from within.