The Coven of the Cornerstone: The essence stealers

Previously

…As they rose, the forest seemed to stir around them, birdsong tentatively returning, the rustling of leaves no longer a harbinger of doom, but merely the indifferent symphony of nature. But for Lorenzo and Jose, the silence had been broken by something far more profound: the chilling realization that their escape had only just begun, and the path ahead was fraught with dangers far greater than they could have ever imagined, leading them towards an unknown scholar and an even more uncertain future. The Obsidian Orb, nestled in Lorenzo’s pack, pulsed with a silent, unseen energy, a dark promise of power and peril that now defined their existence.