The group stepped out through the dark doorway, and the grey-gold light of the world settled over them again like a held breath let go.
Behind them, the Shrine sat quiet and patient, its ten-eyed keeper waiting in the dark for the next traveler with points to spend. None of them looked back at it for long.
"We could have bought a Scroll," Korin said as they walked. "The knowledge alone would have been worth the price."
"We could have," Tenebria agreed. "And then we would own one law and fewer points, in a world we still do not understand. We spent ten just now, and gladly, because some things are worth more than points. But we do not yet know how to earn even one point back. Until we learn that, we spend nothing we do not have to."
"Knowledge first," Erix said. "Points later. We learn how this place works with our own eyes."
