>>Draken
The tunnel creaked. A low, wet sound. Not wind, not stone shifting—something else.
Vesper froze beside me, one hand on the torch while I kept mine near the hilt of my blade. The sound came again, faint, almost like breathing.
Perhaps a groan, or like someone trying to climb up.
Not ours.
I tilted my head. "Did you hear that?"
She nodded. "Yeah. Not comforting."
I grunted. "Let's keep moving."
The path wound downward, deeper than I expected. The further we walked, the more the pressure built in my ears. It was getting warmer, too. The walls of the tunnel glistened with dampness, and the stone beneath our feet had grown slick with moss or mold.
"Feels like this tunnel was meant to keep going down forever," Vesper muttered, her voice bouncing faintly off the curved ceiling.
I glanced at her. "You thinking what I'm thinking?"
"That this is no longer a temple tunnel? More like a chute?" she replied.
"Yeah." I didn't like it. But stopping now wasn't an option.
