~Kaida Orion POV~
We climbed the stairs, mist dripped from the ceiling and old parchment fluttered at our feet. Chanting root runes glowed faint in the stone.
At the bottom lay an underground file crawlspace...rooms full of couriers' chests, collapsed scroll racks, and broken seal jars. Moon Priest stopped at a puddle flooded with green ink tags.
He bent, tracing root patterns with his finger. "The apprentice must have dumped echo slip tubes here, then fled with the true microprint slip through this passage."
He motioned to a low archway blocked by sealed off racks. Biat brought his dagger and thrust a crowbar, the racks collapsed with crash. Underneath lay a corridor beyond.
We advanced through hallways lit by phosphor fungi, tags drifted with phosphor glow across the ceiling and walls...each tag pulsing green or silver, I felt my pendant grow warm.
