The silence in the sanctum was heavy, broken only by the steady, healthy roar of the cleansed heart-fire.
Lin Tian lowered his fist, the last chill of the devoured void-knot fading from his palm. The knowledge of the Canopy That Never Falls sat in his mind like a cold stone.
He turned to Queen Althea. The massive smith queen watched him, her expression a mix of awe and grim calculation. She gave a single, slow nod. "The path to the Eternal Engine is open," she said, her voice gravelly. "The mountain's true heart awaits."
"Lead the way," Lin Tian said.
They followed the queen and her smiths past the great dais, through an archway that hadn't been visible before. The heat intensified, not as a hostile force, but as a deep, rhythmic pulse, like the heartbeat of the world. The corridor sloped steeply downward, the walls transitioning from worked stone to raw, glassy obsidian. The air shimmered.
