One of the stone-kin mine guards showed up in the office of the overseer. He stood waiting until he was motioned forward, and then he said, "That Zonian has found something again." The overseer looked at him and said, "What has he found this time?" and the guard responded, "I don't know; he said something about a room."
The overseer grabbed three mine experts, and they all went down to one of the lower shaft levels, where the Zonian stood against a far wall, watching two Zonians pickaxing a wall. The two had made some progress into the wall, and one of them turned to look at the overseer as if to say, Nothing here. The three older mine experts shooed them aside and began tapping the wall with their picks. One picked into the top of the wall and got a hollow ringing noise back, "There's a void here, something up here is hollow." The three experts mowed through the top of the wall, and an opening appeared. Fresh air blew into the tunnel, and the stone-kin looked at each other in amazement. There were thousands of feet of stone above them, and there should be no fresh air this far down. The three turned back to the wall and finished opening the area up; they even carved a few steps to allow walking up into the void.
The whole group filed up into a room and raised their torches. High above their heads, a shaft rose out of sight of the torchlight. A flow of air came down that shaft, though no daylight could be seen at its top. On the opposite wall of the room, two very large doors stood. They were made of some dark wood and were iron-bound. There were carvings on both sides of the doors, looking like columns with strange runes etched into them. The overseer said, "Two guards posted here and one of you run to the town and alert them."
Arya was busy trying to tie up loose ends from the invasion; she was talking to Tyrion and Ming when a stone-kin guard was shown into the room. He quickly explained what had been discovered in the stone-kin mines. "What now?" Arya wondered aloud as the three of them started their way towards the mines after the guard. Tyrion chuckled as they walked. The guard added the bit about the runes that were there, and the three began casting about for whom they could draft into looking at them. Tyrion said there were a couple of measters that were experts in runes, and he ran back into the intel building to send a telepath message to Bran to bring the experts with him when he came to supervise the interrogation of Jun Wei.
Thomas was out walking with the two children; they were going to eat at one of the restaurants in the center of town. They were to meet their mother there when they saw her walking with a small group towards the east gate. They ran to greet her, and Thomas asked where they were all going. Arya said they were welcome to come too, and she hugged both the kids, saying, "Let's have an adventure!" Tyrion rejoined the group, saying that the message had been sent.
Gendry was out with his wife, enjoying this beautiful fall day; the air had just a touch of cool in it, and it was delightful to be out. He was showing her where the new walls to the north were being constructed, and how the giant rock just north of the old wall was being carved up to serve as part of their new area. The town was growing, and it needed to expand north. Just then the group came walking down the road, and Tyrion greeted him, saying, "Come join us, you two; we are out for an adventure, and since we can't have any secrets in this town...."
Gendry and his wife fell into line, curiosity beguiling them. "What's this all about, Thomas? Gendry asked. Thomas giggled at them and said, "Some big new mysterious room showed up in the stone-kin tunnels." Tyrion growled aloud, and the whole group laughed at him.
Half an hour later, they were parading into the stone-kin realm, like a bunch of goofs, and soon they were in the room itself. The two guards gave way as there were so many in the group, and they stood with the overseer studying the two doors. Torches had been placed on every wall, so there was plenty of light. The wandering giggle fest became decidedly quiet in the face of those doors. All of them felt a presence before the doors and the columns on the wall. Arya gathered the children to her arms, holding each by the shoulder.
"This may be dangerous," she said. Several of the others nodded. Tyrion moved toward the doors, placing his hand on one. He pushed and said, "Locked," when they wouldn't move. There was no keyhole in the face of the doors, and Gendry said maybe the runes offered some way to get in. Thomas offered, "We could break them down, or try. Though something about them makes me feel that would be a bad idea." Ming said those doors looked very old, and the group agreed with him. "We should leave them be until the experts get here; let's head back." They filed out quietly and went back to town.