Chapter 134: The Preparation
The days that followed were quiet, but they were not peaceful.
Nathan spent every spare hour in the TCA Archives, digging through old records and broken reports. The others joined him when they could—Garrett between training sessions, Dillon between meals, and Elise for hours at a time. Smithy proved to be very helpful, knowing exactly which sections of the Archives were most likely to hold useful information.
The Verdant Depths was their target. But the records were thin.
"Thirty years since the last expedition," Smithy said, spreading documents across a reading table. "Three survivors, and all of them died within days of coming back. Before that, another expedition forty years prior. No one returned. And before that, a single party entered and only one Climber came back—insane, and covered in vines. The records of his testimony are in this file."
