She shakes the thoughts from her mind, pulling herself back to the present.
Their footsteps echo louder down here.
Each step seems to travel farther than it should, the sound bouncing along the stone and disappearing somewhere deeper in the dark.
Elyssara glances back.
The bronze doors they came through are already swallowed by shadow.
“Still time to turn around,” Kael murmurs.
She snorts softly. “And walk back into Maireth’s ballroom like we simply got lost on the way to the wine?”
“Fair point.”
The corridor bends once, then again, each turn pulling them farther from the pulse of music above until even the drums have vanished.
Now there is only silence. The kind of silence that presses against the ears.
Another set of doors waits ahead. These ones forged entirely of black iron, their surface etched with intricate geometric sigils. No guards. No locks. Just the silent promise of whatever lies below.
Elyssara’s stomach twists.
“They’re really not even trying to hide it,” she mutters.
Kael studies the doors, head tilting slightly.
“No,” he says quietly.
He pushes them open.
The passage beyond slopes downward.
Stone steps descend into darkness, worn smooth by centuries of use. The lanterns here are fewer still, their flames guttering in narrow glass cages bolted to the walls.
The temperature drops another degree.
The deeper they go, the more the palace above feels like a dream—silk and music and laughter fading into a distant hum.Though the games are present in both places.
Here, the architecture changes again. The walls grow thicker. The stone darker. Heavy iron braces reinforce every archway, riveted plates embedded directly into the structure as though the entire lower palace has been engineered to withstand siege… or contain something that should never escape.
Elyssara runs her fingers lightly along the wall as they descend.
Cold.
Unyielding.
“These are the vaults,” Kael murmurs.
She glances at him.
He nods toward the iron bands running along the ceiling.
“Structural reinforcement. Whatever they’re protecting down here… they really don’t want it destroyed.”
Her pulse quickens.The Orbs.
The stairway seems endless.
