The cold wind fades as the Tower draws Delfarius inward. The personal archive receives him in violet silence, while the sealed black volume remains fixed among the shelves, its unauthorized symbol glowing faintly.
No living observer approaches. The containment vault remains undisturbed, and the sealed spying tome stays isolated beyond the foundation stones. Only this second volume waits beneath the Tower’s patient wards.
When Delfarius examines it, the cover parts like a locked mouth finally choosing speech. Inside lies a diary written in the cramped hand of a dead hero, each page preserved against time.
Delfarius
The ink is older than the symbol.
The diary recounts a mortal network that carried warnings through charitable routes, never naming the sealed volume itself. Its final entry identifies Sera Pell as the recipient entrusted with the hero’s last account.
Beneath Sera Pell’s name, a fresh line has appeared in ink that has not yet faded: “If the watcher is found, tell her the road beneath Orosia was only the beginning.” The Tower offers no explanation.