The vellum hums against Slaan’s fingers as she reaches the buried threshold. A seam in the stone answers with a soft click, and the front slab shifts inward, breathing out cool air and old ash.
Bram
This is it. The next node. If the Chapel has a hand in this route, it is buried in here.
The Wounded Runner
They will find us if this opens too slowly.
Inside, narrow steps descend to a chamber lined with pilgrim knots. Half-burned records lie in a stone tray, and one page is still pinned beneath a chapel seal stamped fresh in wax.
Kaelith
A fresh seal here means someone beat us to the node, or waited for us to arrive.
Slaan
The seal is newer than the dust.
From the dark stair behind the chamber, a faint scrape answers, followed by the murmur of moving feet outside in the dunes. The trap is not just marked, it is active.
Bram
Slaan, if you take those records, we can still expose the route. But we move now.
Decrypt the node records