Adventure of Tuiwen 2

The newly opened channel narrows into a natural gallery above an ancient mountain course. Clear water slips beneath pale runes, while cold air rises from the depths.

Several side springs glimmer weakly along the gallery walls. Their magic is fading, drawn in thin silver threads toward one distant depth beyond the stone.

The dragon lowers its head over the flowing channel, following the darkened currents without touching them. Its healed wing remains folded, tense but steady.

The Woodland courier kneels beside a dry spring and brushes loose grit from the rock. Fresh clawlike marks score the pale runes, all angled toward the same unseen depth.

Tuiwen crouches over the dry spring and studies each clawlike score without touching the fading rune. Eyes of the Unseen separates fresh damage from the older enchantment.

Forest Warden's Insight compares the marks with the mountain's living channels. They are not dragon claws: the grooves were made by narrow mineral growths forced outward from below, then withdrawn toward the hidden depth.

The pattern reveals its purpose. Each score is a feeder-groove, deliberately opening a spring's rune and bending its water into the gathering beneath the ancient course. The heartstone is being supplied through the mountain itself.

Tuiwen's examination takes time, and while her attention remains on the scores, one farther spring fades completely. Its water is not lost, but its rune has gone cold and offers no further warning.

The marks end at a sealed seam beneath the gallery floor, confirming the gathering's origin and purpose while leaving the deeper way closed. The dragon watches the seam in silence.

Tuiwen studies the sealed seam with the Elven blade held against its pale runes. Eyes of the Unseen separates the fading spring-marks from the deeper construction beneath the floor.

Forest Warden's Insight reads the mineral growth as part of the mountain's living channels, while Architectural Intuition reveals a concealed counterweight behind the seam. The feeder-grooves converge there, carrying water downward toward the hungry source.

The Elven blade finds the lawful catch without cutting the ward. Tuiwen's light outlines a narrow passage beyond it, descending beside the ancient course and bypassing the sealed heartstone entirely.

Oath-Bound restraint keeps her from breaking the seam or disturbing the burden, but the examination yields its answer: the relief passage can be opened from this side and followed safely to the gathering below.

The hidden catch gleams beneath the blade, ready to release the counterweight. Beyond the seam, clear water murmurs down into darkness, and the path to the hungry thing is certain.

Tuiwen presses the Elven blade to the concealed catch and steps into the seam’s narrow line. The courier and dragon remain behind her, giving her the lead.

Eyes of the Unseen reveals the counterweight’s hidden teeth before they shift. Architectural Intuition reads the stone’s load, showing precisely where the blade may turn without collapsing the gallery.

The Elven blade slips into the lawful catch and releases it. Oath-Bound restraint keeps Tuiwen from cutting the pale runes, while her light follows only the relief passage.

The seam opens outward on its counterweight, revealing a descending passage beside the ancient course. Clear water murmurs below, flowing toward the gathering without touching the sealed heartstone.

Tuiwen slips into the descending passage, keeping the dragon between the courier and the deeper dark. The Elven blade rests against the stone, guiding each silent step.

Oath-Bound restraint keeps Tuiwen from probing beyond what the passage reveals. Eyes of the Unseen catches each loose stone before it shifts, while Forest Warden's Insight reads the living water's quietest change.

Her blade finds the lawful edges of the rock, and she places her weight where the mountain will bear it. She passes without disturbing rune, water, or air.

The passage descends into a hidden chamber where feeder-grooves converge beneath the ancient course. Black mineral growths gather the stolen flow around a pulsing hollow, the corruption's source now clearly before her.