The ancient elven steps descend beneath the Verdant Wound into a dry chamber untouched by poison. Bottu remains alone; Seraphine Vale is far behind at Histol’s northern waystation.
Clean stone replaces the crater’s eaten ground. Elven records cover the walls in layered script, while branching maps trace waterways, ruins, and fissures through the Verdant Wound.
Bottu
The poison never reached this chamber.
Above the inner doorway, a carved stone eye opens by a narrow measure. Green light spills across one map, illuminating a route toward the Emerald Eye before the lid stops.
Protective glyphs awaken around the inscriptions, brightening whenever dust shifts near the records. Their silent judgment turns the chamber into a careful boundary rather than a simple archive.
The route can be studied from the steps without entering the deeper pit. Yet beneath the chamber’s stillness, a faint disturbance suggests that whoever has watched the site may be watching now.