Kynes finishes the bypass codes, and the amber script steadies along the wall. Stone grinds below his feet. A narrow passage opens, old as the vault itself, its mouth breathing cold air into the Hall of Welcome.
Bren shifts to the threshold, staff low, eyes cutting through the dark. Behind them, the dead clerk-line gives one last faint pulse, like a signal trying to find a listener.
Bren
That broadcast will have teeth on it. We move now, or we get pinned here.
Kynes
The passage bypasses the main seals. It is their shortest route out.
From deeper in the hall, a second answering tremor rolls through the stone, distant but approaching. House Xar is converging on the hall's heart.
Bren
Kynes, this way. If they reach the chamber first, they close every other path.
She backs into the hidden corridor, making space for him, while the opening behind them begins to dim. The choice is clear, flee through the ancient passage now, or be trapped when the hunters arrive.
Slip through the ancient passage unseen