Darkvision

As Warian passed the man, the porter winked. A heartbeat's confusion gave way to recognition. Zel's really was a master of disguise. The corridor walls were smooth and polished. Redstone squares tiled the floor. Smokeless torches alternated on either side, about every ten paces. Nothing but the finest for the Datharathis. Of course, this was the executive entrance to the mining headquarters-the lower shafts sunk through Adama's Tooth were as rough and crude, but workable, as might be found in any mine. They reached the nexus, where several wide, well-lit passages met. Warian expected his aunt to take the passage that led toward family quarters, but she turned toward the lift tu

"Yes. Shaddon has moved his staging area closer to the location where the crystal is extracted. He's waiting for us." Warian scratched his nose and said, "Porter, come with us, please. I have some items in my bag that I may want to ask my uncle about." "Yes, sir," said the porter, his accent and tone completely unlike Zel's normal speech.

Sevaera cocked her head, but wasn't curious enough to say anything.

Instead, she moved to the edge of the lift and addressed the lift operator, a burly half-orc. "Drop us to the Fifth Deep." The lift operator nodded and grasped a great wheel set into the wall. Warian knew the lift was raised and lowered through a series of counterweighted chains, and that the wheel didn't require much strength to turn. Those who traveled up and down the mine shafts were heartened to see a burly lift operator, nonetheless. As the shaft's gray walls flowed past on all sides, to the accompaniment of clanking chains and creaking pulleys, Warian asked, "Fifth Deep? I thought there were only four-and the lowest was where Shaddon first found the crystal we're all so happy with." Warian pumped his prosthesis to demonstrate. "We opened a new face on the dig." "Really? I don't know how that's possible, unless you're actually digging below the base of Adama's Tooth. If that's the case, wouldn't it be easier to sink a new shaft from outside?" "You'll see, Nephew. The Fifth Deep doesn't obey all the rules you're accustomed to." "What?" Sevaera merely smirked.

She was too smug by half. The long descent ended. A wide tu

Is that a building?" asked Warian. Ancient structures, half excavated, stood revealed in the light of brilliant mining torches. The ruins were so ancient, they nearly seemed natural formations of the cavern.

Worn and skewed by unknown ages, half walls emerged from the grasp of the stone. The visible structures were composed of purple stones, but they reached up from the detritus of mille

The bits of raw crystal he could see from where he stood had to be worth a fortune. "Seems kind of wasteful to let all this crystal lie about, unless…" Sevaera nodded. "Yes, we've found a much purer, concentrated source. Shaddon says we no longer need to sift through the dirt and blast through rock-we have access to as much pure crystal as we'll ever need. This pure vein was what allowed the plangent project to move forward." "Hmm." Warian cocked his head sharply toward one of the darkened tu

"We're late for a meeting." She turned to the right and walked past the workbenches and the prostheses, toward an open door. Warian wondered where all the miners had gone, as well as all the artisans that must have been diligently carving the crystal displayed on the workbenches. Perhaps the mine was between shifts. Through the doorway was a small corridor that emptied into a decorated chamber.