Warm mist still clung to Kaelen Vance’s white silk tunic as he stepped across the threshold of the Grand Furnace Room.
Behind him, Barnaby Holt carried a cedar tray of clean towels, while Linnea hurried with her ink pots and folios.
Sera Thorne met them by the iron tool racks, her hand resting on the hilt of her dagger.
“You didn’t even change out of your bath tunic,” Sera noted, eyeing the residual mineral vapor on his collar. “Walking straight from a spirit pool into a two-thousand-degree foundry is an easy way to scorch your pores.”
“Thermal inertia is a precious commodity,” Kaelen replied, rolling his sleeves above his elbows. “My meridians are humming with fresh Jade Meridian Late fire. Letting my body cool down would mean reigniting the flame from scratch. That wastes unnecessary effort.”
He walked to the center of the vast, vaulted chamber.
Built two centuries ago by the founding grandmasters of the Nine-Cauldron Guild, the Grand Furnace Room was a three-story cavern carved into the volcanic bedrock.
Heavy granite arches supported the immense weight of the tower above, their surfaces dark with centuries of soot.
