Kaelen Vance tapped his seasoned bamboo rod against the frosted basalt floor.
The strike team moved in single file through the winding service corridor of Sector One.
Mina Vance walked right behind him, her hands tucked inside her wide linen sleeves.
With every step, her Absolute Zero frost spread beneath their boots, preventing the red-hot volcanic stone from scorching the leather soles.
Princess Valeria, Elder Sterling, and Sera Thorne followed closely, their senses tuned to the rumbling mountain.
The corridor was lined with heavy steam conduits and narrow drainage grates that glowed with the sullen red glare of the lower magma pools.
Along the walls lay hundreds of empty packing crates branded with the crossed-mortar insignia of the Morvane Clan and the Pyre Pill House.
The Four Great Pill Houses had converted these ancient natural basalt tunnels into an industrial processing plant.
