Sparks exploded across the star-iron door as the heavy iron ram shattered the imperial cipher.
Mina Vance channeled her Absolute Zero Yin-Vein into the latch, frosting the glowing runes until the enchanted metal turned as brittle as winter glass. Elder Sterling stepped forward and drove a hardened steel chisel directly into the seam. With a resounding snap, the fractured dragon crest split in two, shedding dead scarlet sparks onto the wet flagstones.
The massive circular hatch swung open with a groaning shriek of tortured iron.
A draft of stale, copper-scented air puffed outward from the darkness. Sera Thorne stepped through the threshold first, the sharp tip of Storm-Pike held level with her shoulder.
The subterranean chamber was thirty paces wide, carved from the living granite bedrock beneath the marsh. At the center of the room stood an octagonal pedestal carved from solid blood-amber. Glowing lines of scarlet light pulsed along the floor, feeding into the base of the pedestal from deep subterranean conduits.
The floor hummed with a low, sickening vibration that made Sera’s teeth ache.
Resting on a cushion of black velvet atop the pedestal lay a single cylinder of white dragon-bone jade.
The scroll was bound with braided cords of sovereign gold and stamped with the personal wax seal of the Vermilion God-Emperor. Even sealed, a faint aura of sovereign majesty hummed through the jade casing, rippling the air like heat above an anvil.
