Entry hall 222 was an underground heat vent chamber known in the survey registers as the Humid Gallery.
Here, deep earth-heat fractures in the dark rock floor met the icy drainage currents from the upper cloisters. That created a microclimate unlike anywhere else in the safe hall. The air was hot, dense, and thick with an unending white mist carrying sixty-eight percent bitter-salt vapor and tiny droplets of dissolved magnesium chloride. Water drops ran down the carved red stone walls in heavy, nonstop sheets, washing away dust and coating every surface with a thin, glistening glaze of liquid stone salt.
To the ancient water-scribes, this chamber was a natural sky filter designed to stop airborne contaminants and acid-burning gases before they could reach the delicate bronze machinery of the lower vaults.
To the four elite magic charm-masters of the outer sect vanguard, it was their final, desperate stronghold.
Having witnessed the collapse of their tunnel diggers and the flooding of the blind cross-hall, Senior Magic charm-Master Chen and his three junior adepts had pulled back to the central stone dais of Entry hall 222. Clad in stitched silk robes heavy with protective magic charms, they had brought with them their sect’s greatest tactical treasure: a lacquer casket containing one hundred and eight Sky-Shattering Lightning Charms and six jade barrier-stones.
