The portal of the Twin Masters opened onto an underground landscape of raw, ancient majesty: Entry hall 706, the Deep gap of Geothermal Fire. Here, the artificial stonework of the halls gave way to a huge natural cave half a league across, carved from massive stone sheets of columnar dark rock that rose eighty arm-lengths into a ceiling vault veiled in semi-clear white steam.
Spanning the center of the deep gap was a huge natural bridge of fiery black glass, twelve arm-lengths wide, crossing fifty deep-water lengths above a glowing lake of underground magma. The molten rock pulsed with a slow, rhythmic breathing, rising and falling by several spans every hour as tidal forces from the deep world-size core bent the bedrock.
Qiao Ming walked out onto the black glass bridge, his bare horn-hard feet delighting in the smooth, glass-like texture of the fiery rock. The black glass was warm as fresh bread, holding a steady, comforting heat that pierced deep into his muscles and joints. The air was dry and aromatic, carrying the clean stone scent of baked quartz dust, fiery glass, and boiling salt water.
Behind him, Yan Zhiqiu walked with slow, deliberate steps, her eyes wide as she looked over the edge of the bridge. Below them, through thirty-four deep-water lengths of warm, lit up air, the magma lake glowed with the intense, orange-gold radiance of an open smelting hearth. Rivers of white-hot stone melted rock waste crisscrossed the surface in delicate, shifting patterns that mirrored the…
