Tracing the corrected, switchback route past the high snow saddle on the master chart, Kezra Venn and Yseld Arken brought their brass dividers to the first major royal station beyond the timberline: Windpit.
On both Davren’s copied monolith notes and Nym Correl’s brass-rubbed Needlehouse plates, Windpit was depicted by a distinctive, circular sharp-angled symbol enclosing two crossed plumb lines: STATION VIII — WINDPIT Stone-grid DATUM II — 512 P. SHAFT.
The station occupied a high, ice-worn col at five thousand, two hundred paces height, sitting square within Ecology Number Six: High Alpine Snow and Ice. The final ecological environment needed to unlock Horizon Mapmaker.
“Explain the shape of Windpit, Kezra,” Yseld requested, studying the cross-section drawing.
“Windpit was the second deep upright datum established by the old royal survey corps,” Kezra explained, her finger tracing the underground profile. “Just like the grand foundation shaft beneath Stonewake Citadel that we sounded on Day 104, Windpit consists of a massive, square upright shaft plunging exactly five hundred and twelve paces into the roots of the mountain.”
Davren leaned forward, pointing out the deep-rock layers. “The surface col is permanently locked in ice-slow ice. But beneath the ice cap, the shaft cuts through two hundred paces of dense baked flint-rock, eighty paces of fiery dark rock, and two hundred and thirty-two paces of crystal-clear basal granite. If the internal ladder support posts are intact. If the air vents can be cleared of rime frost, sounding that five-hundred-and-twelve-pace floor will earn you your second…
