Chapter 286

• [Carnelia]
• It is cold at first, not the piercing mind-numbing cold of the void, but something moist and alive, rich with the scents of machine oil, stone, and clay. It reminds me a bit of the caves beneath Ridgewood, where Primus keeps his more primal nest, his resting place when he’s in his bestial form. That space also had the feeling of eyes in every direction, as if the earth itself was watching me with eyes made of gems and crystals.
• As a door closed above our heads, the craft fell into absolute darkness, and I gasped, holding in the last air in my lungs, as if my body feared this might be my last breath. I have been underground before, running for my life in the tunnels beneath Imperial City, but never before have I felt so much like I was entering a tomb.