Page 178 of The Last Remaining Light

Alyra's hand instinctively went to her sword, and Lora muttered something under her breath that sounded suspiciously like a prayer.

The lantern flickered.

Elowynn was struggling to calm her raging heart as the others advanced cautiously, their footsteps slow against the stone.

As they neared, the lantern flickered brighter. Eventually the figure beside it emerged from the darkness.

Three councilmen lay where they had fallen.

One appeared to have been dragged several paces before dying, bloody streaks marking the floor behind him. Another stared sightlessly toward the ceiling, his chest torn open by wounds Elowynn didn't wish to examine closely. The third had collapsed against the wall, dried blood covering the front of his robes and pooling beneath him.

Master Vaelor sat among them upon a block of stone, illuminated by that single lantern.

For a moment, Elowynn could only stare. She had never seen him look so... terrible. Then again, none of them looked their best. And the dead men...

She didn’t need to ask what had happened to them.

But this was a man who had always appeared composed, controlled, and beyond certain of himself.

Now he looked as though Blackwake had aged him a decade.

Dust coated his dark robes, and a tear ran along one sleeve. Fresh blood stained the bandage wrapped around his left forearm, while exhaustion hollowed the sharp features of his face. But his eyes? They remained exactly the same. Keen. Observant. And completely unsurprised.

His gaze steadied on the group before finally landing on Elowynn. A sneering smirk played along his lips.

"There you are,” he sighed. "I was beginning to wonder if you’d taken a wrong turn."

Elowynn blinked at him. Had he expected her all along?

Alyra lowered herself slightly into a fighting stance. "That's your greeting?"

Vaelor glanced toward her and sighed. "It seemed sufficient, given the circumstance."

Lora groaned once she realized who it was. "Oh, stars. It's him."

The corners of Vaelor's mouth twitched, then the hint of the expression vanished. His attention returned to Elowynn.

"So, Scholar Selvicta. You found the network chamber." It was not a question.

Elowynn felt something like dread drop in her stomach. "You knew about it."

“Of course I did.” He adjusted himself where he sat and leaned his back on the pillar. “Part of it, anyway.”

"Part of it?" Elowynn almost shouted. "There are entire structures beneath the city!” She waved a hand back toward the tunnel they had come from. “There is a network spanning the continent, and somehow, you knew about it. And you said nothing?" Her voice had risen even higher, echoing through the chamber.

Several survivors flinched, glancing uneasily toward the dark passages as though expecting the Starless to answer.

Vaelor's composure cracked. “Oh, young lady,” he said, his tone patronizing. “You are so intelligent, yet your assumptions will be your downfall."

The backhanded response caught her off guard, and Elowynn looked as though he’d physically slapped her.

Vaelor slowly rose to his feet, wincing as he did. "I knew these foundations existed. I knew the observatories were connected. I knew portions of the historical record were incomplete." He looked toward the darkness beyond them. "What I didn't know was how much had been hidden. And how bloody dangerous those tunnels are. Do you know how many scholars I lost chasing those answers?”

Silence.

“Four.” He scoffed, shaking his head. "One vanished completely. We never found so much as a bone. Two were killed when a lower passage collapsed beneath them." His voice had gone strangely flat. "The last one returned randomly."

Everyone watched Vaelor as he looked toward the floor. "But he only stayed for three suns."