Page 189 of The Last Remaining Light

The black veins had returned, darker now, but his attention remained fixed on the currents below.

"Do you see something?" she asked.

For a moment he said nothing, but then he pointed toward the far side of the cavern.

Elowynn followed his gaze. She saw only darkness, but then another resonance pulse illuminated the crystals.

The structure emerged briefly from the shadows.

An archway. Massive. Ancient. Built directly into the stone above one of the largest currents.

“The starway,” she cried, her voice echoing through the chasm. “And look! It is active, not dormant.”

The pulse faded before she could study it further, but she had seen enough. "That is where we are going."

Vaelor nodded. "If we're fortunate."

“That doesn’t inspire confidence,” Lora said with a scowl.

Another pulse moved through the current, this time the reaction spread beyond the cavern itself. Resonance channels embedded throughout the walls flared to life. Ancient sigils awakened and bridges dormant for centuries illuminated one after another.

Somewhere far below, the sound of machinery groaned as systems purposely forgotten by history began responding to forces they had not felt in generations.

The containment failure was spreading.

They could all feel the system waking—not whatever lay imprisoned within it.

It was as though ancient mechanisms, dormant for centuries, had begun responding to a crisis long overdue.

Vaelor's expression darkened. "We need to go. Right now."

Everyone moved at once.

The bridge extending from the platform looked sturdy enough, but it was narrow, with no rails to guard the endless drop below.

With Vaelor in the lead, they stepped onto the pathway single file. Alyra followed, then Lora, with Korvel close behind. At Caelyn's insistence, he crossed ahead of Elowynn, with the survivors following behind him. Together, they stepped out above the currents.

Silver-blue light flowed beneath their feet, illuminating the drop in disorienting patterns that made distance and depth difficult to judge.

Elowynn kept finding herself looking down. She couldn't help it. The currents fascinated her. Every scholar in Veylspire would have surrendered turnings of their life for a glimpse of this place, and entire libraries suddenly felt inconsequential compared to the reality stretching beneath the world. She found herself wondering how many secrets remained hidden within the network and whether anyone had truly understood it since the builders vanished.

A loud shriek shattered her thoughts, and she snapped her attention ahead.

Lora’s foot slipped on the too-narrow bridge.

Her arms windmilled.

For one horrifying heartbeat, the young woman disappeared over the edge.

Alyra let loose a bloodcurdling scream before Lora's hand slammed against the side of the bridge, fingers scrambling desperately for purchase as her body swung out over the endless drop.

The current below illuminated her face in flashes of light, and the sheer terror in her expression turned Elowynn's blood to ice.

Korvel had moved and dropped to one knee and caught Lora's wrist before she could fall farther. The sudden weight nearly dragged him over with her, and for an instant Elowynn thought they might both disappear into the darkness below.

Then Caelyn was there.

He seized Korvel's arm with both hands and planted his feet against the stone.