Chapter 10 · The Woman Below

"Don't touch that."

Virrak's hand was already on the carved stone when I said it. He froze.

"What am I not touching?"

"The glyph. The one glowing blue under your palm."

He pulled his hand back like the stone had bit him. "I don't see anything glowing."

"I know." I kept my eyes on the corridor ahead. The ice walls were narrowing. "Stay close. Don't touch anything that looks old."

"Everything down here looks old."

"Then don't touch anything."

The map in my vision was a mess of overlapping lines and half-rendered terrain. We were under the camp now, maybe fifty feet down, following a staircase that shouldn't exist. The pulse I'd felt through the ice last night had come from here. The system had lit it up like a beacon. COMMAND NODE AVAILABLE: 1.

I didn't know what a command node was. I didn't care. If it gave me an edge, I'd take it.

"This is a bad idea," Virrak said behind me.

"You already said that."

"It's still true."

"Then go back."

He didn't answer. His boots crunched on frost. He wasn't going anywhere.

The corridor opened into a chamber.