Many had collapsed.
Broken balustrades hung above empty space, while sections of stairway clung to the walls, their remaining steps leading toward gaps through which the chamber below was plainly visible.
Yet even in its ruin, the workmanship possessed an extraordinary grace.
Every curve seemed carefully measured, every carved edge belonging to a greater design that time had only partially succeeded in destroying.
A pale radiance wandered beneath the floor.
Elion looked down, finding thin streams of mana moving through the grooves beneath his feet.
They followed an intricate arrangement of interlocking circles before disappearing beneath the stone, their light reflected in patches of polished flooring that had somehow escaped the dust.
"It must have been beautiful," Althea murmured.
Elion nodded, his gaze traveling across the immense room. There was almost nothing inside it.
