The passage widened as they progressed. The rock became stone again, raw and cold, stripped of the organic dampness of the cavern, but it still bore strange striations, like scratches or furrows left by something too large to have ever belonged to this place.
Every step seemed to echo too loudly, and each person watched their breath so as not to seem to wake what might still be sleeping beneath the rock.
Maggie led the way, halberd raised like a silent torch, her step heavy but assured. Her deep breath filled the silence, a steady rhythm the others followed almost mechanically, as if it were the only pulse still worthy of trust. Her eyes scoured the darkness, and sometimes, very briefly, they rested on Elisa, who walked beside her. There was a tacit alliance in that look, forged in the fire of battle, but also a caution, a wariness that dared not speak its name.
