Location:Mid Ring, Vel'thari Containment — Fortress Ruins, Inner Cisterns
Date/Time:Late Frostforge, 9941 AZI — Week 2-3 of the Harrowing
Realm:Lower Realm, Doha
The cisterns were the deepest part of the fortress, carved into the bedrock beneath the foundation stones where the rock itself sweated moisture from some source the builders had understood and the centuries hadn't destroyed.
Eden had been down here for two hours. Water inventory. The critical variable, the one that determined whether the ring supplies lasted the year or ran short in month nine, and the cisterns were the answer: slow seepage through mineral rock, collecting in stone basins lined with a sealant that hadn't degraded across the centuries. The water tasted of iron and chalk. Clean. She'd tested it three ways.
