The rest passed too soon. The tunnel narrowed, the moss thinned, and the path dropped sharply into a series of switchback stairs cut into raw black stone, the air growing colder and heavier with every turn downward.
Here the Vault tried one more trick.
The stairs themselves began, subtly, to lie. A step that should have been solid gave slightly underfoot, and Erix's amber eyes caught the wrongness a half-second before Korin's boot would have gone through into open air over a drop with no visible bottom.
"Careful," Erix said sharply, catching his arm. "The stone is not honest here."
They descended the rest of the way slow and deliberate, testing each step, Lily drifting ahead unseen to check the ones further down, and the stairway seemed to sulk at being caught, offering no further tricks once it had been noticed.
