While Helen was being emotionally dismantled at the inn, Ethan was deep within the bowels of the earth. He had spent the last six hours scouring the caverns, but the results were frustratingly stagnant. He had descended back to the grand hall where the matrix sat, searching every crevice and scanning every obsidian surface, yet he found nothing new.
He checked his watch. The sun would be setting on the surface soon.
"Nothing. It's exactly as it was. The only variable is the time," said Ethan.
[Perhaps it is a specific window, Master. Or perhaps the mechanism requires a certain atmospheric pressure that only occurs at twilight. I suggest we remain vigilant,] Crul said.
