Fels was still in the underground Guild chamber when Rayleigh returned with Cassandra.
The mage had apparently abandoned any hope of having a normal evening.
Several maps from the warehouse raid covered the central table, together with copied notes, old Knossos records, and the reports taken from the Monsterphilia prisoners.
Merek had also been brought in under guard and was sitting near the far end of the room with a heavy iron restraint around one wrist.
He looked older than Rayleigh remembered.
Three years of living under Guild supervision had left his hair longer and his face thinner, but he no longer carried the exhausted fear of someone waiting to be killed for knowing too much.
He had spent those years translating old Daedalus records and helping the Guild seal dangerous routes, which was probably the closest thing to a second life anyone involved in Valletta's old operation could reasonably expect.
Merek raised his head when Cassandra entered with Yumeutsutsu in her arms.
Rayleigh did not waste time on introductions.
"Cassandra had another dream. Something behind one of the sealed routes is responding from inside Knossos, and the warehouse notes mention something called Phase Three. We need to know whether those two things connect."
Fels moved several documents aside so Cassandra could approach the table.
"Tell him exactly what you saw, including the parts you aren't sure about."
Cassandra nodded and repeated the dream without embellishing it.
She described the damaged door beneath the city, the unclear figure beyond it, and the feeling that whatever waited there had become easier to perceive after Rayleigh raided Valletta's warehouse.
She was careful whenever uncertainty entered the account, and Merek listened without interrupting until she finished.
He then asked to see the recovered notes.
Rayleigh handed them over.
Merek read the first sheet once, then returned to the beginning and worked through it more slowly.
His eyes lingered on the repeated references to Phase One, Phase Two, and Phase Three before he pulled one of the old Knossos diagrams closer.
"This isn't Daedalus terminology," he said. "Valletta created these labels herself. Whoever wrote these notes was testing the sealed entrances in stages and recording what happened when different kinds of pressure were applied."
Rayleigh leaned over the table.
"What kind of pressure?"
"Physical vibration first, then magical energy. Phase One appears to measure whether the wall or door still contains an intact mechanism. Phase Two sends controlled magical pulses into whatever responds. Most of the recorded locations failed before reaching the third stage."
Merek tapped one line several times with his finger.
"The places marked Phase Three did something different. Energy came back."
Fels immediately turned toward him. "Returned through the lock?"
"I don't think so. A working mechanism would produce a predictable response. These notes describe irregular pulses, changes in pressure, and delays that vary each time. Whoever conducted the tests believed something deeper inside Knossos was answering them."
That was much closer to Cassandra's dream than Rayleigh liked.
He looked toward her.
She had gone pale again, although she remained composed.
"Could the dream have shown one of these Phase Three sites?"
Cassandra considered the question rather than answering immediately.
"Possibly. Yumeutsutsu doesn't show locations the same way a map does, but the door in the dream felt damaged rather than open. I also remember water somewhere nearby, although I couldn't tell whether I was hearing it or seeing it."
Merek's head lifted sharply.
"Water?"
Cassandra nodded.
Merek pulled another map from beneath the pile and opened it across the table.
Unlike the newer Guild copies, this one showed old service channels and drainage lines running beneath several abandoned districts.
His finger stopped near the northeastern edge of the city.
"There is one Phase Three site beside an old drainage channel. This entrance was already unstable when Valletta used it years ago, and the Guild sealed the surface route afterward. The passage behind it should still continue into Knossos."
Rayleigh studied the markings.
"How far from the warehouse?"
"Less than twenty minutes underground if they used the service tunnels."
That was close enough to explain why the warehouse had been maintaining supplies in that district.
Fels gathered several of the recovered notes. "We inspect it tonight. If Valletta has been testing the same entrance repeatedly, leaving it unattended after the warehouse raid would give her time to erase anything useful."
Rayleigh agreed, but he pointed toward Merek's restraint before anyone began moving. "He's coming too. If we find something written in old Daedalus notation, I don't want to carry half a wall back here for him to read."
Merek gave him a tired look. "Your confidence in my continued usefulness is touching."
"You've survived three years around me. That's basically tenure."
Cassandra covered a small smile with one hand.
Fels ignored both of them and called for a Guild escort.
...
They entered the old drainage system through a maintenance gate two districts away from the warehouse.
Fels brought four Guild adventurers to handle the rear route and prisoner security, but once they reached the older tunnels, Rayleigh took the lead.
Cassandra remained behind him with Yumeutsutsu sheathed at her waist, while Merek followed between two guards and studied the old masonry whenever the route divided.
The deeper passages had not been used regularly in years.
Water ran through narrow channels along both walls, and mineral deposits covered sections of brickwork where old leaks had gone unrepaired.
Several side tunnels had collapsed completely, forcing the group through service corridors barely wide enough for two people to walk side by side.
Rayleigh drew Ruri'iro Kujaku when they reached the first unlit section.
"Bloom in a frenzy, Ruri'iro Kujaku!"
Lapis-colored vines spread from the blade and travelled ahead along the walls, ceiling, and floor.
He kept them thin and widely distributed, using their contact with the stone to extend his awareness through the passage rather than draining anything.
The vines quickly found old Guild seals embedded farther ahead.
Most were intact.
One was not.
Rayleigh stopped.
Fels moved beside him. "Broken?"
"Cut."
A single vine curled around a small metal marker hidden behind a drainage pipe and pulled it into view.
The marker had been installed after the earlier Knossos operation.
Its purpose was simple: if the sealed route shifted, cracked, or opened, the marker would trigger and send a warning through the Guild's monitoring network.
The outer casing was undamaged.
Someone had opened it carefully, removed the signaling crystal, and put the empty shell back in place.
Merek stared at it.
"That explains why the Guild never detected anything here."
Rayleigh handed the marker to Fels.
"Whoever did this knew exactly what the seal was for."
"And had enough access to identify the Guild's modifications," Fels replied. "Valletta's people may have been watching the sealing work from the beginning."
Rayleigh continued forward.
The passage descended gradually until the water along the walls deepened into a shallow stream that covered most of the floor.
Cassandra slowed several steps later and placed one hand against Yumeutsutsu.
Red petals appeared along the scabbard.
Rayleigh noticed immediately.
"Same feeling?"
"Yes, but stronger."
That was enough reason to stop treating the route as an ordinary inspection.
He expanded Ruri'iro Kujaku farther ahead.
The vines reached a stone wall at the end of the corridor and spread across it.
At first Rayleigh felt nothing unusual beyond old mortar and the metal buried somewhere behind the masonry.
Then one vine twitched.
A faint vibration travelled through it.
Rayleigh remained still.
Several seconds later, another pulse came through the wall.
It was too regular to be shifting stone.
Merek stepped closer but stayed behind Rayleigh. "That should be the sealed entrance. The original Knossos door is behind the Guild's masonry."
Fels looked toward the water around their boots. "Does the mechanism still function?"
"I can't tell from this side."
Rayleigh placed one hand against the wall.
The pulse came again.
This time he felt enough to understand why Valletta had kept returning to the location.
Something was striking the old mechanism from the opposite side, but the force was far too weak and controlled to resemble a monster randomly attacking a door.
Cassandra's breathing changed.
A red petal drifted from Yumeutsutsu and landed on the water before dissolving.
"The dream changed."
Everyone looked toward her.
Cassandra kept one hand on the hilt.
"The person behind the door is closer now. I still can't see a face, but I can see their hand against the other side."
Merek swore quietly.
Rayleigh kept his attention on the wall.
"Can whatever is inside hear us?"
"I don't know."
He pressed more Reiatsu into Ruri'iro Kujaku and sent several vines through cracks in the surrounding masonry, searching for any gap that might let him sense the original door more clearly.
One vine found something narrow.
A drilled channel.
The hole was barely wide enough for a thin wire, and it ran through the newer stone directly toward the buried Knossos entrance.
Rayleigh's expression hardened.
"Valletta didn't just test the wall from outside. She drilled through the seal."
Fels crouched beside the opening and examined it with a small magical light. "Recent?"
"Not especially. The edges have mineral buildup."
Merek moved closer as far as his escort allowed.
"That would explain the repeated readings. They were feeding Magic into the mechanism through this channel instead of touching the door directly."
Rayleigh guided one of Ruri'iro Kujaku's thinnest vines toward the opening.
Fels immediately raised a hand. "Careful."
"I know."
The vine entered the narrow channel and travelled several meters through darkness.
Rayleigh felt stone scraping along its surface, followed by metal.
Then the vine touched something warm.
He pulled it back instantly.
A thin blade shot through the channel less than a second later.
It pierced the masonry opening, extended several centimeters into the drainage tunnel, and withdrew before anyone other than Rayleigh could react.
The Guild guards drew their weapons.
Cassandra stepped back while Merek stared at the hole.
Rayleigh looked at the tiny cut left across Ruri'iro Kujaku's vine before dismissing the damaged section.
"Well, that answers whether anyone's home."
Fels raised his staff toward the wall. "Human?"
"Too little contact to tell."
Rayleigh crouched beside the channel and extended his spiritual senses rather than sending another vine through.
The opening was too narrow to give him a clear Reiraku, but now that he knew what he was looking for, he could feel a faint spiritual presence on the other side.
One presence.
Then a second.
His eyes narrowed.
"There are at least two."
Merek's face tightened. "Inside Knossos?"
"Behind the door, yes."
Fels immediately signaled the escort to secure the corridor.
Rayleigh stood and drew Benihime.
They had no reason to open the entrance yet, but whoever waited beyond the wall had already demonstrated that they were armed and aware of the drilled channel.
More importantly, Valletta had apparently spent months maintaining contact with people operating inside a section of Knossos the Guild believed inaccessible.
That changed the situation completely.
A scraping sound came from the other side.
Rayleigh heard metal moving, so did Merek.
His face lost color.
"Back away from the wall!"