Tiffauges, beneath the old manor.
Joan pressed herself against the wall, crouching low as she cautiously felt her way through the corridor leading into the unknown.
Darkness surrounded her, yet this place seemed unusually vast. Joan had walked perhaps a hundred paces, but it felt as though she were still going in circles.
Moreover, slick moss grew between the stone bricks, and the flowing air carried a faint fishy, salty scent.
The smell of the sea...
Strange. Why would there be a sea breeze nearby?
The Maid of Orléans furrowed her delicate brows, unable to make sense of it no matter how she thought about it.
Even stranger, the faint sound of tides came from beneath her feet and from afar.
The roar, like waves crashing against reefs, rising and falling in uneven swells, formed wave after wave of whisper-like sound that washed over her mind, making her restless and agitated. She almost wanted to cover her ears, turn around, and flee.
What exactly was going on?
The successive abnormalities made Joan's expression grave. Alarmed, she quickened her pace, following the faint glimmer at the end of the darkness as she emerged from the long, winding corridor.
Yet as the space before her suddenly opened up, the sight around her made the Maid of Orléans' pupils freeze, and her body swayed.
Joan hurriedly reined in her turbulent emotions and steadied herself.
For before her eyes stood the vaulted ceiling of a cavern, lined with stalactites.
At her side, one direction was an uneven stone wall carved with all manner of twisted figures; the other was the Abyssal Layers, shrouded in clouds and mist. Beneath the pervasive vapor came the faint, rolling sound of waves.
Beneath her feet lay a narrow, uneven path, barely wide enough for two or three people