The Room That Couldn't Be Found

The Unfindable Room

Night had fallen like ink over Memphis.

The temple bells had long since fallen silent. The courtyard lay empty, with only the wind brushing past the stone pillars and producing a low, mournful whine. The solemnity and order of daytime had now been replaced by a secretive, almost rotten silence.

The woman in black robes gave the pulsing embryo one last look before turning away. Her robes swept over the stone steps without a sound. As they dragged across the tiled floor with a soft rustle, the golden runes embroidered along her hem flickered beneath the torchlight like fireflies trapped in cloth.

She should be able to sense the malice of that embryo too, but not with the same clarity as I can... My Animagus form possesses the sight of a god.

The beam Ian perched upon was roughly thirty feet above the ground, high enough for him to take in the entire inner hall without being noticed by the busy priests below.

Not long after she left, a middle-aged man in dark blue priestly robes quietly entered the underground chamber. He held an obsidian slab covered in runes and murmured an ancient concealment spell. As the incantation ended, the slab released a ring of dim blue radiance that enveloped the entire magic circle.

The pulsing embryo gradually blurred within the light, as though it had been wrapped in an invisible curtain.

Then—

The scepter priest strode in with four young priests dressed in white linen robes. They carried bronze bowls filled with black powder. Ian's raven eyes narrowed slightly—the powder gave off a strange aura, like burnt bone ash mixed with the sharp edge of metal.

"Begin."

The scepter priest's voice scraped against the stone walls like sandpaper. His withered fingers traced three intersecting rings over