Following Ailuoda out of the room and corridor, the two of them once again made their way deeper underground through the passageway. This time, they gradually began encountering other gray-robed people walking through the tunnels. Most of them greeted Ailuoda; some smiled and spoke a greeting, while others merely nodded indifferently.
After descending for another hundred meters or so, they arrived before a tall black wooden door.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
Adaro hammered hard on the door.
After three rhythmic strikes in succession, the great door slowly opened inward by a crack, just wide enough for one person to pass through.
Anglie peered through the gap and saw, to his astonishment, an enormous underground cavern beyond it.
"Come on. We'll report in first, then get your things," Adaro said in a low voice, turning his head. He was the first to slip through the crack in the door. Anglie nodded and hurried after him.
The sight before him suddenly opened up. An immense cavern, large enough to hold an aircraft carrier, appeared before Anglie. Spiraling paths lined the cavern walls, and gray-robed and white-robed figures continuously walked along the rocky trails, occasionally entering tunnel openings like tiny holes.
From the ceiling of the cavern hung an enormous three-tiered glass chandelier. Rings upon rings of oil lamps were packed densely across it, serving as the only source of light in the entire cave.
"This way." Ailuoda headed left.
Only then did Anglie come back to himself and follow him toward the left.
The ground was plain, unadorned rock. The chandelier's glow dyed everything a pale yellow, while the shadows cast by the two of them twisted constantly across the uneven stone walls, lending the place an eerie and mysterious air.
They entered another narrow passage and soon reached a corridor at a