In Middle-earth, most creatures disliked being in utter darkness.
Whether they were Elves blessed by starlight or humans who had awakened at the Sun's first rising, they were races that pursued the light.
Even the Dwarves, who spent their lives within mountains, did everything they could to fill their stone halls with brilliance and light.
But now that Durin's Folk had abandoned Moria, most of it lay shrouded in suffocating darkness and fear.
The Second Vale, below the Second Hall, was not merely dark. Its terrain was also complicated, with fissures, stairways leading up or down, and chambers of unknown purpose scattered beyond the main hall.
To find a passage into the Third Vale, Hollimion's squad had spent nearly four days feeling their way through the sprawling, intricate darkness of the Second Vale.
Even the powerful Twilight Knights had begun to feel weary after walking through that endless darkness for days.
Still, finding the route to the Third Vale kept their steps light and their pace brisk. Fortunately, guided by a barely legible inscription on a wall, Ori led Hollimion onward for another half day before they finally reached their destination: the Armory.
It was a forging district filled with towering blast furnaces. In the days when flames had roared within them, it must have been a bustling place.
Now, dead silence and pitch darkness swallowed everything.
Determined to complete their exploration, the group followed Hollimion onto a broad staircase descending into the depths. To their right lay a fissure where the darkness seemed to churn without end, and to their left was a black abyss whose bottom they could not see.
"Hhh... hhh..."
When the squad was halfway down the stairs, the sound of breathing reached Hollimion's ears from the darkness below. It was almost inaudible and seemed to