"You're saying you don't know what happened either?"
"Sir, please, you have to believe me!"
Rafada took an anxious step forward and clasped the fingertips of Renato's left hand in both hands. His lips pressed into a thin line as he pleaded quietly:
"I know it sounds strange, but I don't know how I did it myself. When I touched the magic mirror in the bedroom, some disjointed images suddenly came back to me, as though someone had forced them into my head. By the time I came to my senses, I'd already opened the entrance without thinking..."
"Impossible!" Klauthsura raised her voice, her words spilling out fast and urgently as she rejected his explanation. "I tried it myself. That mirror is merely a facade. Beneath it should be a spatial passage concealed by multiple complex spells, possibly even a small-scale Mythal set up by a Legendary Mage."
The female Dragonborn's slit pupils fixed on Rafada's profile, the light of psionics gleaming in her eyes.
"Defenses of that caliber cannot possibly be broken simply by 'spacing out.' You're insulting my judgment, Mage."
That barrage left Rafada speechless. As a Mage himself, he knew how feeble his explanation sounded in the face of such reasonable suspicions. Helpless, he turned his pleading gaze back to Renato.
The female Dragonborn had intended to press him further, but when she saw Renato give a slight shake of his head, she immediately fell silent and stepped back half a pace, leaving the Swordsman before her to lead the conversation again.
"Rafada, I believe you wouldn't lie to me."
Renato's tone was steady and certain. The three of them still had to press on, and they needed the Mage's help to reach the Spatial Node at the top of the tower, so he first established the