The interior of the low house was only a step beyond the doorway, yet it looked far more dilapidated than it had from the courtyard.
After years of soaking in rainwater, great patches of plaster had peeled from the walls, exposing the mottled rubble and rotten wooden framework beneath. Several broken beams hung at an angle, their surfaces black with rot.
A gaping hole opened where the roof had collapsed. The tiles around its edges were uneven, their broken ends softened by the rain. Most of the water had probably poured through this opening and run down the blackened beams, turning the entire house into a damp, chilly puddle...
The ramshackle house was as empty as it had been on Renato's last visit. There were no tables or chairs, and the rain had scattered any debris. Even at its deepest, the standing water barely covered his feet, and there was no sign that anyone had been here...
Apart from the rainwater that had flowed through the collapsed corner of the roof and pooled below, little seemed to have changed.
The water inside, however, was considerably clearer than the sewage mingled with filth in the abandoned streets and alleys. Everything beneath it was plainly visible.
At the very center of the floor, the ring of mysterious array patterns remained in place, retaining its almost perfect circular shape. Not a single stroke along its circumference had shifted, and wave-like curves still lined the inside of the ring...
Neither the standing water nor days of exposure to wind and sun seemed to have damaged the magic circle in the slightest. Its patterns remained clearly etched into the floor, uniform in depth and joined end to end, revealing an ancient beauty shaped by geometric forms.
But what concerned Renato more than the surroundings was