The door opened onto an empty room. Zhao Si turned and gently closed it behind him, plunging the room into pitch darkness. A wisp of Ghostflame sprang to life at his fingertip, lighting the space around him.
The icy blue flame cast a pale glow over Zhao Si's face, making him look like a corpse. The room's layout was much like his own: square, furnished, with oil paintings hanging on the walls.
The paintings depicted the Erdtree. Gold dominated them, yet the red made the Erdtree look as though it were burning. Zhao Si held up Ghostflame with one hand and inspected the objects in the room with the other.
His efforts paid off. While searching with his body pressed against the wall, he noticed the Ghostflame in his hand flicker slightly as he approached a particular seam.
That proved there was a draft, and a draft proved there was another space behind the wall. A close look also revealed slight wear along the seam and on the floor tiles beneath it, but the poor visibility made those marks easy to overlook. Zhao Si held the Ghostflame against the seam and guided it through the gaps, helping him find the mechanism that opened the door.
The things inside the "wall" took shape in his mind. Perhaps "secret door" was a more fitting name for it now.
A faint clattering of gears reached his ears. The secret door before him slowly opened, scattering dust everywhere.
Pitch darkness lay ahead. He could not see a thing. Apparently, no one had thoughtfully installed candleholders or torches in the secret passage, so Zhao Si could only use his own Ghostflame to find his way.
He did not dare make the Ghostflame too large, either. A floating flame suddenly appearing in this darkness would be