The staircase beneath the covenant core descended far deeper than the palace foundations should have allowed.
Selene noticed it immediately.
The imperial palace had stood above the capital for centuries, yet the hidden archive beneath the throne stretched downward like an entirely separate world buried under the empire. The deeper they walked, the colder the air became, until even breathing felt strangely sharp against her lungs.
Silver light lined the stairwell walls in narrow veins.
Not torchlight.
Memory light.
The symbols carved into the stone pulsed faintly as Selene passed, reacting to her presence with a soft resonance that echoed beneath her ribs. Kael remained beside her while Darius moved several steps ahead, alert and visibly tense now in a way Selene had not seen before.
Interesting.
The southern Alpha feared this place.
