Location: Sewage Tunnels beneath the Capital.
Time: One hour after the escape.The team sat in a dry corner of the tunnel, gasping from exhaustion and adrenaline."You were... incredible," Rowan said, still trembling. "That storm! How did you pull it off?""The shard," Lirion replied, pulling it out and examining it. "It grants me access to Etherion's vault of knowledge. But the cost is exhaustion."Lirion felt a throbbing headache. Using Gem Echo had drained half of his stored mana."Are they following us?" Elara asked, scanning the entrance."No. The tunnels are magically scrambled. They won't track us here easily," Lirion reassured them. "But we must leave the capital before dawn. They'll seal every exit."Garek looked at Lirion seriously. "Lirion, who were those guards? They weren't normal. Their armor resisted magic.""They're part of the network," Lirion said. "The shards, the guards, the cult... they're all threads spun by the same spider. And the spider is hiding in the shadows."Lirion closed his eyes and listened to the Stone.[Analysis of Second Shard Complete. Next Location: Desert of the Dead Sands.]
[Warning: Threat level in the desert is higher. Mana there is completely corrupted.]Lirion opened his eyes. "Our next destination is south. The desert.""The desert?" Garek exclaimed. "That's a place of certain death.""Exactly," Lirion said with a faint smile. "Because they won't expect us to go where magic dies. And there, we'll find the third shard."