Sera's POV
The antechamber smells like time.
That's the only way I can describe it once I'm standing inside it, Dax a step ahead of me and Ren hovering close behind, all three of us moving slowly the way you move in a place that feels like it might notice you breathing too loud. Not damp, not stale, just old in a way that has weight to it, pressing against my skin like the air itself remembers things I don't.
Someone's sent for Thessaly before we've gone more than a few steps inside, and she arrives faster than her age should allow, cane tapping steady against the stone floor, unbothered by the dark the way she's unbothered by most things.
"So," she says, coming to stand beside me, tilting her clouded eyes toward the walls like she can see them anyway. "It finally let you in."
"It op
