The roar of the subterranean river was a physical weight, a thundering, sightless void that swallowed the light and the air in equal measure. They were plunging through the lightless arteries of the Amazonian aquifer, clinging to a piece of buoyant fungal membrane that had survived the vault's collapse. The *smell of the Roman rain* was a distant, cruel fantasy compared to the stench of the black sludge, a chemical slurry of ancient nutrients and modern corruption that coated their skin like oil.
Beside Lila, *the sound of Ethan’s jagged breathing* was a rhythmic, desperate whistle against the darkness. He was barely conscious, his hand locked around the edge of the membrane, his knuckles white in the bioluminescent flicker of Lila’s own skin.
"He's behind us, Lila," Ethan rasped, his v
