It took Shereen a moment to mentally process the horror. While she came to grips with it, Darius explained.
"In the early days, when the water was just starting to turn, the Lazuli didn't realize the full extent of the issue. Diluted, the poison worked more slowly. Hundreds got sick and died. Too many to bury and the Lazuli don't believe in cremation, so as the body count kept rising, they took to storing them. Placing them in the chambers underground and sealing them shut."
"You mean all the rooms we passed. . ." Her voice trailed off.
"Are burial crypts. They closed them off with the bodies inside to try and contain the problem. Because, you see, before they discovered the water was killing them, they assumed some kind of virus was what infected them."
"Why would they have drunk the
