Eléen stared at the chalk lines on the corner. What did three lines mean again? “Two lines to the right, three to the left,” she whispered. “Three lines to the right, two to the left.” She wondered which sounded correct. There were arrows too, some drawn, some chiseled into the same corner. There were also small piles of stone and rubble in the hallways, with balanced shards pointing this way and that. Kald had warned her from the beginning, ‘Whatever you do, use the same markings on your way out that you did on the way in!’ Why didn’t he follow the arrows? Where did they go? Did they lead back to the surface, or were they just marks left by someone else who never found their way out? She looked back over her shoulder into the hungry blackness. “That is where I came from,” she reassured herself. “That is where Kald died,” she added. She held the lantern closer to the three lines. “Left,” she whispered. Eléen took a deep breath and continued into the dark.

Completed in 480 HK by King Mardàrak the First of Oð, the Dægwùrdunjun is believed to be the largest subterranean prison complex in the Old Empire. The complex lies under the Dagger Peninsula, south of the City of Oð. The coastline dungeon was built in stages inspired by drawings discovered in the offices of Salágus I following his death. Whenever new diagrams were found, the master-plan was amended, creating a massively disorganized collection of tunnels and chambers. The Dwürdèni architect Storgòrrim, who was tasked by Zirra I to interpret the plans, disappeared in 462 HK. Whether he got lost in the dungeon’s endless tunnels or became frustrated with the ever-changing plans and abandoned the project is not known. To this day, a large carved relief of Storgòrrim’s haggard face greets visitors to the fifth level.