She had tried everything. She’d made Grumble watch both “sunsets” in the faux-sky of the Vaults. Nothing. She’d held the lever up to the statues’ eyes. They’d blinked but not moved. She’d even typed the note into every altar, urn, and suspicious skeleton’s mouth she could find.

Not lost in the literal sense—she knew her apartment, her desk, the cold coffee growing a skin in its mug. No, she was lost in the Sunken Vaults of Velkor, a labyrinth of bioluminescent fungi and silent, one-eyed statues that had a habit of coming to life when she turned her back.

Elara stared. Then she laughed—a sharp, disbelieving bark.

She held up Grumble. The rock hummed . A panel slid open.

The screen flickered, casting a pale blue glow across Elara’s face. Outside her window, the city slept. Inside, she was lost.

The results bloomed like a spell finally cast correctly. The first link was to a forum called The Cartographer’s Guild . The top post, dated six years ago, was from a user named .

For the next ten minutes, anyway.

Elara saved her game, leaned back, and smiled.