Even so. She didn’t know what he meant by lesser until she looked…up.

A thousand feet towards the ceiling in the high dark above. Flat walls, as if cut by a razor. An endless world of graves below, each one given its dignity in wrought stone, space. Not even graveyards in her world were so…vast.

Compared to that, these doors of a mere hundred feet were a hunched afterthought. Still grand, but a faded, shameful end to this place.

No wonder Ser Dalius put it like that. Nor did the ghost seem as impressed by the constellation of crisscrossing lines of magic. To Cara, it almost seemed like the night sky; motes of power woven together into something she could almost understand. A message.

Protection. Safety. Warding. If a picture could be an idea, this was it. Magic to hold the doors firm forever. Even so…Cara realized something as Dalius dismissively spoke on.

“You can see they anchored the magic with some kind of gemstones. Each point, here…not even large gemstones. You see?”

Some were the size of his head, perfectly round, holding the magic in place. Cara started. She craned her neck up and called out.

“Dalius. We’re…this is the back of the doorway, isn’t it?”

He turned, smiling down to her, and floated lower. The [Knight] inspected the crumbling walls, which had lost stone, revealing earth beyond. He tsked, squinting into the spaces, then nodded at her.

“Indeed. I imagine the front is far more grand. This spell is angled; we see the back, indeed. Shoddy work. However, they did embellish the back…the ones who carved the stone worked harder than the magicians.”

The [Knight] proudly showed her the ancient engravings—she squinted at a crest of Noelictus. Even with his light it was impossible for her to make out, but he assured her it was the same one as when he was alive.

“It may not have been made by the best [Stonemasons] and [Enchanters]. But see—these are Noelictus’

sigils. A scythe set low over a field. Some call it macabre, but you can see the artistry, can’t you? Yes, there’s a skull in the center, but it’s not always a Human one. Egalitarian.”

Cara bit back a response. She almost laughed, but she was sweating suddenly. She looked at the doors, that sigil.

There was a world beyond the doors. She licked her lips, clenching and unclenching her hand as she suddenly felt clammy. The dusty air around her didn’t move.

Was there a world beyond? Or had everything died?

“Cara?”

The young woman started and nodded to Dalius. He was half-looking at her, more preoccupied with inspecting the fallen dirt than anything. She mumbled a response.

“I’ll take your word for it. It’s too hard for me to make out. And—this door doesn’t open? Has it ever been opened?”