She didn’t accept it. She simply leaped to the unhewn floor and hurried past. Awe expanded in her rib cage; excitement raced through her veins. Even with her vision sapped and life drained, there was no mistaking this place for anything but otherworldly.

The cave stretched far ahead and out of sight, its high ceiling naturally rounded like a dome. Firewitched torches cast the walls in a glittering golden glow, and the soft mist that hovered over everything seemed lit from within. Safi had never seen spirit swifts, but something about the shimmery fog made her think of them.

She sensed Leopold following behind, but he said nothing as she wandered onward. A subtle sense of sulfur permeated the air, growing stronger with each step. The warmth increased too, balmy, relaxing. Hot springs, she decided. The palace was heated by them, and one such spring must bubble nearby.

After several minutes of traversing the cavern, Safi reached thick chunks of stone that looked randomly placed at first glance, yet upon closer examination were in fact buttressing a weak ceiling. And like the tunnel in the tower, they were undoubtedly made by magic.

Safi paused at one and dragged her fingers over a series of carvings. They felt identical to the ones she’d sensed in the tower. “An owl,” she said after studying the first symbol. “And … a crow?”

“A rook,” Leopold corrected, and when Safi glanced his way, he shrugged. “After I discovered this place, I spent years trying to determine what it was and who had built it. Come.” He set off deeper into the cave.

“And what did you find?” She skipped into step beside him.

“I found a Paladin once called the Rook King. The same one I believe Iseult told you about. He lived in the Sirmayans a thousand years ago, in the Monastery where Iseult met his ghost. The woman he loved, however, lived here.” For once, as Leopold spoke, no affectation coated his words. No careful pauses, no musically placed inflections. He simply described what he had uncovered.

On anyone else, it would have sounded perfectly normal. On him, it sounded hollow. It sounded sad.

“She was also a Paladin,” Leopold explained. He had to speak more loudly now; water flowed ahead. “Their love was forbidden, and so they built this secret place where they could meet. One of many such places, actually.” As he said this, the cave turned slightly—and the churn of running waters doubled in volume.

Then a frothing hot spring appeared. Its waters had been arranged into a series of cascading, rectangular pools for swimming while a dozen columns framed the space, all connected by long benches.

“A bath,” Safi said.