They nod.

"Good. Sir Sage, what's your business here?"

"My name is Hieronymus, and I am looking for certain other relics believed to be in this stretch of Oldwalls. The Stones of Elucidation, which can translate a variety of Oldwalls markings. I am interested in the Steadfast Insignia as well, but for purely historical, not practical, reasons. I think Brother Lantry can take care of chronicling its whereabouts."

"Do you know why the First Regent was here at all? Or how the breach opened?"

"I understand he was looking for the Dauntless when the Disfavored found him with a small army. The Edict landed not long after, so where they clashed and whether this breach was open are difficult to ascertain."

Lantry writes this down. "It's good to see you still alive, Brother Hieronymus. I wasn't sure how many of the... unpolitical... faction would be away from the Citadel when it began to burn."

"Less than I'd like, and there were never that many of us. But thank you."

"We'll look for the Stones for you. Also, if we find access to the Ocean Spire, Lantry is persuading me I should create a research library atop it, like the magic-flush forge on the Sunset Spire."

"That's one way to mollify some Sages. Thank you, on both counts. If you're bound inside, you'll want the Torchkey - it was with our mixed party when the Bane attacked, and is now stuck on that rise past them."

"Thank you as well." They prepare to rip through the mob of Bane blocking the entrance.

The crowd is large, but Eb's Gravelight spells are particularly painful to Bane, and Kills-In-Shadow claims her claws rip through 'smoke-spirits called Bane' better than any weapon, which she proves to be right about. It's a stressful ten minutes of fighting, and Verse and Killsy each go down, but Lantry is quick on the draw to restore them and Kohl draws focus to let them get back up and ready to come back to the melee. By the time Killsy is back up, they're down to the mopping-up, and plow through the rest to the rise with the Torchkey. Then they're ready to enter the Oldwalls themselves.

The mobs of Bane in here, while pretty frequent, are much smaller than the one outside was, so their progress is steady. (Mind The Gap, though. So, so many Gaps.)

Then they find the room with the Steadfast Insignia. On an artificial island surrounded by lowered rings of stone. Inside a bubble of force. At the feet(?) of a Havoc.

"Well. We should get Barik back so we have practice fighting Bane with him."

"I'm going to propose cowardice. Just for the sake of argument. Have we considered, instead of breaking the Edict, fuck this we're not fighting a Havoc?"

"Kills-In-Shadow wants to fight this prey. It is a great predator. It has been many-many-many-more-than-fives since any Beastwoman has fought smoke-spirit Havoc. Will eat earthblood that falls from dead smoke."

"Huh, I'm the voice of moderation, that's weird. -Uh, I suggest we leave and handle something else, then come back and fight a Havoc when we're tougher and have better toys to hit it with."

"Well, that part I think we have to do, see those five receptacles placed around it? I doubt this will open up unless we've collected them. It's how the Oldwalls style of security works - have a lot of physical tokens you have to fight a shit-ton of Bane to acquire."

"We'll explore. First in the southerly direction; fighting this thing won't be easy, and we can't do it yet, so we look for the Spire access."

"Ocean Spire, huh? Damn, that'll be a view. Let's go!"

He smiles. "First, I think this token matches one of those spaces?", brandishing something found in the last room. It does, and on falling into place, it rotates slightly to lock in, and the disc of stone below rises a fifth of the way to the surface. "Well, that's what that does gradually, then. Let's hunt."

And they do. They find more Torchkeys, fight more Bane, cause some platforms that look like splint mail to turn into staircases and make some bridges extend. And they find a familiar-looking antechamber.

"If this is like the Sunset Spire, there's a correct pattern to the lines, required to wake it."

"Yes, and I've been on the lookout for rubbings. Found a couple. Let's see, if this is like the other two one of these walls should have one... There!"

He takes parchment and charcoal, and traces first this then, that done, lays one he already traced the others onto. "Looks just about complete, Kohl. Actually, can I try the crystals?"

"Go ahead. I don't expect it to work, though."

"Neither do I, but- experimentation!"

He does as he said, and tries to cause the lines on the floor to illuminate. The crystals flare with light when he touches them, but it doesn't last, and even when he touches another before it has faded too much, no line appears.

"Well, mostly as expected, but interesting. Here, you take the design."

He touches the same series of crystals Lantry attempted, and the floor glows with a batlike winged-triangle pattern. And then -

They're above. Even this high up, you can faintly smell the salt air. To the south and west are vast expanses of ocean, to the horizon and beyond, and to the east is the great Edict-Storm.

Kohl feels the connection to the Spire; weathered and battered, like a flag that has whipped in the high winds long beyond its planned lifetime. The Ocean Spire has been watching the ocean waves and winds roll in for a very long time, and it is exhausted and strained.

But then he steps forward to the central circle, standing where the Mountain Spire has a statue - and it flows, like a geyser rushing upward from the sea, smashing against vertical rocks with the full force of the tide. The connection feels like a swift-flowing river, but running both ways; strong and unstoppable, the mountain to the sea.