The Sealing MarchChapter Archive

The Answer in the Lamps

That night, through the hours before first light

The northern batteries acknowledged Sella’s hold-fire order and kept their guns silent. The command post confirmed Vael was to be taken into custody at first light; Sella chose to move the wounded before transferring him, while Aren refused to promise Vael’s safety and supported her responsibility for the decision.

The Receipt

The last two hours before dawn

The custody detail arrived before the evacuation was finished, but Sella kept it helping carry the wounded until everyone was out of the tower. She then signed the record of her delay and transferred Vael into human custody; the detail secured one escorted passage past the northern batteries for the mixed column, with no protection promised beyond it.

The Passage Between Guns

That morning

Sella led the mixed wounded column and Vael through the northern battery line during its single escorted hold-fire passage. When a gunner threatened Esh, Odran testified that Esh had helped him escape the refuge, and the gunner let the column pass. The batteries resumed their duties after the last stretcher crossed; Teren is now ordered to take Vael straight to custody while the wounded go to the field hospital.

A Map Under Guard

That same morning

At the command post, Vael said the northern route had been used to evacuate wounded from failing galleries, while refusing to disclose his forces’ positions. Aren and Odran testified to what they had seen, prompting Marshal Cadrin to suspend fire on the mapped route and send a small sapper survey team; Vael remains in custody, and the army’s wider purpose is still unknown.

The Lines Beneath the Map

That afternoon

Odran led the guarded survey team into the northern route’s upper access, where paired tallies and litter equipment proved that human and demon wounded had been evacuated through several connected galleries. A collapse trapped a sapper and blocked the team’s safest return, but Odran’s decision to free him brought the survey back under control; Cadrin expanded the no-fire order to cover every verified access. Fresh tracks now lead into a newly opened, unmapped passage, and the team must decide whether to follow before it seals.

Beneath the Guns

Later that same day

Cadrin authorized a guarded survey of the unmapped passage, and the team found it running beneath Battery Four to a recently used hatch. After a live cannon shot shook the chamber, Cadrin halted the battery’s fire; a voice behind the hatch confirmed there were wounded inside, but opening it will require bracing the passage.

The Weight Above the Door

That same morning

Aren, Odran, and the survey team opened the hatch beneath Battery Four and rescued four trapped wounded before the bracing failed and the access collapsed. The hatch board identified the North Shelter beneath the old quarry as the next transfer point, where more wounded still wait; Cadrin must decide whether he can keep the guns silent while Aren's team reaches them.

The Shelter Beneath the Stone

That same afternoon

Cadrin ordered Battery Four to hold its fire for the crossing, and Aren led the rescued wounded and survey team to the North Shelter. They found nine more wounded there and learned the lift was unusable, leaving a narrow, unstable ore passage as their only route out.

The Narrow Way

That same afternoon

Aren and Odran converted an old ore trolley into a one-person stretcher and led the team through the unstable passage, getting all nine North Shelter wounded to the north adit. A support collapse sealed the route behind them, but fresh drag marks and empty litters show the evacuation network continues north into another covered way.