Round 40

Seraphine crouches down beside her, examining the same section of the door with intense focus. The half-elven warrior's wings shift restlessly behind her, a visible sign of her own tension and unease in this confined space. "This one..." she mutters, tracing a different set of lines, "...it seems to activate something when combined with..." Her voice trails off as another loud crack echoes through the passage. The sound comes from deeper within the tower's structure—closer than before—and both women freeze instinctively. Jeane feels a cold knot form in her stomach. "We need to move faster," she says, her voice low and urgent. "The whole place is coming down." She redoubles her efforts on the door, her fingers moving more quickly now as she tries to decipher the pattern before time runs out.