Breaking Step (Dungeon Runner 3)

Breaking Step, Chapter 91

The doors had locks, but they weren't engaged.

Tibs focussed on sensing the door harder, trying to find a trap, but there were no weaves through the stone.

"Is this place like the permit office?" Tibs asked. "Where anyone can come and go?"

"Not just anyone will be allowed in, I expect," Don replied, "but yes, merchants and the nobility would simply go in."

"Why have a lock, then?" Jackal asked.

"Because the city hall wouldn't be accessible all day long," the sorcerer answered.

So it made sense for the door to be unlocked. It didn't reassure Tibs. Ganny was going to use that against them at some point. He pulled on one door, and it slowly opened.

The floor to the large lobby had a layer of dust that Tibs would guess at a few months old in a normal building. Instead of one long counter, divided for each teller, one and three desks were set through the room with seats on each side. Opposite them, a large stairwell led to the balcony supported by four gray stone Columns decorated with inlaid metal, which went around the—

"Where is everyone?" Mez asked.

Tibs looked at the floor again, and the lack of tracks in the dust registered.

"I don't know," Don replied. "I doubt it would be as busy as the permit office, but there should be city servants waiting for people."

"Maybe no one talked about how the city hall works?" the archer offered, and the sorcerer shrugged.

"At least," Jackal said, "there's no danger of you getting in line with the others."

"Which means, there will be another kind of danger," Don replied.

Tibs used air to remove the dust from the floor before them, and exposed six-sided tiles of the same deep brown color the size of his palm. The walls were lined with stone benches and pots between them, with a dark-colored leaf plant in them. That had to be something Sto had created, since Tibs couldn't guess how a plant would survive without care for however long the building had been here.

That and the dust.

He sensed the floor, and again there were no weaves. Or at least, none he could sense. He couldn't forget this fog might block his sense in ways he didn't understand yet. He sent water over the floor, sensing for cracks and gaps through it. He sensed none, but he also couldn't entirely rely on this either. Even on the third floor, Ganny had become adept at masking the physical triggers. Still, he had one way to neutralize those she couldn't do anything about.

He ices the water.

"I don't sense essence triggers, but stay on your guard. The fog is messing with that. The only thing dungeon made are the plants and the dust."

"Are the plants creatures?" Don asked.

Tibs considered that. They had to be, since Sto had made them, but... "They don't have anymore essence than real plants. I think they're just decorations." For now.

"If the building's empty," Jackal said, "maybe I was wrong about there being loot here."

"I saw movement at the windows on the other floor," Mez said before Tibs could go along with Jackal's idea.

The fighter smiled. "Well then. We know where to start."

"It would be wise," Khumdar said, "to remember that regardless of what you expect, it is possible the golems Mez noticed are nothing more than props in how the dungeon believes this building functions."