The restricted meeting was held beneath Guild Headquarters, in a stone chamber far removed from the public counters where adventurers argued about commissions and clerks pretended not to hate them.
Ouranos sat at the far end, huge and solemn on his seat.
Fels stood beside him in the familiar black robe, still as a shadow.
Eina was present with her reports, while Hephaestus came as Rayleigh's patron goddess and Tsubaki remained at her side.
Loki Familia sent Finn, Riveria, and Gareth.
Astraea Familia arrived with Alise, Kaguya, and Ryuu.
Eleonora stood near Eina with a writing board in hand.
Rayleigh noticed her immediately. She wore the Guild uniform properly, posture straight, expression composed.
There was still something royal in the way she held herself, but she had learned to hide most of it beneath work.
When their eyes met, she lifted her chin slightly, as if prepared for him to question why she was there.
Rayleigh did not.
If the Guild wanted to use her knowledge of old records, routes, and foreign families, that was their decision.
If Eleonora wanted to prove she could stand there without her past owning the room, that was hers.
Ouranos began without ceremony.
"Report."
Rayleigh placed the copied map, the sample notes, and the twisted tracking result on the table.
"The two survivor groups were attacked in different areas, but their symptoms match too closely to dismiss. Physical wounds are secondary. The real danger is a disturbance around the Falna-adjacent flow and senses. The conscious survivor experienced delayed perception, fear response to strong magic, and lingering feedback after the attack. I stabilized him enough for rest, but the source of the damage is still unknown."
Fels turned slightly toward the report. "The trace?"
"Artificial, or at least structured. It does not behave like a living curse. When I used my tracking spell, the spell produced folded coordinates instead of a single direction. The simplest explanation is a hidden route network interfering with normal position tracking."
Finn leaned over the map, thumb resting near his lips. "A passage that changes, or an attacker using more than one route."
"Both are possible," Rayleigh said. "Lott's testimony suggests the space itself may have assisted the attack. He described a crack in the wall, a breathing sound behind stone, torches going out one by one, and his sense of movement falling out of sync with his body."
Gareth's face hardened. "That would break most parties before a fight even starts."
Riveria looked troubled, though her voice stayed composed. "A mage-heavy response may also make the wounded worse if the residue reacts to strong magic. Airmid's judgment should be included in the operation plan."
Eina nodded quickly. "She requested a treatment point close enough to receive casualties before the deeper damage settles. She does not intend to join the front line."
Alise's hands pressed against the table, and anger burned clear in her eyes. "If this is Evilus again, we cannot give them time to hide deeper. Those people always leave poison behind and wait for someone else to step in it."
Kaguya stood beside her, graceful and sharp as a drawn blade. "Charging too quickly into a tunnel that may shift under our feet would be a fine way to entertain them."
Alise looked at her with open frustration, but the anger did not become argument. "I know. I'm saying we move with our eyes open, not that we run in screaming like idiots!"
Ryuu spoke quietly, her hand resting near Haineko's hilt.
"The survivor's fear matters. If the enemy can disturb perception, then courage alone will not solve it. We need signals, markers, and retreat rules decided before entering."
That was Astraea Familia's rhythm in one exchange: Alise burning hot, Kaguya cutting away recklessness, Ryuu grounding both with plain sincerity.
Rayleigh found it strangely comforting.
Finn looked at Ouranos before speaking, giving the old god the proper place in the room.
"A full sweep is unwise. If remnants are watching the entrances, they will vanish. If the route is unstable, more people means more confusion. I recommend a small probe team with enough strength to survive contact and enough discipline to retreat without turning confirmation into a pride contest."
"That sounds boringly correct," Rayleigh said.
Finn gave him a mild smile. "I will accept that as praise."
"You should! I don't hand it out cheaply."
Hephaestus looked sideways at him, but did not interrupt.
Fels folded skeletal hands beneath the robe. "Known Knossos branches remain incomplete in Guild records. Some were sealed after the Great Feud, some collapsed, and some were never confirmed. Daedalus's descendants destroyed or hid many access routes before capture."
Tsubaki clicked her tongue. "Of course they did."
"Madmen with labyrinth obsessions are rarely helpful archivists," Rayleigh said.
Kaguya's smile sharpened. "A pity. I would have respected their insanity more if they had at least maintained proper maps."
That pulled a short laugh from Alise despite herself.
Ouranos let the room breathe for a moment before speaking again. "Team composition."
Finn answered first. "I will join personally. Riveria should come for analysis and defensive magic. Gareth can hold a corridor if the route collapses into close combat. I will not bring Ais."
Riveria's shoulders eased by a fraction.
Rayleigh nodded. "Good. Her current recovery cannot handle a place designed to make the body mistrust itself."
Alise straightened. "Astraea Familia will send me, Kaguya, and Ryuu."
Kaguya did not argue with the choice, though her eyes narrowed slightly in the way that meant she was already thinking about knives, angles, and every stupid thing Alise might do if provoked.
Ryuu's voice remained steady. "Haineko may help detect ash movement, hidden cracks, or disturbed air. If the enemy uses dust or shifting walls, I can watch for changes through the blade."
Rayleigh looked at her. "Good. If Haineko reacts strangely, tell me right away. Do not treat a warning as something to endure."
Ryuu accepted that with a serious nod.
She understood the difference between discipline and stubbornness better than most, which was one of the reasons Rayleigh trusted her in dangerous places.
Hephaestus finally spoke, and her voice carried the calm weight of a goddess who had already drawn her line.
"Rayleigh goes as the specialist. That does not mean the Guild gets to use him as a convenient answer for every unknown in the tunnel. If the situation turns beyond the objective, the team withdraws. Investigation first, heroics only if survival requires it."
Rayleigh did not look at her.
He knew Tsubaki would grin if he did.
Ouranos inclined his head. "Acknowledged. The objective is confirmation and recovery of information. Subjugation will be considered only if retreat becomes impossible or civilians are in immediate danger."
Eleonora, who had been writing quietly, raised her head. "The survivors should be guarded."
Several people turned toward her.
She held the writing board a little tighter, but her voice remained level. "If a remnant group is behind this, the clinic becomes a weak point. The survivors are evidence, and Airmid may become important if her treatment works better than ordinary healing. Visible guards should be posted, but the staff inside the ward must also know not to flare magic if the patients panic."
Eina's expression changed first, embarrassment and gratitude mixing together. "That's true. I will request Ganesha Familia for outer security and limit access through the Guild."
Finn studied Eleonora with interest, and Rayleigh could see the palum quietly filing her under "useful."
Tsubaki gave a low whistle. "Good catch, little clerk."
Eleonora's cheeks colored faintly, but she did not lower her head.
Ouranos accepted the point with a small nod. "Arrange it."
The rest of the meeting moved into tasks.
Guild records, route checks, equipment, safe point placement, communication methods, fallback signals, and what to do if a passage shifted while half the team was inside.
Rayleigh spoke only when needed, mostly about his markers, signals, and the limits of tracking something that seemed to fold its own trace.
Finn shaped the mission with calm precision.
Riveria translated magical risk into rules the Guild could actually write down.
Alise kept pushing the timing forward whenever procedure threatened to slow everything too much, while Kaguya kept her from turning impatience into a plan.
By the time Ouranos ended the meeting, they had something workable.
In Orario, that often had to be enough.
...
Most of the others stayed behind to handle their own pieces of the operation, but Rayleigh left the lower chamber with the map folded inside his coat and the taste of old stone still clinging to the air in his throat.
Eleonora caught up near the corridor outside.
She did not speak immediately.
Rayleigh had no problem walking in silence, and Eleonora looked like someone choosing her words carefully because she refused to sound unsure.
"The Guild assigned me to old records because of Rakia," she said at last. "Routes, foreign families, abandoned claims, border incidents. I think Ouranos wants to see whether what I know can be useful."
Rayleigh glanced at her. "He probably does."
"You are not going to make that sound nicer?"
"No. You would notice."
That earned him a faint, reluctant smile.
Eleonora looked ahead again. "Being useful is better than being protected in a room, but I can tell when people are testing whether I break."
"Then make the test inconvenient for them."
She looked at him properly.
Rayleigh shrugged. "If they want to know where you can stand, stand well enough that they have to update their assumptions. It is annoying, but it works."
For a moment, the old princess looked very young under the Guild uniform.
Then she straightened. "That sounds like something you say because you enjoy making things difficult!"
"I enjoy making things clear. Difficulty is just a common side effect."
This time, her smile lasted a little longer before Eina called her back to help with the records.
Rayleigh watched her return to work and thought, not for the first time, that Orario collected broken lives the way the Dungeon collected shadows.
Some people never climbed back out.
Some did, usually while pretending the climb had not hurt.
...
Alise was waiting near the stairs.
Kaguya and Ryuu stood a short distance away, speaking quietly between themselves, which meant Alise had asked for a moment without making it obvious.
She looked serious, and on Alise that always made her seem older than the bright, reckless captain people saw first.
"Tell me honestly," she said. "Do you think this is really Evilus?"
Rayleigh looked at her face before answering.
Alise did not want comfort. She wanted something she could use!
"I think Evilus left too many things behind for the answer to be clean. It may be remnants, an old device, an altered monster, or someone who found part of Knossos and decided touching it was a good idea. I don't know which yet."
Alise clenched her fist.
"They lost. We beat them, buried them, dragged survivors out of the dark, and somehow their filth keeps finding ways to hurt people."
Her anger did not sound immature.
It sounded tired.
Astraea Familia had paid for every inch of peace Orario enjoyed now, and hearing that old poison might still be moving under the streets was not something justice could accept quietly.
Rayleigh let her anger stand for a moment before answering.
"If it's their mess, we pull it out. Carefully, because traps are built for people who rush at them, and quickly, because leaving poison alone only helps the poisoner."
Alise breathed in, then nodded. The fire in her eyes steadied instead of flaring wider.
"That sounds like work."
"It is work."
"Then we do it."
Kaguya approached at that point, her smile elegant and completely lacking mercy.
"Captain, please do not make underground murder tunnels sound like cleaning a storeroom."
Alise puffed her cheeks. "I was trying to be motivating!"
"You were making it sound like we should bring brooms."
Ryuu looked between them with the soft seriousness that often made her the most reasonable person in the group.
"Preparation can be motivating too. If everyone knows what to fear, they will not waste time fearing the wrong thing."
Alise pointed toward Ryuu. "See? Ryuu understands what I meant."
Kaguya's eyes curved. "Ryuu made your point better."
Rayleigh watched the exchange and felt some of the tension leave his shoulders.
Their voices were different, their temperaments even more so, and yet they fit together in a way that made the room feel less cold.
That was Astraea Familia.
Bright justice, sharp realism, quiet sincerity, all walking toward the same dark place with different expressions.
Kaguya's teasing faded as she turned to him. "Rayleigh, if we find people behind this, and if they are using old Evilus methods, do not hide the uglier details because you think we will take it badly. We have seen enough of their filth to know what it smells like."
Rayleigh met her gaze.
"I know."
"Good."
No extra promise was needed.
...
When Rayleigh returned to Hephaestus Familia's forge, the workbench had already become a controlled mess of equipment.
Metal route markers lay in neat rows.
Welf had carved the Reiraku-sensitive grooves into half of them already, and while the lines were not as clean as Rayleigh's, the structure was correct.
Tsubaki had taken over the heavier preparations: covered light stones, reinforced rope, metal spikes, spare blades, smoke markers, and several tools Rayleigh suspected she had added simply because she believed every problem looked better after being hit by something solid.
Welf looked up from his carving. "Meeting done?"
"For now."
"How bad?"
Rayleigh placed the map on the table and weighed the corners down with two ingots.
"Bad enough that Finn is leading the first probe, Astraea Familia is involved, and the Guild is securing the survivors. Good enough that no one has decided to solve the problem by throwing thirty adventurers into the first suspicious hole."
Welf looked genuinely relieved by that, then tried to hide it by bending over the marker again.
Tsubaki caught it and grinned. "Look at you, brat. Worried like a proper member of the Familia."
Welf's ears went red. "I was thinking about equipment."
"Sure you were."
Rayleigh picked up one of the finished markers and checked the groove with Reiryoku.
The pattern answered, faint but steady. "This will work."
Welf's hands paused for half a second.
Rayleigh set the marker down and reached for another. "Make the next batch slightly deeper along the inner line."
Welf nodded and adjusted his tool without making a fuss.
That was better than praise.
The forge continued around them.
Tools rang in other rooms, apprentices hurried past the door, and Tsubaki barked orders at someone who had apparently put the wrong rope in the wrong pile.
The ordinary noise helped.
It reminded Rayleigh that the city above those old tunnels was still alive, still messy, still full of people who complained about work because they had the luxury to do so.
He looked down at the map.
The attack points sat there in ink, far apart and harmless on paper.
The lines between them were guesses, old records, suspected routes, and half-buried warnings from people who had either died or vanished.
Somewhere among those lines was a door, a crack, a mechanism, or a living thing that had already sent men back with their own bodies feeling wrong.
Rayleigh slid the finished marker into the prepared pouch.
He had wanted a few more quiet days.
Orario had answered with Knossos.
Fine, then.
If something under the city had started breathing again, he would find where the breath came from and cut off whatever throat it belonged to!
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