Sean's words trickle into silence as he rounds a corner after me, opening into the temple courtyard. Where forty years ago, this place had looked like a courtyard from the Unnamed City on the surface, only lost to the sea, now it wavers peacefully with tall stipes of kelp. They cling to the deliberate pathway constructed of smaller basalt pillars laid end to end around the entire periphery—like sentinels of algae on either side of a royal procession.
Centered before the temple's entrance is a carved basalt alter, made of a single stone of massive proportions. Beyond it, down the narrow, kelp-lined walkway is the temple entrance on this side of the incredible structure.
As he darts through the kelp to the alter, Dorian and I trail more slowly.
