It was dark. Not the cozy, sleepy kind of dark that Silas liked, but a heavy, suffocating blackness that smelled of old potatoes, damp earth, and betrayal.
And it was cold.
The temperature in the hallway had been chilly, but down here in the deep rock of the mountain, the air was stagnant and freezing. It seeped through clothes and bit into the skin like tiny, invisible teeth.
"Hello?" Vali called out, his voice echoing off the stone walls. "Ninjas? We're here for the ice cream!"
Silence.
"I do not detect any ninjas," Orion murmured. He was standing stiffly in the dark, his breath coming out in white puffs that he couldn't even see. "And my olfactory sensors detect... tubers. Not sugar."
Vali felt around the wall until his hand hit the heavy wooden door. He pushed. It didn't budge. He pulled the handle. Locked.
"She tricked us," Vali realized, his ears drooping. "There's no ice cream. Just... rocks."
