Nesaku regarded the entryway to the Earthern Furnace steadily, mismatched eyes drifting over the portal in the rock. Coursers that had tried here before him had left their mark on the stone. The passageways before this had been clearly signposted for those who would come next. Even if that signposting was without language much of the time, one only had to take the time to look, in order to know.

The most obvious were the symbols or language. Arrows pointing the way one should go, scrawled notes etched in the stone urging those forging ahead to prepare themselves for the heat of the furnace.

Then there was the way the stone had worn underneath them. The most travelled passages worn low by hundreds, if not thousands of hooves. Although empty now save Nesaku, it felt a little like a ghostly thoroughfare.

Finally the more subtle cues. Scrapes of armour against narrow passages, evidence of crushed herb, the remnants of a root. He did not know what had been ground here, what consumed, where each find could be sourced in the dungeon. Nesaku merely noted the signs.

But he was not yet prepared for the heat of the furnace. Not without an experienced companion to travel with him. Not today, at least. Turning, Nesaku travelled onward, intent on seeking his way back to his humble camp, to return to the correspondence he had abandoned the previous night. He’d been unsure exactly what to dictate to the letter. Nesaku had always been cold, but ready back through what he’d impressed into the stone, Nesaku had been sure he would have been interpreted as downright chilly.

The heraldic had been unsure how to remedy such.

Turning down what he’d thought was a familiar corridor, Nesaku skirted around a gaping crack in the stone before attempting to continue onward. But something drew him back. Some urge to peer into the hole, to look deeper.

It was an alien urge. One that triggered alarm bells, ringing muted in his brain. Too muted. Too strange. Nesaku shook his head, taking a step away from the hole, trying not to look at it.

“Keep your head turned away,” a rough voice murmured quietly, although Nesaku hadn’t heard the clack of hooves. He tried to turn to listen to it. “Did you not hear what I said?” The voice snapped. “I am across the anomaly from you. Do not look this way.”

Bristling, Nesaku ground his teeth, rolling his jaw, but held onto his willpower, grounding it in the low voice. He managed to drag out another step away from the hole. The ‘anomaly’ as the voice had put it.

“That’s it…” the voice said quietly. “Another step. Angle it slightly to your left. Yes. That’s right.”

With the other Courser’s voice guiding him, Nesaku stepped slowly away from the hole.

"You make too much noise," it chided, "with that skeleton on your hip. The dungeon can hear you."

Too focused on pulling away from the lure of the darkness, Nesaku did not respond. Shida, however, clattered unhelpful in his holster, as Nesaku took a jerkier step away, the desire to return pulling at him.

Nesaku managed to pull himself far enough the the compulsion ebbed from him. He shook his head to clear the last of it, realising he’d turned a corner, the anomaly no longer in view. Raising his eyes, he sought out the voice’s owner.

He could not find them. And he did not return to the previous chamber to seek any further.