The City of Three Shadows

The crew entered a district where the sun was low enough to reach the street. Every building cast a normal shadow, a second shadow that pointed toward the Vault and a third that moved a few seconds after the people who made it.

The Luminary surveyor measured the light. The Shadebound reader traced the delayed shadow and found that it stopped at a sealed stairwell.

The team did not descend. The public image contains two shadows. The private copy contains three and a handwritten note: the city is not empty; it is waiting for its occupants to agree on which direction they came from.