Chapter 4: He Found Something Yesterday

I had heard of Orath before the expedition. Most Acolytes had, he was the foremost living scholar of the Caelith ruins, the author of the three definitive academic texts on sky-fallen structures, and the person whose proposal had funded this expedition in the first place.

In person, he was older than his portraits suggested, thin in the way of someone who forgot to eat when working, with white hair pulled back and a leather satchel that he wore across his body even at the base of an ancient pyramid at dawn, as though he expected to need his notes at any moment.

There had been no chance for me to interact with him during our trip, and I knew that it would be one of my most treasured memories if I were to speak with him, even if it was just a few sentences.

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