The Falls of Stilled Water

A hanging meltwater falls on the eastern wall of the Foothills, frozen mid-pour half the year into a blue-white curtain; frost-lichen thick on the ice, and a runner's cache rumoured behind it.

In summer it falls clear and cold and loud enough to drown out the column-field entirely. In winter it halts in an instant, a vertical river caught and stilled, and the blue-white ice it makes is the same colour as the workings in the hall above. The cache behind it — if it exists — has never been confirmed; the ice shifts and the ledge behind it is narrow.