The huge doors swung shut behind me and I stepped back out into the light, shaking off the coldness that always clung to me after an extended period in the Lower Vaults. The guards racked their weapons and left with me, though they remained impassive behind their opaque helmets.

I spotted my platform and was taking a step towards it when someone called out to me. I glanced at the source of the noise – another Keeper, probably of similar rank to me, on another platform. Before I can react, the guards on either side of me drew their sidearms in eerie unison, two shots knocking echoing out at the same time. The shots knocked the Keeper off his platform and into a long fall to the bottom of the Spire below.

I was steered to an access shaft in the wall, one of the guards telling me to “remain for the duration of the conflict”. Still stunned, I did not protest.

The other guard shot me in the chest and shoved me into the shaft.