Location: Moat
Once they arrived at the palace ruins, people started splitting off and going their own ways. Master Ike and George went up a couple stories and in a window that simply opened for her. Others vanished into the jungle, or made their way into the palace itself. For his part, Audren started circling the perimeter of the ruins. He wasn't so much interested in the architecture - though the stones certainly were solidly put together - as the holes left in it. Fortresses were built to be impregnable but very rarely were. It was almost one of the unwritten laws of the galaxy: there had to be a weakness present.
As he wound further around the palace he started noticing the earth rising. Or maybe it wasn't the earth rising, maybe he was just walking into an extremely gradual depression. One that kept going past the continual bend. Walking back, he used a particularly distinct piece of the castle wall to compare his height at different points: he was definitely walking into a very wide depression in the ground. The lower he got the wetter the ground became, though it never got much more than rich and springy, made abundantly so by the excess vegetation. Early schooling had taught that ancient castles and fortresses had deep, wide ditches filled with water that were called moats. They were a defense mechanism made relatively obsolete, but had been effective in their time. This had probably been one of those.
Through the vegetation, Audren spotted a glint of metal within the moat. This was...not normal, as the rest of it had been earth and stone. Curious, the Padawan headed towards that glint and found a metal plate built into the stone. It was chance he'd seen it at all, there were just a few specks of sunlight through the foliage and only a couple of those fell on rust-free metal. The lock area was completely rusted over, so much so that he didn't even bother trying to open it up. Instead, he picked up a rock and hit it heavily a few times, eventually cracking the metal around the locking mechanism. Time and elements, dangers to even the most secure locations.
The door - which would have been meters underwater were the moat filled - opened sideways and moved jerkily, apparently the hinges were rusted too. The skeleton he saw inside made him wrinkle his nose in disgust: the left hand was still gripped the metal grate above it, the arm separated at the shoulder. He had the feeling it was through time rather than foul play, especially since there was no lock on this side of the grate. Luckily, the grating was also rusted through, and a few solid hits (after placing the arm by its body) had it open enough for the Sephi to hoist himself through. The grating itself was at the bottom of what looked like a shallow pool basin. The entire access would have been underwater when the moat was live, so this was probably a secret escape. It was locked from the inside to keep enemies from taking advantage of it: there would have to have been someone on the inside too. Whether the being inside had been an infiltrator who's partner had never turned up or someone trying to escape who'd futilely gone back he didn't know.
The room itself was almost empty. A sword rack stood empty near the single door and a single chest - largely rotted away - was empty. As he was about to leave the room, a glimmer of light caught his eye. Apparently he liked shiny things. Down by the bones there was a single gem, almost completely clear. In the single, guttering beam of sunlight the gem flickered. He wasn't one for gems and riches, but it caught his eye. For some reason though, he felt a sense of unease as his hand closed around it, like it didn't belong with him. The feeling lessened significantly when he slipped it into a pouch on his belt, but didn't abate entirely.
Unsettled, the Padawan climbed back up into the room proper and pulled the door open. The other side of the door was plated with stone, and when he stepped through to allow the door to close it vanished seamlessly into the wall. Curious, he took a few moments to find the stone that opened the door when the right candlesticks unlocked the pressure plate. Clever design. This room, while more richly appointed than the other, was still dusty with age. There were two other doors here though. One led to a hallway, uninspiring in many ways, and the other opened up into...another hallway. Shrugging to himself, the Sephi ambled down the second hall, letting his feet lead the way.
