Amos' research didn't very much narrow things down, or offer anything that couldn't be inferred by the grandiose chambers they wandered through already. History was full of lost civilizations, many of them great for their time. It did make sense now, though, how a cave-in could so easily occur: If the layer of sand covering this ancient place was thin enough to spit out relics in a sandstorm, it simply wasn't stable to begin with.
Not that stability meant much as ancient machinery began whirring to life beneath the stone floor they walked upon, gears snug and functional even after centuries of dormancy. Serris realized what it was he'd heard only a second after Amos, but that second was all the difference; A rush of wind at the back of his neck caused him to spin around to see his two companions being shot upwards by a piston platform.
"Of all the...!" The professor seethed, cursing himself for not being more careful where his feet fell. To think that a place so old would still have active traps... This civilization had been advanced indeed. He only prayed the platform was meant to lead to another chamber suspended above, and not as some sort of observational post.
Otherwise it wasn't unlikely his only two partners were about to have an unpleasant meeting with the layer of sand above them.
There was little time to act, but Serris had to do something. The Ex-Maester quickly began drawing circular shapes in the air with his fingers, closing his eyes and muttering a quiet incantation before dropping to a knee and placing his palm flat against the floor, still buzzing with the movement of the gears within. He could not stop them himself, but he could certainly tip the odds.
Ultimately, it was mere chance that the vibrations suddenly caused a fracture in one of the gears, that the mechanism shooting Amos and Zephyrine high into the air would suddenly stall and become stuck as the device powering it jammed with age and weathering.
Mere chance, indeed. Only slightly influenced by the Professor's signature magic.
