Amos, Tor'in, Meriel, Ren, Sendara, and Zarin return to Renatus Hall the next morning. The Vigilants guarding the entrances to the building tell them that the wizard Adelard d'Calidus had arrived earlier. Entering the basement, Sendara seeked out extradimensional entities. She leads the way down the hall.
Sendara is too focused to notice, but the rest of the group sees shredded strands of metal along the hallway floor. Following them leads to the the levitator. It is irreparably damaged, appearing to have been shredded or unraveled. The Arcstone that would normally power it is missing. The shaft that housed the levitator is undamaged. Meriel collects some of the shredded metal.
Sendara then takes everyone towards the other side of the basement to the utility closet. The door is slightly ajar. When Tor'in touches the door, it feels super cold on his hand. Amos uses the prybar at the end of his trident. Opening the door carefully, he sees darkness within, and a swirling miasma of clouds of many hues. A hand is reaching out through the clouds. It seems that the hand was changing as it moved, sometimes the number of fingers being different, and the skin rippling and moving. The hand is about twice the size of a normal hand. Sendara feels something pull at her soul. Tor'in steps in between her and the door as she casts a spell. Whatever was on the other side of the door is dispelled, and Sendara feels it dissipate. During this, Meriel had the same sense of vertigo that she felt in her dream, but no one other than Amos saw anything.
Continuing to follow her spiritual senses, Sendara leads the group to a large workshop in the southeast corner of the basement. The doors are locked, so Meriel picks them. In the center of the workshop, floating about four feet off the ground, is a strange distortion, almost looking a rift about 2 feet long and six inches tall. No matter where they stand in the room, the perspective and size of the rift never seems to change. A plaque on the far wall shows that this workshop is in honor of Professor Marcus Renatus. Sendara starts to go towards the rift, but Tor'in stops her within reaching distance. She senses Niman inside. Reaching out with her magic, she feels that the inside of the rift is bigger than the outside, and she picks up some sort of necromantic magic around Niman. She is hesitant to search out for the gaoler again, but Tor'in encourages her.
Sendara senses some sort of music when does this, and begins to follow the music, listening for changes in volume. It leads to Niman's workshop, and she senses the presence of the gaoler within. It starts to reach out to her, but she retreats, sending her spiritual form back to her body.
She tells the others what happened, and lets them know that she doesn't think the gaoler is in this world... yet. Tor'in mentions that if doors can open, then they can close, and wonders if Kith can close it. Amos asks about binding the gaoler, which Sendara talked to Bisha about earlier. Ren leaves to get Kith.
When Kith arrives later, they ask her about trying to close the rift. She talks about her experience pushing the Singers' influence out of Cephius. Tor'in suggests she focus on how that felt, and think about music that could open or close the rift.
Visiting Bisha at the Necropolis, she says binding it is possible, and that it would help if they had a personal object that was connected to it. Meriel shows Bisha the metal she gathered from the destroyed levitator, and it is confirmed that it has the same spiritual signature on it. It might not be as effective as a personal object, but it would work.