The Water Pass in the mountains of Akros does not lead out of the mountains – a circuitous route instead returns those who wander this false pass back to the Phoberos badlands. Near the highest point in the pass is an archway cut into the stone with massive stoneware water vessels on each side – through the archway are stairs descending into a quieter and gentler place that echoes with the sound of running water. This is the Alithinero – a temple sacred to the guardian of cities, Ephara. A spring on the upper level of the temple dispenses water into a sacred pool where it then overflows into a pool in the chamber below before flowing into a small grotto and then into an underground stream that comes out near the city of Akros proper and is then connected to the city’s aqueducts.

The water…