The Well of Light is a 200-foot shaft on level L02 of Ardis Vala, in the Howling Caves beneath the Great Pyramid, that brings surface sunlight to the bottom of the world. Once the private chamber of the priests of Thoth, it became the heart of Pope Alejandro Sixto’s solar cult and was destroyed by the detonation of the second egg at the end of Los Condenados.
| Type | Place |
| World | Ardis Vala |
| Location | Level L02, the Howling Caves |
| Spanish entry | Pozo de Luz |
Description
The level was the private floor of the priests of Thoth. A great mirror at the well’s mouth and a chain of convex mirrors spread the light through the galleries, lighting the yellow-tiled floor. Its theme is light against darkness: where the light reaches, the cave-dwellers cower; where it fails, they grow bold. The Library of Thoth, “the Library of the Well of Light”, one of the oldest in the archive, is bound to it. The well is distinct from but adjoins the Halls of Thoth (L03) and the Palace of the Prism.
In the present cycle the well is held by the albino baboons of the druid Gerrilad, and its lights depend on someone repairing the great mirror.
Heart of the Pope’s solar cult
When the mist falls on Ardis Vala and Pope Alejandro Sixto rules from below, from the Palace of the Prism, the well becomes the heart of his power. Around it stand his solar apparatus: the mirror system that concentrates positive energy in the precinct, the Library, and the six Custodes Oculis Solis, heron-headed priests of Thoth who guard the light. As the only light source of a world under mist, it is the lock of his solar monopoly, which every underground faction — the Priscianos, the court of Lady Deino — wants to break.
Destruction
At the end of Los Condenados the well was the target. Dieter, avatar of Belial, laid out the task: the world is a prison, the Pope its jailer, and the well the exact point where the weapon must be introduced. The weapon was the second egg, fruit of the Weapon Tree; the Pope did not need to die, only the circuit to be broken. After the Novices had fallen and Belial declared “Está hecho” (“It is done”), the egg detonated:
- the Well of Light burst and the precinct split;
- the Midnight Circuit started working, with the two keys, Thorn of the King Tree and Primordial Gold, turning in the mechanism;
- a planar way opened where the solar lock had been, projecting toward a frozen city, and Belial escaped through the breach.
Conflicting accounts
- The Palace of the Prism is described both as the island-temple of the underground lake and as the Pope’s flying seat.
- The dungeon chamber and the present-day solar apparatus are kept as related but not declared identical.