Excavation: Day 15

April 15. The work goes swiftly. We have carried away the soil from beneath the Great Sphere, revealing the full mark carved upon the stone. Maddie's men labor honest and industrious – they work efficiently, which is well and good, as I am not certain how far my coin will last. Maddie is more worried about provisions - food has proven a challenge, as the scouts find they must range farther and farther from camp for game. This has worried Rolfe, though he has not said why. He is often at the perimeter, staring into the woods. More curiously, Maddie claims she has seen such marks before, on smaller spheres being sold at the outposts. She said the small spheres were scavenged from hunters near the Temple to the East. Rolfe frowned at that and said it wasn't in the ground they found the spheres, but in the rib cages of skeletons there, like stone hearts. Maddie looked unsettled by the news, as did her men. I pressed Rolfe on this, but he refused to speak further. I must secure one of these spheres – after our work here, perhaps a trip to the Temple is in order. R. Grenville