The Dark is Holy?

JP with Alexis, Gonyaul and Winteroak:

When it became clear that you were ready to go, Tar led you down a side tunnel. It was narrow. So narrow that you could touch each side with your hands without having to stretch your arms. You can see the edges of the rock where pickaxe, hammers and chisels cut at the stone making this ancient passage that leads ever downwards.

Suddenly you hear Tar talking.
"You ask yourselves, what is this that I do? Why have I spent my days here in the dark. You do not ask yourself what it means. But you feel the question." His voice was low almost as if was taking to himself and not you.

"Your breath grows short, your skin crawls. Your eyes water for straining into the black, for looking to the very limit of your feeble vision." He spoke like one grown tired of his own wisdom.

"I remember asking a wise man, once, why do Men fear the dark. Because darkness, he told me, is ignorance made visible." Tar chuckled at some unspoken joke.

"And do Men despise ignorance? I asked back. ‘No,’ he told me ‘they prize it above all things, but only so long as it remains invisible." He lifted his torch that the flame burned against the rock of the ceiling.
"Me? I think the dark holy..."

Alexis did not know how to respond to that. So she didn’t. More likely than not, Tar didn’t expect them to.

The mercenary doubted she truly understood what he was saying. She had a feeling that she was several months worth of having mostly darkness and solitude as her companions away from reaching that point.

Gonyaul now smelled like the cave both on his person and his clothes. He also looked blackened, which made him blend with the darknesses easier. He followed close behind and his thoughts were off thinking about what he could possibly do with this creature, which for now was pieces together in his imagination.

He didn’t start listening to Tar until about halfway through. What was he going on about? He was speaking about strange things.

Gonyaul wondered why he couldn’t be quiet. Hard to listen to one’s surroundings when someone keeps yammering.

“Shhhhhh. Darkness be here after done, talk to it then?” He suggested breathily.

Tar looked back at the mud covered man and laughed at the sight. Whatever he planned to achieve with such a display was beyond him. Would be fun to watch when all that dried on is skin, hair and clothes.
Maybe the man was some sort of bait the woman used during battle. Who knew. Tar returned to his musings, ignoring the young man.
"Have you ever knelt so deep?" He asked.

Gonyaul was so confused about what direction the man was taking the topic. Was he even talking to them? Would he be quiet if they just answered his questions? Gonyaul wasn’t completely sure what he meant by this ‘knelt so deep’, but took a try at a response.

“We been deeper.” He whispered. Thinking about their previous descent and how far down they had gone into the earth’s belly.

"The dark is oblivion made manifest. And oblivion encircles us always. Zin's realm. The Shroud." He abruptly stopped as they came to the end of the tunnel. A large cavern gapped ahead of them. Luminous glowing plants dotted the area. A vast underground cemetery. Twice the size of tye waterfall room you visited back on the Aquilo mine.