"To open is to invite. To hesitate is to survive." , Fragmented inscription, Council Archive, Year 88
The door loomed like judgment.
It rose from the floor to the ceiling, a slab of dark stone polished smooth by centuries yet untouched by decay. Serpents coiled across its face in endless spirals, their scales etched so finely the patterns seemed to writhe when the torchlight shifted. Each beast's head bent inward, hollow stone eyes fixed on the fractured glyph between them: a broken stone, its lines jagged and fresh as though cut only yesterday.
The seal was alive with presence. Watching. Waiting.
The four stood before it in silence. The chamber's air was heavy, oppressive, and every breath they took echoed back too loudly, as if the ruin itself wanted to remind them they were trespassers.
Leo's chest pulsed with a second heartbeat. His fragment throbbed, eager, the whispers clear as thought but sharper than his own voice.
Ours. Take it. The seal breaks for us alone.
