You hold up the torch.
“To end it.”
“The Staff of Ages,” you say.
In the absolute dark, you hear the armor crash into each other, swinging at nothing. When you relight the torch (sparks from your boot heel, a scrap of oiled cloth—thank the gods for the old training), they are a heap of scrap.
Beyond is the Sanctum. And there, on a pedestal of black obsidian, lies the Staff. It is beautiful. Carved from a single shard of starlight, humming with a power that makes your teeth ache. The Warlock’s body lies in a crystal casket behind it—not sleeping, but waiting . His lips are blue. His fingers are long. And he is smiling.
Deeper. The air grows colder. You find a library where books whisper seditious secrets. You find a kitchen where a roast chicken sits on a platter, steam rising, and the moment you reach for it, the table lurches and tries to bite your arm off with a mouth full of splinter-wood teeth. You starve. That is part of the test.
You have no light. The Great Fire is three floors down, through a labyrinth that hates you. And the Staff is warm in your hands. So warm. It promises you things. Your father, alive. Your mother, whole. A kingdom without sorrow. All you have to do is keep it .
You do not need light. You have the dark.
In your hand, a torch. It crackles, the only living thing in this hall of the dead.