Chương 11: “The Third Floor”

Night. June asleep as usual. Vorrath went deeper than he'd gone since the binding, past the first floor, past the sealed memory on the second, down to the third, which had been his treasury once. It was never about gold. He kept things that carried personal value. A sword that outlived everyone who touched it. A child's shoe, single, found at the bottom of a river, which he kept because it unsettled adventurers more than anything else he owned. Most of it was still there. Smaller than he remembered.

He made every inch of it, just smaller in the way things get when you come back to them and realize they were never quite as grand as you remembered them to be. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. At the far end of the floor there was a door. He did not put it there. It was ordinary. Dark wood. Iron handle. Nothing in his dungeon was ordinary. He stood in front of it for a long time and did not open it and went back upstairs. June was asleep.

He sat on the windowsill. The door stayed where it was, behind him in the dark, and he thought about it until morning.