The chamber was silent—oppressively so. The very air felt thick, heavy with the weight of something ancient and forgotten. The torches along the walls flickered weakly, their golden flames struggling against the all-consuming darkness that pressed in from every side. The stone beneath her feet was cold, etched with runes long lost to time, their inscriptions whispering secrets that no living being could decipher anymore.
At the center of the chamber stood a monument—tall, foreboding, and regal in its grotesqueness. It was neither wholly beast nor man but a fusion of both, sculpted into a form that exuded dominance and terror in equal measure. Wings stretched outward, claws curled into frozen predatory grace, and its mouth parted in a silent roar that had never been heard but always understood.
In the chest of the monument, two hollow slots had been carved. One of them was empty.