The Ninth Door did not look like the others.
Every other chamber within the Vault of Unwritten Truths had carried the same quiet, patient stillness â€" shelves waiting to be noticed, names waiting to be spoken, stories waiting for someone willing to carry their weight forward. But the chamber at the very end of the Vault, sealed behind a slab of stone so dark it seemed to drink the light around it, felt different. It did not wait patiently. It waited the way a held breath waits, straining against the moment it would finally have to be released.
Aether stood before it, and for the first time since stepping into the Vault, he felt something close to fear settle into his chest.
