The cave didn't change this time.
No monsters, no dramatic reshaping of stone, no grand spectacle announcing what waited for me. The space remained bare and still, the same cold rock underfoot, the same quiet that pressed against my ears like cotton.
That alone unsettled me more than any explosion or shadow ever had. Think about it, if suddenly a cave designed to murder you in the most brutal ways possible by shifting...stops shifting, won't you freak out?
You would. I rest my case.
Anyway, in the center of the chamber stood a staircase.
Ten steps.
No railing. No ornamentation. Just rough-hewn stone ascending into nothing, each step identical in size and shape. At the top was no door, no light, no visible reward. Just an edge where the stone ended and the darkness beyond swallowed everything.
I stopped at the base.
