The Serpent's Cipher

Previously

…I looked at the entrance to the chamber, the path back to the world I had known. It felt distant, almost unreal. My adventure was over, yet it had just begun. Silas Vane would come. And when he did, he would find not a treasure hunter, but a guardian. I wouldn’t let him have the Serpent’s Cipher. I couldn’t. My restlessness had finally found its purpose, not in seeking, but in protecting. The Serpent’s Cipher was mine to keep, and the world, for now, was safe. But the weight of that responsibility was a heavy one, a constant reminder of the choices I had made, and the lonely vigil that lay ahead.