The Serpent's Cipher

Previously

…“What do you want?” I asked, my voice steady, though my heart hammered against my ribs. “To see if you are worthy,” the keeper replied. “To see if you will succumb to the temptation of power, or if you will understand its true purpose.” The Serpent’s Cipher lay before me, a silent enigma. The keeper stood between me and it, an embodiment of the ancient forces that protected it. My journey had brought me to this precipice. The choice, I suspected, was already being made, not by me, but by the very nature of the challenge laid before me. The Serpent’s Cipher was within reach, but the true trial had only just begun.