The sun was high in the sky, reflecting off the mirror-like surface of the snowy hills when we finally reached my destination. It took some looking around before I found the entrance to the cave that was referred to on the scroll that was safely stashed away in my pack.

A small marking was etched into a rock, partially covered by a few errant flakes. I brushed it off with a gloved hand as I threw my bag down onto the ground. Taking my mittens off, the freezing air of the Great White Expanse immediately bit into my skin. I hissed at the sudden bite of cold, scrambling to undo the buckles on my back and snatch the rolled piece of parchment before my hands froze off.

The symbol that was etched into the cave's entryway matched the one scribbled in faded ink on the scroll. Without a doubt, this was what I had come halfway across the world looking for.

The First Sanctum.

Lichensith Ulroke's personal hideaway. His safe house and panic room. Where both his uprising and downfall began.

It was here that I would find... what, exactly? Now that I was here, what was I really looking for? Some sort of closure? The final pieces of the puzzle that was the Silver Assassin and the Crimson Hands?

Honestly, I had no idea what to expect. It was slightly frightening.

Killian approached me to say something, but a quick blast of cordyceps spores silenced him. In a few minutes he would be dead. In fifteen, he would be resurrected and on his way back home without me, resuming his normal life with orders never to speak about our trip, that I was with him, and that if anyone asked about the weird growths coming out of his neck and forming a collar to say that they were some sort of skin condition.