>>6108075True enough, the seal is easily broken when you approach. The room beyond is small and dimly lit, a low mist clinging to the ground. Empty save for a podium, you find a small scroll of aged paper atop the stone. A map of some kind, although you don't recognise exactly what it's a map of. Holding it, you don't feel anything – no slumbering power within. With a shrug, you slip the map into your pocket and move on.
You were almost expecting to find Kalthos waiting for you on the second layer, but the old monster is nowhere in sight. You have no doubt that he has many ways to navigate the Demesne, far more than the few petty tricks he shared with you. It wouldn't surprise you if you turned around and found him standing right behind you.
Well, it might surprise you a bit.
There were another two sealed portals in the second layer, you recall – seals marked with the symbols of Solitude and Sovereignty. You head for the Solitude seal first, purely because Jan comes to mind. As you walk, you pass a few of the Denizens. Neither of them show any reaction to you, even when you accidentally bump into one of them in passing. Even if you were to knock one of them to the ground and savagely beat them, you doubt they'd do anything more than squirm. Idly, you wonder how hard it would be to kill one of them.
Through the Solitude seal, you find a small length of thorns braided into a kind of rope. Carefully picking it up, you test one of the thorns with your fingertip. Despite the great age, it still feels ruthlessly sharp. Anything more than a slight tap, and you'd draw blood. Neatly folding the band up, you slip it into a deep pocket and move on.
Kalthos is waiting for you in the main hall, his yellow eyes glinting menacingly out at you. “Ah, my young apprentice!” he gloats, “I see that you've travelled further down the path of Calamity.”
“Unfortunately so,” you reply, smirking as an idea strikes you, “Hello... Ymir.”
Kalthos raises an eyebrow. “Oh? That's not a name that I've heard in a very long time,” he chuckles, “You've been doing your research.”
“Naturally,” you nod, “So, how's life in the Demesne?”
“Quiet. We had another guest recently, a young man rather like yourself,” Kalthos grins, his lips peeling back from yellowed fangs, “There must not be much sun in the outside world. So many pallid, sickly looking people lately!”
Cato, you assume. Really, aside from the air you look nothing alike.
“I thought it best to hide from the young pup, to stalk him and see where he went. He travelled far, you know, all the way down to the fourth layer. There, he sat down before the door and waited. I think he went to sleep, actually,” the old man's grin gets a little wider, “I thought about bashing him over the head with my cooking pot, but decided against it.”
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