8
As soon as I stepped into the cave’s entrance, the darkness faded and I stood before a vast pool of dark water. The surface of the liquid churned oddly as if every drop had a life of its own. Torches lined the walls of the chamber, bathing everything in a lurid orange glow. The shadow that claimed to be me stood at my right. It was like someone had cut out my shape from a black piece of parchment and gave it life. It had no eyes, no mouth, no features at all—yet when it spoke, I heard it clearly.
“We must do something,” it said. “One of them will fall into the pit, and you can’t save both.”
Above the murky water were two cages suspended by chains. Those chains were attached to a pulley system that kept the cages level with one another. A robed figure, a ghost judging by its ethereal o
