The woman didn't move. The air between them thickened, heavy with the smell of wet copper. Damon could hear something breathing beneath the soil, slow and hungry, as if the garden itself were alive.
"You walk upon the mouths of the starved. Every seed here is a promise unfulfilled. They hungered for warmth, for love, for meaning. I fed them their longing until they bloomed."
Damon didn't lose his calm. Garden of Hunger was that the name of this place?
He nodded slowly, glancing at the flowers. He had answered three of her questions, so she was obliged to answer his own. Still, he had to be cautious with what he asked.
"Where do I find the mechanisms to unlock the chains that bind the prisoners of the deepest section?"
The old woman turned her head slowly and pointed into the deep darkness at the heart of the garden.
"You must go forward, to the center."
