For a few seconds, all I could hear was my own heartbeat.
The chamber was still smoldering from the last exchange — the green veins in the walls had dimmed to a dull pulse, smoke rising from cracked stone.
I stood there in the half-light, my wands lowered but ready, waiting for the inevitable second act.
But none came.
The air shimmered faintly where Salazar had stood, the last remnants of his essence dissolving like mist.
Then, amid the silence, came a faint click — stone shifting against stone.
I turned toward the wall where his painting had once hung.
The fragments of the frame still glowed faintly, their light bleeding into the cracks of the wall behind them.
The light spread — tracing patterns as the stone itself fractured — before a low rumble filled the air.
"Ah," I muttered, stepping back just in time as the wall split apart.
dust rained down as the stone divided inwards, revealing a narrow archway, framed in serpentine carvings.
Yet another hidden room but not one that was secret to me, this was the third presence of magic i had sensed since entering the Chamber of Secrets, the Basilisk the first, and Salazar himself was the second, whatever lay beyond this gateway was now the third.
But as the dust settled i tentatively approached to peer at what was inside, and unlike the laboratory that now stood vacate, the inner chamber was more like a vault.
A small treasure horde of gold and silver, chests, and tomes.
Parchments rolled in protective cylinders, cord glowing faintly of runes.
Weapons such as short swords, long swords, axes, and daggars linging simple weapon racks, while on the otherside stood three sets of knights armor, colored in black or green with snake motifs and sigils all over the chest and pauldrons.
Then there was a simple garment rack with a selection of wizarding robes hanging with a collection of hats resting atop them.
And there, at the heart of it all — standing upright in its own cradle of stone — was a staff.
It was beautiful in a terrible way.
Looking like a scene from the sword in the stone.
Carved from snakewood, twin serpents coiled around its central silver shaft in intricate spirals, meeting at the top where they seemed to be attempting to devour a single golden jewel.
The gem itself could be mistaken for being a symbol of gold, save for the fact that the gem itself was seethrough and flawless to behold, even from across the room where i stood, the staff itself radiated a power far greater than any i had yet felt on this earth.
Every instinct in my body screamed of danger but the staff before me was practically calling out to me.
Its form reminiscent of modern muggle symbology for Healing like the Staff of Asclepius though this one had twin snakes so, instead that would make this one a staff modeled after Caduceus then?
I took one step forward.
Then another.
I thought to reach out and claim the staff but before i could, i was stopped.
Not physically just mentally, the room itself seemed to chill with a familiar presence, one that was not malicious like when Salazar was still here, no this was more of a warm comforting presence.
And then she appeared.
A soft shimmer, silver and blue, coalescing into a woman's form that descended down from the ceiling as if she was an angel descending from the heavens.
Lady Draconis herself, she had mentioned numerous times about wathcing my every move but this confirmed it for me, i had snuck out coming here in secret and with the intent to remain undiscovered and yet here she was deep within the bowels of the castle calmly looking on me as i was about to lay claim to her sons treasure horde.
"Impressive," she said softly. Her voice echoed in layers, as if two people spoke through one mouth. "To think my heir would stand victorious against him — even a sliver."
My fingers froze an inch from the staff.
"…Lady Draconis."
The ghost smiled faintly.
I straightened slightly, retracting my klepto hand from the staff before me.
"Do you- Am i to be punished?"
Her expression softened, touched with something like amusement.
"No my dear boy, you are my heir after all and acted in self defence against a soul that should have long since faded from this world not lingering corrupted as it was... sad as it is to say but the soul of my son who once resided in that vessel had long since been driven insane by his solitude. That boy had such ambition, only to lead him here."
She drifted forward, gliding past the shattered remains of Salazar's phylactery-frame, pausing once more within the Treasury itself.
"You resisted him. Even a mere fragment of my son's will was potent enough to enslave most wizards. You not only resisted — you destroyed him."
"Wasn't much of a choice," I said quietly. "He wanted to use me as a vessel. I had to respond in kind."
Her laugh was soft, almost melodic. "Pragmatic. Cold. Very much as I was."
She drifted closer to the staff, her gaze falling upon it. "Do you know what this is?"
"Power," I said simply.
She chuckled again.
"Everything in this place is a form of power in its own right. But that… is legacy. The Staff of Caduceus. This was a relic we had recovered during our most active years as we roamed Europe gathering our kind before settling in the british ilse to create a haven for our kind to thrive."
Her hand — translucent and shimmering — hovered over the staff, not touching, yet the snakes carved along its length seemed to move, their jeweled eyes glowing faintly in response.
"This was a relic of a time long since past when we wizards and witches were few in number but possessed power far surpassing those of your time, and as such were worshipped as gods among men. This Staff is a 'divine' tool of that time if you will, a creation myself and my children attempted to recreate in our own ways."
Her tone darkened somewhat as if remember the good times long ago.
"Rowena... she had taken the staffs purpose and used it as a means to create that Diagem of hers, Helga used its function as a means to create her Cup, Godric... oh godric he saw the care in its crafting and moved to make his sword in the same way, while Salazar... well he never created anything even after spending the most time with the staff, though now i suppose he instead used it to further his experiments and the creation of that monstrosity residing over yonder."