You did it for the adventure. That’s what you tell yourself as the damp stone walls reflect your every movement back at you. You sought the allure of the unknown, the noble pursuit of peering into the dark and not backing down as it threatens to encompass you. That’s what you tell yourself publically, of course. It helps to elevate the soul when the doubts start to creep in. Technically it’s still a nugget of truth.

At the core, though, there is the potential for a more material reward. In private it’s hard to deny that running through your veins is the chance of filthy, filthy lucre. Diamonds, rubies, gold, and more could be within your reach if the rumours are to be believed. They may not carry too much weight, but neither would you need to in order to live like a royal should they pan out.

You should have noticed the cave floor becoming more worn and even as you ventured deeper inside, but a small detail like that is easy to miss. The walls, no longer glistening with the moisture of the outside world, faded to a dusty matte that consumed the torchlight and hid the occasional gouges thereon. So many mundane details, on reflection.

The deep rumbling from within the earth had blended so well with your own breathing that by the time you realised you could hear it, it was too loud to disregard. The slow, uneven drip of water on stone had long since been replaced with the sharper clink of metal. You knew you were close to something then, and the promise of discovery won out against your trepidation. Steeling yourself, you headed deeper towards the source of the faint ambient light.

The room was like nothing you could have prepared yourself for. You had hoped to find a cache of trinkets secluded in an out-of-the-way nook, maybe even neatly boxed up in a half-buried chest like in the tales for children. What you found was a trove, a treasure room so brilliant that it stunned your senses. Gold was piled so high that it almost looked abandoned, coins and bars heaped haphazardly together with no regard for denomination or value. Here and there were other precious metals and gemstones in their own incongruous heaps, suggesting a distant attempt at order that had since been lost. Deep rainbow hues reflected the torchlight like bonfires.

All around the edges of the room were other collections of artefacts, more neatly arranged with an eye for collection. Exquisite furniture stood in one alcove, clearly not arranged for use but for careful preservation. It was accompanied by a section for ornate vases and other display items. There were globes old enough to commemorate long-dead countries. In one section, mirrors, even simple everyday ones for some reason. In another, thousands of books carefully preserved.