Elara did not stop until she reached Jules's apartment, collapsing against the locked door. The guilt was a physical weight, heavier than the soot and the silver key combined. She had escaped, but only because she had left Jules to face Henri and the Argentum Society. Dubois, the master manipulator, had forced her hand, compelling her to embrace Vance's principle of "Loss" by sacrificing the one person she had finally trusted.
She sealed the door behind her, sliding the deadbolt. The apartment was cold and silent. She moved to the grimy wash basin and stared at her reflection: wide, exhausted eyes framed by smears of dried chimney soot. She was a different person now—not a curator of history, but a participant in a crime.
She pulled out the two keys, placing them side-by-side on Jules's desk: the ornate Hourglass Key (representing the power of Eternity) and the plain, dark Broken Circle Key (representing Loss). The Hourglass had opened the alchemist's forge, but the Broken Circle was the key to the final chamber.
Elara focused on the locket's final plea: "The Second Key is worthless to men of power. They seek the treasure, but they do not seek the loss."
The Argentum Society believed the treasure was the Philosopher's Stone—unlimited power. They had the Hourglass Key's location, which symbolized the means to power. But they had completely ignored the Broken Circle Key, which represented the cost. Vance, the ethical alchemist, had ensured that the final Regulator could only be accessed by someone who understood the necessity of sacrifice.
She had understood the sacrifice intimately tonight.
The final chamber, therefore, would not be found through an obscure historical cipher or a public monument. It would be hidden in a location that reflected Vance's philosophy of balancing power with loss—a secret place meant to stabilize, not unlock, the ley lines of Paris.
She spread out the photographs of Vance's journal alongside Jules's rough sketches of historical Parisian architecture. The final pages of the journal contained repeated, complex diagrams of a building's foundation, centered around a small, circular room deep underground.
Elara immediately recognized the architectural style: it was contemporary to the original foundations of the Bibliothèque Nationale de France—the museum where she worked.
But which section? She had scoured the building.
Then, she remembered Professor Laurent's last phone call to Dubois, frantically mentioning a clue and begging Dubois to secure the area. Laurent was last seen at the restricted manuscript vault in the sub-level.
Laurent, a brilliant but aging scholar, specialized in obscure documentation. She recalled a conversation with him years ago about the museum's original 17th-century plans, specifically a rarely accessed, deep sub-level beneath the main vault—a section considered structurally unsound and used only for long-term quarantine storage of potentially volatile materials.
Why would Vance hide the Regulator there?
Elara pulled out a heavily annotated archival map she remembered Jules keeping—a detailed rendering of the 19th-century extensions of the library's foundation. She found the manuscript vault floorplan. Then, she traced the lines beneath it.
Below the vault was a smaller, circular chamber, accessible only via a long-forgotten antique iron staircase sealed behind a modern cement wall. This chamber was marked on the original map with a single, chilling notation, not by the museum architect, but by an earlier hand:
"CELLULE DE VANCE. (Sealed 1705)."
Vance's Holding Cell. Laurent, knowing Dubois was the enemy, had used the only location he knew was truly secret—the place beneath the vault—as the final clue.
Elara realized the horrifying truth: The final lock wasn't just to keep the Society out; it was to ensure that only the person who held the Loss key and was willing to make the ultimate sacrifice could reach it.
Her journey had led her right back to where she started, into the heart of the institution she had once sworn to protect, straight into the waiting hands of Monsieur Dubois. He had the power (the influence), but now she held the Loss (the philosophical key, gained through guilt and sacrifice).
She grabbed the two keys, the locket, and the journal prints. There was no time for subtlety, and no way to call for help. She had to use her intimate knowledge of the museum's inner workings to reach the Cellule before Dubois and the Argentum Society could break through the wall or move the last piece of their plan.
She had to go back to the museum and complete Vance's intended final act—whatever the loss required of her.