The Thorn of the King Tree and the Primordial Gold are the two keys that open the Midnight Circuit beneath Ardis Vala. Used once, they let Belial escape through the breach.
| Type | Object (pair of keys) |
| Chronicle | NOV |
| Spanish entry | Espina del Árbol Rey y Oro Primigenio |
History
When Los Condenados (“the Condemned”) reached the caverns, the Priscians of Nerub Null held both keys, all that Lady Deino lacked for her war. The lunar naga, who also wanted the Circuit open, named them first. Deino distrusted Nerub Null, but no faction alone could defeat the Pope’s solar monopoly.
In the combined plan, the legion and mages distracted, a commando placed the egg in the Well of Light, the keys opened the circuit, and a platform would allow escape. When the egg detonated, the keys opened a planar road toward a frozen city or a strange world, but the Condemned were all dead. Belial, who had wired the whole coalition, Dieter included, so that the lock would open from inside, escaped through it.
Since then Sogol has a back door to Hell that no one has seen close; nothing says the keys cannot turn again.
Open questions
- Thorn and gold are the materials of the Dual Key: it may be one of these two renamed, a third key of the same forging, or the pair remembered as one emblem.
- Whether the “King Tree” is the weapon tree that yielded the egg, or the forest king another guardian hinted at, is not proven.
See also
- Midnight Road (Ardis Vala)
- Bell of the Apocalypse, whose “gates of midnight” are related but not identified with the Circuit