A hand lifted up to gently push at the door.

It swung open freely, surprising as he was certain the door had not been opened in the last hundred years. He smiled to himself, thinking of what he might find.

He stepped into the dark room and a sigh escaped his lips as he was not destroyed in an instant. He could not relax too much though, as the door silently started swinging shut, the only thing alerting him the diminishing light from the doorway.

Quickly he wedged his foot in the door to keep it from closing. He wriggled free from his shoe. He may have been able to open it from the outside, but he had no idea if he would be able to repeat it from the inside. Better to be safe than sorry.

He looked around, taking in his surroundings. The feeling he got back was old. Everything just felt old, reeked of it. It made him shiver. He walked around, looking at the tables lining the outside wall. All manner of things lay on the tables. Rocks everywhere. Gemstones too, though not the precious kind. Piles of dirt even. Alchemical apparati which appeared to once have some sort of liquid in it, but was now just a sticky brown residue.

He ran his hands over the top of the objects, stirring up the dust which caught the small amount of light coming in through the door. He could not value any of the object himself, though he was sure that some would fetch quite the price. He did not feel right taking things from the room though, except for the one thing he had come for.

As he made his way around the room he started to feel a strange sensation, as if something was calling to him. He turned and looked at the pillar that was rising from the centre of the room.

The tiles on the floor stopped just short of where the earth suddenly spiked up into a steep mound, bits of rock sticking from it, and even grass growing out of some of it even though there was no sunlight or water getting into the tower.

From the roof a great metal contraption reached down to touch the top of the mound, all wires and cables and weird designs. It was the first time he had seen anything like it. No amount of Gem Teknology could match what this was trying to do.

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A crystal sat right at the point where the two spikes met, glowing very softly. He could feel it though, the energy being dragged up into the pipes and wires and being sent towards the roof. It was amazing. He gingerly reached towards the crystal, but then slowly pulled back.

The energy from the Gem was being funnelled toward the roof, where he knew a beam of light energy shot skyward, holding another even bigger crystal high in the sky. All the commoners thought the big crystal was what gave off the energy, but he knew it was just a conduit, a relay, from a greater power source. While it was big, the one above was basically worthless.

He reached forward again, amazed as always how the Gemz, even though they could produce so much energy, could be held by a person without receiving the slightest of tingles.

Gently he placed the Gem in the box he had brought especially for it. Inch thick wood would seal away the power from prying eyes.

He noticed it then. Or rather, he noticed what he had not noticed before was now gone. The metal contraption on the roof appeared to be shutting down as the energy it was receiving from below slowly started to recede.

He made his way quickly to the door, swung it open, slipped his shoe on, and stepped outside into the glaring light. He placed a hand Sunward to shield his eyes from the bright light as he watched the beam of light begin to weaken. It didn’t vanish, it slowly got thinner, the crystal on top descending evenly down to the claw like top of the tower.

The beam of light running from the Sunward Crystal to the Darkward Crystal, commonly called the Clock Lines, blinked out of existence as it’s relay moved from it position.

He smiled and slipped the box inside his clothes.

“Now it has started,” he said with a chuckle.