So far the opportunity to flee did not happen. They trod along in the shadows of broken goliaths, fallen sky carriages and red dirt-caked walls. To Nua's horror, at some point Flavius drew from his pocket a complex, round apparatus that emitted its own light – no doubt, etheric. Whenever a junction presented itself, he chose the road. Nua would still point the general direction, but it was the explorer that really led them.

They did not meet any scavengers. It was too dangerous out there. Nua looked around in anticipation of a safe stray path that she could use, but everywhere she found either signs of scorpion presence or other, larger tracks that she did not recognize. She was increasingly afraid that they'll stumble upon a girtablil, a half scorpion-half human beast. It usually fed on its lesser arachnid cousins, but would not look down on human meat if presented with opportunity. There were sightings of them in the junkyard. A burly scavenger named Kash, for whom Auntie Hala did laundry, boasted that he had killed one and strutted about with its stinger attached to his belt. Knowing him, he probably found one that was already dead.

The path led uphill, and Nua slowly recognized that it's because they were not just near the Southern Temple, they were walking on top of it. She had already seen the entrance towering over them, and several steps of a wide stairway protruding from the ground. She wasn't aware how she knew that – perhaps an inherited memory from the long lost past of her people, or a picture that she glimpsed once and then forgot, but she saw clearly as day that the stairway should be much longer. Nua shuddered as she realized that half of the Temple was buried beneath them, while the top floors had crumbled. In its days of glory the ziggurat was perhaps twice as big as the Overlord palace.

Two silhouettes moved in the entrance's shadow.

"Girtablils", she whispered.

"How many?" Flavius was unfazed.

"I see two... no, three of them."

"Uhm. Sit down."

Nua observed him with curiosity. Instead of charging at the creatures, Flavius drew a torch from his backpack, then produced a cloth pouch filled with some strong smelling herbs. With a few strikes of flint, he set the torch alight.

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Then he handed it all to Nua.

"Take these herbs" he instructed, "And burn them in front of the monsters."

She looked at him with disbelief.

"That will be the death of me!"

"I hope not. You'll come in handy later. Now, do as I said. I need my sword hand free. Or perhaps I'll drug them, and you will do the slaying?"

"They are awful fast!"

"Too bad. Just be faster."

Nua wanted to protest, then the explorer's gaze met hers. He wasn't jovial anymore, not a trace of a smile on his face, his dark eyes crystal cold. Eyes of a killer. She would either confront the girtablils, or him. With the scorpion-men, at least she had a weapon.

Using piles of rubble as a cover, she managed to sneak close enough. She hid behind a large rusty metal barrel and observed the monsters. Their torsos, arms and head were human enough, if you discounted their blank expressions, as if they were dolls attached to a scorpion's body. They had gold-tinted eyes like the Unsagga. It was somehow incredibly offensive and repulsive to see her people's trait in the monster's face.

They were already agitated, sniffing and looking around in the search for an intruder. The wind was blowing in their direction, and obviously, even if she hid the torch, they smelled it out. Which would be bad under any other circumstances.

Hesitantly, Nua took a handful of herbs, then threw it in the flame. In an instant she almost drowned in thick white smoke. She whooped and spat, unable to see if the fumes were carried off with the wind.

Then she heard hissing and a sound of clatter.

She shrieked, dropped the torch, then darted for the explorer.

"Stay there! For the River God's sake!"

The clatter was drawing close. Nua was skipping the stones and jumping from barrel to barrel. She didn't dare to look back. Flavius Aetius moved like a furious mountain, swords in both hands, in her direction. Behind her, monster scorpions, in front of her, a murderer. Nua tripped over a stone and stayed like that, pressing her hands to her head and screaming.

Then she heard other screams. High-pitched, inhuman wails.

She dared to look and regretted it instantly, because she turned just in time to see a sword tearing into the girtablil's body like a spoon into the plate of mashed tubers. It turned out that the creatures had innards in their human part. With a sickening crunch, the explorer added a second hit, this time blocking and crushing the scorpion's tail.

The girtablil fell. The other two quickly followed, with Flavius Aetius' skilled help. Nua lost the contents of her stomach earlier, so she just spat out the bile.

After the whole slicing, crushing and killing has ended, and the pungent smell of scorpion-men steaming remains filled the air, the explorer walked up to Nua, then picked her up by her shirt.

"Get up."

"Please, please don't kill me."

"You did terrible. You blocked the fumes with your own cover. They got half a dose, at most. Still, I live and they don't. I won't kill you for now."

The explorer looked ahead.

"After all, I need your blood to open some doors."