Each of them were led to their own cramped, unadorned room with bed and little else in it. When they led Zahria to hers, she collapsed thankfully into the bed, burying her face in the small, none-too-soft pillow so they could not see her crying. She was so exhausted by so many horrible things happening to her. Had she ever really been happy, or was that all a dream?

If it was a dream, it was one she wanted to return to, so she cried herself into a fitful sleep, and dreamed of life before her parents and sister died, before the wasteland reclaimed the city that had been her home, and almost everyone in it.

She was 8 then, and he then, and she and her four year old sister Rinoa lived happily with their parents. It was a day just like all the others when her world ended. She was playing hide and seek with Rinoa when it started. There had been a message carried into the minds of all residents of Kyrolos, what had been the 13th Bastion City.

There was a horde coming. The largest that had ever been seen. Hundreds of foul creatures coming from the wastes and rushing towards the city. People were ordered to flee to Bastion city, or to shelter in their homes. Zahria's family had made the second choice, her parents opting to help with the city's defense. She hadn't found her sister yet when she got that message.

The city's defenses failed, drakes tore through the protective border, and let twisted things that had once been men and women swarm through the city. She hid in a closet while it happened, crying and shaking with fear. It wasn't until hours later that her uncle Darius found her, still crying, and still shaking with fright.

Her parents had died fighting, and her sister was never found. Zahria tossed and turned, muttering in her sleep as dreams made the ancient fears new again. In the end, the city itself fell to ruin, and she went to live with her uncle, until two years ago when he had been chosen to go out into the wasteland to look for the world. He'd taken her to stay with a friend, but she could not abide without him. She'd run away, and lived in streets until she had come to Master Daedalus.

Now she knew what had happened to her uncle, and the truth nearly broke her. She'd liked it better when he was dead. After a time, she could sleep no more, and sat up in her bed, wiping fresh tears away with the back of her hand.

She thought of Rinoa, as she so often did. One member of her family had returned from the dead, and she wondered why it could not have been her twin. They'd never found a body, but that was true of most folk who died in the fall of Kyrolos. To hold out hope for a sister lost to her was a childish thing, but much as she would like to deny it, she was a child still. A child who had seen more than any should, but a child all the same.

As much as she missed her early life, that was not a dream that ended well, and the ending gave her nightmares even now, all these years later. For a long while she sat in silence. But gradually, she began to calm her breathing, and expand her mind. At first, it was just a brushing at the very edges of her consciousness, but slowly, it became more distinct, until she recognized it as a voice. Madge's voice, speaking directly to her mind.

“Do not be afraid, little one,” the old woman was saying. “Together we can escape this place.” She wanted to believe that was true but she could not see how.”I have already tried to open a door home, but there are spells worked on these rooms to prevent that. We will find a way, never doubt.”

She wished she shared the woman's confidence, but she simply could not. Still, having that familiar presence helped to calm her. “How could he do something like this to us,” she asked, sadness heavy even in her mind's voice. “ What happened to him?”

“I cannot pretend to know, but I am sure that he fought them as long as he could.”

“And how can we beat them if he couldn't? Can we, or will we just be ground down until we'll do whatever they want?”

“Child, be strong. These people, they prey on our fear. Do not feed them.” She wished she were strong, like Madge, but she was just a stupid, scared little girl.No matter what, she was going to change that. It took what felt like hours, but she did return to an uneasy sleep.

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She did not dream of the past again, but she did dream. She dreamed of her sister, but in the dream, her sister was as old as she would be now. It was a child's fancy of course. Rinoa would never get to this age. Rinoa was dead. The girl in the dream was different from how she remembered Rinoa, Wild where the sister she knew had been gentle. But she knew it was her with the certainty only dreams could hold. And with that same certainty, she felt that this girl was real, that she drew breath somewhere in this world. Ridiculous she knew, but it was a good dream.

It was a strange irony, Gerald thought, that the outside world, which had been a distant and impossible hope, upon which he had almost given up, had come to destroy the world he knew, and that the only hope he had now came from the red wastelands which had for so many years caused him so much fear and despair. It was hard to credit, but that was the way of his situation.

Out of all of the many and strange denizens of this hidden world he'd stumbled into, only the girl spoke to him, or indeed, at all. His small savior was barely verbal herself, speaking infrequently in guttural monosyllables, but she was ever present, never more than an arm's length from him.

Talking to the girl was frustrating, and it taxed him to get anything out of her. It took hours even to learn her name, which she seemed to think might have been Rin, but did not seem at all sure of.

If learning her name had been frustrating, then trying to explain why he'd left the cities was like pulling teeth with pliers. She had no concept of an outside world, and seemed to have only the vaguest understanding of the threat these outsiders represented. She asked him many times, in her odd, imperfect manner of speaking, “Why you leave,” and never seemed to grasp the weight of the answers he gave her.

During his time with her, he tried desperately to make her understand, but was never sure if he had. He worried for the cities, and all the people still trapped in them, and tried to convince her to aid his return. This at first seemed an exercise in futility. She seemed deathly afraid of the cities, and any mention of his wish to return to them would bring her to wailing distress.

The fear of the creatures around him lessened over the day, but by the first night he was still far from comfortable enough to sleep among them. So he stayed up as she slept. He had the company, therefore, of a tall, scaly skinned creature with sharp teeth, which she seemed to be close to. It cane in early evening, and stayed by her as she slept, and kept watch, suspiciously him and any other creature hat came near as she did. Whenever he tried to get close, it would growl, like a hound defending its master. So he stayed back, but kept his own watch over this watcher.

Even from this position, he could see that she did not sleep well. She tossed, and turned, and her mouth moved and her face showed pain. The creature sat by her, making a low, calming sound deep in its throat, and gently stroking her head as she slept. She still whimpered. Gerald wondered what dreams could scare a person so much.

And then suddenly, she squirmed again, and somehow flung the creature away a great distance. She shot up with a terrified shriek. He took full advantage of her scaly sharp toothed friend's absence and rushed to her side.

She was breathing hard and her heart mas beating out of her chest when he reached her. He asked her what had happened, and she managed to get a few words out haltingly after catching her breath.

“Dream... writing...sister...Bad place...” He gaped at her. For Rin, that was quite a lot of words. They made even less sense than usual, though. Sister... Could it be? “Do you know Zahria?” At the sound of the name the girl suddenly looked directly at him, when she had been staring into space just moments before.

“Sister… my sister… Long time ago.” Now he knew, the resemblance was uncanny.And they were the same age. Twins perhaps? He never did find out much about that girl, but it seemed the story was stranger than he'd have guessed.

“She may be in trouble. We may be able to help her, but first we would need to make that traitor Darius open a door to where he took them.” Anger showed in her face at that.

“No! Uncle Darius good.” He did not know how to even begin to explain so that she would understand.

“No! Uncle Darius good.” He did not know how to even begin to explain so that she would understand. He supposed there probably was good in the man. Gerald doubted he could hold out for long at all under torture, and he supposed that must have happened to this Uncle Darius. But try as he might, he could not forgive what he saw. Again as he thought of home, he felt the need to try one more time to convince Rin to help him.

“Your sister needs help, and if we are going to do anything about it, so do we. Help from people in the city. But I need your help too. All of your help. Some of them will go wherever you do. I can get us in directly. We could surprise them with force.

“And then, my sister?” Gerald was at last a little hopeful. But then her face hardened to seriousness. “promise,” sounded a threat the way she said it.

“I promise,” Gerald said, and he meant it. The man who had returned with news of the outside world had betrayed the bastion cities to that world, and with the hordes behind him, he could take them back again. Help free the city council if the were alive, free the city, and construct defenses against future attacks.

Rin nodded solemnly and rose, and then tilted her head back and howled like a wolf. every eye in the strange gathering snapped to the two of them. “Ready,” she said.

He found a good long stick on the cave floor, and used it to scratch letters into the dirt, writing out a doorway to Bastion's heart. Rin stood waiting by his side for the door to open, several creatures including the one that had stood guard as she slept watching her and she watched Gerald.

It wasn't long at all before he was done, and he was having Rin help the others line up to go through one at a time. With that done, he opened the doorway, and stepped through first, followed by Rin and a line of strange, frightful things with wicked teeth and claws.