Arash scaled the flight of stairs, with Adam at his heel. Even though was still unnerved by the image of the adept and couldn't help but picture his sons lying on the ground with their muscles melted. He ground his teeth. 'They are not strong enough, without me they will starve to death. Tamresh is strong, but he isn't ready to take my place -- I have to do it. I have to. For them.' Adam peered at the back of his so-called nephew. Hatred burned in his eyes like red hot coals.

"You can hate me all you want, but you know in your heart that what I say is the truth." Arash sighed as he crested the stairs. They walked in silence after that. Darkness engulfed them like a second skin. Arash used his soul's eye to see, but Adam was left to fend for himself.

The stairs were varied in height and no matter how hard he tried. He would occasionally misjudge and bang his toes or worse, lose his footing.

Soon, the stairs gave way to a great hall with countless doors leading off to some number of unknown chambers. Adam welcomed the sight of the level ground, he ruefully massaged his banged-up knees as he studied the room about him. The memories of the old adept came in handy while traversing the maze-like structure of the tower of hope.

Arash had come at the hour of silence. Most of the adepts were sleeping or meditating in their assigned rooms. Only the early initiates were assigned some menial tasks. There were only three adepts at the moment. The dead adept, Basit, was assigned to clean the stairs.

"Let's go!" Arash turned towards the kitchen where the other two initiates were working.

"Have you been here before?" Adam asked in confusion.

"No, and to answer your next question. Yes, and be quiet we don't want to wake others." Arash whispered as he started towards the door on his left. Adam was bewildered at the inner layout of the tower. Houses were supposed to be simple, two rooms and a kitchen. Simple and efficient.

Here in the dark corridors of the tower of hope, he felt like a lost child and did his best to follow Arash.

Arash stopped as he heard soft chatter spill out from the kitchen.

"Basit is always sucking up to the seniors. He always gets the easiest of the jobs. Never have I ever seen him in the kitchen." said a woman, with a disgruntled voice. 'That would be Maira' Arash could tell from Basit's memory. Basit didn't have a good opinion of her as he slept with the seniors for favors.

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"Ah!" Maira let out a bashful scream. "Stop it. We don't have time, the seniors will soon wake up and the food is nowhere ready."

"It will only take few moments. We are almost done." Dawod said in a low whisper, his voice heavy with lust. "Let me feast upon you. The seniors can wait..."

Arash shook his head as he hid in a dark corner. "Don't move. I will be back in a moment."

"What--" Before Adam could say anything Arash's soul moved out of his body. He was greeted with ever-shifting green mist and the countless patterns that formed everything around him. "This is no time to sleep." Adam hissed under his breath, he vigorously shook Arash's body.

Arash smiled at the frantic behavior of his uncle and whistled through the walls towards the kitchen. He came upon the sight of a man and women deep in the throes of lust. Arash could see golden leech in their body.

"Can you see it?" Arash turned towards the little snake.

"Not a thing. I just see those two stupid things." Najwah said with a frown. "How many are there?"

"Two. One in each." Arash said. "You take care of them. I will deal with the leeches." Arash formed a giant silver net using his will. He nodded towards Najwah.

The little snake drilled into the mind of the woman and started harvesting memories. At the same time, Arash wrapped his silver net around the golden leeches, forcing them out of their host's body and trapping them. In a split second, the little snake harvested the memories of his victims while Arash studied the golden leeches cowering in the silver net.

"I thought your kind hated to form soul-bond with us, humans." Arash turned towards the little snake with a frown. He couldn't help but chuckle as he noticed the bloated black snake. "How did you manage to take the memories of so many men while only three have you looking like this?"

"Eh -- at that time I only harvested the core memories." Najwah appeared in front of the golden leeches. "Look at these ugly bastards." He passed through the silver net and rolled himself around the golden leech. "How do you bastards hide?" Najwah tightened his body around the leech.

The golden leech hatefully glared at Najwah as it let out a piercing wail...