Falling asleep on the cold uneven floor of the ancient temple was quite a task in itself. It took me almost half an hour before I could accept the fact that Ian would probably not kill me when I had my eyes closed and relax and fall asleep.

Xoris appeared in my mind. And though he had the face of a rabbit, I could very well recognise the expression he had to be the same one borne by criminals when they are convicted.

“Look, I never expected to find Ian in this temple,” Xoris said nervously, “But I can explain why he is accusing me.”

“Please do so,” I said in a cold voice.

Xoris nodded. Then he began.

“At the peak of my powers I was a greedy man,” he said, his head hung in shame, “when I came to know that Xoris was the only man who had read the Three Holy Books written by the Creator, I got jealous of him. I could have just asked him to name the place where the Three Holy Books were exactly located. But I didn’t. I hunted him down and used powerful magic on him which erased most of the knowledge that he had acquired from the books. Yes, I am guilty here.”

“You know, Ian wants revenge on you,” I said, “the only way he can have his revenge on you is by killing me. What do you have to speak about that?”

Xoris hesitated as he searched for something to say. Then with some earnestness he spoke.

“Can you ask Ian how he came to be in the temple in such a pathetic condition?” he said. “I had taken away most of his knowledge from him, but I was not the one who brought him to this temple. And why does he have spider webs on his body? Does he even eat and drink? How long has he been in the temple? Is he here because of his own wishes, or has somebody forced him to be here? Maybe there is something that I could do to help him? With your aid of course,” Xoris was quick to add.

I thought about it. As much as I didn’t want to accept it, helping Ian—in the scenario that he in fact was in a problem and was not in the temple because of his own wish— was probably the only way to stop Ian from killing Xoris. Running out of the temple didn’t feel like an option to me. There was something about Ian which told me that he would pursue me to the end of the earth if I even thought of running.

***

“Why I am here?” Ian said. “That’s all Xoris wants to know?”

“And whether you are here by your wishes or if you have been forced to be here,” I said. “He also admits that what he did to you was a bad deed.”

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“Oh, it was a bad, evil and ugly deed all right,” Ian said, “but… am I really here because I want to be here?”

I shrugged.

“Only you would know that,” I said. Ian seemed to be going down his memory lane. Then his eyes widened.

“Immortality,” he finally said. “I am here because of immortality?”

“Immortality?” I asked. What did he mean?

“That was what I asked the Worm!” Ian said. Then he looked down at the cigar he had been holding and he suddenly threw it away, as though it were something really disgusting. “The bloody Worm tricked me!”

Ian suddenly got to his feet, and began to look at his body as though he hadn’t seen it in years.

“Spider webs on my body!” Ian cried. “Oh, should I be punished such for my greed?”

I watched Ian in much confusion as he began to rub his body to remove all the spider webs. Quite a few live spiders also fled from his long hair and beard. Ian let out a cry and crushed the cigar under his boot.

“That feels so good, that feels so good!” Ian said.

“I do not understand you,” I said to Ian taking a step backwards. I wondered if Ian was waking up from some sleep that he had been in for ages.

Ian suddenly approached me and hugged me.

“Thank you! Thank you!” he said. “And thank that bastard Xoris as well! I forgive him for taking away most of my knowledge from the Three Holy Books! You asked me the right question which has brought me back to sanity.”

“I am still not understanding you,” I said, breaking the hug. I thought about Dani, Lia and Slia waiting outside. I wanted Ian to get to the point of things.

“There is a Worm that lives below the trapdoor,” Ian explained, finally getting a proper hold on himself after he had removed all the spider webs, “a Worm that can grant three wishes to anybody. I had heard this and had come to this place. But nobody had told me that the Worm was a very sly one. While the Worm could grant the wishes that you desire, you could end up in peculiar situations because of your wishes.

“I asked the Worm for immortality and the Worm gave me the cigar and told me that it was the cigar of immortality. As long as I kept smoking it, nobody could kill me, not man, not disease, not age. But that cigar robbed me of my sanity. After coming out from the place that exists below, I took a pull at the cigar. I forgot where I needed to go and entered the world of bliss. And since then I have been here. I do not know how many years I have spent in this place, taking a pull from the cigar once a day. I never realised that there were spiders creating webs all over me.”

“I thought there was a powerful artefact in this temple,” I said.

“No, that’s just legend,” Ian said. “Who wants some artefact, when they can get their wishes fulfilled? But if you want to go down the trap door, I wouldn’t recommend it.”

I shook my head.

“I must go down the trap door,” I stated. If there was no powerful artefact then I could at least make a wish to the Worm to rescue Rozy.

Ian stared at me and then nodded.

“Well, the decision is up to you,” he said, “but I doubt I will see you again in okay form once you get down that trapdoor.”

“You said that the Worm offers three wishes,” I said, “you made one wish to turn you into an immortal. What were your other wishes?”

“I didn’t make them,” I said. “The Worm tries its best to fulfil the least amount of wishes. It is also very difficult to find the Worm down there. And also be warned that there is a mage below. Do not get lost down there. Oh, wait a minute. I think I did make a second wish… more like a first wish. My first wish was to be able to get out of the trapdoor. I should have asked the Worm that I should be able to get out of the temple.”