Ivkarha raced down the steps, taking them two or three at a time, reckless in her haste to get to the bottom. All the pains and aches taken were ignored, even as they protested at her pace. She needed to get out of the tower, to find Aedmorn; all thoughts were consumed by that, by the image of him falling, smiling.

Half stumbling on one leap, she banged her shoulder into a wall, rebounded off and kept on going. Down she flew, limbs aching, lungs aching, until she at last burst out through the door, out into the open once more. Coming to a halt, she looked about, searching.

She couldn’t see anything nearby, so started to run around the base of the tower, keen dark eyes sweeping the ground. As she came around the tower, she spotted a body laying on the ground. Her pace quickened as she raced towards it, then slowed again, for it was not Aedmorn; the Eldest lay upon the ground, limbs askew, and yet even that seemed not to have killed him. It’s head lifted at her approach and it hissed and snarled in her direction, pain maddened, its one good eye directing baleful hate at her.

She ignored the Atherdan, leaving him behind as she continued her search. He must have fallen nearby, but there was no sign of him. But there were signs of other movement, of broad trails upon the ground and shed scales. The giant serpent had been in the vicinity.

A slithered sound behind her made her whirl, and there, emerging from the mists came the serpent, with its ruined eye, swaying along the ground.

The Eldest laughed, a hollow, echoing, maddened sound. “You can not defeat me,” he spat. “I am immortal, eternal! The guardians of this place will take you yet.”

The serpent came up alongside the broken Atherdan, its head rising up in the air, tongue flickering from between its fangs. It sat there, head wavering back and forward, focused upon Ivkarha though she refused to meets its gaze, to protect herself from its malevolence.

Then the head came down again and the long body of the serpent began to coil and uncoil, shifting around on the ground.

“Take her,” the Atherdan ordered. The serpent’s head turned towards where the Eldest lay, tongue flickering close to its face. Suddenly it struck, without warning, faster than any could react to. Its body began to wrap around the crippled form of the Atherdan, constricting tighter and tighter, not using its venomous fangs.

The Eldest screamed as the snake slowly crushed it, bones creaking and shattering, the screams weakening and turning into gasping coughs before a last sudden spasm from the snake and the sounds from the Eldest ceased. The body still wrapped in its coils, the serpent slithered away again, down the slope and into the mists.

“Well, that was most unexpected,” came Aedmorn’s voice. Ivkarha span towards whence it had came, seeing the tall man walking her way, unharmed from his fall. She looked him over with incredulity.

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“How?” she demanded. That was all she needed to say.

Aedmorn stopped walking just before her, giving her a wry smile. “Remember that very first carved stone that we saw, just outside of the valley?”

“Aye, what of it?”

“There were images of these Atherdan throwing themselves from a great height. I had a thought that they must have been doing so for a reason, and so I took a gamble. I still don’t know why they did so, but my assumptions were correct; There was something around the tower that slowed my decent; perhaps the mists themselves, perhaps the nature of the magic they used to construct it.”

Ivkarha looked off in the direction that the serpent had dragged away the Eldest. “It appears not to have worked for him,” she noted. “He landed hard.”

Aedmorn laughed. “He did indeed. I suspect that he was not prepared for the fall, so could not ready himself to ride it down properly, and that whatever he did to his body to harden it may have also contributed to the fall. Besides, I had a little assistance on my way down.”

Ivkarha cocked a brow in his direction.

“You are forgetting I can alter my form into something more animalistic. I have not needed to do so before, but wings to aid the descent did not seem to far a stretch.”

“You have never even tried before?”

“No.”

“That was a bit of a gamble, old friend.”

Aedmorn shrugged his shoulders. “It is not as if I had much of a choice; I was destined to fall no matter what.”

Ivkarha shook her head and then laughed. “Next time try letting me know first.”

A wry smile touched Aedmorn’s face. “If time there is to do so, certainly.” He gazed up at the tower. “I think, though I have had enough of this place. Mayhap there are other mysteries and treasures to be had, but they can remain.”

“You might be right,” Ivkahra agreed. “The Eldest is out of the way, at least, with his mad visions for the future. What of the rest, though? If they share his vision, they could be danger yet.”

“I do not think they do; it was he that killed the child and they that sought, and are still seeking, to bring her back. That gives me hope that they may yet turn out different. Besides, it has been long that they have been engaged in this endeavour and it will be long before they are complete, if ever.”

“There is much that I still do not understand; if the bell was to awaken the sleepers, then why did he not do so himself? And why such guards placed to prevent any getting to it?”

“I do not think that the sleepers would be most pleased to be woken early; they would turn on the one that did so, and I do not doubt this Eldest would have fared well if they did so. He needed another to suffer their wrath. As to why it was so guarded, I could not say why; it is one more mystery that may remain unsolved.”

Ivkarha gave a slow nod. “There are always mysteries. It is what makes life so exciting.” She paused before speaking again. “You did something to the child, though. I saw it, felt it.”

“Yes, well, I may have given them a little boost, a little bit of life to try and speed up the process. Whether it shall work or not I can not say, but it was worth the effort. Not that we shall be around to see if it comes to path.”

Ivkarha laughed and clapped him on his shoulder. “You are a good man, Aedmorn, but try not to go too soft on me.”

He grinned as the pair made preparations to depart once more, to leave the tower behind.

Even as they did, in the heights of the tower, a smile crept across a sleeping child’s face.