It had been no accident that Leo was the victim of a magical burn, rather than some other attack. Charun, it turned out, was a nation of fire mages. Janso, Lidya and Karn were all focused on fire magic, and the other expedition members had at least some minimal ability with it.

"It's a side effect of the Fall," Harald whispered to him as they made their way through the darkened halls of Arkfel. "Most of the Adepts, the skilled mages, died during the war or in the final battle. But by some fluke, several proficient elementalists survived with the Thousand."

They'd run into a pair of Eaters as soon as they set out. The freakish worms were apparently attracted to the scent of mana lingering around the room the expedition was camped in. A hail of fire bolts had quickly filled the hall with a more tangible smell: burning worm. Then they'd had to spend time dragging the acrid carcasses further away from the room.

Through it all, Leo kept an eye out for his guiding orb of light. But it didn't show up. He blamed that on having other people with him, not that he had a choice in the matter.

Now they were headed for a chamber the expedition had been unable to enter on their own. The theory was that Leo, as a student, could unlock the door. But they'd been moving so slowly, and under nearly absolute silence, that Leo was torn between feeling bored and creeped out from imagining what might lurk in the darkness.

To distract himself from the eerie feeling, he was holding a whispered conversation with Harald while Karn scouted ahead.

"But you're a healer?"

Harald nodded, then shrugged. "I'm one of the best in Charun, but that doesn't mean I consider myself a true example of a healer. That burn of yours looked bad, but it was mainly a skin wound. I've spent most of my years studying with other healers to discover better spells than we have, but we haven't been successful yet. That's why I came with the expedition."

Leo rubbed at his chest. With the effects of Soothe worn off, the wound hurt again, but it felt several weeks old rather than fresh. At least it wasn't exposed to the air anymore. Janso had rather meekly accepted Nemtal's order to hand over his spare clothing to Leo, while Lidya had accepted back her soiled, burnt clothing with much less grace. He wondered if she hated him.

He brought himself back to the conversation, considering his next question. "How many types of magic are there?"

"It depends how you classify magic," said Harald. "Humans aren't the only intelligent race, and even unintelligent monsters can sometimes use types of--"

He broke off as Karn emerged from the shadows. The lean, silent scout motioned for the group to follow before turning to lead the way again.

Everyone had come along except for Tanya, who was in something like an induced coma, recovering from severe wounds she'd taken during some encounter with monsters of a sort Leo hadn't seen. The others hadn't hesitated to leave her behind, simply locking the door and putting some kind of magical ward on it. Leo's head was spinning with all the minor uses of magic he'd seen, including heating up breakfast.

Now Karn was leading the group through an echoing hall, dimly lit by high windows on one side. Leo recognized it, having passed through while following the orb. A huge, tilting chandelier hung over the grand staircase they were headed toward.

"That was a guardian," said Harald, as they passed what looked like chunks and small fragments of statuary littering the floor. "We ran into it on the first day. It killed Getta and Brin before we broke it apart. Fire didn't do much to it."

So this place had living statues? Leo shivered. He'd passed a number of statues while following the orb.

"As I was saying, if you include monsters and other races, there may be hundreds of types of magic. If you limit it to humans, we know of references to several dozen types. Perhaps twenty actually exist in Charun. But you said there is no magic in your world. You should know that many people can mana to some degree, even a blacksmith or tailor. Or a fighting man, like Nemtal."

"Nemtal said I'm using a lost art."

Harald nodded. "Illusion, right? I've read about it, but we don't have it in Charun."

"That's what the golem called it. It said I could also choose shadow magic or crystalmancy."

"I've never heard of crystalmancy."

"I wrote down some details in, er, Lidya's journal."

Leo lowered his voice even more, making sure he couldn't be overheard. Harald chuckled softly. Unlike Lidya herself, several of the male members of the expedition seemed amused at Leo's theft of Lidya's pack.

"I'll ask her for a look later." The group finished moving up the stairway, and set off down the same hallway that Leo had emerged from the day before. The hall they entered it was sepulchral, quiet.

He was harboring a hope that he'd get to use his magic. He'd showed off a Phantasm to the group before falling asleep, again summoning the image of a porcupine-wolf thing, which he'd decided to call a "spikejaw". He wasn't quite sure what dark corner of his subconscious it had crawled out of, or if it was his invention at all. The spell allowed him to summon anything up to the size of a large dog, so of course, he'd imagined something of that size appearing. Maybe the spell itself did the rest? The mechanism of casting was also something of a mystery. It felt like stepping through a pattern of thought that had been alien to him until the golem reordered his soul, but 'thought' wasn't quite the right word, either.

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Ahead, Nemtal came to a halt, lifting a hand. They hadn't moved far down the hall, but the man was at a door that Leo didn't remember passing. Nemtal beckoned for Leo to come forward.

The door was dark wood, apparently unaffected by the passage of time. It had a recessed rectangle in its middle. Another recessed area near the frame held the metal handle, which was a design Leo wasn't familiar with; it looked like an inverted obsidian pyramid, with the sharp point facing the hallway. There were scratch marks across the stone near the handle, although the metal itself still looked flawless.

"This is one of the doors," Nemtal said quietly. "We tried to open it before, and then we tried to force it. Without any luck."

"So what do you expect me to do?"

Nemtal reached forward, indicating the air above the pyramidal handle. "This is an artifact of some kind. Our guess is that it has an identify spell bound to it. When you take hold, it will draw some mana from you."

"Draw mana from me? Like a spell?"

"Your golem may have shaped your soul, you probably don't have a good sense for mana yet. You'll learn that later. This isn't the place to talk about it." Nemtal waved impatiently. "Try the door."

Feeling a bit of trepidation, Leo reached out, taking hold of the handle. It was hard and sharp-edged under his hand, and cold.

The coldness quickly intensified, until it suddenly felt like something -- not heat, but similar -- was being drawn from him. Then the sensation abruptly stopped. The door softly clicked, and the others gave a soft murmur of relief.

Leo turned the knob. With only the slightest push, the door slowly swung open.

Different world, or not, he immediately recognized what lay beyond, dimly illuminated by Nemtal's Light spell. A classroom. Not so different from one he might have sat in at Basileus, in its basic details. Dark wood tables with several chairs lined up at each, all facing one side of the room, which held a podium. All the furniture was somehow still standing, albeit colored grey from a thick layer of dust.

Karn pushed past him, warily entering the room with a short blade in hand. After a moment, Nemtal followed, then everyone else entered.

The classroom was windowless, and smelled like it had likely been completely sealed for all its years of abandonment. It was surprisingly spacious, which after a moment Leo realized was because it held more than tables. The back wall, to the left of the door, held a large, empty bookcase, while the wall facing the door held a line of cages.

Cages? While the others spread out across the room, searching for any threat, Leo moved over to investigate. At a glance, he counted eight cages.

The first one he peered into had strange lumps in the bottom. After a moment, he realized that it was a skeleton, hidden by a cloak of dust and, perhaps, some kind of mold. The two cages on either side of it proved to be completely empty, though.

Moving along the line, he found that one of the cages had something other than dust or bones in it. It looked like a small statue in a seated position, although like everything else, it was covered in the grime of ages.

Wishing he had his own light, Leo peered in through the bars. Then he thought of something he could try.

"Phantasm."

A luminescent orb, much like Nemtal's, popped into existence in the cage. It was bright, but didn't seem to shed much light. Some limitation of the spell?

"Here," said a voice behind him. Nemtal's Light floated over to the cage, and with a thought, Leo directed his counterfeit orb away. He wasn't sure how to dismiss it before the time ran out on his spell, but he made it go hide in the corner.

The increased light revealed more details. The being in the cage was humanoid, but noticeably different from a human. Its legs were short and thin, drawn in against its chest by long arms. Both hands and feet were tipped with long, jagged claws. Its hairless head was bowed forward enough that its face was hard to make out, but it had a forehead that sloped backward like an ape's, with three horns projecting out in a row.

By now, everyone was gathered around the cage. He squatted to get a better look at the face.

Karn stepped forward, slapping away the hand that Leo had unconsciously put on one of the bars. "Don't touch anything. Could be dangerous."

Feeling somewhat ashamed, then silly for being ashamed, Leo leaned down to get a better look at the creature's face. "What is it?"

"No idea," replied Harald after a moment. "A wight, maybe? But... hm, no. Why didn't it rot?"

Leo got the answer as he finally leaned down enough to peer into the face. The creature's eyes were open, just slightly. And a pair of luminous green eyes were staring back at him. As he met the gaze, the eyelids slid open further.

The freshly healed skin on his chest suddenly felt like it was pulled tight. He fell backward, resisting the urge to scrabble away from the cage. The creature hadn't moved at all, aside from the eyes.

"It's looking at me," he said, feeling chills.

Hands grabbed him under the armpits, hauling him upright and away from the cage. As they backed off, the head slowly raised, just enough for the eyes to track their movement.

It made no other motion. And once it had lifted its head, it froze in place. The only hint of life was the glistening of its eyes. It seemed to be staring at Leo, the first person it had seen.

"How is that thing alive?" breathed Janso.

Breaking his eye contact with the creature, Leo quickly glanced to his sides. Karn and Nemtal had moved forward, both now holding long knives, in a pose of readiness.

"It's possible, if it's a mana born creature," said Harald. "We're probably just seeing automatic movement. It may be waiting for a command word."

"Let's kill it," said Lidya. "That's just safer."

"No," said Nemtal, looking through the bars. "The cage is intact. There's no reason to fear it." He sheathed his knife, seemingly having already regained his poise. Leo wished his hammering heart would slow down. The steady stare of the creature was still unnerving him.

"What next, then? There's nothing else in here," said Harald.

"You're right. I would have thought more would be left behind, in a sealed room." Nemtal looked thoughtful for a moment, then directed his attention to Leo. "In the chambers with the golems, was there anything?"

Leo thought back. "Not in the first one," he slowly said. "It didn't look like anything was ever there, except for chairs and the golem's machine. But in the second golem's chamber, there were bookcases. Those were empty."

Harald spoke up.

"Everything we know about the Fall suggests the school was abandoned too quickly for them to pack up and move things. Not to mention that we don't have any surviving examples of Arkfel's books or artifacts, even in the royal library."

"And the stories say that the entire body of students and teachers went to the defense of Adinok, correct?"

"Correct. Even the youngest students and the Arch Dean, who was well over a hundred years old," said Harald.

"Perhaps the stories aren't correct, then."

"Or they are, and someone looted the school while it was abandoned," offered Suzat.

Leo looked back into the cage. The creature was still staring, not having moved at all. Did it understand them? Was it alive at all? He had to ask what a mana born creature was.

"We'll find out the answers soon," said Nemtal. "For now, there's nothing usable here. We'll spend the afternoon hunting and restocking our provisions outside the school, and pick up the search again tomorrow."

As they left the room, Leo glanced back. He expected to see the creature still staring at them. Instead, it had lowered its head, once again a motionless gargoyle. Somehow, that was just as bad as its stare.