'You really should get some sleep, you know,' Amanda said, pausing in the doorway of the office.

Looking up from behind the desk she was sitting at, Emily considered her for a moment. She knew that Amanda was right, but she wanted to wait until Lewis got back. 'I know; I will when Lewis gets back,' she said, voicing her thoughts. Taking her response as an invitation, Amanda stepped into the office, slumping in the chair at the desk opposite Emily.

'We'll get to the bottom of this eventually,' Amanda said.

'I hate being back here,' Emily muttered after a moment of silence. 'Everything was so much simpler when we were living at Fir Lodge.'

'I know,' Amanda said sympathetically. 'It looks like we all have our jobs to do now, though.'

'You aren't going back to Eraea then?'

'Not for the foreseeable future at least. I know Thomas said he would only help you get the crown, but I think he missed Tristan more than he realised. The way he was eating at dinner was enough of a clue,' Amanda said with a chuckle. 'Besides, Leo is here,' she added vaguely.

Leo, as it turned out, hadn't had a choice in joining Anthony and George when they commandeered the ship he had been working on. Emily knew it had been with his help that they had managed to get Lewis back to the ship after George poisoned him.

'Leo? Something you want to share?' Emily asked, raising her eyebrows. Anything that wasn't to do with the castle or the creatures outside the city was a welcome distraction.

'Nothing,' Amanda replied quickly, although the colour rising in her cheeks told another story entirely. Smiling, Emily nodded. She would find out at some point. 'I think I'm going to go to bed. Don't stay up too late; I'm sure he'll be back soon.'

With a nod, Emily watched as Amanda got to her feet, retreating from the office, leaving her alone with her thoughts once more. Amanda was probably right; Lewis would be back soon, she thought, closing her eyes for a moment.

She never intended to fall asleep sitting in the office; perhaps she really had been that tired, but she became aware that she had when a dark forest materialised around her. It had been so long since she had felt the sensation of the visions that she almost didn't realise what was happening.

As her eyes began to adjust to the darkness, Emily moved forward, walking silently between the trees. Unsure where she was or what she was supposed to be seeing, she allowed the vision to guide her between the trees.

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Without the concept of time, she had no idea how long she spent wandering aimlessly through the trees. She was just beginning to question the vision when she suddenly emerged into a moonlit clearing, with the familiar voices of Arthur and Thomas talking nearby. What were they doing out here by themselves?

'He was just ahead of us,' Arthur was saying quietly. 'It was like he just vanished into thin air.'

'I know,' Thomas said in exasperation. 'Keep looking; he can't be far from here.'

Unsure who they were talking about, Emily decided to follow them as they walked along the edge of the clearing. She had barely started moving when everything around her began to shimmer with a crack, the strange effect stopping as suddenly as it had started.

Looking around, she saw Lewis standing in the centre of the clearing. Behind him stood a man and a woman in red cloaks, the woman wielding a golden knife. Emily's eyes had only just fallen on the blade when they disappeared.

Slowly, the trees began to twist and turn as they morphed into a distant skyline of towering buildings; the moonlight replaced by sunlight filtering through the patchy clouds. Despite the sunshine, Emily still felt herself shivering. Where on earth is she now? She had never seen anything like the buildings that stood before her. As she looked closer, she saw that the majority of buildings seemed to be lifeless ruins. At some point, something tore through this city, ripping away its soul.

This time she didn't have to move in order to find what the vision wanted to see, as a figure appeared further along the hill. It was a figure she recognised instantly; one she had hoped she would never have to see again. George Vandemark was here, his clothes torn and dirty, a brown hessian sack slung over his shoulder. He looked as though he hadn't slept in days as he trudged past Emily, oblivious to her presence.

As George disappeared over the brow of the hill and down towards the city, the scene in front of Emily began to change again. Above her, the partially cloudy sky disappeared, the weak sunlight replaced by darkness as she was transported to a cave.

Shivering in the new cold and damp environment, Emily's eyes adjusted to the darkness once again. Where in the name of the great precursors was she now? Like in the first vision, she seemed to be alone again without any obvious reason for being alone. In fact, there was nothing here. Nothing except for a dim orange glow in the distance, she noted as she turned around. It seemed like as good a place to start as any, she thought, setting off in the direction of the light.

It didn't take Emily long to realise that she was in more of an underground chamber than a cave as she wandered towards the light, moving amongst what seemed to be huge boulders. Still, the strange light refused to grow any closer. The only thing the light seemed to do was pulse slightly. Strange, Emily thought, ducking under a stone pillar that had collapsed sideways onto another.

As Emily continued to walk towards the light, she found herself moving around and climbing over more fallen pillars. It looked like this was some sort of ancient temple or something, she concluded, jumping down from one of the pillars. Before she could continue, there was an echoing bang, and the pulsing orange light in the distance disappeared. Plunged into darkness, Emily only had time to draw one last breath of cold, damp air before someone close by shouted her name, a loud banging echoing around her.