The doorway led to a cramped corridor littered with loose stones and rubble. Hina followed Olivia along the curved passage, stepping carefully over the loose stones, until Olivia stopped suddenly a few paces ahead.

"It's blocked," Olivia said. "We won't be getting through here."

Hina moved up to stand beside her. A pile of stones filled the corridor ahead. Was this the other side of the blocked staircase of the building outside? Maybe. "Did we miss something, or is this it?" Hina asked. "Can this really be all that's down here? Were the statues really guarding nothing but a dead end?"

Olivia shook her head. "I don't think that's likely. There must be something else. We'll have to go back, check the other rooms for hidden doors or other secrets. The room with the pillars is the most likely candidate, I think. It's big enough," Olivia said. "Or maybe in the room with the water. Though I don't think we're adequately prepared for exploring underwater, if it comes to that I think we should leave it. We found something, even if it was less than we'd hoped."

"I guess so," Hina said. It was a bit disappointing. The bowl was interesting, but they certainly hadn't found anything as good as Olivia's bag. "We can try the next site, I guess."

"Or try again in Modmin when we get there, yes. We'll have to see what the bowl does, anyway. It might be something wonderful for all we know."

"I guess we'll find out." She stepped out of the corridor into the room with the pillars. "So what are we looking for here, anyway?" Hina's sandals scattered the remains of one of the statues as she walked over to the wall on her right. "Secret passages?"

"If we're lucky." Olivia's voice moved towards the other side of the room. "Maybe loose stones that hide a storage space. A hidden door, or a mechanism? There must be more to this place. And more exits to this room, in particular. It's too big for a connecting room. There's absolutely nothing on two of the walls."

Hina ran her fingers along the rough stones of the nearest wall, for lack of a better idea. Nothing felt too unusual, except. "The lock on that box still seems strange—out of place," she said. "What, someone climbed down through the hole from outside, waved to the walking statues, and then locked that bowl inside an ordinary wooden box with a modern padlock and went out the same way? It doesn't make any sense. It can't have been more than a couple of dozen years old, at the most. The steel wasn't rusted. But the rest of this place is ancient."

"The ritual circle on the floor in the other room—maybe someone came down here to use it, and left the bowl locked in here so they could come back for it later?" Olivia suggested. "It would make sense if the bowl was a component in a ritual."

"Why leave it here, though? Why not just take it with them?" Hina asked. "And the ages still don't match up."

"Why do people store things when they could just carry everything around with them?" Olivia's voice held a hint of amusement. "What a mystery. Maybe they were planning to come back for it later, and then they didn't."

"You know what I mean," Hina said. "It doesn't make any sense."

"And that's the other thing. Does it have to make sense?" Olivia asked. "What about the stuff you found in the House? Did someone put that there, too? What happened to them?"

"I kind of thought the House did it. That's what they do, right? They leave good stuff lying around to lure people in. You told me that."

"Right. So why would this place be any different?" Olivia asked. "If we're ruling out a person, and I'm not sure that we should, but if we are: why does there have to be a reason for the bowl and the lock to be there?"

"Is this a House, Olivia?" Hina asked. "It doesn't feel like a House. Don't get me wrong, it's creepy and there's something off about it. But it's not the same—there's hardly any of that... feeling. That overwhelming atmosphere."

"Of power?" Olivia asked. "I don't think it's a House, but I suspect that some of these places—places of power—operate on the same principles. Or similar principles, at least. They want similar things, as a baseline."

"Wait. Places of power?" Hina asked. "You mean it isn't just the Houses? There are others?"

"Of course there are others," Olivia said. "Hundreds. Maybe thousands. All kinds of them, all over the world. We focus the most on the Houses because they're the most active in their danger, but they're hardly the only kind."

"And they lure people in?" Hina asked. "For what?"

"Usually to eat them. Or if it's a temple, maybe for sacrifices? Sometimes they want to be worshiped. Sometimes it's a principle that they embody and they want to spread it. There's a lot of different reasons."

Hina's fingers bumped against a jutting out stone about the size of both of her fists put together. She tried to push it in, but it didn't budge.

"Huh," Hina said. This was news to her. "Why does nobody talk about this?" She tried pulling the stone out instead. Something shifted slightly.

"They do? Apparently not in out of the way farm towns," Olivia said. "My family is constantly talking about places of power."

The stone shifted when Hina pulled it, and she managed to draw it out by a few scraping centimeters. She pulled harder, and the stone came out entirely. "Oof," she grunted. It was heavy—it slipped from her fingers to the ground with a thud. Hina jumped back before it fell towards her feet.

And then saw the hole in the wall it had been hiding. Which went in deeper than the stone had been.

"I think—I think I found something." Hina crouched down so the light emanating from her forehead lit up the little hollow behind the stone, which was deeper than the stone had been.

There were two things in the hole, a shiny metal disk. And a handle.

Hina looked at the disk first. It was about the size of a crown and octagonal, with rounded corners. On the face was an intricate symbol that reminded Hina of a pattern, though it wasn't nearly complicated enough to be a real one. The other side held another symbol, which looked complementary to the first—

The memory of her first experience with the Lesser Sigil of Guidance fresh in her mind, Hina stopped. The symbols felt like they could almost fit together, she could sense that. But she didn't think about it too hard. She slipped the disk into her pocket, where it clinked against the beast core.

"What did you find?" Olivia asked.

"There's a handle here," Hina said. "Maybe it opens a door? And this."

"Huh." Olivia held the disk up look at it better. "I don't know what this is. That's not..., hmm. Unusual." She handed it back. "Hold on to this, we can look at it when we're out of here."

"Should we try the handle?" Hina asked.

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Olivia brought her face close to hole in the wall and carefully shone her light—which was emanating from her right hand—back and forth from several angles. "If it's trapped, I don't see it."

"Do you think that's likely?"

"Hmm. Not sure. I think we probably would have seen some other traps by now if there were any, but it's still a risk."

"So, what do we do?"

Reaching forward with one hand to grasp the handle, Olivia said, "Ready?"

"Ready."

Olivia pulled the handle, which gave a distinct click, and then she hopped back out of the way with a squeak.

A scraping, grinding noise came from further along the wall and an otherwise inconspicuous section of the wall folded open to reveal another passage—this one narrow, barely wide enough to fit a person.

"You okay?" Hina asked.

"I'm fine. Nothing happened when I pulled it." She took a deep breath. "Other than the obvious."

The newly opened passage was narrow and it curved out of sight a few meters in. It was lined with the same large stones as the room Hina was standing in, only rougher and less polished.

"Are you going to wait here?" Hina said, looking at Bean, who was watching, perched on the lintel over the door that led to the exit and the ritual room.

Bean croaked.

"Suit yourself." Hina shrugged. "Shall we?" she asked Olivia.

Olivia nodded sharply. "Keep an eye out for trouble."

She stepped through the doorway, and Hina followed. The stones brushed against her shoulders.

The passage curved three times and then ended in a huge circular room, like the room with the water, but bigger in every way. There was a strange musty smell, and something in the atmosphere that gave Hina pause—a weight, or maybe a presense—a sensation that was much stronger than what she'd felt in the other rooms.

"There's something here," Hina murmered. "Feels... off."

"Uh-huh," Olivia agreed softly. "But also—something wonderful. I can feel it."

The room had ceilings that stretched up into the darkness, and the walls were lined with broad stone pillars. In the center of the room was a raised area, with a stone table and a few things scattered around it.

The stone table drew Hina's eye, like it was magnetic. And Hina didn't trust that feeling. She carefully pointed her eyes away, avoiding the pull.

They stood just inside the doorway. Hina scanned the room carefully for any threats and saw nothing obvious, but she wasn't sure. The air held a tension, and the pillars could have been hiding any number of people from where Hina were standing.

Hina walked forward towards the center of the room, stopping short of the raised platform, and turned slowly, looking in all directions. One quarter of the way around the room, the pillars concealed another doorway, through which she could see another room filled with piles of rubble. Near the end of her revolution, Hina froze.

Olivia stood still, a few steps ahead of her near the stone table, staring at something with an awed expression.

Hina followed her gaze to the huge dark figure that stretched up towards the ceiling, at least twice Hina's height and broad. "Oh!" she started, and jumped back a step as her heart raced.

The thing didn't move, its horrible snarling face was still. A huge statue carved from black stone stood between the pillars one quarter of the way around the room from the door they'd come through, in a niche in the wall that kept it from being visible from the entrance. Its form was like a man with bestial features, and four feathered wings, and lips pulled back in a snarl, revealing sharp fangs and pointed teeth. Eyes, too many eyes, were carved into its face and its forehead and in the points of its wings and in the centers of its outstretched hands.

All of the eyes seemed to be looking at Hina.

A wave of pressure washed over her, and she stumbled back another step. The air was thick with its presence, and Hina gasped for breath.

The whole of it drew Hina's eye, like the magnetism of the table, only stronger.

It wanted her to look at it.

And it was hard to look away. It was a representation of a being of pure power, of strength and grace. And it was beautiful. Beautiful and horrifying all at once.

It wanted her to see it.

But Hina had been getting a lot of practice lately at resisting the pull of things that wanted her to look at them. She dragged her eyes down to the floor, and then to the girl standing near the table. "Olivia?"

The blonde girl stood with her mouth open, staring at the statue. Her eyes were wide and unseeing. A faint frown creased her forehead.

"Olivia!" Hina said, louder.

Olivia did not reply. She stood transfixed.

There was writing carved into the floor under Olivia's feet. Under Hina's feet too. All along the edge of the raised platform, in a circle around the table. The symbols were strange and twisted, and they had a weight to them, a sense of significance.

She grabbed for Olivia's hand. When she made contact, a painful jolt of energy snapped through her fingers and up her arm. She let go with a yelp. She jumped back until she was clear of the ring of symbols, on the lower part of the floor.

This wasn't working. She needed to do something. To break the connection.

Her hammer found its way into her hand.

The carvings on the floor had to be a part of it. She swung her hammer at the nearest one, and a twisted letter exploded in a shower of stone chips.

Olivia took a slow step forward, towards the statue. She reached out towards it.

Glyph after glyph shattered, each one sending up a cloud of dust as Hina stuck the floor with the hammer.

It wasn't helping.

Hina glanced at the idol, the strange god? And it was glorious. She felt a pull from it—it wanted her to—

With some effort, Hina forced herself to look away. She looked down at the floor, at the carvings, one section of the circle marred now by her hammer.

The carvings might be a part of it, but they weren't the main problem. No. It was the idol. The presence. Of course it was. She wasn't sure why she hadn't made that connection until now.

It didn't matter.

She backed up towards the door, then turned behind the nearest pillar and walked along the wall, keeping her eyes down. Thinking small thoughts. She was nothing, beneath notice. Harmless.

And there it was—a beautiful black stone leg, rising up from a stone platform. The niche the statue stood within was a broad half circle, and the thing itself stood upon a raised dais within the center. Its waist stood above Hina's head, and its wings stretched towards the ceiling high above.

There was a gap between the base of the dais and the wall. A gap that was big enough for Hina to fit through.

As soon as she moved behind the statue, the pressure lessened. She could breathe again, and the horror of it hit her all at once. This thing was a monster. It was trying to eat her. It was trying to eat them both.

Hina swung her hammer at the back of the statue's leg. Hit it in its magnificent calf, and then struck it again and again, black stone chips flying. The tension in the room grew as soon as the first blow landed, grew until it was almost unbearable.

Hina did her best to ignore it. Put all of her energy into the next strike. A sense of anger filled the air. An intangible rage.

The hammer came down once more, and the leg shattered. The statue teetered and began to tilt. Hina's heart lurched at the sight of it—Olivia would be crushed—she had to get her out of the way.

But she was far too late to stop it—she only managed to get a few steps closer before the statue reached the point of no return. The great black stone toppled to the side and collapsed against the nearest pillar with an overwhelming crash and shattered into a thousand tiny black pieces. Pieces that dissolved into dust as they hit the ground. All that remained was a black shadow on the ground that faded away as Hina watched.

The sense of presence was gone.

Olivia stood dazed, but apparently unharmed. She blinked and looked around, as if she was waking up from a dream. Her right hand held a knife that Hina had never seen before. The blade was black like the statue had been.

"Hey, hey." Hina stepped forward and took her hand, pulling the knife from unresisting fingers. "You're okay."

The knife went into Hina's pocket.

"Hina?" Olivia sounded confused. "What—what happened? Oh. Oh, gosh. I—"

"It's okay. You're okay now. I dealt with it."

Olivia sat down heavily on the edge of the platform. She groaned and put her head in her hands.

Hina had the urge to sit down too, but she didn't. There were more corners to check. She wasn't sure if the room was safe yet. "You wait there, I'll be right back," she said.

A hurried search revealed the rest of the room to be empty. There was nothing hidden behind the pillars, no furniture except the table. No exits except the doorway to the left and the one they'd come through. No other niches except the one the statue had been in.

And the doorway to the left led to a store-room, of a kind. It wasn't filled with rubble like she'd thought. No. Piles of bones filled the room. All shapes and sizes, sorted into stacks, by type.

Too many bones.

How long had this temple been here? Hina shook her head. It didn't matter. She had to get Olivia out of here.

On the floor at the far end of the bone room Hina caught a flash of silver in the light of her working. She picked out a curved silver ring and put it in her pocket. Better than nothing.

There didn't seem to be anything else of value unless she wanted to sort through the bones. And she didn't. Hina left them to their rest and went back into the main room.

Olivia was still sitting on the edge of the platform. She snapped her satchel closed as Hina approached.

"Are you ready to get out of here?" Hina asked. "I think I've got everything of interest. There isn't anything else in here." She didn't mention the bones.

Olivia looked more composed now, though her forehead was creased with a small frown. She stood and brushed herself off. "Yes. Let's get back to the caravan."