It was an action out of desperation. Eiden couldn't get up to enter the portal, however, touching the portal was enough to carry him and Evan as he was holding tight to Evan along the bumpy slide. And they were thrown hard on a cold stone floor somewhere.

The first sensation he recognized was the pain, as he crashed, he felt the dagger fall from his clutch. His injured shoulder screamed in pain with the strain of the heavy baggage it was holding onto. His wound in the same arm kept stinging, and the mud and ash with dark magic didn't help with that. The stone underneath him stabbed into the bare skin of his back.

Second, he felt the presence of people. This is a dangerous place, his senses warned him. But, the forcibly opened portal had taken his strength, he couldn't even lift his body an inch from the ground. Focusing on his magic, he thought to defend himself if he got attacked.

A magic-blocking spell hit him in the middle of his back, making him gasp in pain. The warmth of magic was taken away and he was powerless to stop his attackers. The cold floor made him shiver. Mumbling his name, he tried to call his cousin, as the blurred figures walked towards them.

It was a guard, and he harshly pushed Eiden aside. Two guards lifted Evan and took him away, leaving Eiden on the cold floor. The tall figure behind the guards approached him.

"Finally decided to come back, my nephew?" Eiden recognized the voice at once, he looked up. Uncle. He tried to talk but didn't succeed.

"Was I being too kind to you, Eiden?" Uncle's voice was cold, colder than the stone floor here, Eiden thought. His tired mind trying to think of something to do. Uncle was leaving, he tried to call, lifting his hand, which was the only thing he could hardly lift. But, Eiden didn't get a reply back, instead, some guards dragged him like a sack not caring about Eiden's feeble protests.

Eiden stirred a little but decided staying still was a much healthier option. He tried to feel his body with his hands and found the shackles around the wrists. Oh. That explains why he feels magic. The magic restrictive cuffs didn't affect one's magic, only restricted any spell casting.

At least the thick layers of the filthy mud had been cleaned, but, except his leather pants, and a clean undershirt, everything else was gone. Is Uncle planning to torture him for information? Eiden stopped thinking because he was afraid of Uncle's plans and thinking about them made him nauseous.

Then, he suddenly remembered that Esme had been more than friends with Raki. By the name of Azur. He trusted the wrong person, and now the spy must be with his parents and friends. The thought churned his inside. Dragging Evan out of that hell hole wouldn't be going to save him, he bitterly thought looking at the last knife wound he received from Evan. Wounds weren't dressed, the shoulder bandage however seemed to be cleaned and reapplied.

Eiden wondered how long he had been unconscious; the small underground cell didn't have any light apart from the torch burning in the hallway. He drank some water from the bottle he was provided, but he was hungry and carefully, not to jostle his painful body, moved to the barred door and called for someone. He was the heir to the monarchy, however, they tried to stop it from happening, so he should be fed.

He moved back to the mat and waited. Two guards with masked faces came through the hallway and stood in front of the cell.

"I'm hungry, and my shoulder hurts. I want food now." Eiden used the most authoritative voice he could muster when he was shackled in a cell.

The tall guard chuckled. "No," a deep voice answered him. Without turning back, acting like they did not hear his protests, they left. He called to the empty hallway again and waited, but no one appeared.

He was not going to beg. Eiden curled on the mat, and closed his eyes, urging his body to go to sleep. He was woken up abruptly from his restless nap by a magical blow that felt like a thin yet hard stick hitting his leg. He furiously rubbed the spot, with shackles clanging, and watched the guards open the door and leave a piece of bread and a bowl of soup on the floor. The soup tasted just like flavored water, but Eiden was too hungry to care. The little portion of food didn't soothe his hunger but seemed to amplify it even more.

Eiden heard many footsteps and saw his uncle with guards coming towards the cell. He stood in front of the cell in silence, for a while.

"So the key is with Enya?" he asked. Eiden didn't answer. He was a fool to tell that to Evan.

"What do you want from me?" Eiden asked.

"Nothing, you, useless hellspawn. Probably can be used for a sacrifice, considering that it had worked once." Uncle laughed a sarcastic dry laugh.

"I wasn't sacrificed, it was a flying animal thing, the circle was written in Evan's blood." Eiden certainly didn't agree with his uncle's intended use of him.

"Evan only acted as a magical link, connected to this plane, to me, because he's my flesh and blood. His magic powered up the portal, and yours might have amplified the connection," Uncle explained matter of factly.

Uncle's way of teaching was something Eiden always admired. But, today, his deductive reasoning sounded nothing but scary.

"But, it needed a blood sacrifice, lifeblood. Evan modified it," Eiden said, backing up to a corner. Uncle watched him with twisted amusement sparkling in his eyes.

"It's you, you sacrificed yourself over and over, saving their lives. Lifeblood sacrifices don't always need the death of the subject. Your lifeblood was spilled on the circle, not Evan's. That was deliberately taken outside, the willingness doesn't apply there. You willingly faced the weapon that pierced you.

Do you know why such sacrificial rituals are very rare? Because they don't work. Even with the subject being willing, even if the caster is very powerful, there is a considerable chance that the rituals don't work at all. The mechanisms are obscured at best. But, I guess it's with the magical compatibility and intentions."

Uncle smiled at Eiden who was trying to blend himself with the rough wall behind him. He was feeling a cold dread at the bottom of his heart.

"I wanted a few subjects for such work. I think I found them now. Your compatibility could be inherited from your parents. I'm glad you saved them," he chuckled gleefully.

"For me," he added and laughed like he made a really funny joke.

"Why killed Grandmother?" Eiden asked, hugging himself with his shackled hands. Uncle never showed any animosity towards Grandmother, Eiden couldn't believe he did such a thing,

"Eiden. Believe it or not, I wasn't a part of it. That fool, Vincent the traitor, I even taught him advanced runic work by myself. However, can't say that I wasn't benefited, it happened right on time,” Uncle chuckled, looking around Eiden's cell. And turned to go.

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"Uncle, please, don't hurt them," Eiden pleaded to Uncle's back. He only received another cruel smile over the shoulder.

Eiden stayed alone, in his almost dark cell, thinking about conspiracies and murder plots. The guards with Uncle's orders, cleaned him again and dressed his wounds, seemed like he was kept for some purpose.

Considering Uncle was not asking where others were, Eiden was now convinced that Raki was possibly giving them information. He wondered how Raki was outsmarting the magical oath between them, it covered all possible means of information leaks.

The sound of shackles and the harsh words of a guard disturbed Eiden's magical focus. He was focusing on his inner magic and guiding it towards the injuries. Eiden looked out of the door and saw the guards throw a man into the next cell.

The cell Eiden was in looked like something out of an old castle. He telt the rank of dark magic around. He must be in the fallen city because nowhere else in any country, such dungeons were made nowadays. Eiden had seen in the books about old castles, these kinds of thick-walled dungeons with barred doors, only connected to other cells with a small window. He had been a few times to see ruins, not in the fallen city but other areas, yet, he avoided dungeons because they often creeped him out.

Eiden peeked into the other cell. The man looked older and was a bit hurt. Eiden saw him wince in pain while trying to sit up.

"Hello," He spoke through the barred window. The man looked out the window and stared at him with a surprised look.

"You look like the Lady's grandson." Finally, the man muttered.

"No, just the hair color. What are you doing here?" he asked, the man must have angered his uncle. The man scoffed.

"What am I doing here, in this nice hole in the ground?" he said with a dry and bitter smile, wiping blood in the corner of his mouth. He didn't look like a criminal. It wasn't like Eiden had seen a lot of criminals, but he seemed to have an honest face.

"What's your name? Did you oppose the Lord?" Eiden leaned on the window. The man looked annoyed.

"For someone stuck in the dungeons in the ruins of the fallen city, aren't you look quite cheerful," his words dripped with sarcasm.

"Oh, are we at the fallen city? I didn't know." Eiden's guess was right.

"I'm not cheerful, I'm hungry and scared." He watched the stranger drink water, without looking at the window. Looks like he isn't interested in having a conversation. Eiden dejectedly turned to leave. For another nap.

"Malan, my name is Malan. I'm a historian specialized in ancient statues." Malan finally said with a long sigh.

"Ancient statues. Wow, what kind of statues?" Eiden pressed his face to the bars with renewed interest.

"But, why are you here then?" he asked.

"The lord asked me to date a small broken statuette. And threw me here," he said.

"A very rare kind of moonstone, an exact replica of the rose marble statue those brats destroyed," he grumbled, throwing a clump of dirt found in his boots, at the wall.

"Oh, It was an accident." Eiden hung his head, his heart filled with remorse.

"Accident? Azur help me, if some table ornament fell off and broke, that's an accident. Who the hell destroys a 7 foot tall marble statue and calls it an accident? Oh. Yeah, some entitled brats live in the Palace, eating off of poor people.'' Malen the historian exploded into an angry rant, which almost dislodged Eiden from the window he was hanging onto.

Probably Eiden should retreat to his corner, he bit his lips and mumbled sorry. Sitting on the mat and drowning in guilt, he was getting increasingly convinced that the statue had brought him bad luck.

It was almost time for the prison meal, he wished the guard would come soon, and give him something to distract himself. The guard bought the same sad meal tray and left it at the door. Eiden was starving, he finished the bread in a few large bites and drank the soup. Then, he drank water to wash off the disgusting taste of old bread and soup. Cuddling down the threadbare blanket he was given the first day, he curled up to have a nap.

"Hey, kid," Malan called him through the window.

"Yes," Eiden was startled, but got up and went to the window.

"I had seen the pictures of the public apology of the two kids who destroyed the statue. It was everywhere since the youngsters of the Palace don't usually show up in the pictures.

And then the same one from the picture was said to have disappeared from the Palace. What's the very same one doing in a dungeon cell here?" Malan stood up and came to the window.

Eiden thought he should run to the corner and hide his face in the dirty blanket. But, this man might be able to help him, and he was determined to make a good impression.

"I'm truly sorry about that. It really was an accident. We didn't see it." Eiden bowed and leaned against the window.

"What's the business the grandson of the lady has here?" Malan observed Eiden from head to foot.

"Uncle doesn't like me," Eiden said picking on the rusted surface of the iron bar.

"What happened to your parents?" Malan asked.

"They are hiding. Uncle already found out the place." He pressed his face to the cold metal. Eiden felt Malan was quietly waiting for him to say more, but he didn't feel like talking.

"The statuette I checked was packed with ancient magic. It was broken in half and had a small marble-sized hole in the middle. It dates back about 2000 years."

Eiden was surprised that Malan shared such valuable information connected to Uncle's work with him. He could have been killed. Malan apparently didn't care about hiding anything, and he kept talking.

"The sculpture you broke originally was from an old temple in the fallen city. But, the erosion carved the sea into the land and the temple fell into the ocean.

I was fascinated about the history of the old god statues. I tried to locate any historical stories related to them. I heard a very strange story that happened so many years ago, from one of the descendants of the clan who retrieved the statue of Nixe from the fallen city and brought it to the newly built temple in the Silver Mountains.

When they tried to remove it under the sea, they found it was magically bound to a very heavy three pieces of small stone pillars. There were clear warnings written in old runic letters, that translated as don't remove the statue. But, the people didn't care and they blasted the magical protections to remove it, and a few workers had even died by the backlash of wards failing.

This stone mason was very interested in the stone pillars because of the carvings of sea waves on them. When he analyzed them, he found it's not completely stone, but hollow and something hidden inside. Due to his greed, he broke them in half, and almost died in backlash like those workers.

In two of them, he found a gold trident and a silver goblet. He blasted the third one and broke what was inside. It was a perfect replica of the marble statue, and made from moonstone. Inside it, he found a black marble, that emitted a dark, and malicious aura, that he never felt before.

The guilt he felt about not listening to the warnings burdened him until his death, and he felt like he unleashed a horror into the world by doing so. And he had told this secret to someone in the family, before his passing, which was premature by the incurable internal damage occured by the backlash. It became a family secret, that people passed down to the generations.

Now, thousands of years later someone is asking about a statuette with an empty marble-sized hole similar to the story, and their political rivals found in the dungeons." Malan stopped to see Eiden.

Eiden had been listening to the story with wide eyes and a terrified look. He felt this must have something to do with the ancient city, Anyar.

"It..it doesn't sound very good," he whispered.

"It doesn't. Well, that's not all. The marble.." Malan suddenly stopped.

Eiden heard the guards coming. They both quickly went back to the corners of their cells.