The hallways of Avalkan were littered and lined with gold. Despite the age of the city and how long it had been abandoned, it was in remarkable condition. When the narrow hallways near the oasis where they had met Arsuneo gave way to underground streets that twisted and turned deeper beneath the ground, they paused as one, overlooking the city from their vantage point. Right at the heart of it, an enormous stone tower stood, disappearing through the cavern ceiling.

'That must be it,' Lewis said, feeling the Spiritbound Stone tugging him in that direction. They never would have made it out of the hallways without it, even if they had had to deviate a couple of times when their pathway had been blocked by a cave-in.

'I can't believe that this place exists like this still and no one has ever found it,' Edward said, gazing down at the city, streams still running through it like arteries.

'Do you think it could be dangerous down there?' Louise asked.

'We're not alone, not completely, if that is what you meant,' Russell said.

Following his eyeline, Lewis saw what looked like a small column of what looked like smoke rising in the distance. Lewis' first thought was of Edmund, already ahead of them and closing in on the temple. 'We should get moving; this could mean Edmund is here already.'

'Surely he couldn't have beaten us here?' Captain Caldwell said.

'We should be prepared for it to be him. If it isn't, then who knows what we're about to walk into? Lewis said.

'When all of this is over, I would love to have some time here to explore; who can say what relics have been hidden here for centuries?’ Edward said as they began winding their way down towards the tower, one eye always lingering on the smoke in the distance.

'History always tells of long-lost treasures in any of the ancient cities. Supposedly even Oldiron still hides artefacts despite being one of the most accessible ruins for the best part of two centuries,' Russell said.

'Do you know of anything hidden in Oldiron?' Lewis asked. 'When I spoke with Arden, the first place he showed me was Oldiron; he called me Reclaimer.'

'There have always been rumours. Some talk of unfathomable technology that was being worked on before the city was destroyed; others say it held a wealth of knowledge within the walls of its three great libraries. It was a place I was not fortunate enough to visit in its prime,' Russell said.

'When he showed me the city, it only felt like moments after it fell; people were running in every direction screaming. Something encased them; it was like ice or crystal,' Lewis said. 'What could do something like that?'

Russell turned to Lewis, and the others around them stopped with them in confusion. He considered Lewis carefully, and, just like he had felt when Emperor El-Farha had locked eyes with him in the office, he felt trapped in his gaze, like he was searching his very soul for something. There was a glint in Russell's eye that Lewis had never seen before. It was something between wonder and curiosity, with, for the briefest moment, a triumphant look. 'I don't know; that's very curious. None of the accounts I have seen have ever mentioned anything like that.'

'Do they say what happened to the city?' Louise asked.

'It varies considerably, so I would guess that the truth is somewhere in between all the different accounts,' Russell said. 'Nearly all of them talk of a fire coming from the sky that decimated the central districts. There were perhaps a handful of survivors; most of the accounts came from people who were miles from the city.'

Lewis' focus drifted away from their conversation as he felt the Spiritbound Stone within him suddenly give a sharp tug towards his right before returning to the path they had been walking. He paused, glancing over at the others. They seemed oblivious to his stopping as they talked about Oldiron.

Though the Spiritbound Stone continued to pull him onward, he found himself staring into the dark doorway of one of the buildings embedded in the wall of the cavern. He could swear that somewhere in the darkness, he saw a flicker of movement. 'David, can you pass me the lantern?'

'Sure,' he replied, taken aback when he realised that Lewis had stopped twenty feet or so behind them.

'What is it?' Edward asked.

'I don't know; it wanted to pull me this way for a moment,' Lewis said as he took the lantern, holding it up to the doorway, the light falling on the heavy stone slab that blocked it.

It was hard to see in the light at first, but once it moved, a small pair of pale blue orbs, almost like eyeballs, bobbed in the doorway, uncertain if they should remain or hide. They blinked in and out of existence for a moment, with several others appearing in different spots beyond the doorway. 'Follow,' a faint whisper drifted to his ears. It was more than one voice, speaking slightly out of sync so that it almost echoed.

Lewis looked back at the others, who seemed to be oblivious to the voice. 'Where are you taking me?'

'Lewis, what are you talking about? We're going to the temple,' Edward said, eyeing him warily.

'Come. Find,' the voice said softly. 'You are the seeker.'

He took a step towards the doorway, the word seeker resounding with him. Koen and Arden had used it for him. Whoever or whatever this was, he could have no way of knowing that he had been called that before. 'Lewis, what are you doing?' Edward said quickly. He felt a hand on his arm trying to pull him back before he realised that he had been walking towards the doorway. 'Lewis, whatever it is, it isn't safe!'

'Come. Find,' the voice repeated. 'Reclaim.'

Lewis shrugged off Edward's hand, stepping up to the doorway and placing a hand on the stone. There was a cracking sound as the stone sheered in half from top to bottom, collapsing inwards. He stepped into the darkness and over the threshold with the lantern held high. As he looked around, he saw more and more of the orbs beginning to appear, like stars dotting a moonless sky. He was only vaguely aware of the low rumble behind him. When he turned to look back in the direction of the rest of the group, he saw them lingering in the doorway, seemingly much further away than he would have thought was possible in the half a dozen steps that he had taken. He heard their shouts, calling to him but they were distant and muted.

It felt like waking up in the middle of the night. Somewhat dazed and confused, he looked around, now aware that he was encircled by the strange blueish orbs swirling around him. 'Edward! I'm okay,' he called, trying to take a step towards the doorway but finding himself held in place by an invisible force.

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In the doorway he saw Captain Caldwell’s sword striking something invisible, the clang of metal sounding impossibly far away. 'What do you want from me? They mean you no harm; let them in.' Their distant shouts reached his ears and he turned back to them as shadows swooped in, swarming around them, drawing their attention away from the barrier.

'They are not seekers. Even now, Avalkan defends itself from those not destined to pass through these ruins,' the voice whispered. Lewis was having a hard time pinning down exactly where it was coming from as his free hand settled on the hilt of the sword Arsuneo had called Convergence.

'I'm only here for the temple and to stop Tristan from returning; I'm not seeking anything,' he said, moving between the orbs as he tried to search for another way out.

'We have waited here for you all these years, for one with the ability to see what our people once saw.'

'Are you talking about the lighthouse?' He asked.

'We are. You hold with you a lantern that contains an ember from the fire that burns within it. I sought to have the lighthouse torn down when it revealed to me what was to come but I was overruled.'

'You're the warden who saw the fall of Avalkan?' Lewis said.

Slowly, the floating orbs began to draw closer to each other, coalescing to form a humanoid shape a foot or so taller than Lewis. Behind them, others drifted together until there were half a dozen other figures. 'I am. Few believed me when I spoke of what I saw, and as years went by with nothing, my claims were rubbished. My lifetime ended before Avalkan became this uninhabited ruin, but I know what I saw in the fire. I could not move on beyond the veil with that knowledge; I would not move on.'

'The Scroll of Days survived,' Lewis said, deciding against telling the warden that it was just on the other side of the barrier.

'I assumed as much if you knew who I once was. Time is a strange thing, though; it is not as linear as we believe. To me, my passing feels like mere hours ago and yet an eternity at the same time. Do you know how long it has been since Avalkan became like this?'

'Not exactly, but several centuries. No one really knows what happened to it when it disappeared. Most seem to think it just became uninhabitable and was swallowed up by the desert over the years.'

'You should follow us; there is much to see here,' the warden said. With the others, he turned, leading the way into the darkness. From the dim light they emitted and that of the lantern, he saw walls engraved with pictures and swirling designs. Long since cold and dormant, sconces were still fixed to the walls, the occasional one was at an angle where its fixing had rusted away.

'Why did the Spiritbound Stone pull me this way?' Lewis asked.

'You seek answers, even if you do not yet know the question you want to ask,' the warden said. 'This is sometimes the way the fire works; it shows us things, and it is for us to decipher the question it is showing us the answer to. It drives many to insanity for the rest of their days.'

'What was the question you asked when you saw the fall of Avalkan?'

'That is something that I have pondered for, according to you, several centuries. Unfortunately, I am no closer to an answer than I was on the day I saw it,' the warden said. 'I have asked many times since and have seen variations. In many the black mist spreads out from the lighthouse, enveloping the world. In many others, the lighthouse falls, but the mist remains. No matter how many times I ask my question of how to stop the mist enveloping the world or the lighthouse from falling, I get a slightly different variation.'

'To stop the mist from spreading, the lighthouse falls, but even then, it eventually comes and envelops everything. If I ask to stop the lighthouse from falling, then the mist spreads faster. Whatever happens, darkness comes eventually. I never see what lies beyond, though there may be differences further afield. With how long you say it has been, I do not know anything of the world beyond these halls; it may be limited to what I knew in my lifespan.'

The halls around them spread out, with dark chambers off to each side. Within them, more orbs lingered, like bystanders watching on as they passed. 'All the things you saw in the fire, all those things recorded on the scroll, do they come true?' Lewis asked. Was life for them predetermined—a series of events and moments set in stone through the ages that they were powerless to stop?

Ahead of them light blossomed with a pale blue glow, the sound of rushing water almost drowning out the voice of the warden. Surrounded by black marble that still retained its shine was a circular pool of crystal-clear water, the glow seemingly coming from it. It wasn’t that which caught Lewis’ attention though. Above the pool a sparkling waterfall, the water rising rather than falling.

'Many, yes. Our paths are not set out for us, though, if that is what you mean to ask,' the warden said. They moved around one side of the pool, a flickering blue light appearing in the distance beyond a high archway. 'There are moments in time that are defined, but they are but a pinprick in a tapestry far bigger than any of us can imagine. I saw Avalkan fall but, while uninhabited by anything but echoes, it still remains after all of this time.'

'What else does the fire show you when you ask those questions?' Lewis said, watching as the flickering light drew nearer, burning brighter. With each step, the humanoid figure of the warden grew more defined, just as those in the mine shaft had when the lantern passed close to them.

'There are people there, one of whom I now recognise as yourself. Blood will be spilled, regardless of the outcome. Who that blood belongs to and how much never stays the same. Sometimes there are more people, sometimes less,' the warden said. His form continued to fill out; where he had been a fuzzy mass before, there was now a long, neatly trimmed cloak, its detail growing as they drew closer to the fire. The hair seemed to grow and then recede. 'As is the way with these things, the slightest change can have an impact that could span the world and change the future for generations to come.'

'The one they seek to bring back who will unleash the darkness—I was told it might not be possible to stop his return,' Lewis said. 'If I couldn't stop his return, then he would have to be defeated. Is it possible to stop him from returning?'

'I know the one of whom you speak; I have seen him many times, both in what the fire has shown me of Avalkan's fall and in other places as well,' the warden said. 'There is little left of the fire now, so you would be wise to ask the right questions in the time you have. It may offer you something but you would be wise to remember that it does not always account for the decisions of man or the time in which it takes for these moments to come to pass.'

'Can you see it with me? Help me to understand it?' Lewis asked as they stepped up onto a plateau. The darkness around them receded, and he found himself standing among ruined pillars, the desert stretching out as far as he could see. On the horizon, the sun was just beginning to rise, but even it was dim in comparison to the traces of pale blue flame that sat within a huge stone basin supported by the neck and head of three dragons.

'I cannot. The time I have taken in this mortal existence is at its end. I was bound here with my brothers of the flame in order to deliver you to this moment, and now that I have done so, my time has come to pass.' The warden stepped back, leaving Lewis standing at the side of the basin. As he did so, his features grew fuzzier, whether from him moving away from the fire or the slowly rising sun, Lewis didn't know. 'The smallest choice can have the greatest impact over time but that does not mean you should be afraid to make any choice.'

'If you have to go, can you at least tell me your name so I can make sure what you saw is never dismissed again?' Lewis asked. He wasn't sure what made him ask; perhaps it was the Spiritbound Stone intertwined with him that was leading him down a path he wasn't quite sure of yet.

'Bijan.'

The name lingered on the breeze for a moment as he faded from existence, the others who had accompanied them stepping back and fading into the sunlight until he stood alone. A smattering of hazy clouds drifted across the sky lazily as Lewis watched the sun rise on a new day. He was completely alone, with only the sound of the wind around him, hundreds of feet above the desert below.

Dozens of questions flooded his mind as he turned his attention to the pale fire before him. Bijan had never told him how it worked. Did he just have to think of a question or say it out loud? Where did he even start? 'Whether the lighthouse remains or falls doesn't stop Tristan from returning; it only delays him. What must I do to stop him from taking over the world?' As the words left his lips the flames flared a blinding white, obscuring everything around him.