A week had passed since Soren and his friends had discovered what lay at the bottom of the staircase. They had talked about it a lot in the days immediately after but Finn and Alissa’s interest in the topic had waned.

Soren, of course, could think of nothing else. There were two points that played on his mind, first and foremost was the dragon eggs and where they might be hidden, but he also wondered about Seraphel and whether she may still be alive.

In the stories, she was the same age as the queen which would place her in her late thirties, so not that old at all. Trouble was, that was twenty five years ago so it was entirely possible that she had succumbed to old age or a myriad of other possibilities by now..

They had found no body, nor any sign that anyone had visited that little house, but that didn’t say much. It was entirely possible Seraphel had moved on from that place years ago.

The letter puzzled him though, why would she leave that behind and never send it? Soren had pondered the letter endlessly, reading every word over and over every evening but he found no more meaning in her words than the first time he had read it.

On the evening of the third night after their discovery, Soren had decided he would start searching the area around the cavern to look for any other signs of life, or any other similar such places.

That was where he found himself now, stood amongst the trees on the hillside not far from the cavern. He had tried to be methodical about his search, opting for a ringed approach whereby he started at the cavern and walked in circles, slowly expanding their size.

He had done this for the past four nights and had discovered nothing.

Sighing, Soren turned from the tree at which he stood, the marker of the start of his latest circle signalling that he had come full turn, and made his way back to the centre where the cavern lay. He had decided that he would go back down into the cavern today if his searching for anything else proved futile, which it had.

He reached the hole in the ground again, now very familiar with its location, and clambered down the ramp. As he approached the staircase leading down, as with every time before, the warm fuzzy feeling embraced his chest. He felt no wave of dizziness, perhaps I’m getting used to it, he thought.

Soren lit his torch, having come prepared this time, and made his way into the darkness and down the stairs, all the way back to the wooden door that lay at their end.

The room beyond was the same as before, the bed and desk just as he remembered them, and the putrid bucket smelling as foul as before. Soren wandered around the room inspecting the stone wall and the symbols that adorned their circumference where the walls met the ceiling.

He didn’t notice anything he hadn’t noticed before, but he did think the fuzzy feeling in his chest grew slightly stronger when he was near the bucket, but it was so subtle he was convinced that he might be imagining it.

Soren made his way over to the desk and took a seat on the stool and leaned over the desk, which was now empty after he had removed the letter, and rested his head down closing his eyes.

There’s nothing here, he thought. But what is this feeling in my chest? It has to mean something.

With his eyes closed, Soren steadied his breath and turned all his attention to the feeling in his chest. It's definitely stronger down here, he thought. But what is causing you?

Soren decided to change tactics and, rather than focusing on the feeling, he tried to block it out but found that he couldn’t. It was too strong and too persistent.

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Again, placing his attention on the feeling, Soren tried to mentally reach out to it, to understand exactly where he was feeling it in his chest. At first he felt like it covered his whole chest, but the longer he focused he realised that he could feel the fuzziness slightly stronger on his right side.

Odd, he thought, what’s special about that side.

With no answer coming to him, and his back starting to ache from slouching, Soren sat up and turned in his chair, his attention still on the feeling.

The strength of the feeling shifted and was now more pronounced in the centre of his chest. “What the…”, he said out loud.

Soren slowly rotated in his chair and realised that the strength of the feeling moved with him, almost as if it was fixed in position and he was simply moving around it.

It's like a compass, he thought, frowning. But… does that mean it's pointing at something?

Turning in place again, Soren positioned himself until the feeling was strongest in the middle of his chest. Opening his eyes, the bucket now central in his vision, but keeping his focus on the feeling as best he could, he stood and stepped forward keeping the feeling front and centre.

It was only a few paces before he reached the bucket, which he stepped over, and then the wall. Holding his torch high he examined the wall but again saw nothing different. The only thing visible was its rocky surface and the circle flame symbols at the top. Closing his eyes again he check the feeling. Yep, its definitely stronger this way…, he thought.

Soren opened his eyes again and reached out to lightly touch the wall. As he did so his eyes caught sight of movement up above. Flinching his hand back, Soren thought it must have been a bug of some sort, but when he looked up he realised that the circle flame symbol closest to him was glowing faintly.

Soren stared at it, at a loss for words. Tentatively, he reached his hand out to touch the wall again… and found his hand passed right through it.

Soren yelped and withdrew his hand, hastily backing away “What the hell!” he shouted, his heart beating out of his chest, all his attention now on the wall. In his panic he had dropped his torch which made him panic even more, the fear of the room falling into complete darkness almost overcoming his shock. Fortunately he hadn’t kicked over the bucket in his haste.

Picking up the torch again, and getting himself under control, Soren approached the wall slowly. Again, he reached out and was still a little surprised to see his hand pass straight through. Confused but mesmerised, Soren moved his hand backwards and forwards a few times, watching it disappear and reappear.

Soren’s mind was racing, trying to process what he was seeing. Is it just an invisible wall?, he thought, or something else? I’ve never heard or read about anything like this before.

Soren stared at the patch of wall for a while, the faint glow of the symbol above still visible in the light of his torch.

Gathering himself, Soren decided there was only one thing for it. He wanted to see what, if anything, was on the other side.

Slowly and carefully, Soren leaned his head towards the wall, as if to rest upon it, and, even after all he had seen, was still a little surprised when his head met nothing but thin air and passed into a space that was pitch black. He quickly withdrew his head, more just to be sure that he could, but also out of fear of the darkness beyond.

Then, counting down from 3 in his head, Soren raised his torch and took a big step straight into, or rather through, the wall.

He emerged into a small corridor only a couple of paces wide, just big enough for him to stand at full height. The walls, floor and ceiling were the same stone as before, which made him think he hadn’t travelled to a new place, although he couldn't be sure. He thought of it more like passing through a curtain or a wall of water.

As he had done with his head, Soren stepped back into the room he had just been standing in to check that he could. Satisfied, he stepped back through the wall. He turned to examining the wall he had just passed through but found nothing of note. It looked much like it did on the other side, a stone wall. The symbol could also be seen on this side, still faintly glowing.

Turning back around, Soren took a few steps forward and realised he was again standing at the top of a staircase leading even deeper underground.

This just got interesting, he thought, a smile creeping onto his face, and then, slowly and carefully, Soren stepped forward and made his way down into the deeper darkness below.