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Climbing stairs, the first thing in the morning, was not Adam's idea of a good start to the day. He'd done it, before, of course:  and not just in this world. Back home, in his first apartment, the elevator never worked and he worked overnight at a cafe. After a long shift on his feet pulling espressos it was a final, painful "fuck you" from his life to his body, every day. The life of a university student was breathtakingly awful and yet he looked back on those days, fondly. The rest of his youth wasn't necessarily bad but for some reason that first apartment, being on his own while studying accounting practices, philosophy, literature, and the rest of the liberal arts program, was something special.The stone stairs were huge. Eris suspected that they had been carved by trolls. It was certainly possible. Of the subterranean races, trolls were the largest. And while they and dwarves were known for their stonework, trolls did the most above-ground.Still, many races were represented on the stairs:  not just trolls."So, you think Dorath was once a part of Alamar?" Kaia asked her brother.He nodded and continued to lead them up the stair. "It must have been," he said."But if so, then why does nobody remember it?"Adam asked.The derroni shook his head. "How long do you think people in Talvali

remember things, newcomer? Some races live centuries; two are even unaging. But kingdoms rise and fall. New islands and powerful storms fall from the skies several times, annually. Every thousand-or-so years, some great catastrophe seems to wrack the lands. Alamar was lost several thousand years ago. That a part of it broke off and, later, became mistaken for a lightland is not surprising in any way but its size."It made some sense. Ever since The Fall when civilization all-but collapsed it seemed as if the gods had decreed horrible disasters strike the lands every thousand years to punish those who threatened the status quo. Priests and religious types spoke out against such heresy but it was common enough that common people took the assumption for granted."How big was Alamar?" Eris asked."No one knows," Kelmore admitted. "But it was large enough to foster several kingdoms simultaneously. Four, I believe, at its height. I could be wrong, though. I'm by no means a master scholar of all things ancient. I'm just an accountant whom the gods decided to visit with derros one day."That brought Adam up short. "You? An accountant?"Kelmore nodded. "A graduate of the Silver Pen Academy in Paerin, Meiteiriosis." He shrugged. "I know: it's hard to believe, looking at me now."Adam shook his head. "Not that hard to believe."They climbed and climbed, taking breaks at the periodic landings to sit and massage their aching muscles."Did it take this long, the first time?" Kaia asked after their third break in as many hours."We were chained and herded by slavers with whips and swords," Irri commented. "I wasn't paying attention to the ache in my legs."Of all of them only the whimsy seemed not to mind the hike. She took it in stride:  the last to stop for a rest and the first to start up, again, when Kelmore called a halt to their break. As small as she was, barely Eris' height, the stairs were even more of a challenge than to Adam or the two humans. But Irri, like Yar, never complained and just walked. At least in some places, the long-weathered and crumbling structure had flat ramps serving as framework for the steps. The shorter members of their group could climb those as long as they didn't mind the occasional drop-offs skirting the other side. But even though it was long and semi-torturous, the way was easier than it would have been with ropes and pitons. And, by nightfall, they could see the top of the arch high in a pass before them.The winds whipped down, moaning menacingly, as they finally approached. The sun had set and snow was built up in the clefts of each stair. Clouds were starting to gather, pushing eastwards on the gusts coming from over the Dorath edge. Adam spotted the small trail he had taken to rise above and look over the slaver's camp.The group approached the towering arch as a powerful gust of wind blasted through it and knocked Irri on her back. Even the larger humans and dragonkin felt it. The winds were just as chaotic

and powerful as Adam and Eris remembered.Between the upright pillars of the second gate was the vast, flat space--tiled with weathered slabs that once had born carvings of skulls, peering up at the sky--where the slavers had made camp. Despite the relative recentness of their presence, signs of their temporary passage were few. Even the campfire remnants had been blown and scattered by the winds. The would-be captives had thrown the bodies of the slavers off the edge so there were no corpses present. Signs of combat, also, were few save for some dust-covered patches of long-dried blood and scorch marks here and there from Adam's incantations.Exhausted, they built a hasty camp in the lea of the southernmost pillar of the gate. The winds roared around it but even that noise didn't rouse them once they fell asleep. Only Kelmore stayed awake, excitement fueling his investigation of the carvings long after the rest had given up consciousness.Yar and Eris took guard watches with Irri insisting on one, herself. Kaia, apparently not to be outdone by a pair of tahvic and a whimsy, offered the same. Adam didn't mind as his body was already so wracked with pain by his long flight to retrieve Kelmore and their subsequent climb up the stair of skulls, that he did not protest.Up close Kelmore had pointed out designs, probably ancient characters carved into the recesses of the bas-relief skulls. He didn't know the alphabet but pointed out that some of the iconographic placement seemed to form words. Adam agreed and began to help him try to make sense of it.By the end of the first day at the second gate, they were in agreement that there was not only an ancient magic embedded in the stones but that the writings were some sort of arcane formula for perpetuating and

invoking it. Even though neither could not read the ancient writing, there were similarities to arcane formulae in how the words were laid-out.Throughout the second day both tried to tap the energy.Adam understood the arcana majiere as well as any spellsword. A standing enchantment, though, was a different matter altogether. If he could read the language he would stand a better chance of unraveling and parsing the spells laid into the carvings.Conversely the energies that Neiros had invested into Kelmore's soul were of a more raw and divine nature. But although he intrinsically understood the basic workings of divine magic, he couldn't figure out how to tap or decypher the incantations inlaid upon the rock.At times, Irri would take a look with them, citing her experience as a scribe for a great Arcanist as helpful. But even she, as quiet as she was, had to admit she had never seen the like of these carvings.By dawn on the third day, both Adam and Kelmore were frustrated. Kelmore took a frustrated walk to try and gain a new perspective on the problem while Adam started trying random incantations in the proximity of the pillars. Most of a spellsword's magic was directly related to combat, though, and nothing he did could trigger the lights he had once seen, here. Kelmore returned by noon and began investigating the area in wider sweeps:  now investigating the large patio of stones. By sunset, with red Briac and blue Kormoran bathing the area in purple light, he sighed and proclaimed it useless."It's obvious to me," he

said, "that your triggering of the pillars had nothing to do with your spells or any magical happening." The derroni sighed and hunched closer to their fire. "Rather, it had to be what you had done. I think, given what these gates were supposed to be for, that it was death upon their very lintels that caused the effects you saw."Yar snorted with a sardonic laugh. "So mortal sacrifice:  is that what you propose?"Kelmore's expression darkened. "If you're volunteering..."The two didn't like each other. Yar seemed to take Kelmore's arrival with Adam as undermining his authority while Kelmore didn't seem to trust the diminutive raider."I'd like to see you try," Yar spat back.Eris stood next to the Astinato's first mate. "Agreed," she said."He's joking," Adam said, shooting a glance to Kelmore.The derroni rolled his eyes and shook his head. "Of course I jest; I'm no fool, tahvic. Besides, sacrificing a soul may be required but I'm hardly the one to do it. I'm not some

savage!"Adam didn't know too much about Talvali religious practices but had never heard of sacrifice as part of them. There were tales of dark heresies and cults doing things like that but those mostly struck him as the sort of fear-mongering panic he'd seen in the religious back home."So what do we do?" Kaia asked her brother.Her red-headed twin just shook his head. "I wish I knew."The light of the moons faded, obscured by wind-stretched threads of incoming clouds. Within the hour, snow was falling. They built up their bonfire and huddled together. Adam wrapped his woolen blanket tight around himself as he lay with his head on threadbare travel pillow next to the others. He wasn't sure why he was here or what he had expected to find. His early hopes had been to find some trace of the vision he had seen; to learn more about the accusatory voice of his long-dead father. But he had now spent thrice as much time, here, than he had on his first visit and had no more of an insight now than he had, then.The hallway outside the courtroom was bright but felt shrouded:  it was close, dusty, claustrophobic, and far too warm. The air was one of general importance and quiet conversations broken, occasionally, by a sob or a shout. The people mingling outside the doors wore both fine suits and dresses as well as cheaper clothing desperately trying to look professional. Uniformed guards, holstered guns at their hips, stood watch over the throng as each waited and waited and waited.He clutched

his hot chocolate, desperately. He wished this day was over. Already there had been four delays and, as time passed, Rutherford grew increasingly nervous and reluctant.He'd see mom, inside, still in her wheelchair. Aaron wouldn't be there; he hadn't seen his little brother in weeks. They told him he was okay and had been placed with a good family to watch over him while the trial and hearing progressed. But Rutherford wanted to see him. He wanted to see his brother one more time before testifying; to let his brother know that it would be alright......To gain reassurance that what he was doing was right.Miss Pelham had left her assistant, Royce, with him and gone off to get some papers at the main door to the courthouse building. Rutherford wished that Royce had gone. Miss Pelham was warm and smart. She made him feel like everything would be alright. Royce just said things like "you're a champ" or "this is what hero's do".Rutherford didn't feel like a hero. He felt battered and bruised even though his father hadn't laid a finger on him in over a year. The fact that puberty had hit him, hard, and helped him grow tall and strong probably had something to do with that. He wasn't a hero as much as he was a survivor.The hallway darkened as the clock ticked on. Gradually, more and more of the people disappeared, either into courtrooms or down the halls to the vending machines or elevators.Soon, even Royce was

gone.Rutherford stood in the hall, a single spotlight on him. He felt uneasy and watched."You abandoned me."His father's normal reedy voice had dropped to a baritone. It echoed like the narrator in the Haunted Mansion ride he'd visited with his family two summers before. He turned around, feet like molasses, and saw him.His father stood in the shadows, black and hollow eyes staring at him without light or mercy. His skin was grey and wrinkled. Salt and pepper stubble covered his chins. He wore a grey, pinstripe suit that faded into shadow at the cuffs making his hands seem to float, wristless, at the ends of his arms.  His feet were lost in darkness."You betrayed me," he hissed.Rutherford couldn't speak. His father never moved but seemed to grow larger and more menacing. He was bigger than the hall, bigger than everything, as he scowled down at his son. The shadows seemed to flow off of him onto the floors, devouring them in cold darkness.Rutherford was sixteen but felt like he was six. He couldn't move. He couldn't speak. His father's shadows reached for him. Where they fell, the linoleum floors and plasterboard walls would crack like brittle glass. He

watched the spiderwebs of fissures reaching for him, spreading up the walls and across both floor and ceiling, yet he still couldn't move."Please." His mouth worked, soundlessly.He knew he couldn't stop, he couldn't betray his family, but wasn't that what he was doing? He clenched his eyes shut, wincing away as his father's grey fingers reached for his face.The cold blew over him, but no contact came. He feared that if he opened his eyes, those horrible empty sockets would be there:  burning into him with ice and judgment. But all around him, he heard the whispers that he was safe.He didn't believe those whispers; not really.He had never believed them.But he couldn't feel his father's breath on him; he couldn't feel the weight of his accusing stare. Terrified, he opened his eyes.Irri was standing at the base of the southern pillar. Adam blinked sleepily and tried to slow his racing heart. He hadn't had that dream in years. In fact, he hadn't had a dream in which he had been human in years. It had taken him nearly sixteen months to start dreaming as a dragonkin. After that, even his dreams of childhood had been similarly shaped. The fading nightmare had brought him back to

what it felt like not only to be uncertain about his actions but conflicted about his identity. He had built a life for himself, for his family, beyond his father's cruelty. Why would his mind not let it go? He cleared his vision, blinking his slitted eyes, and focused on the whimsy. A flash of silver reflected both snow and occluded moonlight in her left hand.Adam took a full minute to realize she held a dagger. She moved it to her right hand, point-first, and cut a shallow gash into the base of her talons. In the dim light, blood flowed like ink and she held it up to the stone."Irri?" he asked.She ignored him.Instead, she pressed her bleeding palm to the cold stone. Soon, Adam saw the inset runes and sigils start to grow dark with her blood. His mind snapped to full awareness and he stumbled to his feet, throwing off his blanket and a light layer of snow on its surface."Irri! What are you doing?"Adam's shout roused Yar and Eris, sleeping next to him, and shook Kelmore and Kaia from across the bonfire. Irri looked back, raven's eyes flickering in the firelight."It's an arcane scribe's trick," she said. "I thought of it while on watch. I think I can translate--"She didn't get the chance to finish. A booming crack, like a breaking glacier, echoed in the vale from towering wall to towering wall. The peaks, rising hundreds of feet on either side of them, shuddered with the sound. The gate, likewise, shook."What did you do?" Kelmore demanded, getting to his feet.Irri ignored him and turned her eyes back to the stone.Several more booming, cracking sounds echoed in the snowy night. Adam was about to dash up and pull her away, but his eyes caught movement in the shadows beyond the fire's light.At first he thought it was falling stone:  chipped and splintered from the cliffs that flanked the broad, flat plateau in which the second gate had been built. But the movement was organized; intentional. He saw shapes, then, entering the light. Their brown and grey contours were vaguely recognizable as bone but nothing else about them was familiar.Skeletons carved from stone--at first three, then five, then eight, then a dozen--clattered and strode purposefully towards them."We're under attack!"Eris' cry was quickly followed by Kaia shouting, "Arm yourselves!"Adam, as tired as he was, reacted swiftly. The incantation, long-memorized to help himself in dire situations, flowed from his lips. A shadowy sword sprung into being in his palm. Translucent, it glowed with glyphs representing his name. He charged forward and swung a warning swipe at the approaching attackers. They fell back, clattering their stone teeth and starting to circle around him.These were not typical, animated servitors. They seemed to have a degree of intelligence.Eris, running up to his side, hurled a burning stick from their fire. It bounced off the stone head of one skeleton and momentarily illuminated the cliff behind them. A dozen cracked hollows were dug into the face from where, presumably, the creatures had emerged.Kaia darted to Adam's right as Yar retrieved a heavy, short blade from his belongings and slapped an iron helm over his brow.Irri looked both shocked and terrified."Brother:  call upon Neiros; now!" Kaia's call fell on deaf ears as Kelmore, instead, brandished his staff and held it before him.The trio--Adam, Eris, and Kaia--pressed forward, using their weapons to keep the unarmed stone skeletons at bay."What are they?""Servitors; guardians," Adam guessed."Why are they attacking?" Eris asked."I ... I didn't expect--" Irri was clearly shaken. She backed away behind the three as Yar moved forward to join them."Steel against stone is not a good fight to have," the tahvic first mate snarled."We can worry about sharpening our blades, later," Adam responded. "Right now, they seem to be wary of us, at least.""They are alive," Kelmore finally croaked. He sounded stunned. He and Irri stood behind the other four as the full dozen stone skeletons arrayed themselves before them in an effective barrier."How can they be--?""I can see their souls," Kelmore said. "Bound within rock; lending life to their limbs!"The stony attackers did not wait for more. In the minute since they had come at the small group, they had formed up an attacking line, two deep, and now sprinted into the fray.Yar and Eris sprang forward towards the center of the line, whether by plan or accident, attacking the central figure. Both struck solidly and cracked the creature in two by splintering its carved spinal column. But the two flanking it returned the attack and slammed boney, stone fists down upon the shoulders of the smaller fighters.Kaia, for her part, darted to the outside, engaging the two on the end closest to the pillar. They didn't seem quite as afraid of her weapon as they had been of Adam's, though, and pushed her back with repeated feints and swinging fists."They can't be alive," Adam said. "They're some sort of animated stone. A golem or clockwork." He had learned about such things since they were used in battle from time to time. He knew there were incantations that could unravel such animation magics but he had never used them. He understood the basics but, like the calcified magic of the runes and second gate, it would be an ordeal to try and unravel these spells. He swung with his ghostblade and made two more fall back. But others circled around, getting past both Yar and Eris, to come at Adam from the side.Blows connected with him as he tried to withdraw. He felt each shock as if he were being stoned and tried to turn himself to better face all his attackers. But they were too numerous.He breathed, vomiting forth flame and burning gasses as the four coming at him, but they didn't slow down. His breath was hot enough to make wood

burst aflame but it simply washed over the cold stone of the skeletons without effect. He pressed forward, though, stabbing with his conjured blade. That, they recoiled from."They fear my magic," he shouted.Kelmore dashed forward, Irri on his heels.His staff glowed with a green light as if the tree from which it had been carved still lived deep within. The unexpected color of summer leaves was heartening despite their circumstances.The skeletons recoiled from Kelmore as they did from Adam's blade."They're definitely wary of enchantment:  divine or arcane," the derroni observed. He swung, hard, and darted forward. His staff connected with the carved skull of one of their attackers, fracturing it and sending it toppling from its neck to the ground.A flash, a flare, erupted from its sundered bones as they fell apart and scattered themselves across the paving.As if in echo to it, the nearest pillar glowed:  its carven eye-sockets and mouths briefly taking on a ghostly echo of the illumination Adam, Eris, and Irri had seen months before.Adam

felt a flash of deja-vu as he intoned a variation of the incantation he had used to arm the captives against the slavers. His phantom blade glowed momentarily daylight-bright and, then, each of the weapons everyone else had, glowed, similarly.This caught the animated guardians off-guard.Eris darted to her left while Yar attacked to his right.His blow took another apart at the hips and his follow-through crushed its skull.Eris was less successful but succeeded in breaking the attacking line as her blade chipped at her attacker's legs and ribs. Being half their height gave her a slight disadvantage but nothing she hadn't learned to overcome. Kaia took the head off another but suffered a resounding blow from its companion. She cried out, blood rushing from her mouth, as she staggered into a heap on the snowy stone paving.Kelmore leaped to her defence and swung his staff as hard as he could at his sister's attacker.He connected and the creature's stone shoulder fractured. Its right arm dropped off but it still pressed on, turning its attention to the derroni.Kelmore fought back, clubbing it with his weapon but the sculpted creature kept advancing. It swung at his staff, clearly trying to disarm him. Abruptly, though, it lurched to one side, its left leg cleaved from its hip by a

staggered blow from Kaia. She couldn't rise and her eyes were ill-focussed but she attacked nonetheless."Damnation: fall back," she shouted in slurred speech to her brother.He did so and the rest redoubled their efforts.But the fight was not equal.Although the animated outnumbered the living, the latter now had Adam's incantations on their side. Their blows landed and drew deep cracks in the stone of their adversaries. And as each went down, Yar would deal a final blow to their stony skulls. Sometimes it would take two or three hits, but he was fast and quickly adapting to a supporting role in the combat of larger beings. He and Eris stayed in the front, letting others strike over their heads, and taking the brunt of rushes and strikes from their animated foes.All the while, as each one fell and was dispatched by Yar, the glowing skulls increased in brightness.They almost didn't notice when the river of light poured forth from the open mouths and cascaded down the fractured stairs out into empty space. The stairs of light lit the night and the side of the mountains facing the Deep Blue.After a few more minutes, they prevailed.Injured and shaken, they nonetheless regrouped by the fire, looking at the carnage around them."What happened?" Eris asked.Adam nodded to Irri. "You'd better explain."The whimsy looked cowed and shaken. "It was just an old translator's trick. I ... I was made to be an arcanist's scribe. My blood is enchanted. I thought, well, at times I would aide my old master in translating old texts with it. These carvings were different, though, and I wasn't sure it would work. It ... it didn't but...""But you set off some kind of defense," Adam finished for her. "Damn it, we're in this together. We may not be friends but we're teammates on this journey. You don't just--""I'm going."Adam turned to Kelmore, surprised at the interruption. All but the derroni and whimsy had taken several blows and were injured as if the subject of a stoning. "Excuse me?"The man pointed down the stairs. "There's no telling how long this will last. If I don't go, now, I may never find the third gate." He turned towards the path, down."Wait a second; the stairs stop about twenty-four, down," Eris said. "The rest are just ... light!""They're a path," Kelmore said, flatly. "I'm going to follow it.""To where?" Kaia demanded. "Damn it, Kel:  we're injured. Even if you're right, we can't do this right now!""You can't," the derroni said, "but I can."With those words, he turned and dashed forward, down the stairs. Adam ran after him, flapping his wings into the wind to gain lift. But Kelmore was faster and the dragonkin hadn't expected the updraft his wings would intercept. It carried him higher than he anticipated. Frantically, he backpeddaled in the air as Kelmore ran. Kaia tried to follow but stumbled and fell. Yar was able to pursue and, as he ran, was joined by Irri.Kelmore reached the edge of Dorath and the last of the stone stairs. Without hesitating, he ran on......And vanished in a ghostly light that took his form and continued down the stairs, swiftly vanishing before them all.