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"Eilekarra, in many ways, was the Kellendar of its time. Located on the island of Alamar, it was a unification of nine disparate kingdoms under one rule." Kelmore sat on a small, smooth stone bench outside the third gate. He wove the mystic rites of healing from Neiro through his sister as he had to Eris before her. "But rather than unified under a parliament, a single king emerged victorious. He merged the disparate kingdoms and raised its people up to a near-universal level of wealth and prosperity.""I'm sensing a 'but', here," Adam said."But," Kelmore said, suppressing a smile, "the people were not free. The idea of a free populace still had not dawned on any of them save as unfounded rumor or folklore about the days before The Fall." His fingers lightly danced over his sister's eye and, in their wake, the puffy purple and yellow bruises began to fade. "They didn't know any better but they knew that their crops were abruptly more fertile, their taxes were lower, their lives longer, and their toils more tolerable.""And how did a dictator pull that off?" Eris asked."Dictator?""This king; this 'great unifier'. He was a dictator.""If by that you mean he

dictated law and education, you are correct," Kelmore agreed. "He brought education to all the people; foreign number systems and intricacies of magic from both his own practice and those of others. Under his rule, everything changed. Without nearby neighbors to constantly war with, the nation as a whole was able to grow and prosper.""And what happened to the people he overthrew in his 'unification' efforts?" Adam asked with no small amount of sardonic inflection.Kelmore fixed him with a cynical stare. "The same thing that happened in Kellendar before the various aristocracies surrendered.""They were all put to the sword," Kaia guessed. She was not known for having knowledge of the past and, clearly, wanted her brother to speed up his ministrations."But the people rallied under their new king precisely because he was better than anyone who had come before," Kelmore continued. "He laid the old aristocracies low, raised up new families, ruled with a soft touch, and gave the impression that he cared about the everyday citizen's lives.""I suspect there's another 'but' coming," Adam said.Kelmore shrugged. "If by that you are attempting to imply that he did not care, I cannot say. But he ruled, peacefully, for longer than any other living human. He brought the heresies of the other kingdoms under the rubric of the Hexagon and Prime Ordination; he brought a new system of numbers that vastly improved the accounting and economics of the entire land. If he didn't care for the people he certainly understood that

he should placate them to the best of his abilities."Carefully, the derroni focussed his will through the lens of the derros fragment he carried within him. He told the others that it was weakened and that it had probably been strained by the fight with whatever had been influencing him to come here. But it was a piece of great Neiro:  the derros of architecture. Although the shaping and mending of buildings was more his providence stitching together a broken body was similar enough that Kelmore's imagination could bridge the gap and speed the healing of his compatriots.He finished with his sister and turned to Adam. "Now you.""So this is like a huge cemetery," Eris proposed."Oh, no. It was a place for the dead, yes, but it was a place for them to be not just at peace but assured a great destiny in their next lives. Their spirits would reside in the Great Beyond in luxury until finally being escorted into their subsequent incarnations." Kelmore tried not to press too hard on Adam's fractured ribs but still elicited a wince and stifled gasp. "Or that was the legend at any rate. I honestly do not know if the gods give preference to anyone based upon their entombment.""So he unified all these kingdoms and made the people happy. Nice story. Did it end well?" Kaia asked.Yar snorted. "You're really quite naive for a guildhall rogue, girl.""Or is that what I want you to think?"The tahvic frowned."Well, Alamar had a long history even by the coming of the Dust King," Kelmore said. "The last nine kingdoms were merely the end of the stories told about it. And the Dust King was, more or less, a footnote. No one know what happened to him save that, in what few stories persist, it said that he reigned for more than three hundred fifty years.""Wait:  he was human?" Adam asked."He was," Kelmore confirmed."Doubtless some foul magic allowed him to live on as one of the undead," Yar stated.Kelmore shrugged again. "No one knows. But all the legends agree that the Dust King was alive. The languages of Talvali are as numerous as the stars in the sky. And yet in any of them that still

remember Eilekarra and the Dust King use the term 'alive' to describe him throughout his reign.""How is that possible," Eris asked. She seemed to avoid looking at Yar. "I thought magic could maybe double someone's lifespan ... at most."Kelmore nodded. "It can rejuvenate a person to about half of their adult lifespan. But even with the blessings of Sonine, derros of youth and vitality, each successive blessing can only achieve half of what it did, before.""So, what:  the Dust King kept getting made young again?""Maybe," Kelmore said to Adam, completing his final pass over the dragonkin's wounds. "But nothing of the sort was ever said in any tale. It's a curious omission ... almost as curious as the abrupt end of his reign.""How did he die?" Yar asked."No one really knows," the derroni said. "But two different legends say that he was embalmed while still alive by priests, unknown." He smiled, wryly. "Grisley, no?""So, somewhere here...""The Dust King rests," Kelmore confirmed for his sister. "The stories of Alamar

end shortly after the reign of the Dust King. It was said that Eilekarra fractured and fell into civil war without stable rulership. The Dust King had no children and without any heirs, everything just disintegrated.""So why are you so interested in this legend? Why did you want to come here?" Adam asked. He stood and worked some kinks out of his arms, still feeling the injuries that the magics had not fully healed. All of them would be fine, in time, but it would be a few days.At this, Kelmore frowned. He ran a hand through his red hair, scratching at his scalp, idly. "It was never anything very important to me, to be honest," he said. "I always found the tales to be exciting and full of mystery. No one knows why or how Alamar was lost but the time of the Dust King was over a thousand years ago. He faded and was gone leaving only questions in his wake. But, as a young apprentice in the counting houses, I loved the story of this singular figure who transformed whole nations with mathematics, science, magic, and the force of his will. Not even his true name is still known:  the tales always refer to him as 'the Dust King'.""And so this force that drew you here...""It probably sensed my interest in the old stories and used that to gain entry to my mind; to my soul," Kelmore said. There was a tinge of fear and regret as he spoke the words. He sounded unsettled at the memory. "It is said that demons and devils can gain access to your soul through intimate knowledge. Even some undead apparitions are said to have the ability to possess the living through discarded hair or nail clippings. Who is to say how it got in but I suspect my knowledge of the old tales, rare as they are, were the reason why it chose me.""So, what do we do now that we're

here?" Eris asked.Kelmore frowned. "I honestly don't know."At this, Yar cleared his throat for attention and stood, hands on his hips. "I can tell you this:  we're still in the north. But we're closer to the equator and somewhere in the cloudlands or daylands.""How can you be certain," Eris asked."A life spent on airships lets you know these things. But I think we're about a third of the way around the globe from Dorath." He gritted his sharp teeth in frustration; a common tahvic look. "If I had my modus navigati I could tell you exactly where once I could see the stars. But that's back on the Astinato.""It's more than we knew a minute ago," Adam said. "Thanks." He looked to the sky as the sun warmed them. High above, two lightlands drifted swiftly to the east. "I could reach one of those but there's no guarantee anyone lives there. Or, even if they do, there's no guarantee they have a ship.""So we're leaving, then?" Kaia asked. She sounded slightly hopeful. Seeing her brother possessed must have dampened some of her spirit."I didn't say that," Adam said, "but sooner or later we have to figure out how to get back to Kellendar."Kelmore nodded. "Agreed. But you're still injured; I may have sped up the healing process but it would be advisable not to try flying through the break and reaching any lightlands:  no matter how close they appear."Eris shielded her eyes, looking up. "They look pretty small, too; barely a couple miles wide.""And about ten miles away," Adam guessed. "I thought the lightlands were generally about five miles above the cloudlands.""The currents and layers of air are about that far apart, yes," Yar confirmed. "But this island we're on:  it seems to be maybe a bit lower." He squinted at the lightland islands. "And I'd say they're more like eighteen miles away and about five miles wide."Adam tested his wings. They felt stiff but, otherwise, okay. He was pretty sure he could fly that far but wasn't sure about passing through the break winds that surrounded this island. Alamar may have been lost but its air crystals still kept it aloft and surrounded it with raging winds. The break around Kellendar was broad and enveloped Dorath, completely. When he flew there after the Amberglass slaver ship, he hadn't had to go through a break. Contemplating it, now, he wasn't sure he wanted to risk it over

a strange and unknown land. To the east behind them, large pillars of clouds rose up like walls. To the west were the hills that encircled the necropolis. There was no telling how far the island went in that direction. This whole place could be no bigger than a floating valley surrounded by isolating hills; if he flew up, hit the break, and fell, he might plummet into the Deep Blue, never to be heard from again."Yeah, I'd rather not risk that," he said."So that leaves us, where?" Kaia asked. "Camping here until we're back at full health or looking around a dead city for whatever lured my brother here?""We'll need food before long," Eris observed. "But I doubt we'll find any in the city.""What about beyond it," Adam asked. "On the other side?""Well, you can fly there, sure, but the rest of us?"He nodded, thinking it over."There's nothing in those legends about a fourth gate, is there?"Kelmore shook his head. "Like any resting ground, you were supposed to enter it from the east; it's symbolic since moving to the west is

moving towards the 'land of the dead'. Such legends go back in almost every culture for as long as can be found. You still find this at cemeteries in most civilized lands. And this gate is on the eastern edge."  He paused, staring out across the dry, dusty city. "I can't see another gate on the other side but that's no reason to think there isn't an egress. We could try walking around, but there don't seem to be any paths.""None that I can see," Adam confirmed."So, we try to walk through the city to find out if there's an exit on the other side and, maybe, a way over those mountains?" Kaia asked."And beyond them, some food," Eris confirmed."Then we have a plan," Yar said.One by one, the members of their band agreed. Irri was the only one to remain silent.Quickly, they gathered their belongings and went to stand at the third gate, looking in at the white stone plaza within the necropolis walls on the other side.The stairs descended about twenty feet with tall walls on either side, beyond the gate. Where they entered the city, proper, a wide open space spread out hexagonally about twenty yards across. In the middle of each border wall to the plaza were an archway leading into a street flanked by a stairway leading up and a stairway leading down. Those that went up

seemed to join raised walkways and avenues overlooking the streets below and accessing other stairs that climbed even higher. Those that went down, vanished into darkness. In the center stood six ancient and worn statues. Each represented the human version of one of the gods of the Hexagon. The one facing the third gate stairs bore a confidently cruel demeanor and a suit of armor carved to look cracked and ruined. It was the very embodiment of Nephillus: god of endings and destruction.In the center of the statues stood a sandy, bone-dry fountain and pool. Around the edges of the plaza were a few tangled bushes and twisted tree. Some appeared to have grown from old, now-shattered pots flanking the arched plaza egresses while others appeared to have been seeded by birds or insects before taking root in cracks and fissures. A hunched white statue knelt at arch opposite the gate, hood covering its face, in the lea of a large, twisted oak. Otherwise, the moaning winds kept the paving stones clean and relatively un-dusty.Whisper-like echoes of their movement became oddly warped and haunting."Charming place," Eris quipped. "You go first."Adam smirked and, before confirming she meant him, stepped down between the uprights of the third gate. Steadily but warily he descended the steps into the necropolis. The others followed close behind.The walls rose to thirty feet on either side of them by the time they reached the base of the stair. The opening to the necropolis was neither gated nor barred. Having passed the arch and gone down the stairs, it was simply an opening in the surrounding wall. Their echoed footsteps mingled with the sound of the wind."Five exits," Yar observed. "Inauspicious.""Six if you count the stairs to the gate," Kelmore noted. "Far more normal.""What's wrong with five?""It's unbalanced and uneven," Kelmore said. "There are five devils in the depths of the darklands where there are six deities in the pantheons.""An unlucky number," Adam said. "I've never really known why people consider it that. Thanks."Kelmore approached the statue of Nephillus. He bowed in respect before reaching up to brush some grains of sand and dust from its shoulders."Ugly statue," Kaia muttered to Kelmore's chagrin. He shot her an angry glance. "Well it is. Why put Nephillus at the entrance to your cemetery?""Dark though he may be he is a darkness to be expected at the end of all things," her brother said."I'd rather not be reminded of that.""And that," Kelmore said, "is why you're not a priest.""I thought it was because I stole the poor box and relieved myself in the holy font back at temple," she said."You were a child.""And I still don't regret it.""You will not be allowed to perform such desecrations, here, human." The strange voice startled all of them. It was heavily accented and came from the statue. It slowly rose to its feet, stone-like appearance shattered by its movement. "Nor will any of you, should you wish to stay."The white-cloaked woman rose, her pale face showing first chin and lips before a slender, hooked nose and, then, wide eyes of pale, sky blue. She wore all white, including gloves and slippers. A delicate, almost invisible, collar of lace clung to her near-albino neck. In her left hand, she held a short staff no taller than her thigh. It was inscribed with delicate sigils and letters from a language none of them knew. She looked vaguely human but could have been faerie."Who are you?" Adam demanded. The terseness of his voice felt inappropriate. Immediately, he regretted his tone. "What do you want?""Those are my questions," the woman said. She stood by the middle arch leaving the plaza but did not move closer. She stood beneath the near-bare branches of the tree, there:  its roots coiling in and around upthrust bricks and cracked masonry.Kelmore stepped forward, raising a hand to Adam. "I am master of this expedition," he said. "I am called Kelmore of Meiteiriosis; I am derroni and servant of Neiro.""And this expedition: what is its purpose?""To find a place long-thought lost to the rest of the world," he said. "We are not here to loot or desecrate. Our number includes my sister and our bodyguards." He looked around at the others and, after a moment of silence, proceeded. "These are Adam and Eris of Kellendar; their associate is Irri. The fourth is Caulmal Yar, first mate aboard the airship Astinato. Who do I have the pleasure of addressing?"The woman pursed her lips and inclined her head towards them. "You may call me Coral. I am a caretaker of this place.""And this place:  this is the necropolis of Eilekarra?""Its name is Seva:  City of

the Dead." She blinked slowly as if weighing her words. "And it is the final resting place of the people and state of Eilekarra."Although heavily concealed by her voluminous robes, Coral was slight of build and short for a human: just shy of five feet tall. Her fur-less, pale skin and large eyes marked her, possibly, as another one of the twenty peoples but faerie were typically taller, both netharen and maldorin had wings, dragonkin and trolls were both taller and had muzzles (or muzzle-like protruding mouths), goblins had heavier features, and orthoc were black and semi-translucent. The other ensouled races bore fur or scales.There were monstrous entities that resembled mortals with souls as it was possible that someone could have manufactured a whimsy to look close to (but not quite) human.Either way, no one in the group felt at ease."Is there a way out?"Coral extended one white-shrouded arm and pointed with a gloved finger. "Behind you.""I mean other than the way we came," Kaia clarified with reverberating sarcasm.The caretaker nodded, unmoved by her tone. "There are six gates in all. This is Nephillus' gate:  the gate of entry.""Well, that's good to know."Kelmore ignored the wryness in his sister's voice. "How long have you been here? I was led to believe that no one was left in Alamar."Coral nodded, silent in thought, and then beckoned. "Follow me." Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked through the arch and into the necropolis.Kelmore looked to the others and, with a glance at the statue of Versummus, facing that gate, pressed his fingers to his lips, bowed, and then turned to follow. The others, without the religious veneration, did the same.The streets were narrow and more like open-top hallways than avenues. At most three could walk side-by-side. The doors into the various crypts were decorated with nature carvings, lettering in various unknown languages, planters, candle sconces, bas relief faces and animals, and the occasional long-faded painted panel. At one point they had probably been fully-painted scenes but, now, had vanished beneath sun and the elements, centuries past.Every now and then an even narrower alley would open up to the left or right with stairs leading up to a raised walkway or down to a closed door or into a dark tunnel. And despite the elaborate cornices, lintels, and overhangs, there were no signs of birds or other animals living here. The only signs of external influence were weather and time.Every now and then the streets would open into a circular or

hexagonal plaza allowing for intersections to come together. At first it looked impossible to navigate but at each intersection, the visitors could just see small carved symbols and pictures that seemed to indicate the street.After several blocks, though, Adam began to think that they had been forgotten. Coral continued her gradual pace without veering to the right or left. She did not speak and made so little sound as she moved there were times when he felt she was like a ghost. By the sixth block, he glanced at Kelmore who looked just as confused by their silent guide having taken them on so long a trek."Excuse me," he finally said, "but where are you taking us?""To the people of Alamar." Her reply was quiet and given without turning around. Adam wasn't entirely sure he'd heard her at first."So there are more," Kelmore said.Coral said nothing.They walked on as the minutes stretched on. The moaning of the winds was muted in many areas, especially when the high walls to the upper levels of the necropolis would widen making the channels over which the breezes passed, wider and less echoing. After nearly a mile, their guide changed her path.Circular streets began intersecting along with ramps and stairs rising and falling over long-buried and forgotten landscapes. It

quickly became difficult to follow as she led them southwards, then up and then down, and finally switching back and forth as they wove their way inwards along ever-shrinking, inward spanning streets. Eventually, the narrow avenue opened into a broad, expansive plaza the center of which contained an imposing, hexagonal structure. Three stories high with towers at each point, it was windowless yet had doors along walkways at each level. All the doors were closed and some, higher-up, looked to be merely carvings made to give the illusion of entry or exit. Here, an ancient stand of trees had expanded beyond its original boundaries and coiled their roots into brick and stone, even cracking an old basin resulting in a semi-natural pond that mostly encircled the structure.All around the edges of the plaza were stairs leading up and down to the various levels. It was a granite hub through which their guide led them. Six avenues granted access but she led them directly across from the one they had followed to the diametrically-opposed egress."Wait, this isn't where we're going?" Adam asked."No," Coral said as she led them on.Looking back on the central plaza, Adam realized that hey had not seen the unique structure from the gate. The surrounding buildings were higher than the plaza and its contents. The rise and fall of streets and avenues concealed much of the necropolis' contents."What is that building?" Kelmore asked. "We're near the center, yes? Would that be the tomb of the Dust King, himself?"Coral stopped and

turned. "You do not use that name in this place," she said with a frown."But surely he opened up all this--""All of united Eilekarra was to be buried here. It was the unification that ended one era of Alamar and ushered in the next. But the one you mention has no place in these walls." She frowned darkly. "That building was the temple of the caretakers; nothing more."With that, she turned and resumed her trek. The others exchanged glances.The twisting and turning, semi-circular streets proceeded for another half mile before intersecting more grid-aligned avenues, stairs, and arches. Here, Coral took them up two flights before continuing on in a mostly straight-forward direction. The mountains loomed closer and, as another hour came to an end, a tall spire began to rise before them. As white as most of the buildings it had blended in from the distance. As the approached, however, they saw how truly different it was.Slender, it rose in angled peaks around a central, circular shaft. While maybe only thirty or forty feet in diameter, it was at least twenty stories high. At a few points, as they climbed to reach higher bridges that crossed deeper chasms of streets and tunnels, they could see other towers--similar to the one they were approaching--scattered randomly across the city. Soon, as they came to the small plaza in which it stood, they saw that they had reached the far wall. Only a few blocks beyond the spire was a small, unassuming gate in another plaza identical to the one they had first entered. It looked like it, too, had six statues in its

center, facing outward from around another dried-up fountain and pool. Beyond it, beyond the wall, stairs led up the foothills to a large cleft in the mountains. Beyond it were blue skies and thin ribbons of clouds."Follow me," Coral said, and crossed the small plaza to the base of the slender tower.There, she placed her hand up against a recess and, abruptly, revealed a stone door that swung inwards. She entered and, after a moment's hesitation, the others followed.Adam was last, following after Irri. He stopped as, behind him, he heard a clattering of stones. Although he didn't see anything directly, he did spy a fleeting shadow move around the corner of a building a level above them. It was human-sized and pretty much the same shape. Although he didn't hear footsteps retreating, he knew that Coral was not the only other one, here. Frowning, he followed the rest inside the tower, resolving to say something, later, when the time was right.The tower's interior was mostly made up of a tall, circular staircase with a cracked railing. On the walls, in inset vestibules, were brass and ceramic urns, inscribed with those same inscrutable characters and funerary designs. Every ten feet of height, windows looked out in six directions. Coral was climbing the stairs.Adam and the rest followed.Each step was short but deep. Given that several of the races, aside from the tahvic, were rather small in size, it wasn't surprising. But it was a bit exhausting climbing so many stairs. The effect was that by the time they'd climbed

five stories, they were aching for rest.Still, Coral went on.All of them were panting and feeling the burning in their legs by the time they reached the summit. There, the stairs emerged to a solid, top floor beneath the peaked roof, looking out with wide-open windows upon the vastness of the city.But despite the vast, impressive architecture of Seva the view beyond it, beyond the wall and through the cleft in the high hills to the west, took their breaths away.There, stretching on to the horizon was Alamar.A broken land, its grasses mingled with white, bleached hills and pockets of sand; twisted stands of trees grew between the remnants of old city buildings. In the distance, the shoreline of a vast, flat lake shimmered. And all across the terrain were scattered bones and glinting, rusted remnants of weapons.In the middle of them all lay the bleached white bones of a dragon.Coral pointed. "This is Alamar," she said, "and there, awaiting burial, are the last of its people." She turned to Kelmore and cocked her head. "Have you come at long last to bury the dead or do you come to this place seeking your own interment?" Her question was cold and final:  stated with the casual tone of someone asking if you preferred milk or sugar in your tea.Kelmore looked shocked. "Excuse me?" he asked.Coral shook her head, slowly, and exhaled through her slender nostrils as if exasperated. "The choice is a simple one, derroni. Choose."All eyes turned to Kelmore as Yar and Adam both put their hands on the hilts of their swords.