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Higher up in the city, above the myriad narrow avenues, alleys, stairwells, and streets, the moaning of the winds was much louder. It blew across the lintels of the wide open arched windows looking down upon Seva. The setting sun cast its lengthening fingers through the distant mountain cleft over the small band at the top of the white tower. Coral's words had been swallowed by the winds but their import still hung, menacingly, in the windy chamber. "Caretaker," Kelmore replied with stoic calm, "neither is an option we will embrace. Our purpose here is to leave. In fact, as I have already told you--""For the third and final time:  do you choose to bury the dead or yourselves?" The caretaker's large eyes stayed fixed on his. "Any other response is meaningless." In other circumstances it would have been an absurd demand. She was smaller half the group arrayed before her. Coral also lacked any visible weaponry. But she was caretaker of this place and potentially possessed dangerous power. "Well?" she demanded.Kelmore did not get a chance to answer. His expression showed him clearly wrestling to find a diplomatic way to negotiate a reasonable solution to the stalemate.In that pregnant moment Adam shouted words of arcane power, drawing his sword and spreading his draconic wings, wide.  "Jeh'sohvahnis col ahthi'ir; modocum cur valsallis!" Within the dark, leathery interior of his wings, faint runes of gold--like glowing spider webs catching the glint of a setting sun--burst into light. As they flared, a cold, dry wind erupted like a hurricane from their surface. No one other than the caretaker was directly before him.Coral, caught off-guard, stumbled as her robes billowed out in the rush of air. She tried to keep her footing but, to stop being blown over the edge into the city below. Instead of kneeling to resist, she toppled back and ended up falling to the floor. Her hood flew back revealing, high on her forehead, small, stunted, black horns. They resembled thick, short thorns no bigger than a human finger. Coral let out a shriek of uncharacteristic rage as her cloak, around her shoulders, shuddered from beneath and was torn free. Revealed, high on her back and just below her neck, were withered and  tattered remnants of black-feathered wings.Chaos erupted as Yar sprinted for her, sword bared. Kelmore demanded to know what Adam thought he was doing while Irri spoke up, pleading for peace. However, in that shared moment, the tahvic first mate struck at Coral's neck.There was a flare of purple light. His blade skidded along her pearlescent skin, off her body, and--hard--against the stone floor. Still, Yar reacted quickly to his deflected blow and spun on his heel to bring his free hand to bare. He slashed with his small claws, less dangerous than his sword but better than nothing, down at fallen caretaker's throat. Again, at contact, there was a flash and his blow was deflected. It left no mark. The look on his face was one of angry surprise."Run!" Eris shouted.The tumult lent urgency to her call for retreat as the caretaker's eyes glowed with a violet flame. She shrieked and raised her hands, fingers weaving patterns of light in the air. She chanted, then, whether an arcane incantation or some divine prayer, it was impossible to say; her words were distorted by rage and wind such that none could decipher them.It was mere seconds since she had been blown off her feet but she reacted swiftly and gestured at Yar. His eyes opened wide and his mouth worked in a soundless cry of pain. Sores and wounds opened across his body. Blood, pus, and bile poured from beneath his fur. He gasped and choked on his own body's fluids. Then, convulsing, he pitched to one side and landed in a heap at the caretaker's feet."This city," Coral hissed, "is for the dead, alone.""Be that as it may, Neiro offers us sanctuary in any mortal dwelling ... even here," Kemore declared.Coral leaped to her feet as the derroni flung his arms wide. The ground shook as Irri and Eris reached the stairs. They pitched forward but the latter was able to catch the former and drag her to safety before she fell down the tower's central shaft. In the turret chamber, the bricks around the albino caretaker unlocked themselves from their herring-bone pattern and leapt up in less than a second to form a barrier between her and the rest of them. The makeshift structure surrounded her on three sides, leaving only the twenty story fall available to her."Now, run," Kelmore said. He turned and ran after Eris and Irri.Adam looked down at Yar, his bleeding body dripping through the holes the bricks had left into the central shaft."Come on," Kaia shouted,

following her brother.Adam reached down, grabbed Yar's heavy body, and ran for one of the open archways into empty air, below. He spread his wings to catch the moaning winds and turned away from the tower and away from the face that Coral still could look out from. Yar may have been small but he was heavy. His armor weighed nearly as much as the tahvic. Adam could feel the strain in his wings. He switched back and forth, folding and extending his wings, gradually to slow his fall and guide himself into the small plaza, below. He reached the ground long before the others. He looked up, not seeing any pursuit outside the tower, but heard a crack of thunder and what sounded like the splintering of stone.He could barely feel Yar's heart, beating within his chest. The tahvic was dying and there was little he could do to stop it.Another crack of thunder reverberated from above, shaking the tower.He had to act.Desperate, he ran into the tower.Only four stories from the top, Kaia darted ahead of her brother. Debris from the second blast that had widened the aperture between the turret and the top of the stair, had fallen all around them as the caretaker marshalled whatever powers she had to indulge her fury and follow them."Never seen you do that, before.""Since when do you pay attention to me?"He turned, facing up the stairs, and pressed his palms flat against the holy symbol he wore at his neck. The stones of the stairs--great, granite blocks--heaved themselves up not only removing easy descent but forging an even heavier wall between them and their pursuer than what had been created in the tower's turret room, above."When you started invoking the power of Neiro for amazing stunts like that! Since when have you been able to raise walls?""Since Neiro chose me," Kelmore answered. He ran to catch up. He didn't immediately hear another boom from above and hoped that meant whatever Coral was doing to pursue them had worn itself out. "But I have not completely ignored my divine calling, Kaia. Why do you think I care so much for the nature of your soul?""I'm not that bad," she protested."And that's what all of the mortal souls snared into the hells on their way to the Great Beyond all claim, too," Kelmore said. "The weight of your crimes may not be on the level of some great monster of the devils of the underworld watch us. If you aren't careful--""I know, brother," she said. "I know."They dashed down the stairs as fast as they could. Exhaustion plagued them almost as badly as it had on their ascent. But adrenaline and stress buried the effects of pain as they fled. Two more booms resounded, above, but no more debris fell. They heard another shrill cry from high overhead but saw nothing. In minutes, they reached the ground level where Adam stood with four flickering images--replicas of himself, but transparent--standing guard."Get outside; fast," he called.No one argued.As the dragonkin and his phantasmal duplicates exited in their wake, he turned and gestured to the door. It slammed shut and, one by one, the phantasms winked out."How close is she?" he asked."Hard to say. I threw up another wall at the egress from the tower's summit and an even heavier one on the sixteenth floor."Adam nodded. "Then we have time. We should keep running." He looked towards the larger plaza and the exit gate several blocks to the west."We can't go that way," Kelmore said. "The land out there is devastated. There might be food but no shelter and little that can be done to salvage any. Plus, Coral implied that those are unhallowed

corpses out there. Disease and who knows what manner of foul curses lie upon that land.""Then we head back to Nephillus' gate," Eris suggested. She moved to check Yar."She'll look for you there," came a new voice.They all turned, looking up.Perched like a gargoyle on a balcony that surrounded the plaza about twenty feet up, was a boy in alabaster white robes. Although dressed like Coral, his hood was drawn back showing both his small horns and vestigial, feathered wings.Kaia drew her bow, but Kelmore stopped her from firing. "He's done nothing but talk so far. I believe he means us no harm.""Not yet," his sister admonished. "Or it could be a trick to slow us down.""My mother will hunt you as long as you stay within the city," the boy said. "But, as you say, leaving to the wasteland is much less safe. There are monsters beyond these walls:  violent and rapacious. If you trust me, I can take you to somewhere she'll never think to search."The five exchanged glances, nervously."What about our friend," Eris asked, indicating Yar. "He's wounded ... badly.""He may not survive the journey," the youth admitted. "But know this, for what little comfort it may provide:  if he dies here, his soul will be protected. All of this," he spread his arms to encompass the expanse of the city, "is consecrated ground."Another boom came echoing from deep within the tower. Reverberations echoed in the streets as if from a giant, stone bell."She will soon escape whatever you engineered to stop her," the boy said. "And I shall not be here for when she does. Although I am her son, she knows no love save for her duty." With that, he leaped down into the plaza and began jogging, briskly, down one of the departing streets. "Follow me, if you will, to safety.""We can't trust him," Kaia hissed."I don't," Kelmore agreed. He began to take long strides after the youth. "But we cannot stay and I'd rather keep him in sight.""Help me," Eris pleaded, trying to lift Yar."I've got it," Adam assured her. He knelt and, with a groan of effort, hefted

the unconscious tahvic over one shoulder. Most of Yar's seeping blood and fluids had stopped flowing from his wounds but his breathing was ragged and short.With Irri following behind Eris, Adam fell in with Kaia:  begrudgingly coming up the rear.The young albino led the way through twists and turns that looked remarkably similar to one another. Two more shuddering booms echoed behind them from the tower before the city, again, fell into its familiar silence."What is your name," Kelmore gasped as they caught up to the boy."Anders," he said. "It means 'blessed guide' in the old tongue.""The tongue of Eilekarra? Of the Dust King's people?"The albino shook his head. "Alamarri:  the long-held language of scholars and priests of this land." He cast a glance back at the derroni. "And we do not mention the last liege of Eilekarra. It is both bad luck and dangerous."Anders soon took them higher up among the city's raised streets and bridges, taking turns back towards the gate through which they had arrived. However, soon they arrived at the large plaza in which the hexagonal temple of the caretakers stood solitary watch amidst its desiccated trees and old urns. At the level their guide had chosen, six

unfinished arches extended a few feet out over the plaza below. They looked as if they had originally been started as bridges between this level over to the third story of the impressive, stone structure. If so, they had never been finished.Anders paused and knelt at the base of a statue depicting one of the mouselike thaylene flanking the unfinished bridge. He pressed his hand against a small stone inscribed with an old rune. In a moment, an arch of sunlight sprang from the bridge's end and arced across the expanse to meet with a narrow walkway around the temple's third story. Without explaining or waiting for them, he dashed up and across:  the light bridge supporting his weight as well as stone.Kelmore, after only a moment of hesitation, followed. The others quickly followed suit.Once across, Anders fiddled about with the wall next to a seemingly empty arch, framed in aged, brown vines. Moments later, a secret door opened up into darkness, within. He beckoned them through and, once they had passed within, knelt by statues on the walkway, and made the bridge of light vanish. Then, he turned, followed the group inside, and shut the door. Darkness enfolded them and the soft shutting of the portal nonetheless echoed throughout the vast chamber."Enemubrei," Anders intoned. In the darkness, dozens of torches blazed to life, crackling with orange flames.The room filled the entirety of this floor of the building. Hexagonal, a single staircase rose up into it from a railing-surrounded aperture in the north with a mirror-image rising out of the room to the south. Pillars supported the ceiling some fifteen feet overhead

while, in the center, was a raised hexagonal dais upon which stood an altar surrounded by six wrought iron lampposts. Urns with long-dead plants surrounded the shallow, short stairs that led up to the platform. And in the walls, all around, were hundreds of tiny alcoves filled with figurines:  heads bowed in prayer.Anders did not lead them further. "You'll be safe, here," he said."So you say," Eris said. "What about Yar?""He's bad," Adam said. Carefully, he lay him on a cold, hard bench that stood against the outer wall beneath several rows of figurines. "And the running certainly didn't help.""Let me look." Kelmore seemed to have forgotten about the injured first mate but came over quickly to take a closer look at his wounds. He frowned and shook his head before muttering a prayer under his breath. "This is worse than 'bad'," he said. Looking over his shoulder he fixed Anders with a dour gaze. "Your mother:  she is derroni?"The boy drew himself up and squared his shoulders. "You think something so vile--""Just answer the question," Kaia snapped."An act this vile would only be invoked by the darkest of spirits," Kelmore said. "And this chamber," he glanced at the figurines in the walls, "seems to be devoted to the six hundred derros.

Is your mother bound to one? Ulline:  derros of pain? Sah:  derros of sickness and withering?""The malrethi have never had a blessed derros undertake to dwell within one of us," he said icily. "My mother is twisted upon her own accord. She has studied the burial and bodily preparation rites of thousands upon thousands of priestly records. Trust me:  she invokes the power of the divine without the presence of any derros."Kelmore frowned but nodded. "And these 'malrethi'?""We," Anders said, "are the malrethi." He flexed his stunted black wings for emphasis. "Our forebears were netharen and maldorin. We are suited to being grave tenders but lack our ancestor's long life and ability to fly.""So why did your mother attack us? Why did she want us to either go out into that wasteland collecting bodies or to choose death?" Adam, broad talons splayed against the stone, stomped up to Anders with an intimidating gleam in his slitted eyes. His wings half-unfurled and smoke curled from his narrow, draconic muzzle. "I've seen my colleagues and friends threatened, beaten, injured, and even possessed on this voyage. What is happening?"For a moment, the albino boy looked startled. Adam realized, after a short moment, that it wasn't in fear or even surprise at the looming dragonkin. Rather, it was the content of his words that had shaken the malrethi."Possessed?"Adam nodded. "By some force that drew us here; one of our number--""Who was it? Which one?""That doesn't matter," Kaia snapped. She moved up to stand at Adam's side. "Answer the dragon's questions, boy." Her tone was threatening and low. Although none had seen her draw them, she now bore a bare blade in each hand:  a slender short sword in her right and a curved dagger in her left.This made Anders step back.For a moment the albino seemed to be gauging whether or not he could make a run for one of the two stairwells. He looked suddenly his age:  young and scared. The one who had so ominously decreed they follow him or face Coral's wrath now looked less in charge and more scared that he'd made the wrong decision. Then, steeling himself and banishing his emotions from his face, he drew himself up and set his jaw, defiantly."I know the creature that drew you here," he said. "In all of Seva there could be only one such monster. But it was not my mother nor any of my people. We have lived in and served the dead of this city since the great calamity. The enemy, the being that drew you here, is the same who has reached out for centuries to do the same to many others. And this is why my mother, and all high priests before her, sought your acquiescence or your death. The one we do not name, the first and last king of Eilekarra seeks for those who will serve him and bring his body into our city."Silence filled the chamber. None doubted the proper title or name that Anders did not speak. They all knew it. The Dust King."Why-- How is this possible? Did he sacrifice his spirit to live on as some foul undead?" Kelmore asked. "And his essence still roams those plains, outside?""No," Anders said. "The ranks of the undead would have no problem seeking entrance into Seva. This is, after all, a place that can offer them rest. The dead have nothing to fear, here. But the living...""Wait, you're saying that the Dust, uh, the last king of Eilekarra, is still living?" Eris asked.Anders nodded. "Worse, he cannot die. By his own hand, he is immortal. What the netharen and maldorin have by divine providence, he sought to gain through necromancy to keep death at bay. And he succeeded. But even netharen and maldorin can die through injury, spell, disease, or toxin. The king saw to it that he truly cannot die. And all he desires, in his centuries of madness after the fall of his kingdom, is to enter this necropolis to rule over the souls, here, as he did when they were alive."Silence again filled the chamber. Adam felt suddenly very small. Despite Eris being at his side, he felt horribly alone. This world, this damn alien world of floating continents and islands, never ceased to surprise him. Revelations might subside for a time but there was always something lurking in the shadows waiting to shock and terrify. Once, he knew, he might have felt a certain thrill at discovering such dark secrets. In a fashion, they still did. His heart raced at the revelation of what had brought them here. And, deep down, he felt a

pity for this unknown king seeking any help he could. He imagined him railing at the walls, at the gates of Seva, the only man in a blasted wasteland unable to find any rest. But those were the dreams, the adventures, of a young man. He was old."And he would not, like, suddenly die if he entered the necropolis?" Eris asked."I don't see how," Anders replied. "The stories handed down by the custodians of Seva are clear. The living of Eilekarra overthrew him as he grew stagnant and mad with age. They fought him in successive rebellions over half a century before finally overthrowing him. But with his fall came the fall of Eilekarra itself. Without the power of the king to protect them, enemies from both within and outside Alamar came to feast upon the body of its unified kingdom. They shattered what the king had created and, in the eye of his curse, fell upon one another until no one remained.""Curse?" Irri asked.The others started. The small whimsy rarely spoke and her sudden voice, croaking in the dim light, was unexpected.Anders nodded."He had been chopped into pieces and yet still would not die. The smaller his remaining parts, the more indestructible they became. And so this crypt," he spread his hands to indicate the hexagonal building, "was re-dedicated to serve as temple to the caretakers of the necropolis. Instead of resting here, his body, in six parts, was entombed outside the walls in six separate sepulchers. At the moment of its severance, his head screamed the curse that the dead would not allow

themselves to be taken to their final rest until he, himself, was made whole and laid in his tomb, at last." He shook his head. "We try to do our job, we try to gather the dead of Eilekarra and entomb them as they deserve, but they fight us. Some still arrive, every few weeks, shambling across the plain only to fall before Versummus' Gate. They are drawn by the final proclamation of their king, their souls are unable to rest, but they are commanded to fight us with every last dram of their will." He frowned. "That is the nature of the monster that brought you here.""So all those corpses--even the dragon--""Are merely quiescent," Anders said to Kaia. "We go when we can to bring them within the walls but we suffer great losses every time.""And the malrethi who have gone out there and died?""They join the hoard," he said. "They are lethargic during the day--the light of the moons give them strength--but you can hear them whispering and plotting. The walls resist them. It is part of the enchantments and burial rites upon this place that keep them from breaking the walls. The same rites keep them from entering the sepulchers of the last king. If it would help, we would open the gates and let them in. But the curse commands them to stay outside until their king has his rest, within. And any who would break that final dictum of their liege is to be attacked."A low moan echoed through the room making everyone jump.In the dusty silence it had been easy to get drawn into the tale and pay little attention to

their surroundings. Even Eris had, for a brief moment, forgotten about Yar. They all looked at him. His eyes were open to mere slits and he gasped, ragged and strained, for air.Kelmore dashed to his side, the awful tale of Seva and the people of Eilekarra left behind. He closed his eyes and knelt at Yar's side. Moving his hands over the myriad of wounds, he began muttering prayers to the sliver of the derros within him. Adam turned away from the scene to face Anders."Why are you helping us?" He asked. "What is your mother's problem?""She clings to the rules like a drowning man to a raft," Anders said, quietly. "The living, aside from the caretakers, are allowed in Seva only during daylight hours. After that, the dead roam the streets in graceful repose. But should they encounter a non-caretaker, they ... take matters into their own hands. I sought to save you and usher you out before you could meet the fate of others who the last king has brought here.""Others?""Whether knowing it or not, many have come before you. It is rare, but it happens. Whether by airship or spell, quest or coming down the fabled Grand Stair:  others have come to Seva, before, and tried to free the king from his six sepulchers and bring him within the walls.""Why would your mother oppose this?""Because the living are not allowed here," he said, simply. "That and she fears that should the king enter, he would once again rule over the residents of this city. That, I fear, runs contrary to her authority." He frowned. "We love the dead; we care for them and tend to their needs. We protect them and oversee them. It is a grand calling. But for centuries, the High Caretaker has come to view the position as some sort of regency. When my father died, my mother took his title in full ceremony. My siblings and I have felt for a long time that this is wrong. The living and the dead are more alike than they are different. Each has much to teach the other. A necropolis is not only for the dead or else why would the living be allowed to visit?""And the other malrethi; you all agree?" asked Eris."No. Only a small number.""How many are there?" Adam asked."We number one less than one thousand," Anders said. "By ancient proclamation, that is the most number of caretakers there can ever be in Seva.""Nine hundred ninety nine," Eris said, musing. "A whole little kingdom isolated from the rest of the world in a city of the dead.""What will happen to us when the sun sets?" Kaia asked, suddenly."As long as you remain in here?" Anders asked. "Nothing. Even the caretakers don't come here. It has a foul reputation as having been built for a king who sought never to die. The spirits of Seva also avoid this place.""But if we were outside?""They would attempt to expel you or make you join their ranks," Anders said, plainly. "They have  a simple existence and no longer think in the same way that the living think. Their minds contemplate their after-existence.""And why are they here at all?" Kelmore stood up from where Yar lay, eyes now closed again, and looked furiously at their host. "Why have the spirits, here, not been allowed to go on to their next lives?"Anders shook his head. "Because the last king decreed it. This was to be their home, serving him in death.""The undying king:  unwilling to pass into the Great Beyond but demanding that his people serve him, always." Kelmore spat. His eyes danced with fire. "This place is an abomination.""It's slavery:  even beyond the grave," Adam agreed."It must be stopped," Kaia agreed. "And I say we start with this little runt, here." She pointed with her dagger at

Anders."Killing him won't help anything," Irri said. "He would just join the ranks of the dead already here; am I wrong?" She looked at Anders.The malrethi caretaker shook his head. "No. You are not wrong.""You don't think that our view is incorrect, then? That this place should fall?" Eris asked."There have been heretical groups to suggest the destruction of Seva, before," Anders admitted, "but no one knows how. The last king is the only one who retains knowledge of the rites and rituals that keep the city intact. Even his court arcanists and priests were sent away to other lands rather than remain in Eilekarra to die a natural death.""So only he could rule," Kelmore said. "An evil mortal soul, indeed.""Driven," Anders corrected. "Not evil.""The two are not mutually exclusive," the derroni spat."And where do you fall in this argument about the future of Seva?" Adam asked their host."I ... I honestly don't know," Anders admitted. "But I do believe that not one more soul be added to this place before an answer can be found."Kelmore frowned and, for a moment, looked profoundly sad. "It's too late for that," he said. "Yar is dead."