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"I am truly sorry; I'm an architect:  not a doctor." Kelmore stood back as the rest gathered around Yar's broken form. The derroni, unable to save him, had at least closed his eyes. The tahvic, through all his wounds, looked not as much at peace as he did free of pain. In quiet repose, he lay on the granite floor of the would-be tomb as the members of the band struggled to find words.It was Irri who spoke first."He died a death most tahvic would embrace," she said. After glancing at Eris and seeing no expression to the contrary, she continued. "He lived a short life full of meaning. It ended too soon but it ended on his terms.""Bullshit," Eris snapped. Irri winced. "He came with us because he was ordered to. He came with us and he died. That's it.""Do you honestly think he never before received orders from his captain that he resented or didn't want to follow?" Kaia asked. She looked at Irri and nodded. "The whimsy's right. Caulmal Yar chose to serve on an airship; he chose to be a raider. He made a powerful life for himself and it ended, here. I'm not going to begrudge him his choices."Eris turned, frowning, seemingly about to respond.But she didn't.She, instead, looked past Irri and Kaia, her short muzzle opening in stunned silence.Adam followed her gaze. He, too:  stopped.One by one the others turned.Looking at them, blurred around the edges and transparent, was the likeness of Yar. Same size, although bereft of clothing, his eyes glowed like tiny stars--candles in the dark, muted tones of his ghostly face--and he nodded to

them, all. Then, silently, he turned and drifted towards the outer wall."It's after sunset," Anders said. "He's going to join the rest of Sera's residents."Eris snapped about, swiftly, and both her daggers were naked in her hands. Neither Adam nor anyone else had seen her draw them. She crossed the space between herself and Anders in a flash, the daggers at his throat and heart."He was kidnapped," she shouted. "He's not going to his rest; he's not being welcomed into the Great Beyond before being reincarnated! He's been taken by this damn place!""Eris," Adam started."Shut up, Adam!""But--""No!" She turned her head to look at him while not moving her blades. Anders stayed riveted to the spot, eyes wide. "We're not from here, Adam. We don't even know if the rules of death apply to us! You know what some say:  newcomers don't even have souls, whatever that means!""The priests don't agree.""But they don't really know, do they? I've seen people die on battlefields, in the lightlands ... lots of places! But I've never seen someone leave their body, before!""That ... that is part of this place," Anders said, haltingly. His tone was halfway between terror and trying to be soothing."And that's why it's going to fall! You hear me?"He gulped and nodded.Kelmore

stepped forward, palms up in a gesture of supplication. "Eris; I cannot know for sure what happens to newcomers when they die but I agree with you:  this place must end. The souls captured here must move on:  Caulmal Yar, included." He nodded, quietly, towards the caretaker. "Please:  don't threaten him. He is the only guide we have."Eris kept her blades in place for another few moments but her hands began to shake. Finally, with a frustrated huff through her short muzzle, she took them away and stalked towards the far wall.Adam started to follow but was dissuaded by a look from Kelmore.Eris took up position next to the near-invisible door through which they had entered. "How do we do it?" she asked. "How do we take this place down?"Kelmore looked at Anders. "We remove the keystone," he said.Adam nodded. "You mean that in more than the architectural sense, don't you?""I do."Kaia looked a bit confused. "What do you mean?""In any structure," her brother began, "there is at least one point to support any arch.""The same is true of an incantation or spell," Adam added."This place, this whole city, has many physical keystones," the derroni continued, "but probably only a single core enchantment. If we remove that, we may have a chance of breaking the spell.""But that's all bound up in the Dust King," Kaia said.Anders winced at her infraction but didn't stop her."Which means:  we find the Dust King and we stand a chance of figuring out the core of this damned place's enchantments," Kelmore assured her."And if I can see it," Irri chimed in, "I can find its weak spots. With the power of a spellsword and a derroni on our side, we just may be able to unravel it.""But the only one who would know about those spells is long dead," Anders protested. There was a tone in his voice, though, that now sounded like he was interested in what they were suggesting."No," Eris said. "There's still one person alive who knows them. And he's been scattered in six parts around this damn city." She sheathed her blades with a snap into their leather scabbards and looked Anders in the eyes from across the room. "And you'll tell us where to find them."For Eris, the night was quieter than she would have believed. She heard no sounds other than the wind and even it didn't moan as it had when they arrived. This floor of the building had no windows but Anders led them up to the top to look out. All throughout the necropolis' streets, glowing phantoms walked and drifted. They paid attention to the physical structures, choosing to drift around rather than through them, but occasionally would pass through one another. Some even paused, seeming to talk or converse with others in the city. Whatever was said, however, went unheard from above.Even after Eris had come back down to the chamber of derros idols, she could see the dead walking the streets. None looked in pain or miserable but they still haunted her memory like the ghosts they were. Where Anders saw the spirits of the dead, cared-for and safe, she only saw slaves to a master. Even if that master were outside a wall he could not pass, it didn't matter. They waited, here, for the Dust King like minions awaiting orders. And maybe that was the Dust King's eventual goal:  an army of ghosts to do his bidding.She didn't know.She didn't care.She only hated the Dust King for what he'd done.The night passed without sleep for her. The others dropped off, one by one, save for Irri. But the little whimsy did not seek to speak to her. Instead, she sat nearby, hand on Eris' knee. Eris let her.Anders stayed awake too. But he kept lookout for Coral.Come dawn, he returned. Adam woke and quickly roused the rest. Throughout the night, the chief caretaker had not found them.Anders did not need much urging to tell them where the sepulchres were. Within a few minutes, Kaia had sketched out a rough map of the city and its environs based on the malrethi's descriptions. And although it was a mile between them and Versummus' gate, they figured they would be safe if they hurried. Coral had many square miles of city to search and that was if she did not assume they had escaped Sera's walls. The only hard part was leaving Yar's body behind. To address that, Eris took Anders aside and told him that when they returned if Yar's body was not here, she would add the caretaker to the residents of the city. No one contradicted her.The narrow shafts of morning light filtered into the city across the peaks of the distant hills. The pass that led from Versummus' Gate to the plains littered with the unburied dead was filled with dawn's blessing. It was almost enough to cheer one's spirit:  the chill of morning faded quickly as they approached the exit. No sign of Coral was to be found.Unlike the entrance gate, the gate of death erected in Nephillus' name, Versummus' gate of life was closed. Constructed of wrought iron bars with only a human's hand-span of space between each, they were carved with scenes of cities. They showed buildings and trades of all sorts:  blacksmiths, soldiers, carpenters, and money changers. All manner of urban life was on display in pitted, burnished iron. Set in the center was a thick plate through which ran a keyhole the size of Eris' fist.But as Anders had advised them,

upon approaching the locks tumbled and groaned, falling into place so that it might open before them. Beyond the gate, a cobblestone path choked with weeds, wound up the hills to the great cleft between the flanking hills of the exit. Scattered across the rough landscape on either side were the bodies and bones of a thousand years.Tattered remnants of funeral garb mingled with rusted armor. Weapons, tools, jewelry, carts, and beirs--all things that had come with the deceased for their expected arrival--lay in rotting heaps. Why some had decayed and others had not in the centuries of weather was unknown. Adam speculated that arcane enchantments upon the walls had emanations that protected the nearby dead. Kelmore stated that it was likely the will of the Dust King had some say on the dispensation of the corpses. Still, briars and vines grew through them like worms feasting on long-dead flesh. There were few near the wall and the majority clogged the road and stair that led up to the pass.But that would not be their path.Around Seva was an ancient road, about wide enough for two carts to be pulled, side-by-side. Anders had described it as a service road for caretakers that had not been used in millenia. Those seeking burial who came from the west normally took the route around the hills to the south and crossed into the necropolis by taking the path marked by the three gates. But as the great kingdom fell, more and more in the western lands of Alamar came to Versummus' gate. They arrived in droves. Some took the service path around the city but most stayed here, demanding entry. In the chaos of war that followed them, here was where they died. The final battle, between forces even the caretakers didn't recognize or know, took place on the plains beyond the low pass of the western hills. There, even the great dragon had fallen. Afterwards, all were dead.Adam led them north along the service road. Kaia and Eris flanked him and kept an eye upon the corpses lest they stir. Anders had said not even Coral understood their seemingly random logic. But it was certain that, upon touching them, they would rise, demanding that their king be brought, first, into the city of the dead. Then, they would attack, regardless of the answer.The way to the first sepulchre was not over-choked with bodies. They tended not to

impede the road. There were less and less the further they got from Versummus' gate. After a mile on the cracked and weed-choked road, there were maybe one or two every few dozen yards on the western edge of the way.Two hours into their journey, they saw it:  the sepulchre.The aged, grey stone of the building was in stark contrast to the white walls of the city. It was simple, only a single story in height with an arched and tiled roof some fifteen feet at the peak. Inscribed in false windows and doors were scenes depicting Versummus ministering to fallen figures, giving them food and drink from a large basin cradled in his arms. The lintels were carved to resemble the vines that had grown up around the structure. Unlike the withered, early-winter plants, though, the carved vines were depicted as bearing every kind of fruit imaginable. The tomb was stoic and cold but cast with the reminiscences of life. The only bit of color was the weathered, bronze lock inset within the granite door leading inside.The group approached, warily."We'll have to break in," Adam said."I can try to unfasten the lock," Kaia claimed, "but if what Anders said is true, there will be enchantments protecting this place as well."Irri stepped up next to Adam. "We shall do our best."Kelmore nodded, adding, "I will investigate the structure for signs of entrance that, otherwise, may not be visible."On their guard, the group followed close as Kaia approached the door. The lock plate was weathered but solid. She removed a small leather wrap containing metal tools and, after peering into the lock, began working on the tumblers, inside. Whistling as she worked, the sound was eerie in the forsaken place. Eris was about to chide her to stop when she announced that she had finished."It is open," Kaia said, "but what

about those arcane blocks and traps we've been warned about?" She cast a glance to her brother and the two arcane experts."One moment," Irri said. She returned to her hushed conversation with Adam about what they had observed.A booming yet whispered voice erupted from the sepulchre. A few birds, cawing and screeching, took off from old trees in the nearby hills and from atop the city wall.The words were few but arcane and unknown.Adam looked at the others and cleared his throat before confirming, "It said simply, 'beware'.""That was the voice I'd heard in my mind; the voice urging me to come here," Kelmore said."The Dust King," Irri croaked.With that proclamation, out of the brambles and broken rocks at the sides of the sepulchre's side and far beyond the edge of the road, shapes arose. Human, dragonkin, tahvic, and wolfen were there, clad in rusting, ancient armor. With them were terrmorah and auranathi. A troll loomed up, nine feet tall, in burnished bronze.Each was dead.Each was desiccated.Each was armed and descending towards the band.But it was an attack well-prepared-for. Anders had told them what to expect and they were ready.Kelmore called upon Neiro to raise thick, stone walls from the cobblestone road in a circle around them, fifteen feet high. The only entry was four feet across forcing access one at a time. Along the inside of the wall, simple stairs led up to the top. Both Kaia and

Eris were able to rapidly ascend and use arrows to chip away at the undead attackers. Irri stood behind Kelmore but used her keen vision and understanding of the enchantments animating the cadavers to shout advice to Adam. For his part, the spellsword didn't need to waste concentration on seeing the arcane energies providing motion to the enemy. Instead, he fueled his blade with energy and enchantment to both ward off dulling and instill powerful vibrations in anything he struck. One by one, bones shattered and armor fell apart as he struck. In under five minutes, their foes had been dispatched without a single injury to the living.Kelmore left the wall erected and followed Adam out onto the road.No new foes approached."That was satisfying," Kaia said.As they returned to the tomb, they watched as the old, stone door scraped open with low, tremorous creaks from its iron hinges. Within, there was darkness. From it, echoed a voice.Still with arms bared, the group entered the first tomb of the Dust King.