They were on the road towards the capital for no more than three days before a messenger intercepted them. Apparently the emperor had a task for Ankh. A town in the southern part of the Severanti empire had apparently been hiding another one of these strange dungeons from the crown. The source said that it was a much smaller dungeon, only a singular tower with three floors in it, but the village had been overtaken by greed and didn’t want to share with the emperor. At Ankh’s request, they were making a small detour to check out this village and deal with the problem. Their travel troupe was not very large. Ankh had sent two of his companions onwards to deal with some other mission while he left two of them behind to keep an eye on the dungeon in Redsan. So right now the sorcerer was only accompanied by Teddy, Kimi and Mirgia. Doroly had opted to stay behind and take care of Birdie while Teddy was away. Surprising everyone, Teddy and Ankh were actually getting along really well. It wasn’t surprising to Mirgia that Teddy was being friendly, but he never thought it would work on the sorcerer. With the two talking a lot, it left Mirgia a lot of time to think about the future. He wasn’t keen on talking about his bond with Karnisal. To him, Karnisal was just a guardian who had raised a young boy with no parents and Mirgia had no real thoughts about taking over the city. There were several better options among the town leadership anyway. But Ankh put the thought back in his head. Maybe he could talk to Cobal about these feelings, perhaps the young prince would understand. Cobal wasn’t in any position to become a king anytime soon, but he was still in line for the throne. And with his older brother missing, he was closer to this position than before. More than all of this though, Mirgia was curious about Karnisal’s past. He knew a little bit about how Karnisal originally came from a country that no longer exists and he lost a friend in the process, but he didn’t know that Karnisal came from Kanarth, nor did he know that this Sorda’Thun figure – Ankh – was the one that was Karnisal’s friend. He wondered what happened between the two that had made it so that Mirgia was warned to not get close to him. Besides being a bit abrasive – which had made Mirgia careful at first – the sorcerer had helped them out when they were in need and given no reason for distrust. Maybe Karnisal would tell him a bit more about his past if he were to come back with the sorcerer, or maybe he would be incredibly angry.
“If we go on this detour, I think I’ll pen a letter to Karnisal to inform them of our arrival.” Mirgia said to the others.
“That’s a good idea,” Ankh replied, “perhaps it’ll make things less awkward at the border.”
“You’ve really pissed them off badly, haven’t you?” Teddy said jokingly. “What did you do?”

Ankh’s expression turned pensive. “I’m afraid that’s not something I’m willing to talk about with people I only just met.”
Teddy slapped him on the back. “That’s quite alright, stick to your own pace.” He pointed up ahead. “Look, that’s a good please to sleep for the night and maybe you can send that letter of yours, Mirgia.”
Ahead of them was a neat looking roadside inn that seemed to put function over form. It was a simple brick building with a stable on the side. They paid for rooms and Mirgia went to write his letter.

Dear Karnisal,

Things have been hectic since I departed for Saphestan. After meeting up with prince Cobal and Lady Mana we traveled north, toward the kingdom of Rilodar. We encountered strange pirates and cultists there and during a scuffle on an island off the coast I ended up being caught in a strange magic spell that sent me to Redsan village in Severanti. I don’t know exactly how it happened but I believe it had to do with the same magic that we found in Milinia during the harvest festival as well as in the palace in Saphestan. Near Redsan there was a strange dungeon that suddenly popped up and to help out the locals I decided to explore it. I was promptly joined by Kimi’Thania, who was sent to this place with the same sort of magic. Inside this dungeon we found even more magical circles, all similar to what happened when Milinia was attacked. What worries me the most about it is the fact that a sorcerer who came into the dungeon with us was able to identify where this magic likely came from. This sorcerer presented himself as Ankh, but I later found out that he was in fact the sorcerer that you warned me about all those years ago; Sorda’Thun the wanderer. I know very little of your history together, but the sorcerer told me that this current situation with the suddenly appearing dungeons is more dangerous than he initially thought and he is seeking your counsel. In exchange for helping us get out of the dungeon safely, I promised I would arrange a meeting between him and yourself. I hope I haven’t overstepped my boundaries in doing so. We are heading towards Milinia after dealing with another problem in a village nearby. We should be arriving there in early winter. Please inform the guards north of town with what your decision is so they can relay it to me, but I urge you to at least hear out the sorcerer. 

Best,

Mirgia.

Mirgia folded the letter neatly and stamped his seal on it, before going downstairs and handing it off to the innkeeper. There was a messenger that would come through somewhere this week that would be able to bring the letter to the outskirts of the Liriath forest and from there on out an elven messenger could take it the rest of the way. With that set, he went to join the others for dinner in the common room.
“Mirgia, come join us,” Teddy invited him. “The food here is surprisingly good. The innkeeper told me that his father was a famous chef in a restaurant for some nobility, and he learned some good tricks on how to season food to make it taste much better with little effort. It really shows.”
“You can talk to literally everyone, can’t you?” Mirgia said as he sat down.
Teddy chuckled. “Talking to folks is easy. Just open your mouth and let the brain do the rest. Now swinging around magic or cooking dinner, that’s difficult stuff.”
“I’d argue one is more difficult than the other,” Ankh remarked.
“Sure, but I didn’t want to make you feel inferior to the cook,” Teddy jabbed.
Mirgia was almost certain he heard the sorcerer chuckle at the joke, but the man was hard to read.
“So, can you tell us a little bit more about this new job request the emperor gave you?” Mirgia asked. “I’d like to know what we’re getting ourselves into.”
“As I already told you, these strange dungeons have been appearing in different places. We call them dungeons to scare off your average wanderers but we have since learned that they are simply pieces of the flying kingdom of Kanarth. Kanarth did a lot of magical research in its time and even built entire structures on islands that would tether to the main flying city. In some occasions they would even take a chunk of land from the surface and attach it to the flying kingdom.”
“That sounds crazy,” Teddy remarked.

Ankh nodded. “The things that Kanarth was capable of makes you wonder how it was ever possible for them to fall from grace so fast that everything was lost. I was there myself and I still don’t fully understand a lot of it. I know more than I’m telling, of course, but you’ll have to take my word for it. Either way, after Kanarth fell, it fully vanished and I speak truth when I tell you that I do not know where the missing land went. My guess has always been that it landed somewhere on the continent in a region that’s hard to reach. But as time went on and I was unable to find it, I started to doubt this theory. I’ve considered the thought that it might have vanished into another realm. It seems far-fetched but considering that your friend Mana and the emperor of Severanti were both brought here from other worlds, why wouldn’t Kanarth be able to send themselves to another world as well?”
Mirgia considered the idea. It made sense on paper, if the city was never found by either Ankh or Karnisal. He knew that Karnisal spent a long time looking as well before he settled down and founded the city of Milinia, ditching the “wanderer” moniker.
“To return to the assignment at hand, there were four dungeons that appeared at the same time, if we include the one we sealed the other day. One was close to the capital, and I dealt with that one myself, which is why it took me a little while to appear at this one. Another one was dealt with by the emperor, located to the north of the capital. The fourth one that was reported was to the south, not far from the border with the Liriath forest, and was dealt with by some of the other Sahilid members. Members that worked directly for me, and were quite capable. Despite this, we’ve learned that they failed in their mission and were unable to retrieve any of the valuables in the dungeon. Apparently another group of people had already gone into the dungeon before they arrived and dealt with the problem, refusing to hand over the artifacts.”
“First come, first serve,” Kimi said.
Ankh nodded. “Of course that’s how the world works, but with how dangerous these objects from Kanarth can be, it is important that the emperor and I make sure that what these people have found won’t lead to disaster.”
“Is that your excuse for monopolizing all the valuables?” Mirgia asked.
“Call it what you want, the assignment stays the same. We’re to go to this little village of Morpezo and figure out what treasures they found. If they’re not of particular value to our research, we’ll gladly leave them with the people who found them, but if I deem them too valuable, I will be seizing them.”
Mirgia wanted to argue, but he knew the sorcerer wouldn’t listen to him anyway. Knowing what they were setting out to do in the village made him much more nervous than before. This could turn violent pretty quickly. If only the sorcerer wasn’t so closely linked to the mysteries surrounding the Blueyerd royal family, then he wouldn’t have to deal with the arrogant man. But he needed to learn as much about this special magic that these cultists were employing as he could to help out Mana and Cobal when they reunited. He’d already decided to go and meet with them after they finished the meeting with Karnisal. Hopefully they were safe as well.

After the survivors emerged from the dungeon, the two arcanist members of the Sahalid went to work on sealing the entrance to the dungeon. Mirgia stayed to watch the process while Karal, Kimi and Ankh went to report to Captain Arios about what they encountered down there. The rest of them took care of the fallen and the wounded. With some help from the priests that stayed after burying Quint and Danil they managed to at least get the wounded Fezel to be in a stable condition. What Mirgia really wanted to see was how the magic that these arcanists used looked but despite his expectations it did not resemble the foul cultist magic they had been dealing with. It seemed that whatever Ankh was doing, he hadn’t spread this magic to everyone around him. The process instead involved a complicated mix of writing different spells onto a piece of paper before sticking it onto the dungeon. Once the entirety of the entrance was covered, the papers started to emit a bright light and threads of magic started to move from one of the papers to the other until an entire web of multicolored lights covered the entrance. It flashed brightly once and then dimmed until a thick layer of some material covered the entrance completely. “Only one who knows this magic can open the door now,” one of the two arcanists said to Mirgia. Mirgia nodded approvingly. Sealing off a dangerous place like this seemed like a good idea to him. Something that they all could agree on, he supposed. He turned around to find Ankh walking in his direction. Kimi was floating behind him. “Mirgia, would it be alright to speak in private?” Ankh asked.
Mirgia looked at Kimi who nodded.
“I suppose so, did you have a place in mind?”
He followed Ankh a little ways outside of the camp, leaving Kimi behind in the camp to go and talk with some of the others that came out of the dungeon with them. Eventually they reached a quiet spot where they could speak. Ankh looked at him over and seemed to hesitate for a few moments before he started talking.
“Listen, I recognize we got off on the wrong foot. I suppose I could have been kinder towards you.”
Mirgia narrowed his eyes. What is he playing at?
“As I’ve told you already, I am working together with the emperor of Severanti to discover more about the magic used in the time that the flying city of Kanarth was still dominating the sky. There are many strange rumors about the magic that they had, some of which includes the ritual magic we saw in the dungeon. I believe that specific magic was to be used to summon more of those insectoid creatures.” He looked to see if Mirgia was still listening before continuing. “These dungeons have been appearing at a more rapid rate than before and this change has been worrisome. If we get to the point where more of them appear at once, it will become difficult to figure out which ones are dangerous for regular adventurers to tackle. To deal with this problem, there’s someone’s help that I need.”
Mirgia sighed. “What are you playing at?”
“I need to speak with Karnisal the wanderer.”
Mirgia chuckled. “And what do you need me for then?”
“You know who I am, don’t you, Mirgia?”
“Well, I had a hunch about your identity, but yeah, I’ve heard stories. Karnisal taught me when I was only a boy to never get involved with a person called Sorda’thun the wanderer.”
The sorcerer grinned. “Good advice.” He stood up and let his glamor fade, revealing the visage he had taken on when they were in the dungeon. His eyes turned into black voids as if there was a magical nothingness there while around his head appeared several floating gemstones that seemed to look at Mirgia. “Allow me to properly introduce myself. My name is Sorda’Thun the wanderer, I am one of only two survivors of the war between Venoria and Kanarth. Your guardian, Karnisal, is the other.” He narrowed his eyes at Mirgia. “But you knew that already, right?”

Mirgia lay on his bedroll, staring up at the stars in the sky. The reason that Ankh wanted to talk to him was because of his connection to Karnisal. It was common knowledge in Milinia that Karnisal wished for Mirgia to take over the role of Milinia’s leader when they retired. Even the council seemed to be relatively positive about the idea. Mirgia himself had never wanted much to do with the job, but since Karnisal was the one who took care of him when he was an orphan, he did feel like he owed the old leader of the village a lot. Not enough to give away his entire life, but still enough to feel bad about wanting to find a way out. And now Ankh wanted him to set up a meeting between Karnisal and himself, something that Karnisal would not be happy about. The truth was, Sorda’Thun the wanderer was indeed a name that Mirgia had heard when he was younger. The person who was now going under the name Ankh was an ancient sorcerer who was once a member of the Kanarth royal guard. The flying city kingdom of Kanarth dominated the continent in its time. Long before the humans came to this continent, and when the entirety was still considered to be a wilderness, the people that called the continent of Palaria home were fractured. Small villages, cities and settlements dotted the landscape and trade and contact with others was relatively limited. It was in this world that the sorcerers of Kanarth figured out how to make an entire city fly. Not only that, but their study of magic had advanced to such a point that they could dominate the sky and the people they came across. An era of dominance arrived for them and for the span of fourteen years they ruled much of the continent, flying across the sky. Villages would be destroyed if they didn’t listen to the demands of the emperor of Kanarth. Kanarth ended up falling due to a grave miscalculation. In the south of the continent – only a few days north of what is now considered to be the Ravadier Peninsula – was a kingdom called Venoria. The people of Venoria were serpentfolk, part snake, part humanoid. Their ancestry granted them access to poison magic which they managed to develop into all sorts of things, but most impressively was their ability to make their targets hallucinate. Their leader was always a witch woman accompanied by two familiars. The twin snakes of Venoria. The southern snake was able to charm most people by holding eye contact with them while the northern snake could kill a man with a single bite in less than a minute. The emperor of Kanarth wanted the snakes for himself. A party set out to steal them, torching the capital of Venoria in the process. The party returned victorious and the twin snakes now belonged to the emperor. With Venoria in flames, there were very few left who could still oppose the emperor and their domination of Palaria was all but settled.

Except things never go as smoothly as you would like, and the entire infiltration party has been compromised. Using their hallucinogens, several of the elite mages of Venoria had infiltrated the flying city alongside the kidnappers, without them ever realizing that they brought them along. From there the downfall of Kanarth started slowly. Water wells were poisoned, town officials were found hanged or decapitated in their homes and blood flowed through the streets. And throughout it all, not a single one of the infiltrators was caught or spotted. The situation drove the emperor mad. Eventually, two of the infiltrators managed to make their way to the emperor’s chambers. With the help of the twin snakes they managed to charm the emperor into a state where he couldn’t move, and then cut off his head. With the emperor dead, the city lost its direction and the chaos turned into all out violence on the streets. Karnisal never told Mirgia what happened next, or at least not any details of what went down, but the result was the destruction of Kanarth with only two of its sorcerers surviving. With no home to return to, the two each took on the moniker of the wanderer. 

Mirgia woke up when the sun peered over the horizon. While thinking over what Ankh had said, he must have fallen asleep. He knew that Karnisal would be unhappy about talking with Ankh, but he also knew that the sorcerer had a point. The return of artifacts from Kanarth was a dangerous sign. He just didn’t know what the sorcerer was planning. Assuming that the magic from Kanarth would be returning, wouldn’t he want to work with the emperor of Severanti to reclaim it and start his own flying kingdom? What benefit would it have for him to talk to Karnisal who very clearly had different ideas about what to do? The only thing Mirgia could think of was that it would be so dangerous for everyone involved that Ankh had no other choice. He let out a deep sigh before getting out of bed. It was quiet in the camp, almost everyone was still asleep with only the few that were standing guard already up. Mirgia took this time to walk out of the camp and have a look at the nearby desert. The red sand looked even more eerie after all the bloodshed of the past couple of days. To his surprise, he was soon joined by Teddy.
“You’re up early,” the smallfolk remarked.
“I got a lot on my mind,” Mirgia replied.
“Anything you want to share?”
“Well, there’s a lot I don’t want to talk about, to be honest, but I’m currently in the middle of deciding if it’s worth breaking bread with old enemies in the face of a bigger danger.”
“That’s a tough one. How bad of enemies are we talking? Like, did he punch your grandma in her face or did he look at you funny once?”
Mirgia laughed. “A little bit worse than either of those options.”
“I don’t know, punching a grandma is pretty high up on the list of things you shouldn’t be doing.”
“Sure, but it’s a very long list.”
“Ain’t that the truth.” He sat down in the sand next to Mirgia. Mirgia sat down as well, so as not to tower over the smallfolk farmer. “I think he’s right. I think I should at least let the two hear each other out.”
“So what’s the plan then?” Teddy asked.
Mirgia looked at him. “What do you say, want to come to Milinia with me?”
“I thought you’d never ask.”

Ankh crossed the distance towards the magical barrier within a few steps and plucked one of the floating gemstones that had been orbiting his face out of order. A humming sound filled the room as the rest of the gemstones adjusted their positions to be equidistant as they continued their orbit. The bright green gemstone that was now between his fingers pulsed with light as he held it against the barrier. From the gemstone a small bit of green sprouted. It forced its way into the barrier itself, rapidly growing vines along the barrier’s inside and outside. After a couple of seconds, the magic finished and the barrier shattered. The vines withered and Ankh stepped towards the priest that was helming the ritual. The priest put up his holy symbol to defend himself. It was no longer the symbol of Owlana that the priest had worn on him when they entered this place, but it had been replaced by a strange looking coin that had the design of a coiled snake. The head of the snake flared and shot towards Ankh. Before it could hit him, the snake that was on Ankh’s book stirred and jumped out to intercept it, swallowing the attacking snake whole. The priest looked mortified at this but kept trickling blood into the ritual.
Despite asking the sorcerer for help, Mirgia was far from completely helpless and was already flanking the priest, readying an arrow. With the barrier gone, he could hit the person even with a sore shoulder although it would hurt. The only reason he hadn’t yet was because he couldn’t help but want to see the extent of what Ankh could do. Kimi was using her magic on Salandi and Krashid who were desperately heading towards the priest. Karal could do nothing but look on in horror.
The priest at the center of the ritual changed tactics. From a pouch next to his weapon he pulled another strange looking coin that resembled the first one he’d thrown at Ankh but had some different designs to it. It was only for a split second but Mirgia noticed some writing on the back of it. This was likely the magic circles they’d been encountering. He mumbled something and threw the coin down with a quick motion. Lines appeared on the ground that expanded rapidly, pushing Salandi, Kimi, Mirgia and Krashid away as if a wall was pushing them back. Yet somehow, Ankh looked completely unaffected by the magic. The walls crashed into him and visibly shattered into pieces before dissipating.
“You came well prepared, disciple of Shifeth, but nothing could have prepared you for me,” Ankh said. He grabbed the book at his hip, where his snake had now returned to, looking a little bit bulkier than before, and flipped to a seemingly random page. He then impaled his thumb on the tip of the snake. He put his thumb to the paper and with swift motions he drew several symbols before tearing out the page. “Now, unfortunately I have just promised to stop this ritual, so you will have to die here.” Ankh smiled before the paper in his hands turned to dust. He grabbed the dust and blew it forward. It floated gently towards the priest, then picked up speed and within no time it reached max velocity, blasting a hole through the man’s face. Where his face was damaged, his skin and flesh turned to dust until his entire body collapsed into a pile of grey dust, no sign of life left. The dust then touched down onto the ground, drying out the remains of the ritual. All that was left now was the unconscious body of Fezel as well as a small pouch filled with something. Ankh scooped up the pouch and put it onto his belt before turning to face the others. “She’s all yours.”

Although Kimi’s magic had many soothing properties, actually healing severe wounds wasn’t something she excelled at. Her magic was versatile, sure, but versatility came at the cost of expertise. Still, she managed to calm down the emotions rushing through the body of the slowly dying adventurer which let her body focus on recovery. Karal came rushing over, having snapped out of the initial shock of the wild scenario they found themselves in. He pulled out his holy symbol and started healing Fezel. Mirgia and Krashid had to work hard to keep Salandi from flying into a rage. She was furious about what the priests of Owlana had done to her and her partner and didn’t want to have Karal anywhere near Fezel. Krashid and Mirgia recognized that Fezel wouldn’t make it without divine healing and Karal had proven himself trustworthy. After a tense few moments, it seemed like Fezel was out of the worst of danger, but they would still have to bring her up to the surface to let her rest properly. Karal offered to heal Salandi as well, but she refused his help. Krashid also refused, but he explained it was just because none of his wounds were serious enough to waste energy on. While the small group made sure everyone was going to survive, Ankh and his two assistants scoped out the rest of the ritual chamber and eventually came back with two strange looking objects. “We will be taking these,” Ankh said to Mirgia and the others. It wasn’t a question and Mirgia didn’t feel like questioning the sorcerer after the display of power he had just shown them.
“What are they?” Kimi asked.
Ankh held out the first of the two objects, a large glass disk. “This is a very potent catalyst for magic. It was used by the rulers of Kanarth to imbue with a magic spell and then placed upon another magical artifact that projects the spell over a large distance, both transporting and enlarging the effect. Both halves of this artifact were considered lost to time, but with finding this half, I have faith we will be able to find the second half as well.” He then showed them both a dagger. “The lost dagger Kebala. This was used by the royal spymaster of Kanarth back when they were still in power. It has the ability to read someone’s blood. If you draw blood with this dagger, you can read the intentions and some of the memories of the person you draw blood from. Both of these are very valuable.”
“Did you know these things would be here?” Kimi asked, rightfully suspicious.
“I did not. I have been researching the fallen kingdom of Kanarth for many decades now, and I had some hopes of the things we would find here, but as the technology from this kingdom was completely lost to time, there was no way of knowing what would show up here. But I’ve read up on these items enough to know one when I find it. The emperor will be disappointed that there was no sight of the more valuable things we’ve been looking for the past few years, but this is still a nice haul.” He looked at Mirgia. “We’ll discuss our little agreement once we leave this dungeon but I would like to relieve some of your tension and let you know that I have no crazy or impossible requests for you. As much as I do not care for you and your aims, I have no intention to make an enemy out of you either. I hope you understand that.”
Mirgia nodded. “I appreciate your help. I understand that risking yourself for someone else is not something that should be asked for free.” His eyes narrowed. “However, I do not think I like you.”
Ankh chuckled. “That’s perfectly fine.” He motioned for them all to follow. “If you have nothing else to look for in this place, I suggest we get ourselves back to the surface so that Gariya and Besil can close up this dungeon to avoid anything dangerous spilling out of it. I’ve left them instructions to seal this place in a week from now regardless of if we make it out.”
“That’s a risky command to give,” Krashid commented.
Ankh shrugged. “If something bad enough happened in this place that even I wasn’t able to make it out in a week, then it would be better to seal this place off than risk it coming out into the world.”
At least that was something that everyone present could agree on.

Two slightly shorter chapters in a row and I do apologize for that, but I think it was good to split this part up into two chapters instead of forcing it into one. Normally I would take a break next week as it’s been five chapters, but since I took a hiatus a while ago, we’re not taking a break yet. Join me next week for chapter 21!

“Now hold up a minute, I’m sure this is all some sort of a misunderstanding,” Ankh said. “You said something about a creature in Milinia? Would you care to explain to me what that is about?”
Mirgia narrowed his eyes, Kimi hovering a safe distance behind him now. He had not yet removed his knife from Ankh’s throat, but he also got the feeling that the threat wasn’t having the impact it should have, as if Ankh was not feeling in danger whatsoever.
“Last harvest festival, a witch attacked our town with a similar magic summoning a fiery creature like the one you just took out. And prior to that, one of my friends was also hurt badly by another similar creature. We have been chasing leads on this magic ever since and now you dare show yourself in front of us, casually casting ancient magic.”
Ankh listened intently to Mirgia, which only served to irritate him more. “I see, that explains the hostile reaction.” He flicked his wrist and Mirgia’s knife went flying off into the distance. With a glare on his face he looked at Mirgia. “I understand your anger but if you point a weapon at me again I will leave no trace of you, do you understand me?”
Mirgia felt the force behind the comment and suddenly realized that the eyes in Ankh’s face looked more like voids to him than eyes. He blinked and the sorcerer’s face was back to normal. An illusion?
“Then explain yourself, for I did not point my weapon in your direction without good reason.” Mirgia had lost his weapon now but he held steadfast, knowing that cowering now would be a sign of weakness.
Ankh motioned with his hand again and the other two Sahilid fighters that had accompanied him each sheathed their weapons. “I suppose things down here will go easier if I explain myself.” He took out his book again and showed some of the pages to Mirgia, flipping through it. Each page had drawings of a magical circle on them, but they all looked slightly different. They had different rings, just like the ones they’d encountered before, but there were also much simpler ones and even one that stood out because it looked far more intricate and difficult to draw than the others. “The magic of drawing these circles is a relic from the flying city of Kanarth. I assume this explains to you why myself and the emperor are so interested in finding out more about the city. When I was younger, I took on several apprentices, some of which I even taught this magic to. One of these apprentices was a young woman who at the time went by Adaine Solin, although I believe she goes by many different names. After I taught her the basics of my magic, we each went our separate ways. I suspect that this woman was the one that went after your town.”
“So you are essentially responsible for what happened in Milinia?”
“Is the martial artist responsible for the acts of his students? Is the swordfighter responsible for the actions of his protegé?”
This gave Mirgia pause. Kimi fluttered back onto his shoulder. “And how do we know you’re not involved with what this woman is doing?”
Ankh chuckled. “You’re just going to have to take my word for it. Besides – and I mean this with all due respect – if you wish to exact any kind of revenge I would suggest you let it go for now. I have no intention to hurt any of you as you have not given me any reason to do so, but know that I could wipe out everyone in this room with my eyes closed.” There was a truth to Ankh’s words that made Mirgia’s hairs on the back of his neck stand up. He nodded. “Very well, let’s drop the subject until we’re back above ground.”
Ankh smiled. “If you prove to be of use during this excursion I will gladly take you back to the capital and tell you what I know of Adaine. I have no obligations towards her either way and I taught her how to fend for herself well enough.”
“I’ll keep you to that promise.”
It wouldn’t take long after leaving the room with the raised platforms before they found the first body. Mirgia didn’t remember the name of the person, but it clearly belonged to one of the Sahilid adventurers that continued deeper into the dungeon after Mirgia and his party headed back outside. Mirgia confirmed to Ankh that this was one of the members of their previous group and after checking for wounds they moved on. It looked like one of those insectoid creatures got to this particular person and there was no real need to keep investigating past that. If Ankh was to be believed, they were in a hurry to stop whatever might be happening further down in the dungeon. They came through another room not much later, where signs of blood covered the room. There were no bodies here which was peculiar. Two doors led onwards, a trail of blood leading towards the left door. It was a small trail, likely from a cut of sorts, but nothing truly horrendous. After a moment of discussion they traveled into that door. At the end of a long hallway, they found a staircase down. The circular staircase seemed to go on forever and before they made it halfway down, the trail of blood had stopped already. There were still no bodies, so perhaps no one died during whatever they encountered in the previous room? The eeriness of the situation didn’t help Mirgia’s tension and the air was getting more and more stale as they went down, making it difficult to breathe well. After what felt like hours, but was probably closer to forty minutes, the group of six made it down to the bottom of the staircase where a hallway similar to the one they traveled through at the top of the stairs appeared. Towards the end of the tunnel was a light and as they got to the end, they were faced with a sight completely beyond anything else they could have possibly expected.

Five bodies were slowly turning the shallow layer of water that was laying in the room into a red shade as their blood mingled with the stale water. At the far end of the room, the mixture of blood and water funneled through a trough into a carved magical circle that was slowly filling up. Standing next to the circle was the one surviving member of Danil’s group of priests, now showing nothing of the calm devotion to Owlana that was a carefully crafted part of his demeanor before. The man had taken off his robes, revealing a body scarred by flames with a large chunk of one of his forearms completely missing, exposing the bone below it. From a cut in his hand, more blood flowed into the watery mixture on the ground. Laying on the ground next to him was one of the surviving Sahalid members, Fezel. Fezel was one of the two women that he encountered in the Green house for tall folk when he first arrived in Redsan. Both Salandi and Krashid were attacking what seemed like the air, but was probably a magical barrier of sorts.
Paralyzed by the uncertainty of what to do, Mirgia stood there for a few moments before darting after Kimi who was more clear of mind. Ankh and his people walked towards the ritual as well, although there seemed to be very little sense of urgency to their pace.
“Isn’t this really bad?” Karal asked Ankh.
Ankh nodded. “Yeah, this looks pretty serious.”
“Then shouldn’t you do something about it?”
Ankh shrugged. “It’s probably not going to be bad for me, and I’m quite curious to see what will happen next.”
“You’re insane,” Karal replied, with his eyes wide open.
Ankh’s eyes dimmed and several floating gemstones appeared circling around his head. “Tell me something I don’t know.” He pushed Karal off to the side and walked forward towards Mirgia and Kimi. “I can help you stop this ritual, but you’ll owe me,” he said.
Mirgia glared at the sorcerer. “You came down here knowing something like this might happen, didn’t you?”
Ankh shrugged. “I’m not involved with what is happening here, I’m just here to do recon for my emperor. I don’t mind helping you, but it won’t be for free.”
Mirgia weighed his options. Things were looking quite desperate and although Kimi had access to some powerful magic, he didn’t know if she would be able to make it past this magical barrier. It looked like Fezel was still alive as she was moving ever so slightly despite blood trickling from one of her wounds. Mirgia saw the desperation in Salandi’s eyes. “Fine, please help us.”
Ankh condescendingly patted him on the shoulder. “As you wish.”

Mirgia woke up early that morning, not having slept particularly well. Quint’s face kept flashing through his dreams and the maniacal look that Danil had haunted him throughout the night. At some point during the night his dreams were interrupted by some calming music and after that he managed to sleep a bit better. By the time he woke up, the sun was already out and he had to hurry to get ready in time. With how badly the previous expedition into the dungeon went, he didn’t feel great about bringing other people with him, but both Kimi and Karal had insisted on joining him. He did manage to convince Doroly to stay behind, although she didn’t seem happy about it. He asked her to go back to Redsan and tell the villagers to be prepared in case things went really wrong. He thought about Birdie and Teddy and how kind they had been to him and all that chaos that had now appeared on their doorstep without them having a say in it. He shook off the dreading feeling and focused on the now. The man named Ankh – which he had guessed wasn’t his real name – seemed at the very least difficult to trust. They met in front of the dungeon, where Ankh and his two companions were already investigating the entrance. “I thought you had brought more people with you?” Karal asked.

Ankh smiled. “We’ve decided that three of us would accompany you inside, less people means that there are less things that could go wrong.”
Mirgia nodded. “I like that.”
“Shall we go?” Ankh looked at everyone gathered here. Six people in total. Kimi had taken on a different glamor from normal and was sitting on Mirgia’s shoulder as an owl. Karal still looked quite distraught about the events of the previous day. The two Sahilid that came along with Ankh were hard to read, not really showing any emotion. They were armed quite well. It didn’t escape Mirgia’s gaze that they had two expensive looking swords each and several daggers hidden among their clothes. Ankh didn’t have any visible weaponry but held onto a black leather book with red details on it. Along the spine of this book was a red serpent. Mirgia took the lead on the expedition, explaining their descent in detail to Ankh and his people. They took an extended break at the writing they first discovered, with Ankh going over it in detail, even explaining some of his own hypotheses to Mirgia. “I believe that these ruins belong to the ancient flying city of Kanarth, and that the people of Venoria dealt with them before putting a warning here. The people of Kanarth were a warlike people that studied magic with the sole point of creating a world where they were in control of everything. Their flying city was the epitome of their might and also their downfall as when the magical engines were destroyed during the great war, the city came crashing down into the depths of the Feral Wildlands. This brings me to believe that the people of Kanarth probably mostly died out during that war although with the might they had, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of them survived.”
They moved on, deeper into the dungeon and quickly found the room with the musical trap that seemed to still be deactivated. Mirgia recounted what had happened to them here and the two people that came with Ankh did some investigating around the room, confirming that Mirgia’s story lined up with what they saw there.
“Interesting,” Ankh said, scanning the surroundings. “It’s a trap laid by a spirit, most likely.” He looked at Kimi. “Any ideas you might wish to share with us, wise spirit?”
“You certainly know how to flatter,” Kimi replied.
Ankh smiled. “It gets you a long way.”
“Well, unfortunately I don’t really know anything that you don’t already know. This magic could certainly be spirit magic, as it is quite tricky and doesn’t seem to follow any clear laws of magic. But that’s also where the parallel ends for me. I don’t know of any spirits that wield this type of magic and as a spirit of music myself, I feel like I’d be aware of them.”
Ankh pondered this for a few moments. “And what if this is the work of Seraloka?”
Kimi laughed. “Seraloka died a long time ago, and he wasn’t known to work with anyone. Could he cast something of this power? Certainly. But would he? I doubt it.”
Ankh shrugged. “I suppose you’re right.”
Mirgia looked confused. “Who is Seraloka?” he asked.
“Abreloka’s offspring,” Kimi explained. “Seraloka was a powerful spirit of music that lived in the time of the Arpentara’s stay in the mortal realm. The flute I own was made by him or one of his direct students, he was that powerful.”
Ankh nodded in agreement. “Seraloka is a legendary spirit that did many great things in his time in our world.” He sighed. “I wish I could have met him.” He shrugged off the feeling. “Let’s move on.”

“Strange,” Karal said. “It’s different.”
Mirgia agreed. They were standing in the room where Quint and priest Danil were killed. The different platforms were all at different heights before, but now that they returned to the room, they were all at the same height, only a slight bit above the ground. The blood that had been flowing off the central pillar had all but dried up by now and the room was deserted. The bodies of the insectoid creatures were still where they had left them.
Ankh lowered down to the ground and touched the sand that covered the floor. “This is peculiar.” He turned to Mirgia. “Can you tell me what this room looked like before and which things have changed? Please give me what seems like important details, but don’t waste time, I have a feeling something bad is about to happen and the faster we travel through this place, the more chance we stand at stopping it.”
“You’ve got to stop being so vague,” Kimi said, clearly getting irritated. “I get that you’re used to these things, but you keep hinting at something going wrong without telling us anything. How are we meant to do anything in that situation?”
Ankh raised his eyebrows. “I suppose old habits stick. Fine.” He stood up and addressed the three. “I believe this place to be a relic of the ancient city of Kanarth. It is supposed that the ancient city held many strange structures and during the disaster that crashed it, some of them were transported away, out of our realm. Why they are suddenly returning to our realm we do not know, but the emperor has decided that the technology that could be hidden in these dungeons is of high importance. Whenever we suspect that a strange dungeon is one of these shards of Kanarth – as we’ve come to call them – I travel there in person to check it out. The reason why I believe we need to hurry is that whatever magic is being cast in here, was clearly activated between the time that you left this room and we returned to it just now. That means something is happening and with what I know about the ancient magics found in the previous dungeon we encountered, it could be quite dangerous.” He looked agitated. “Is that enough?”
Kimi nodded. “Thank you for sharing that, let me show you what this room looked like when we left it.” She took out her flute and played a strange song that was both entrancing yet also kind of offputting. By the end of the song, there was a translucent vision of what the room looked like before, overlaying the current room.
“Impressive,” Ankh said. “Let us move on, I can see what this magic did. It was a complicated locking mechanism that unlocked something on a lower floor, which is presumably where the rest of your previous party is headed. We should make haste and follow them.”
“Boss, we might want to deal with that thing first,” one of the other Sahalid newcomers said. Neither had bothered to introduce themselves to Mirgia and the others and even when Mirgia had introduced himself to them, they’d only nodded but said nothing in return. He followed the motion the man made and saw that from a crumbling hole in the wall came another one of those insectoid creatures. Mirgia reached for his bow but felt his shoulder sting and hesitated. He could not fight well in his current state. He cursed and pulled out a dagger instead. Kimi flew up to a safe height and took out her flute. Another creature skittered out of the hole and then two more followed. Four of the insectoid creatures now came charging at them. Amidst the rising panic, Ankh held out his arms. “Be not afraid, I will dispose of these creatures.”
“Are you crazy?” Karal yelled, “we struggled taking out two with a much larger group, taking out four on your own is madness.”
Ankh smiled. “I mean to say this with as little arrogance as possible, but I am not to be compared to your average adventurer.” He turned to face the creatures. “Let me give you a little demonstration.” He pulled out his book and flipped through the pages until he found something he was looking for. He then pushed his thumb into a sharp edge on the black ring he wore on his left hand and then wiped the blood over the page. The page glowed crimson red and then something jumped out of the page. Standing between Ankh and the monsters was a fiery beast. It looked like a stag beetle but it was the size of a house and it immediately gave the charging insectoid monsters pause. The beetle raised its antennae and fire shot at each of the four creatures, setting them ablaze. Terrible screeching was heard across the room until the creatures collapsed into piles of ash, not being able to even come close to the party. Ankh then tore out the page and the fiery beetle vanished immediately. Before Ankh had fully turned around, Mirgia and Kimi were upon him. Mirgia’s dagger stopped near his neck and Kimi hung closely above them, her flute at the ready.
“What is the meaning of this?” Ankh asked.
“You’d better have an explanation ready or things are about to turn very ugly.” Mirgia said. “Did you send a creature like that to attack Milinia?”

After splitting up their group into two, Mirgia and his half of the remaining dungeon delvers brought the bodies of Danil and Quint back to the surface. When they exited the dungeon, they found the brothers Lym and Jom standing guard alongside another Sahalid mercenary that they hadn’t met before. The brothers immediately came forward to help the party and cursed at the death of one of their own. The Sahalid were not a monolith, far from it, but there was a mutual respect among them for their fellow mercenaries. Some rivalry existed, but they ultimately were part of the same organization. Lym took Mirgia aside. “You’d better go and check with Captain Arios, things are very hectic right now.”
“Right now?” Mirgia asked. The sky had turned fully black and he estimated it to be the middle of the night, so he was surprised to hear this.
Lym nodded. “Visitors from the capital came earlier this evening and the captain has been in talks with them for the past few hours about what to do next.”
“That sounds complicated. I’ll go report to him and see what he wants us to do next.” He motioned the rest of his group over. “Can you help Sereh and the priests in preparing the bodies?” He asked Lym.
Lym nodded. “We’ll make sure they are made ready for cremation.”
The priests went to follow Lym but Mirgia stopped Karal. “I think it’s best that one of your group comes with me to meet with the captain.”
Karal nodded and after giving a few orders to Masahi and the others he joined Mirgia, Doroly, Roal and Kimi as they made their way towards the captain’s tent. After exchanging a few words with the guard, he went inside to ask for permission to enter. Instead, Captain Arios followed him out after a few moments. “You’re back,” he said.
Mirgia nodded. “Things went very badly and we decided to send part of the group back with the bodies.”
Captain Arios frowned. “Who did we lose?”
“Head Priest Danil killed Quint. I then killed the head priest.”
Arios glanced at Karal who nodded. “Unfortunately we’ve come to believe it as the truth. Without any answers to what motivated our former head priest to do this, we have no real direction on where to go from here.”
“Quickly tell me exactly what happened before we go inside.”
Mirgia recounted the trap they were stuck in, Kimi’s help in the matter and then the confrontation with the insectoid creatures in the underground sand pit. He explained that there was some sort of magical circle that was activated with the blood of the two deceased and they didn’t know what it did. He also gave his suspicion that this dungeon was once part of the flying kingdom of Kanarth. Captain Arios listened intently and although he seemed impatient to go back inside, he let Mirgia finish. He nodded when Mirgia was done explaining the situation. “I’d like two of you to join me inside to meet with our guests. They’re a part of the Sahilid Imperatoris, the part of our organization that works directly for the emperor. They will want to hear this too.”
Mirgia would have loved to bring Kimi with him, but instead he decided it made more sense to bring Karal with him. The priest appreciated it, and together they followed Captain Arios into his tent.

Inside the tent were a little more than a dozen people. Besides the captain himself, two of his own advisors were seated behind the little desk that Captain Arios had been using. Across from him sat three people that were dressed in a well crafted uniform. Where the other members of the Sahalid wore whatever gear they had access to, it seemed like these people wore the symbol of the emperor, a strange looking symbol that reminded him of a sword with a horseshoe at the top. He hadn’t seen it before. Finally, a man stood behind the three seated Sahilid members. The moment Mirgia spotted this man, he was on edge. Every fiber in his body told him that he was in the room with an incredibly dangerous person. Cold eyes looked at him and although the man had a smile on his face, there was nothing behind that smile. Sitting on the rim of his black hat were several gemstones, each of a different color. He wore a black and purple suit with purple gloves and shoes. He was leaning on a cane that Mirgia could see and also held a rapier inside of it. The man turned to Mirgia and bowed politely. “Mirgia of Milinia and Karal of the sect of Owlana, a pleasure to meet you both. I have understood that you two were inside the dungeon until just now?”
Mirgia nodded. It didn’t sneak past him that the man already knew their names. Mirgia was the only elf here, so that information could come from Captain Arios telling the men who were all inside, but Karal’s name being known to this man came as a surprise.
“We have just exited bringing the bodies of two of our companions, so my apologies if I seem a little shaken,” Mirgia said. That was a lie. He didn’t want to be too open with this person so he needed a good excuse to come across a bit more abrasive.
Karal seemed more visibly afraid of the man. “Who are you?” He asked.
“I go by many names, most know me as the wanderer. But if it helps, you may call me Ankh.” He flashed the symbol that the other Sahalid had on their tunics and Mirgia guessed that the symbol had the same name.
“I’ve understood from the good captain that you are here as a direct subordinate of the emperor, are you here to take control of this site?” Mirgia asked.
The man smiled. “Not quite. I would not want to step on the toes of Captain Arios when he has been doing a fine job. No, this particular dungeon has caught the interest of our brilliant emperor and he sent me over to investigate. There are some hints that this place might have something to do with the long lost flying city of Kanarth.”
Mirgia frowned at this. “How do you know that? I mean, I believe you’re correct, considering some of the things we encountered there, but we had no way of knowing before entering the place.”
Ankh’s smile went even wider, almost turning into a mad grin. “Well, the emperor and I have been researching the flying city of Kanarth for a long time now. Their rule over the skies was an incredible period within the history of the continent of Palaria, and there are many pieces of technology and magic that are likely hidden somewhere in the world that come from that time period. We don’t know exactly what happened to the remains of the city after it fell, but it is rumored that most of the city vanished. Some rare times, parts of it show up, although it’s often no more than a building or something, even only a wall or a bit of pavement. So with that in mind, we’ve developed a way to locate the magic signature of the city. Although this still requires the person who searches for it to be within a certain range, it’s a lot better than having no idea.” He paused, his eyes flickering from person to person as if reading them. “Now, if I may ask, what did you encounter in the dungeon? You said your party lost some members?”
Mirgia nodded and proceeded to repeat the story he told Captain Arios once more. Where the captain quietly listened to Mirgia’s story, the man named Ankh kept interrupting him with questions about details he barely remembered. When he got to the room where the fighting went down, the gemstones on the man’s hat started to slightly hum. He put his hand on the hat and they quieted down again. “Did you get a good look at the magic circle?” Ankh asked.
Mirgia shook his head. “I am not very familiar with this type of magic. I’ve seen it once or twice before, but until recently I didn’t even know it existed.”
Ankh nodded. “Magic circles are an ancient art that is mostly lost. This loss of the art is not by coincidence either. The magic can be used in different ways and as you seemingly witnessed, it can be amplified by using the blood of an unsuspecting victim. Normally, this magic requires the caster to pour energy into the circle, either from their own body or from some other source. When someone is bleeding out on top of the magic circle, all of their energy pours into the spell, making it much more powerful than you could normally accomplish. When this little tidbit was found out, the flying city of Kanarth made sure that the knowledge didn’t get out much. They basically monopolized this kind of magic for much of their existence which also meant that much of the knowledge disappeared alongside the city itself. It was only within the last few decades that the magic was rediscovered. What baffles me about this situation is why a priest of Owlana would not only know how this magic works, but also want to activate it. Although Owlana usually prefers to spread knowledge freely as opposed to restricting it, there are definitely things she likes to hide from the world. This type of magic is one of those things, so I can’t really imagine her sharing it with a priest. Especially not to perform an act like this.”
“You sound like you know our lady quite a bit, isn’t that a bit insolent?” Karal looked offended at the man’s comments.Ankh’s expression darkened for a moment before the forced smile returned. “There is no insult intended, dear priest. I’m simply stating some facts from the few times I’ve interacted with the goddess of knowledge. Your mistress and I have a long and checkered history and although I am hesitant to admit that we are not on the best of terms, I’d like to believe we have a mutual respect for each other.” He returned his attention back to Mirgia. “Would you be willing to lead me and my people back into the dungeon?”
Mirgia hesitated. He was tired and still upset about everything that went down inside. Besides that, his shoulder was wounded quite badly, so he wouldn’t be much use if they got to be in a fight. As if he was reading Mirgia’s thoughts, Ankh said, “don’t worry, there is nothing in that dungeon that can kill me, so I will do the fighting.”
The scariest part about this claim was that the man seemed to fully believe it.
Mirgia nodded. “I will accompany you, if I can bring some of my own people as well. There is still a group of Sahilid mercenaries down there as well that I would like to help get out safely with whatever treasure there is to get.”
Ankh nodded. “Very well, get some sleep tonight, we will go into the dungeon in the morning. Bring whoever you want to bring, but try to keep it under half a dozen or I can’t protect everyone.”
Mirgia nodded and excused himself from the tent with Karal in tow.