Darien didn't get much in the way of sleep; his mind was too active. Possible answers and greater powers awaited him in the wizard tower of Balocen, but getting there and back without Lendus finding out would be a challenge. The only method of conveyance available to him was the anchor on the library grounds. He didn't know how they were used, and even if he did, the moment a vortex of purple flames started, Lendus would see it and come running. It was possible the apprentice would be able to track him down, even between anchors. The Librarian had followed him between worlds, so trailing someone across a single realm seemed an even easier task. Darien couldn't seem to find a way out from under Lendus' watchful gaze.

Bolting upright on the mat serving as his bed, Darien had a flash of inspiration. He'd originally established a shroud enchantment to keep the amulet a secret, and he wondered if he could do it again and in such a way as to follow him on his entire quest. He dug through his pile of magic books, looking for any kind of information relating to a mobile shroud ever previously cast by a wizard.

Additionally, Darien spent an hour looking for instructions on how to work one of the magical anchors. He had a plan in mind for how to escape Lendus and continue on his own quest, but it would involve working the teleportation effect of the anchor to reach the wizard tower of Balocen.

When he finally went to bed again, Darien was exhausted but confident his plan would work. Countless things might still go wrong, but he tried to focus on the good possibilities. Every theft job he'd worked had the potential for unexpected trouble. He'd dealt with it before, so some of his preparations felt familiar. He tried desperately to ignore the thoughts in the back of his mind, recalling the consequences of his last job that had put him in this predicament.

***

Darien woke early and unrested. His mind was still turning over his plans from last night, and the rational part of his brain told him he must've been sleep deprived when he'd conceived such a ludicrous gamble.

He'd taken tremendous chances since arriving, and he felt certain he'd be forced to take more before he finished his part in the story.

Darien dressed again in his thief clothes, head to toe in black with only the slightest opening for his blue eyes. He knew his attire would be extremely visible, to say nothing of hot, in the canyons inhabited by the serpents, but he wasn't planning on facing the reptiles directly.

"They'll spot you coming miles away," Lendus sneered when he saw Darien. "Why don't you simply wave a flag?"

"I'm not planning to breach the city head on," Darien explained, telling the truth but omitting key details. "Numerous caves honeycomb the region, no doubt a left over from the volcanic activity responsible for creating the rock formations around the serpents' city. If I can get into any of the old fissures leading into or out of the magma chamber, I might be able to enter the city unseen."

"You're the thief," Lendus said with a disinterested shrug.

Darien followed Lendus outside to the circle of white stones embedded in the lawn behind the library. Although Darien stood in the center of the circle, Lendus remained outside this time.

"If you retrieve the amulet, it will give you the power to come back using the anchor," Lendus explained. "Simply concentrate on where you wish to go and light the surrounding torches. The amulet will do the rest."

"What if I can't get it?" Darien asked.

"If you fail in your task, you won't be able to come back," Lendus said coldly.

"How am I supposed to find the amulet?" Darien protested. "You haven't even told me how to recognize it!"

"I told you it was unique," Lendus reminded. "Find the one amulet that is different from all the others."

"There are probably thousands in there, each one attached to a serpent," Darien pointed out. "You're sending me on a suicide mission!"

"You still have a chance to succeed, slight, but it's there," Lendus said. His voice dropped to a growl. "It's more than you gave my master. I wish you well."

Lendus waved his hands in a circular motion, lighting the torches around the stone circle and creating the swirl of violet flames around Darien. When the fire dispersed in smoldering fragments, Darien found himself in the dry canyons and windswept peaks of the Velacian Mountains.

He immediately spun around, half expecting one of the serpents to be lingering nearby. Darien started breathing again when he discovered he was alone. Taking the amulet from one of his many pockets, he held it securely in one hand and focused on creating the shroud as he'd done before. A cloud of orange sparkles appeared in a dome shape with Darien in the center. The sparkles only stayed illuminated for a moment before fading from sight.

With the shielding protecting him from any magical observation, he turned his attention toward the next part of his plan. Closing his eyes, Darien repeated what he'd seen Lendus do before to activate the anchor.

Darien stretched his arms out to either side and started slowly turning. He concentrated on what he'd read about the land of Balocen and imagined the flames lighting around him. Swirls of purple fire created a cyclone of magic. When Darien was ready, he slammed the empty palm of his left hand and his closed right fist to the ground.

The fire dispersed again, but the growing heat of the early morning desert vanished with it. Darien looked up to behold an entirely different place.  He couldn't tell if it was day or night as thick storm clouds hovered overhead. The occasional rumble of thunder echoed across the abysmal landscape. The winds whistled hollowly between the crumbling walls of the desolate city. Balocen was a ruin with burned down structures, broken streets, and everything not torn down or blasted apart was covered in ash and scorch marks. The entire environment was black, gray, and all the variations in between as if all the color had been leeched out if it.

Darien had passed through a city sacked during a war, and the devastation was to a similar degree. He wondered who had attacked the place, when, and for what ultimate purpose. He saw a dark tower in the distance and assumed it was his intended destination.

The stones of the roadway, broken into gravel, crunched under his boots. Darien kept a wary eye on the ruined city as he progressed toward the tower because he couldn't shake the feeling of being watched.  It took Darien ten minutes to reach the tower at his slow and cautious pace. He didn't find any signs of human, animal, or insect life. Regardless, the sensation of being observed never abated.

The tower was ominous in the darkness caused by the overcast sky. The stone appeared black, making the entire structure seem to be constructed of shadow. The rounded edges of the tower were perfectly smooth, similar to a polished stone found along a riverbed. The tower split into seven individual spikes at the pinnacle, and the spikes angled and curved, twisting into a spiral around a massive, vertical shard of crystal. The crystalline formation at the summit of the tower was as dark as everything else in Balocen.

Darien walked around the tower and found a single door on ground level, but when he reached for the handle, his hand struck an invisible partition. Pinpoints of glittering red light appeared around his fingertips where they contacted the transparent barrier.

Remembering what Naja had told him about the amulet allowing her people to pass through, Darien reached for the door again but with the fist holding the amulet. The sparkles of magic appeared again, but the color changed to lustrous white, and all resistance was gone.

Darien walked forward, the previously impeding shield allowing him through with no trouble. Once inside the barrier, Darien was able to open the door and enter the tower.

Scarcely any light managed to slip through the open door and into the tower, leaving the interior darker than the outside world. Darien was about to use a candle from his gear when he thought about the magical abilities given him by the amulet. Holding the enchanted item in his right hand and concentrating on his left, Darien waited to see how well the amulet responded. A fireball the size of a large apple blossomed into existence over his open left hand. It hovered in place while providing a soft orange light. The heat from the fireball was mild, allowing it to stay suspended over his palm without any risk of burning his fingers.

With a light source, Darien turned his attention to his surroundings. The main floor of the tower was wide, covered in blue marble. Small pods were spaced at even distances around the edge of the room a few inches above eye level. He stepped closer to examine one of the pods in greater detail.  Upon inspection, Darien discovered the pods were actually in the shape of an acorn. The lower portion of the acorn was composed of tinted glass while the top had been constructed of bronze. The positioning and design of the acorns gave him an idea.

Darien clenched his left fist to extinguish his summoned fireball. He placed his empty hand on the acorn and it lit up at his silent command projected into the magical lantern by the amulet. Stretching out his hand, Darien spun around, and each acorn shaped lamp illuminated as his hand passed over it.

Looking up, Darien could see by the lights, the tower was open in the center all the way to the top. He threw his hand up, and every lamp activated in sequence from the lowest floors to the highest, giving him a grand view of the entire tower.

Balconies rimmed each floor, along with doorways into small rooms housed within the confines of the tower's thick outer wall. Darien was confused for a moment because he couldn't find any ladders or stairways between levels. The answer came to him, and he felt stupid for not thinking of it earlier. A wizard or magic using serpent wouldn't require a stairway as they'd simply use their powers to traverse the distance.

Feeling inspired to try, Darien closed his eyes while thinking about what he wanted. He took a single step, then another, but when he opened his eyes, he hadn't moved from his starting position near the wall lamp. He looked down as he took another step and realized he hadn't moved because he wasn't in contact with the floor any longer; he was hovering an inch above it. Reaching down with the toe of his boot, Darien pushed off and went sailing upward in a flight of zero gravity.

He took hold of a railing on the second level and pulled himself in. Concentrating on the amulet for a moment, he shut off the weightlessness and settled down upon the plush carpeting of the balcony floor.  The dark color of the material matched well with the blue marble of the floor.

Darien was excited as he'd never had so much fun. Looking around to see what was available on his current level, he found an exquisite map. The map wasn't drawn but crafted. Forests were composed of carved slivers of tiger's eye for tree trunks, the bands of golden color within the stone resembling bark. The leaves of the canopy were made from glittering emeralds. Deserts had been crafted with silver and gold dust. Chips of sapphires and pearls created the white crested waves of oceans. Marble tiles composed the cities, and the etching upon the marble was so detailed, Darien could see individual roof shingles on the houses. He recognized the Velacian Mountains, forged in bronze and topped by sparkling snowcaps of diamonds. A sphere of golden topaz as large as Darien's fist was implanted in the map's upper right hand corner to represent the sun.

Scattered across the map in a hundred locations were disks of ivory the size of his fingernail. Darien assumed they represented the teleportation points of the anchors. Seeing all of them represented on the map, Darien was stunned by the number of places interconnected by the ancient network.

Darien's thief instincts kicked in, and he started to reach for the map to collect the wealth on display, but he just as quickly changed his mind. He lowered his hands when he thought about what had happened to him the last time he'd taken something from a tower owned by a powerful magic user. He wasn't about to make the same mistake twice.

Leaving the map alone, Darien started to explore the tower, but a chilling thought came to mind, halting him in his tracks. He'd been so mesmerized by the grandeur of the tower he hadn't been taking everything into account. The tower was still in perfect condition while the town outside was in ruins. It was conceivable those responsible for burning down the city couldn't breach the magical barrier, but Darien now considered if the wizard of the tower might be the one responsible for the town's destruction.

Naja had said her people were always welcome in the tower, but it didn't prove anything as to the character of the wizard. Someone who would burn down a city might be willing to assist a race of reptiles in doing the same in their homeland. He needed further evidence before he could believe anything she'd told him.

When Naja had originally sent him to Balocen, he'd thought she might be sending him into an ambush. He now wondered if the tower might not be as empty as it first appeared. Darien suddenly felt like a fly in the center of a spider web. Although he needed more information, every instinct he had was screaming at him to get out as fast as possible.