The Eyrian man left them outside an old inn. A rusted sign swung from a thin chain, proclaiming its name—Sunrise Inn. The inn looked nothing like the sunrise, rather like a place burned down and then rebuilt from scraps.

"Akata Veda." The old man tipped his hat at them and rode off.

"Akata Veda," Zoroth replied, but the man was gone.

"What does that mean?" Cadence asked.

"In Moskavan, it means 'May you seek the right path'. Eyrianese utilizes simple lexical and semantic features unlike Moskavan. If you let me pick my favorite language, Eyrianese comes second, with my native tongue being the first."

"What is your native tongue? Roaring?"

"Oh, I wish." He chuckled. "I speak the Ancient Tongue. It doesn't have a name. A name serves as a restriction. When you name something, you're setting a boundary for it which it cannot cross. Ancients do not believe in names, but as we grow closer to humans, we've adapted their culture into ours."

Zoroth pushed the door open, breaking off the handle in the process. He casually threw it aside, and entered the inn, whistling.

The inn was crowded with people who had come to witness the festivities. Zoroth paved a way for her to pass by jostling through the crowd and stamped his mark at the counter.

"A room for two," he said in a deep voice.

The woman frowned at him, then her gaze fell onto Cadence.

"She yeh daughter?"

"Aye," Zoroth replied. "Traveled far teh see party. One night, how much?"

"One silver," the woman said. "Only few rooms left. Yeh have only one bed, is that fine?"

"Aye." Zoroth passed the woman the coin Cadence had given him earlier in the morning.

One bed only? Cadence stared the Zoroth in horror as he accepted the key. Dewas knew how old this Ancient was, and he was a male!

"Second floor, last room on the left."

"Thank you." Zoroth tipped his hat at her and lumbered up the flimsy stairs. Cadence had to run in order to catch up with him.

"A bed," he announced. "After a long day is a blessing."

He unlocked the door, kicked it open and stomped in with such force he knocked a spider from the ceiling. Zoroth swiped off his hat, shrugged off his cloak and unfurled his wings just as Cadence closed the door. Zoroth stretched like a cat after bathing in the sun then made a dash for the bed.

"Are you really that tired?" Cadence asked.

"I'm still healing." His answer came out muffled as his head was buried in the pillow. "Wounds from Celestium take longer to heal. Did I mention I hate Celestium?"

"I don't doubt it." Cadence unraveled the cloth from her face and took in a deep breath of cold air. It was hot under all the fabric, she wondered how Eyrians put up with it in the burning desert.

She proceeded to remove her daggers which she placed on the table, followed by her belt and her cloak bundle.

"Why join the army when you are a Walker?" Zoroth asked. One of his horns had snagged the blanket but he didn't seem to notice. "You're basically handing yourself over to them. Not even the Hall of Games is safe for a Walker."

"I wasn't always a Varya." The Celestium slivers clinked as she ran her fingers through them. "My Awakening was after my father's death."

"Yet, you didn't have to go."

"They took my brother, I couldn't leave him alone."

"Or you couldn't bear the thought of being alone?" Zoroth's dark skin had blended in with the shadows. The only thing Cadence could see was two luminous purple lights that were his eyes.

"You know nothing about me. Don't assume," Cadence snapped. She looked at her hands and found that they were still stained in Zoroth's silver blood. She hadn't had the chance to clean them. Raising her wrist, she noticed that the trinket Cole gave her was coated in blood as well. She untied the bracelets, placed them next to the utility belt and went hunting for a water bowl.

"After everything, you still needn't join the Kesatria. You could have lived a life of you own that was no bogged down by politics."

"I did something very wrong." She stalled. "Following Cole to the Hall of Games was the least I could do."

"It all depends on your sense of judgment," Zoroth said. "What did you do?"

Cadence didn't know why, but she felt an urge to tell him. Maybe it was the Polong pressing on her in her mind, or maybe it was herself. She no longer wanted to lie. One lie had led to another, and it had all build up into a tower which had collapsed on top of her.

"I made a deal with a Polong. It promised me he would heal my father if I set it free. I was selfish, I ignored the fact that it was an evil Spirit. I just wanted to get back to my old life where I don't have to work as a maid anymore."

"What did the Polong do?"

"It influenced a Rakasha to kill my father."

She felt shame and guilt bubble to the surface, and she let it burn her.

"I don't believe that," Zoroth said. "No Polong is powerful enough to influence a Rakasha. Only a well-trained Walker or an Ancient could, let alone the Polong is an entrapped one. Even at its peak, it wouldn't be able to control another creature's will. It's just a bloody spirit."

"It said it was a Polong."

"And you trusted it?"

"I-" She then realized something she ought to have noticed. Tens, if not hundreds of people, including Master Orelik himself had entered the library, went through the collection of peculiar items and books for countless of times, and the Polong had been silent. Why her?

"Little one," Zoroth said loudly.

"What?"

"Water is here." He pointed at the bed stand.

Cadence strode over, took the jug and the basin and went back to the table. The water was stagnant, cold, probably a day old, but it would do. She soaked the bracelets inside and started to wash the blood off her hands.

What if Zoroth was right? If it wasn't a Polong, then what was it?

"Would you mind lighting us a fire?" Cadence asked Zoroth, trying to distract herself.

She threw him her flint, which he caught with lightning speed.

"I don't need this miserable piece of stone," he said. "Watch."

He sat up, sucked in a deep breath and blew a precise streak of fire across the room and into the fireplace. The firewood blazed at once, and warmth fanned out.

"Show off."

"What? I'm a dragon. Dragons don't use flints."

"You really needn't do that." Cadence wrung her hands dry. She fished out her bracelets and laid them to dry on top of her face shawls. "Zoroth, if it wasn't a Polong, what creature can be so powerful to destroy an entire mansion and control Rakasha?"

The Ancient looked disturbed. "No spirit on earth can accumulate that much power. I'm afraid you're dealing with something far darker and sinister. Where in the name of Valador did you get your hands on such a creature?"

"It found me," Cadence said. "I don't know why, or what it can obtain from me."

You do know why, the Polong, or the not-Polong whispered. I gave you gifts, gifts you never considered yourself to have in the first place. You need me and you know it.

"Do you have food?" She burst out, covering the Polong's voice with her own.

"Food?" Zoroth sounded as though as he had never heard the term before.

"Yes, food. Things that even Ancients require to function."

"Didn't pack any," he said. "I went to hunt, but I was hunted instead, remember?"

Cadence untied Ales' coin pouch from his belt. "I'll buy us something to eat, maybe stock up on something lasting as well, seeing that there won't be many villages en route Eyria."

Zoroth grabbed her hand. "It's too risky for you. I'll go. I don't have my posters circling the villages like a wild wind."

"Remember, humans don't gnaw on bones," she reminded him as she handed him the pouch of coins.

"Neither do we," Zoroth said flatly. "Don't go anywhere. I'll be back."

He shrugged on his cloak, flattened his hat against his horns and backed out of the room.

Cadence splashed the cold water onto her face repeatedly, trying to wash out the restlessness.

What are you? She ground out. If you're going to be in my head, you better tell me what you are.

Or you'll do what? The Polong snickered. Dig me out of your head?

You aren't a Polong. It wasn't a question.

Took you long enough to figure it out, it said. Foolish girl.

What do you want from me? There are hundreds of others who passed through the library day and night. You didn't know I was Varya, how could I have benefited you?

If you're thinking I chose you because you were special, you're wrong. I have my game planned out, you're just a piece of it, a backup plan. You think the world of nobles is your worst enemy, but you have not yet tasted true fear, girl. There are far more complicated things than the nobles and their games, the halls, and the Houses, but you people never learn from your mistakes.

You-

The door flew open. Cadence didn't even have the time to react when a blast of wind knocked her into the wall. Two men garbed in Walker Hunter gear leaped forward and let small needles fly free from inside their sleeves.

Cadence dodged, but a couple needles sank into her neck. There was a small prick of pain, followed by instant drowsiness.

"Zoroth," she tried to call out, but whatever the Hunters had coated the needles with, it was working fast on her. "Zoroth."

Through fading vision, she saw the men drag the Eyrian man who had given them a lift into the room. One of them drew a knife, and the old man started trashing, begging for them to spare him.

"Amachi!" he cried. "Ya Amachi!"

No! The Hunter slit the old man's throat and released him. He pitched forward, hands grabbing at his throat where blood spurted out like a waterfall.

She tried to summon the shadows, but even the shadows were too groggy to respond. The last thing she saw was the Hunters closing in and she blacked out.