When the red light flashed from the inside of the palace, Zephyr instinctively braced for a gust of warm air, but this time it was completely different. An invisible force grabbed him and held him in a painful grip. He shrieked in a mixture of pain and surprise, but before he tensed all his muscles to try to break free, the whole world around him twisted and turned.

His insides clenched painfully, and he felt as if he was falling and raising, making his head spin and nausea grow in his gut. But before he could shriek again, the force holding disappeared, and he crushed onto the dusty ground.

The gryphon jumped to his paws, ready to strike down whoever dared to throw the filthy magic at him.

But there was nobody around.

Zephyr perked up and looked around. He was no longer in the Capital. The truth was, he had no idea where he was right now. All he could see were barren, dusty plains with no characteristic landmarks.

The gryphon lashed his tail nervously and whined. Gawyn and Skylar were nowhere to be found. He focused on his bond and sensed a flicker of Gawyn's presence, but it was far away. His bonded human was restless and as anxious as Zephyr was, but luckily, he didn't sense any impending danger just yet.

Zephyr shrieked in defiance, spread his wings and jumped into the air, heading in the direction where he could sense Gawyn's presence. Filthy magical humans could try to separate them, but there was no way they could stop him.

As he would always find his way back to his family.

***

As Skylar and Gawyn sat together in the middle of the hallway, the world around them was melting. The vision blurred and waved, changing from the lavish palace to cold and dark ruins stinking of rot and mould.

When Skylar could finally breathe, she wiped her face with a dirty sleeve and pulled away from Gawyn's arms to look around them. The plush red carpet disappeared, leaving a cold grey stone. The doors were rotten wrecks or disappeared altogether, and the only source of light was an otherworldly yellow glow coming out of the side chambers. Skylar felt a chill running down her spine.

"The illusion has finally dropped."

"Yes. Are you all right?" Gawyn asked, watching her intently.

"No, are you?"

"Not in the slightest."

"Do you know where Zephyr is?" Sky asked, concerned. "Was he not with you?"

"No. He's fine, but he's... away now. The sorcerers must have found a way to move him into some distant place. But all that gave them was a bit more time. He's pissed and on his way back already. But it might take him a while to get here, so we better keep moving."

"I'm so glad you said it, as I didn't want to rush you two," the voice said from behind them.

Skylar jumped, startled and raised her dagger, ready to strike the unknown attacker.

"Woah, easy there! I'm with you guys!" Alarat raised his hands placatingly.

Skylar's jaw dropped open. "Is this another illusion? I thought we broke them all already."

"Oh no, he's quite real. For a ghost." Gawyn got up and offered Skylar his hand. "He's been following me for a while now."

"How do you know it's not another Sorcerers' trick?" Skylar asked glaring at Alarat.

"He had plenty of opportunities to act against me, yet so far, all he did was help. At this point, I'm fairly certain it is Alarat's spirit."

"But what is he doing here?"

"An excellent question!" the ghost said with a smile and proceeded to explain things from the start, as he did for Gawyn.

Skylar listened attentively, still frowning and eyeing him warily, while Gawyn walked down the hall peeking into the side rooms.

"Fine, let's say I believe you. But you'd better not try any dirty tricks, or I will end you," Skylar growled, pointing her dagger at Alarat, who laughed.

"My dear, you can't end me. I'm already dead."

"Sky, you might want to come and see this," Gawyn called.

Skylar gave the ghost the last, lingering glare and went to join her husband at the threshold of one of the rooms. The hair on her body raised, and her skin crawled.

The room was full of big, glass cylinders full of fluorescent yellow liquid giving off an otherworldly light. Rows were lining all the walls, and Skylar quickly counted over fifty, just in this room. The glow could be seen from all other chambers in this hallway too. Copper pipes led from each cylinder and disappeared into the far wall.

Inside the cylinders, the bodies were floating.

"What is this place?" Skylar gasped, reluctantly walking inside and putting her hand on the glass surface of the glass tube. Inside was the naked body of a young man. His skin was ashen grey, and his skin looked paper-thin, stuck closely to bones sticking out as if he was starved to death.

"There are so many of them." Gawyn walked further inside, looking at the morbid exhibition. "They are all long dead."

"After you blocked his path of conquest eight years ago, the Emperor had to get creative," said Alarat solemnly. "Since I got here, I saw things I would much like to unsee. Which is impossible, unfortunately."

Gawyn turned around to face him. "Tell us."

Alarat sighed and rubbed his brow. "It won't be a pretty story."

"I don't think anyone expects a pretty story now," Skylar said impatiently, turning to him again. "Just out with it. We need all the context we can get if we want to bring the Emperor down."

"When the Blighted Lands invaded Lamyria eight years ago, they needed more magic supplies, but it wasn't dire yet. The Emperor is a cunning man. He planned meticulously, knowing he must provide a stable magic income if he wanted his kingdom to survive.

"They conquered all other lands on the east side of the continent already, and what once was a steady stream of magic was reduced to a mere trickle. Hence, the invasion plans. Lamyria is a big kingdom with great power coursing just underneath the surface. It was a perfect target and would provide the Blighted Lands with resources that could last for a few more centuries."

"But we fought back their forces and made a pretty huge blockade at the border," Skylar said.

"Yes, you did. Oh, how the Emperor was furious when he saw it." Alarat chuckled mirthlessly. "I'm pretty sure he killed a couple of his servants in a blind rage. What?" he asked, seeing his companions' disgusted faces. "They were all sorcerers. No one is going to miss those scums!

"Anyway, what initially wasn't a dire need, quickly turned into one. Sorcerers' magic income from the east ran dry, and the power became sparse. You saw how this land looks now. Nothing can survive here long without magic. And so, the Blighted Lands started to turn to even more ruin than it already was.

"When I appeared here eight years ago, everything looked different. This place was crawling with sorcerers, and each of them was commanding countless armies of enslaved humans. Or whatever that was left from those poor people. But with magic suddenly disappearing, the Emperor stopped being generous and started to hoard most power to himself.

"The sorcerers couldn't keep their armies and their little fortresses around this wasteland anymore. Most of them returned here, to the Capital, as the Emperor was the one keeping this place habitable. But he is not a very kind person as you can imagine. He let them stay here, but for a price.

"Every single sorcerer was working tirelessly to find the solution for the lack of magic. The Emperor expected results fast, so he made an example of those whose efforts were not to his satisfaction. A few years back, one of them discovered traces of magic inside humans, in their souls.

"No, they didn't," Skylar protested suddenly pale, looking back at the glowing cylinders.

"Unfortunately, yes, they did. Until now, sorcerers weren't strangers to using human souls for their vile purposes. But it mainly involved taking over the bodies and creating half sentient army of walking corpses, the one you've seen during the invasion.

"They started to experiment eagerly." Alarat stopped and rubbed his eyes, trying to find the right words. "It was awful. They were bringing hundreds of people here to the palace─mostly those poor souls hunted in the conquered lands in the east. They didn't care for age, sex or appearance. Everyone who was still alive and did not directly serve the Emperor was dragged here and put into one of those cylinders."

"So, did they succeed?" Gawyn asked.

"Yes, they did. But the Emperor was still not satisfied. The amount of magic that could be extracted from one person was minimal, so it was not a stable source of power. Not for the ever-growing needs of the Emperor. He ordered the sorcerers to work more, to find a way to harvest the magic from many people at once. And ideally from a distance."

"The plague that fell on Lamyria," Skylar said bitterly. "That's it. They finally invented it?"

"Yes." Alarat nodded solemnly. "It took a lot of time and sacrifices, both of innocent subjects and the sorcerers themselves, but they found the way. They created the poison based on Emperor's blood. Once it's let loose, it replicates and works like an aggressive predator, infecting more and more people."

"How can we stop it?" Skylar asked, fidgeting with her dagger.

Alarat opened his arms wide. "I have no idea. They are not exactly working on the way of stopping this thing, you know. I know that each person succumbing to the illness feeds the Emperor with magic. And he's getting stronger every day while our people are fading away." There was evident hatred in Alarat's voice, the emotion she never heard from him when he was alive. But she couldn't blame him─she was feeling it too. It was despicable.

"If we kill the Emperor," Gawyn said, "will it stop the plague? If he is feeding off that magic, and siphoning it from people's souls, once he's dead, they should be cured, correct?"

Alarat rubbed his beard. "I would assume so, yes. I can't say for sure, but it sounds logical."

"Then what are we waiting for? Let's go find and kill him!" Skylar said impatiently.

"Sky, wait." Gawyn grabbed her elbow before she moved away. "We can't rush into it without a failproof plan. If we get a chance to kill him, we must make sure we take the best shot because we might not have another one."

"I agree," Alarat said. "Remember that the Emperor is no longer human. He's been feeding on magic for centuries now."

"Centuries?" Skylar asked, baffled. She paled visibly. "How old is he exactly?"

"I have no idea. The sorcerers use magic to prolong their lives. I assume that someone as powerful as him was doing it for a long time."

"You said this place used to crawl with sorcerers," Gawyn said, looking around. "Is it not so now?"

"No. Luckily for you, most of them perished already, either as a result of failed experiments, competition inside the ranks, or the Emperor's rage. Being a sorcerer here is not exactly a safe job."

"How many then?" pressed Gawyn.

Alarat shrugged. "I can't say for sure. My guess would be around fifty here in the palace."

"Fifty is still a lot for just the two of us," Skylar noted.

"Well, lucky for you, this is a huge place," Alarat replied. "And sorcerers are not the most friendly band. Many of them are holed up in their dark workshop, working on that curse or other most of the time. I don't know if you noticed, but there are not many regular guards out here."

"Yeah, I wondered about that." Skylar nodded slowly.

"Sorcerers are a proud bunch. They deem themselves perfectly able to protect themselves from whatever might be coming at them. Not that there are many hostile intrusions here. Since they practically wiped all the life out of these lands, they don't get many visitors."

"Do you know where we can find the Emperor?" Gawyn asked, rubbing his chin.

"Oh yes, he's in his throne room. He never moves from there."

"What do you mean, he never moves?" Skylar frowns. "He must leave that place sometimes, surely?"

"It's hard to explain. You have to see it. Otherwise, you wouldn't believe me."

"It doesn't matter now," Gawyn interrupted. "Alarat, I need you to give me exact directions to that throne room and describe it with every detail you could think of. Also, try to remember where you saw the sorceress previously and if there are any patterns to their movements."

Alarat nodded and pulled his sleeves up his arms. "Let's get to work then."