Tamer stood at the doorway of the first floor in the sanitarium. Clara and Rai had just gone to the courtyard in a hurry.

He turned to Eryx. “What are they up to?”

Eryx shrugged.

There was nothing special about the sconces except for the colors. He’d attributed that to aesthetics but judging by Rai and Clara’s reactions, they must have discovered something. Unlike him, Rai was good at solving puzzles. Eryx, on the other hand, was as clueless as he was.

Tamer found the marble statue more interesting. It resembled a deity, perhaps some goddess of medicine and healing since it was inside the sanitarium. Dust clung to the creases on its robe. It was missing a hand and part of its torso, exposing a tangle of rusted metal frames and jagged wood sticks.

Rai and Clara announced their return by the sound of their footfalls. There was an odd glint in their eyes. They shared a glance then Clara broke into a smile.

“Light them up,” Rai said, clapping him on the back.

Tamer glared at him. With a scimitar in hand, he brought the flames ablaze. He lit the candles inside the sconces with the tip of his blade. Explosions of colors splattered on the wall and the broken deity.  

They waited for a sign of change. There was no clicking of locks signalling the opening of a secret door and no cracking of walls revealing a passage. Tamer expected the ceiling to shift open and drop the seal but nothing happened.

“Well, that worked out fine,” Clara said.

This was why he hated riddles and puzzles.

The flames danced in the sconces, throwing ragged shadows on the beds and the shelves. Flecks of sand swirled in the candlelight. The sanitarium had windows but a thick coating of grime covered the glass panes.

“What’s Anahita hiding?” Rai said.

Clara twiddled with the chain of her necklace. “She’s not hiding anything. We just can’t see it.”

Eryx opened a vial he’d snatched from the medical cabinet in the ground floor. He sniffed then grimaced. Setting it on a shelf, he opened a second bottle and held it in front of the candlelight. Inside was a ruby liquid that fizzed when he shook it.

“What are those for?” Tamer asked.

“This one is stale. It clots wounds.” Eryx pointed at the vial on the shelf. Giving the other vial a stronger shake, he said, “I’m not sure what this one was used for. I’ll have to study it when we get back to the surface.”

The surface. They’d stayed in the coliseum for hours. Tamer was growing weary of the bleak surroundings. He’d been fascinated by the armory and the barracks but both were inaccessible. There was nothing of interest in the spoilarium aside from fossilized skeletons and dirty rags, all of which were useless under the circumstances.

He steered his attention to Clara. She made hand gestures as she conversed with Rai. When she’d woken up from her sleep, confused and frightened, Tamer had tried to comfort her. He hadn’t expected she would exult in his touch. He’d pulled back because he hadn’t wanted to take advantage of her.

“You know the answer?” Rai asked him.

He must have stared for too long. Rubbing the back of his neck, Tamer said, “No.”

The two continued speaking in low tones. He tried to follow their conversation but lost interest. Minutes slipped away. He went back to exploring the ground floor of the sanitarium. Mecha flew to him and rested on his shoulder. She'd gotten bored of wrestling with the peeling paint. 

Tamer found a door leading to the washrooms. Black mould had taken over the tiled walls. Broken sinks lay on the floor, stained brown and stuffed with litter. A foul stench escaped from the cubicles.  Tamer bolted the door with a slam. Mecha jolted awake.

He tapped her head. “Don’t go back to sleep.”

Clara called him. He went upstairs. Rai stood by the statue, observing the flames as though they held the answer.

“Have you solved the puzzle?” he asked Clara.

She smiled. “I didn’t. Rai did.”

“The sconces must be lit using a color sequence,” Rai said.

Tamer exhaled. “Which color comes first?”

“I don’t know yet,” Rai said. He started pacing back and forth. "The puzzle has to do with Anahita and the glyphs."

 “That’s it!" Clara yelled, her cheeks flushed with excitement. "Tamer, could you repeat Anahita’s tale about the birth of Findora?”

Rai scowled. “It’s not a tale.”

“My apologies, Rai.”

Tamer gave a snort. He was rewarded with spiteful glares from both Rai and Eryx. Holding up his arms in mock surrender, he swallowed down a laugh.

Clara’s eyes sparkled with amusement. “Go on, Tamer.”

Remembering the glyphs was easy. It was similar to the nursery rhyme he’d learnt from Freya. The only difference was that the latter was more simple and childish.

“Anahita’s tears became the oceans. Her hair, the sky. Her eyes, the twin moons. Her voice, the wind. Her flesh, the soil...” he paused.

“I knew it! Blue represents the oceans!” Clara said. “That means black is for the sky. White for the moons. Colorless for the wind. Brown for the soil.”

Tamer thought about it. The painting of Anahita had the same colors as the sconces and the colors were in direct connection to the description of Findora’s features. No wonder Rai and Clara had rushed to the courtyard to check the painting.  

Pleased at the prospect of solving the puzzle, he continued. “Her blood poured out, trickling down the soil, sinking into the oceans. From the soil, plants grew and from the oceans, seaforms thrived. Her heart split open to release the races. Her bones formed the rocks and mountains.”

“Green for the plants. Red for the seaforms and races,” Rai said.

Tamer glanced at the yellow sconce. It was the only one left. “Yellow for the sun.”

He blew on the candles, stubbing out the flames. Tipping his scimitar at a slanted angle, Tamer lit the sconces in the correct color sequence. He started with the blue sconce and ended with the yellow one.

“Did it work?” Eryx asked.

Clara released a sigh. “I’m sure we got it right.”

He counted to ten, hoping for a sign that would prove they had solved the puzzle. The seal was nowhere to be seen. They must have missed the color sequence. He was convinced blue, black, green, brown and yellow were correct. Red represented Anahita’s blood and her blood had formed the plants and seaforms. Did that mean red came before green? It couldn’t be. Plants had been mentioned before the seaforms hence green came first. Anahita’s heart had also been painted red and from her heart, the humans, Zamari, Shima, Oleks and Mirians had risen. Red was for her heart and not her blood.

“We either got white or colorless wrong,” he said.

White could have represented the goddess’ bones but not all rocks were white and the only time mountains turned white was when they were capped in snow. Did the glyphs mean marble or minerals such as felicinite when referring to rocks? That didn’t sound right.

“White is correct. What we missed is this.” Rai touched the colorless glass bowl in the sconce. “It represents aether, not the wind. Aether has always been held in high regard. A gift from our goddess. It should be the last one.”

“You’re right,” Clara said.

He let Eryx extinguish the flames this time. Once again, Tamer lit the sconces. Blue, black, white, brown, green, red, yellow and colorless. At first, they didn’t notice any difference. Then, the candle flames hissed and rose up above the rims of the glass bowls.

Rai chuckled. “It worked.”

Tamer didn’t take his eyes off the alcove, half-expecting it to recede further into the wall and expose a path to the sanctum of the seal. When nothing else occurred, he cursed in Shimian. He should have known Naaji would never make it easy for them.

Rai and Clara searched the floor, checking under the soiled beds, lifting up tattered pillows, pushing old carts and untangling the stands.

Eryx went downstairs in search of the seal in the ground floor. When he returned, minutes later, he said, “Nothing.”

If the seal wasn’t in the sanitarium then it had to be somewhere else. Earlier, they had checked the amphitheater twice. The barracks was impenetrable, the armory destroyed. That left the machine room, the spoilarium and the hypogeum.

Descending the stairs, Tamer strode back to the courtyard. The ancient glyphs swirled in his vision as he passed them. He stopped at the poolside. Once dry and empty, the pool was now filled with an opalescent substance, a liquid mirror displaying moving shapes. Instead of his own reflection, he saw a crystal orb bathing a cave in fleeting, vivid yellow.

He'd found the seal.

Mecha uttered a curious shrill, stretched her wings and plummeted towards the pool. Tamer reached for her but she slipped from his gasp and plunged into the liquid mirror.

“Mecha!”

He hadn’t checked whether the liquid was harmful or not. For all he knew, it could be poisonous or corrosive. He pushed away thoughts of Mecha melting into a shapeless splotch.

Footsteps echoed behind him. Clara knelt down by the pool, peering into the substance.

“What’s that?” Rai said.

“More of Naaji’s wonderful magic,” he replied, sarcasm heavy in his voice.

“I’ve never seen that,” Eryx said.

The seal thrummed with energy, spraying yellow sigils on the cave walls. A blot of amber light flickered in the shadows—Mecha’s lit body. She approached the orb, prodding it with her wings.

“I reckon it’s safe," Rai said. He stirred the liquid with a clay shard he’d taken near the broken benches.

Mecha flew up until her head emerged from the surface of the liquid. Tamer grabbed her. The little bug squeaked.

Eryx walked closer, one leg dangling above the pool. “I’ll go first.”

Tamer held his arm. “Let me do it. If something happens to you, Freya will skin me alive.”

Rai snickered. “Or behead you and spit on your grave.”

“You too, you simpleton.”

Rai looked daggers at him.

“How amusing,” Eryx drawled.

Clara’s skin was pulled tight over her cheekbones, her face drained of color, eyes wide with worry. “Is it really safe?”

“Yes,” he said.

He thought it was sweet she worried over his safety. Sitting at the edge of the pool, Tamer dipped his legs into the substance. He felt a cold sensation though the liquid didn’t drench him wet. It wasn’t tangible either. It was like feeling the prick of a chilly wind. Sliding off the edge of the pool, he dropped down.

His boots thudded on the ground eight feet below the ceiling, his knees bending a little to absorb the impact. A plume of dust rose underneath his feet. The seal lay on a folded blanket. He did not take the orb yet. Switching on his flashlight, he searched the cave lest there were traps.

He passed through a narrow crevice in the wall, stepping into a larger cave. The ceiling had a wide hole. Tamer passed the beam of light over the hole and spotted a shaft leading straight to the surface.   

“Mecha, could you follow that tunnel to the end?”

The little bug obeyed him without a moment of hesitation. She soared up the cave and into the tunnel, promising to return with her quick chirps. He returned to the sanctuary of the seal. Light orbs illuminated the cave in sprays of blue and white.

Rai examined the seal in his hands. Pointing at the glowing symbols, he asked, “Do you know what these mean?’

Tamer looked at the sigils. He didn’t recognize them. They were magic symbols. He suspected they might have something do with alchemy as well but he wasn't certain.  “Not really. Protective spells, I suppose.”

Unfolding the frayed blanket, Eryx shook it, tossing sand grains into the air. He sneezed, the blanket slipping from his grip. A book had been hidden beneath the blanket. Clara picked it up, her eyes roaming over the spine and the hardcover. The book was made of brown leather and tied with a simple rope.

“It’s ancient,” she said.

Tamer took the book. Untying the rope, he flipped the cover open, breathing in the musty smell. Dotted with holes, the pages were fragile and stained yellow, the inked text having faded with age. There were magic sigils and cursive writings, diagrams and numbers, doodles and crossed lines.

“What is it about?” Clara asked.

He turned to the first page. In fading Amzara letters, the title showed the name of the owner. “Vanguard Naaji’s journal.”

Rai grunted. “Why would he leave it here?”

“He wanted us to find it,” Eryx replied.

“The enemy could have found it,” Rai said.

Clara looked at him. “Does it say anything about Afreet and the entity?”

“I don’t think so,” he said. “I’ll look.”

Tamer perused the journal. Some of the pages were blank, the columns of text having faded completely. He stopped at a page depicting a sketching of a hunched creature. Clara pushed the book lower, taking a good look at the drawing.

“The beast,” he said.

 Rai and Eryx turned their heads at him.

He brought the journal close to his eyes. The page was full of holes where words should have been and the edges had been battered as if a creature had chewed on them. “It says, in the past, the beasts were once beings of great intellect and strength.”

“What happened to them?” Clara’s voice rose with curiosity.

“They were cursed," he said.

“By who? The gods? Naaji?” Rai asked.

“I don’t know. Some of the words are missing.” He slid an index finger over the lines of text. “They were stripped off their power…denied their sanity…punished with the curse of hunger. Forever starving...ageless in their torment.”

Whatever sin they had committed, it had to be so terrible that the creatures had to suffer for thousands of years. Tamer couldn’t help but wonder whether by ending their lives, he’d spared them from eternal torment. He leafed through the pages, feeling guilty for having such thoughts. There was no salvation from killing. Only agony and death.

“Did Naaji’s entity mention them to you?” he asked Clara.

She swallowed, willing her tongue to unravel. “I...I don’t remember.”

“The entity spoke to you?” Eryx asked her.

She described the little she remembered from her vision—a black sky, a desert with crystal dunes and something about the seals. Clara didn’t explain why she woke up scratching her arms. She had been breathing hard, scared and disoriented. Her first interaction with Naaji’s entity had not been pleasant. It had hurt her. Was that the reason why she couldn’t remember?

Tamer felt a sudden spark of anger and hate towards the entity. Snapping the journal shut, he pushed air out of his lungs, coercing the rage to leave him through his breath.

Eryx assured Clara she would remember when her mind was ready. Passing the journal to Rai, Tamer held out his hand for the seal. When his fingers closed around the yellow orb, a stream of images took over his mind. He saw tall trees swathed in a cloud of thick mist. Thorny fruits hang from the branches. Translucent figures huddled in masses, spirits of the dead people floating in miasma.

“Ashura Deadlands. A forest hides the last seal,” he said.

“What’s a forest doing in Ashura?” Eryx asked. “Nothing grows there. It’s a wasteland.”

Rai swore under his breath. “Ridiculous. It’s too dangerous.”

“Ashura?” Clara pulled at his sleeve. “Is that the black region we saw when we visited Helima?”

Tamer nodded. Only fools dared to enter Ashura, a barren wasteland inhabited by vicious ghosts. Fools and Vanguard Naaji.

And us if we survive long enough, he thought.

He heard a loud thump in the cave. A beast, awake and alive, rose on wobbly feet. One hand locked over the lacquered hilt of his scimitar. Rai beat him by seconds, aiming his rifle at the creature and firing without a second thought.

“We killed them all!” said Rai, the journal falling from between his arm and ribs.

“You left this one alive,” Eryx said.

“Why the hell are you blaming me? What about you and Tamer?”

Another beast flopped into the cave. Tamer noticed it had a large gash from its left shoulder to its right hip. A wound made by his own blade. The beast growled at him. He’d killed it in the arena. He could have sworn by all of Shima’s deities if only he believed in them.

Stepping forward, he thrust his blade into the creature’s chest until only the hilt stuck out. The beast blinked at him with dark eyes, its moans dying in its throat. He pulled out his scimitar. The creature collapsed on the ground.

Forever starving...ageless in their torment.

So that was what the words meant. They’d been cursed with immortality, one not of beauty and youth but of madness and starvation.

“They came back to life,” he said.

Beyond the swirling surface of the pool, he caught a glimpse of five beasts approaching. A bruised hand punched through the liquid.

“The courtyard must be swarming with them,” Eryx said.

Clara took Naaji’s journal, pressing it to her chest. “We’ll get trapped if we don't leave."

“There’s a way out,” Tamer said,. He showed them the crevice. “Come on.”

They entered the larger cave. Using her magic, Clara sealed the crevice in a crystal wall. The beasts banged at the wall, scratching at it with their claws, howling in a mad frenzy.

“I asked Mecha to check the shaft above us,” Tamer said. “She hasn’t returned.”

Rai tied his rifle to his back strap. “Doesn’t matter. We have no choice.”

Clara conjured a circular platform in the same design as the one they had used to descend into the underground. Eryx strengthened it with his magic and kept it afloat. They all stepped on the dais.

A shrill resonated a few feet above. Mecha hurtled through the air, landing on top of Tamer’s head. She clutched his locks and squeaked.

“What did you find out?” he asked.

Mecha jumped off and made loud squeals as she fluttered around them. Biomechabots were half mechanical but they were also natural creatures. It was that part of their nature that made him understand her words.

He told the others Mecha had discovered the tunnel led to an abandoned well. As the dais passed the hole, the crystal wall crumbled. Enraged beasts flocked the cave, pushing at each other, splaying their hands aloft and snapping their teeth.  

Tamer could hear their cries even at fifty feet above the coliseum. Silently, he fed Mecha the yellow seal. Only one more was left and he was determined to find it before the enemy. Aurion would never fall into the ghilan's hands ever again.

The platform took them up and up until eventually, they found the bottom of the well. Clara crystallized the rock, reducing it to tiny crystals the size of salt. With the path freed,  the platform rose higher.

By the time they reached the surface, the twin moons had vanished. The dawn sky was streaked orange and purple. Sunlight reflected on the windows of a derelict building, painting the walls in red and gold.

"Where are we?" Rai asked, smoothening his shabby clothes.

Eryx let out a noisy yawn. "The slums."

The well was huddled in an alley. A mountain of garbage festered in a corner. Flies buzzed on top of the filth and rats feasted on rotten food. Tamer rolled his shoulders and stretched his neck. He'd lived in such squalid conditions when he'd left the palace. If Idris had not found him, he might have become a street urchin or a thief.

“Ashura Deadlands," Clara muttered. She cut off her magic and let the platform tumble down the tunnel. "Home to the last seal."

“And great evil,” Tamer said.