Ascending the steps this time took a little bit more mental effort, but still nothing compared to what Maiz had endured in the Ritual. When his feet hit flat stone, he didn’t stumble, just continued forward to see what waited for him.

There was an open doorway leading from the stairway into light. Stepping through, Maiz blinked, then coughed a bit. Incense was curling through the air here, much as it had in Isa’s small room, and filling it with a heady scent. Looking around, Maiz saw that this place was larger than Isa’s had been, but similar in an extremely important way.

Oh hells.

“Hello, young man.”

The voice was fairly soft, giving the impression of age without the characteristic quavering Maiz would have expected. The man sitting in the center of the room, surrounded by burning incense and swathed in robes, certainly seemed like he barely should have been able to speak. His skin hung off of him like a second robe, revealing bony features Maiz was certain hadn’t been so severe in the man’s youth. His eyes were too large for his face, looming out of his skull like two glowing orbs. Very bright, somewhat unsettling orbs.

Maiz forcibly shook himself and bowed. “Hello, sir.”

The moment the words left his lips Maiz felt a numbness overtake his entire right side, and he collapsed unceremoniously to the ground. His right knee banged on the floor, but all he felt was a slight pressure. He couldn’t even move his right eye, and his vision was blurring horribly as a result. What?

“I am the Jin’Tira, boy. Did they not teach you how to… ah. My mistake, I suppose.” The man’s voice remained mild, with only a faint hint of annoyance until the end, when he sounded sheepish.

Just as suddenly as it had appeared, the numbness vanished. Maiz found himself lying on cool stone, a small trail of drool leaking from the corner of his mouth. He was warm all along his right side, his bracelet having gotten to work on his injuries from the fall, and he was was staring straight up into the ceiling of the room.

There’s no smoke in the air anymore. Maiz climbed to his feet. Indeed, the air between him and the seated man was clear of smoke, as though someone had run through it. Very, very quickly. Maiz felt sweat begin to bead on the back of his neck, and he bowed as deeply as possible. “My apologies, Jin’Tira.”

“Yes, yes, I forgive you.” The man’s voice was placid, but also confident. The sheepishness had vanished. “Even if you are not of the Temple, one of the other children should really educate you on the Path.”

After the silence stretched for a moment, Maiz decided it would be best to answer. “Yes, Jin’Tira.” He did not rise from his bow.

“Hm. Well, in any case, there are a few Dungeons ready for a challenger. You would like to challenge one, yes?”

This time the silence was entirely of Maiz’s making. Dungeons? What is going--I really shouldn’t keep the terrifying old man waiting. “Yes Jin’Tira.”

“Very well.” There was silence for a moment, but a moment later a strong draft washed over Maiz, causing his loose tunic to flutter a bit. “Continue on and take your pick then, young man. You will not experience the memory decay in the Dungeon. Good day.”

“Good day, Jin’Tira.” Maiz waited a moment, and straightened, heart pounding. The old man was still seated in the center of the room, and his eyes were closed. He gave no sign of acknowledgement, and Maiz wasn’t eager to get his attention again. Did Maiz have a curse on him to meet every Master in the world or something? Weren’t they supposed to be rare? And what had he meant by ‘memory decay?’ Maiz debated whether or not to ask the man about it briefly, then decided firmly that it was not a good idea. Breathing evenly through his nose and trying very hard not to look at the man in the ground, Maiz stepped around him and through the curtained doorway on the other side.

This room was bigger than the last. The walls were lined with stone arches, which were obviously portals. Only a few glowed with a blue light that seemed to be the standard for human-made portals. In the center of this room was a pedestal, as simple thing of the same gray stone as the rest of the Temple, and on it there was a faintly glowing piece of paper.

Huh. As Maiz approached, he hesitantly reached a hand out to the paper, and found that his hand stopped an inch from the surface. A spell or enchantment, perhaps? Looking down, it took a moment to understand what was on the paper. It seemed like a drawing of an irregular blob with some strange streaks and swirls drawn on it, that was decorated with glowing dots. But one side of the image looked extremely familiar to Maiz--he’d seen plenty of maps of the Waste near Caelos, both in his father’s shop and in the Sharir scribehouse. So this was a map of the Waste then. What were the dots?

Maiz almost swore out loud before he stopped himself, throwing a nervous glance back at the room behind him containing the sitting Master. Dungeons. This was a map of godsdamned Dungeons in the Waste! This single piece of parchment was probably worth more than Maiz’s father had made in his entire career! Than even the Sharir owned! It was…

Not really that surprising. Maiz had just fought dozens of golems for Hudith’s sake. The map was certainly exciting, and he would have to try and commit it to memory sometime, but now he should try and challenge a Dungeon himself.

There was no way of knowing which portal was the most advantageous, and no way in all nine hells he was asking the Jin’Tira, so he simply gripped his staff tightly, and walked to the nearest glowing archway. He stepped through the portal as he would through a doorway, and found himself in dim light. The air was suddenly cooler than it had been, and the air felt… open, as if there were higher ceilings and more space than there was in the previous room.

There was also a growling noise coming from somewhere he couldn’t quite see. With an internal sigh, Maiz began casting his Flaming Strike.

*************

“Go.”

Hugan’s mother had a note of command in her voice, but that was to be expected from one of the few Adept combatants in the entire city. She and her father were both very well off nowadays, but Hugan remembered a time when he’d been young and his father had to put himself in debt to buy materials for orders. His mother had hardly come home during that time, either. She’d been patrolling or otherwise serving the city for most of Hugan’s childhood.

“Anayah! Why should they--”

“--I’ve heard things from the governor’s detail. They are better off going to the Waste now than staying here for too long. We may be starting evacuations of civilians sometime soon in any case.”

“What?” Hugan’s parents could be difficult to talk to when they were arguing with each other. Once his mother had said it was the ‘immovable object meeting the unstoppable force.’

“Don’t worry about it, son.” She dismissed his question without even looking his way.

“He should worry! Even if your rumors are true, why the Waste?”

Suddenly, Hugan’s mother stood with a startling speed, grabbing his ba by the scruff of the neck and forcibly pulling him into the next room. He resisted briefly-Smiths got almost as many points in Strength as Brawlers--but eventually walked awkwardly with her. The sound of their footsteps, loud because of their huge size, thudded through the house.

The footsteps stopped and the shouting began. Hugan could only make out a few words, “Waste!” and “dead!” and “son!” chief among them. He shuffled a little, feeling his face flush, but Lila and Ziya didn’t seem to mind. They were talking in low voices to each other, and Hugan decided to join in on the conversation.

“We woke up in an outpost a few days away from here. There were twenty-six of us, mostly Novices with a few Journeyman leaders.” Ziya’s naturally soft voice was a little hard to hear when she was trying to be quiet, but Hugan was interested in the content of her words, so he leaned in close.

“They decided to have us wait, and in a few days a few people from a travelling guard found us. They escorted everyone here. We are staying in an empty Watch barracks.”

Ziya looked up at them, her piercing eyes resting on each in turn. “But what happened in the first place? Instructor Hakim…”

“It was incredible Ziya! He was a Master, can you believe it?”

“Yes,” she interjected softly, but Hugan decided that the story was worth continuing anyway.

“You remember the two dragons, right? Well they kept using this light magic thing, but I think it was like fire too. Hakim kept making these explosions whenever they attacked, and on the first one we were really close to the fight so, well, we got hit pretty bad. And then after a bit of them fighting with these explosions, Maiz and Lila came to help get you guys out. Maiz was really incredible, he killed one of those lizard things that came behind the dragons!” Lila winced at that, for some reason. “And we carried you out to the other training field, and there was this mage there, I think he was an Adept, and he teleported you guys out. But we couldn’t wait, so we went back to help Maiz, and there was this other mage there, in black robes, and she looked really creepy. Then I think Hakim cast a spell, and teleported us away.”

“So we were injured by the very first attack the dragons made?” Ziya’s voice held no emotion as far as Hugan could tell.

“It was Hugan who kept you two safe.” Lila interrupted, and Hugan cast her an uncomfortable glance. He wasn’t really sure why, but he’d rather she hadn’t told Ziya that. “He guarded you from the shockwaves until I got there to help him carry you out.”

Ziya looked at Hugan for a long moment. “Thank you.”

Hugan smiled, a bit awkwardly. “It’s sort of my job, isn’t it? Anyways, I did my feat! And I got this awesome new skill that I’m going to test out as soon as we--”

The familiar sound of thudding footsteps drew Hugan’s attention. Hugan’s ba stomped over to him, grabbed his hand, and unceremoniously dumped a bag into his hand. It clinked lightly as he did so and Hugan’s eyes widened.

“Ba, you don’t--”

“--remember son, keeping your life is more important than saving anyone else's. No matter what the stories say, you come back to me safe, you hear?”

“You listen to your father, Hugan.” That was his mother, staying a little bit farther back. She had her arms crossed, but her posture was relaxed. It was clear who had won the argument.

“You’ll have to go to Uncle Yafi’s stable. I think he’s got some camels from down south that he can sell you. You tell him I sent you.”

Hugan blinked. ‘Uncle’ Yafi was an old business partner of his ba’s--he’d gotten his stock shoed from their forge since Hugan was little. He’d also been over for dinner more than once, and let Hugan ride his animals too.

“Thanks, ba.”

His ba nodded firmly, crossing his huge arms. He stepped forward, embracing Hugan tightly. Hugan hugged his father back, though he squirmed a bit when it went on for too long.

“All right, son.” His father stepped back and his mother filled the space he’d occupied immediately. Oh come on.

“You’ll need to get stronger quickly now, Hugan. I expect you to be a Journeyman at least the next time I see you, or else we’ll have words.” Her voice was stern, but there was an edge to it. What was wrong?

“Listen, I’ll--” He cut off as she hugged him tighter than his ba had, tight enough to hurt a little.

“I’m worried for you, my little Warden. There’s a lot going on here, and it will only get worse.”

“What?” Hugan choked out. He breathed a little easier as she loosened her embrace. “What’s going to happen?”

“I don’t know yet, son, but it doesn’t matter. You go out to the Waste, to this Temple of your friend’s, and you get stronger. We’ll be fine.”

Hugan frowned even as his mother hugged him. But he wasn’t too worried. She was one of the stronger combatants he’d ever even seen, and his father was no pushover either. They would be all right. Better if they didn’t worry about him.

“All right, I will.”

“Good.” Now she stepped back as well, and they all moved to the door. “I love you, son.”

Hugan mumbled in response, not looking at Ziya or Lila.

“Say it.” There was a threat in her voice, and Hugan sighed.

“I love you.”

“And what about me?” Hugan’s ba rumbled.

A part of Hugan was wishing he’d just let Lila skip over Caelos entirely like she’d planned. But the larger part was glad that he’d gotten to see his parents before going out into what was suddenly feeling like a very big and dangerous world.

“I love you, ba.”