Stathis kept a hand on her blade, just in case, as she slowly turned around, ready to draw. That they had spoken rather than simply attacking was a good sign, but this place was still strange. In front of her was a robed figure, tattered material drawn loosely over a humanoid frame, their skin hidden beneath the plain and rough material. A sword hung from a rope belt around their waist, although it was simply tucked through, without a sheathe. Their face was currently hidden, hood drawn up, and their sleeves were long enough to hide their hands.

‘We should talk. If nothing else, it has been a very long time since I have had company that hasn’t been trying to kill me. Time here is a strange thing, but probably centuries, or even longer. Long enough to wear everything away. Memories, dreams, names… everything fades, until all is dust. Even this place, once the grandest of cities, is now dust on the wind. Come. Follow.’

Their voice was dry and worn, creaking with every word.

‘Who are you? Where is this place?’

They started to walk away, Stathis moving to keep up, not wanting them to vanish into the mist and dust of wherever-this-was.

‘Who am I? It has been a long time since I have had to think of myself in terms that relate to anyone else. A guide, I think? Or maybe a warning? But there was one I was to wait for, I remember that much. And I can remember this place.’

The mist peeled back, revealing that they were atop a cliff overlooking a vast valley, filled with the remnants of a city. It stretched further than Stathis could see, the roads still clearly visible, grand avenues leading to a number of huge circular areas, that would probably have been for markets or similar. The buildings were of solid construction, some still standing, after a fashion, with stone walls eroded away, pillars worn into strange shapes. Most were marked only by heaps of stone in rough squares and rectangles, demarcating where they had stood. Amongst the normal buildings were larger, grander ones, palaces or something, too open and close to the rest to be fortresses.

The place seemed to lack a clear centre - there should be a castle or fortress or something, a nexus the settlement might have grown from. Instead, the larger buildings seemed to be regularly scattered through the entirety of the place.

The figure turned again and pulled their hood down, to reveal themselves to be elderly, their hair a black and straggly mess falling to their neck, clearly hacked short with their blade. Their face was old, tanned and deeply lined, looking almost as wind-cut as some of the rock formations. And their eyes… Where their eyes should have been were instead burnt-out pits, the skin flecked with burn scars. She must have made some sound, as he chuckled.

‘Ah, I forget. It has been some time since I have seen anyone, if you’ll pardon the pun. But to look upon the true light, this was a price worth paying. To see the perfect, brilliant and pure light, I would sacrifice such gladly, and do so again. Although it does make it harder to travel from the plateau. Fortunately, I think they have some memory of what this place once was, and keep their distance. And my friend still has a sharp edge, if any do get too close.’ He gave his sword a familiar pat, runes down the blade shining with a dim light for a moment.

‘Who remembers what? What is this place?

‘The place. The fulcrum, the tipping point, the axis mundi. Or of a mundi, I suppose. This is a beginning and an ending, where everything flows together, and will return to.’

‘What does that actually mean? This place looks ancient – there’s barely any wind here, so to erode that much, must have taken centuries.’

‘Ancient and new, forever between the two. Destroyed and reborn eternally fresh, forever ancient. Blessed by the light, but cursed by the dark.’

Stathis kept a close eye on him, in case his babblings ended with him drawing his blade. ‘Can you actually tell me anything useful?’ The city looked ancient, but the air here was still and dry – there might be a library or something with some records left, or maybe some way to get out of here.

‘The light shall dawn again, and banish the darkness. When a new dawn comes, then all be as it once was!’ The look on his face did little to inspire confidence, his expression that of a fanatical true believer. Stathis sighed.

‘Right. I’m guessing this is some strange magical prison or something? Or some wizard made it, and then everyone died, and it’s slowly collapsing in on itself? There doesn’t seem to be time, or weather. Or a proper sky, or even day and night.’

The man’s body stiffened. ‘The night! Darkness, that is what was laid upon me. The memory of light sustains me, but the darkness, oh! It lays heavy upon me.’

Stathis took a sharp step back, outside of easy stabbing range, easing her sword slightly, just in case. While centuries, or however long it had been, of isolation were likely to cause problems, he seemed just shy of frantic declarations and attempts at stabbing. Although if he were blind, then hopefully any attacks would be easy to evade.

‘The darkness stirs. In my blindness, I have honed my other senses, granting myself sight beyond sight. For a long time, insomuch as this place has time, all was still. And then, of late, things have happened, when things hadn’t changed in an age and an age.’

Stathis watched his mouth – it was moving, but it didn’t seem to correspond with what she heard, sounds coming to her ears before or after he spoke. But she heard it as “actual” speech, not like Janaxia’s mental broadcasts – had he cast a translation spell?

‘Things of portent, things of doom! A great upswelling of power, and the ancient enemy anew. It is as spoken of, in the true tongue.’

Stathis winced. ‘Is this a prophecy thing? Those tend to be vague and not very useful, in my experience. Is there anything actually useful you can tell me?’

He looked slightly nonplussed, although at least was slightly-less fervent looking now. ‘This is the heart of things!’

‘It’s an old city. Quite impressively large, but it looks as though it’s falling apart.’ She looked again – other than the stone, there didn’t seem to be anything else. No skeletons, no furniture, no tattered fragments of fabric or cloth. Had everything been taken, or had it been so long that anything other than stone had faded away? Or did things work differently for different materials? ‘What happened to the people? And please say something more specific then “the darkness” or similar.’

He looked taken aback, taking a moment to collect himself. ‘It was the centre of everything, the greatest city ever built, in the glorious dawn of peace. A place to talk, to trade, to learn and study, where people could meet in peace and harmony – no fortresses, no castles.’

That explained the strange layout. Although that level of peace made it sound as though it was either a very long time ago, or she was even further from home than she thought. ‘And then the darkness came, I guess? A big war or something happened, everyone evacuated?’

His mouth moved, but it took some time for any sound to reach Stathis’ ears. ‘It was a battle of, and for, everything! The very forces of the heavens took flight, as the sky turned black with demons! And we fought. Oh, how we fought, to the hilt, to the blood and bone, the very land scourged to dust. We fought, until fighting was all we knew. We fought, watering the land with blood, their and ours. And all the time, the land died. Even as the people were taken to safety, we fought, managing to defeat the heart of the darkness. Although shattered, it would not die. It bound itself in secret and safety, and fell beyond our sight.’

‘I don’t suppose you have any idea of how long ago this was?’

‘Time was… broken here. Until all is returned to what it should be, then we are in an eternal, frozen moment, as everything falls in dust.’

‘Right. That sounds inconvenient, although I guess at least we don’t have to hunt or get water or anything. Is there any way out of here?’

He shivered, his lanky hair twitching against his robes. ‘None that such as we may take. But the wound is there. It has been a long time, even by the standards of this world, since I saw it. Come.’

Wings sprung forth from his back, radiant with light. They flicked downwards, sending dust skittering around as he launched himself into the air with a powerful motion. Stathis paused for a moment before calling up her own wings and leaping after him, taking to the air herself.

They flew over the city, thin air rushing past. From up here, the sheer size of the place was even more obvious – row upon row of buildings, looking like Sainted Hirata, but even larger, and built upon what looked like a huge plain, without any need to shape itself around inconvenient geography. If the buildings had been full, then how many would be able to live here? But the place was dead and dreary, nothing to relieve the unrelentingly dull greyness of it all.

He moved fast, and the air seemed thin in her lungs, so she didn’t want to shout. It felt good to fly, to be doing something, although it didn’t really seem the place to be doing barrel rolls or any other tricks. As they flew over the place, she could see more of the open squares and circles – a few had raised plinths in the centre, whatever statues or markers they had held now long-gone. But even from up here, the place didn’t seem to have any centre, just the same, similar-ish blocks, again and again. It must have taken days to walk from one part to another!

They flew together, their wings beating in great draughts, propelling them forward. Who was he? She’d never met anyone like herself other than Yeros, who had assumed himself to be of strange ancestry. If he had been here for however long it had been, even in the odd relative time, then it was no wonder he was a little odd. But what was this place? She’d never heard legends of it, at least not in any specific terms. A hidden city, utterly empty, and somewhere outside of, well, anywhere else? Was this another actual world, or something like Hakara’s sanctum but on a far vaster scale? That would account for the strangeness of the place, and how time seemed to be so strange.

The horizon rolled backwards as they flew forwards, revealing more and more of the city. And then, ahead of them, something that broke the otherwise monotonous stream of buildings beneath them.

It was a building, vast even by the scale of this place, large enough to have endured better than most of the surroundings, bridges and arches once spanning over to the adjoining buildings, but now mostly ruined. She twisted her head to look backwards – there was no sight of the cliffs or mountains they had come from. How long had they been flying for? But at least here there was colour, something other than bleached stone and rock. Scattered atop the building were banners, or at least the tattered remnants of them, fabric still and unmoving.

‘This is where we stood. A final stand, to contain the darkness. Stathis looked closer – amongst the degradations of time, she could see some attempts at defences, lines of stone laid in place to form walls.’

‘What was “the Darkness”? Some enemy, I take it? We have demons, where I’m from, they can be nasty.’ They started heading downwards, coming in at a steep angle of descent.

‘Everything that should not have been. Some were twisted and malformed, others more insidious. The great light banished them to the edge of the world, but, over time, they returned, sneaking and creeping back. Even with the blessings of the light, they wouldn’t stop. And, over time, the world fell, to darkness and ruin. Even the blessings of time failed, the faded remnants of the world frozen into an endless moment, time worn thin. And still they haunt the world.’

They landed, and now Stathis could truly appreciate the enormity of the building – most of Per Tolith could probably fit inside! Even the banners were of a vast size, each one larger than a sail, although they were ragged and worn. She didn’t recognise the symbols on them – faded and worn, looking like crests or sigils, strange curves and spikes. She couldn’t even tell if they were letters or just symbols. The entrance was loomed above her, a hulking passageway of stone. Inside, she could see a thick cloud, first sign of anything more overt than the endless maddening haze.

‘Let me guess, this is where you had some kind of last stand, and there’s a portal or something inside of there?’ It might be a way to get somewhere. Somewhere more real than here! Although the last thing she could remember was being kissed by Janaxia, so quite what had happened to end up here, she didn’t now.

‘This was where we made our last stand, but there is nothing here but dust and memories. This is where the light last appeared. This is where the world was doomed, to be, well…’ He gestured about himself.

‘You speak of the light, is this some, um, vague force you worship, or more of an actual person?’

He turned to look at her, the ruined pits of his eyes making his expression look haunted. ‘The Light Above, the maker and binder! They put themselves beyond the mortal world.’

‘Really? Well, is there any way of talking to him?’

‘Her. She is a great and merciful spirit, that bought wisdom and power, at the dawn of time!’

‘I think they may have branched out a little since then. They have a line in incredibly vague prophecies and the like?’

‘She would part the darkness of uncertainty to impart knowledge beyond human comprehension, yes.’

Stathis managed to stifle a reflexive groan. ‘You say they are “beyond the mortal world”? What does that mean?’

‘Their light is more than mortals can bear. And so, to save the world, she withdrew herself.’

‘That doesn’t sound very helpful. Should have stuck around and helped out or something, not buggered off! So, is there any way to get in touch? I have questions.’

‘You should not presume to know of such things!’ A flash of anger crossed his face, before his expression softened. ‘But this is where we fell. Our blood, the price we paid to hold the line. And now, I am the last. Until you! I can feel the light within you, as strong as within the princes that once ruled here.’

‘Let me guess, they were “blessed by the light” or something? You probably don’t even need to answer that, I can guess. So, is it OK if I explore this place? There might be something around, and I really need to get back.’

‘If you must. But there are protections still in place – tread carefully. I will wait here – the place holds too many memories for me.’

‘Right. Well, just in case you vanish when I turn around or something, then I’ll talk to you first, I think. I guess if time doesn’t pass here, then it won’t matter. So, if you don’t mind, I’m going to be asking a lot of questions. And please try and be brief – we might have forever, but I’d prefer actual answers rather than something vague. Sorry, but I’ve had to deal with a lot of unnecessarily vagueness before.’