Morgan looked around yet another empty, dusty building with no roof. He and the others had spent two days searching through the outskirts of the ancient city, and they’d come away with nothing but some old silverware and bits of petrified wood that might have once been furniture.

The day after their arrival to the city, they’d looked out over the wall to find the giant insects gone and their burrows filled in with loose dirt. Perhaps they were waiting for the next creatures or people to wander down the ancient road. They’d also started to note birds in the sky and more and more rodents and small animals scuttling through the ruins. Olivia had hypothesized that all the wildlife had gone into hiding as the dragon Morgan had seen passed by; they’d convinced themselves that the dragon wasn’t lurking in the ruins somewhere.

Morgan was starting to feel like the search of the city was a waste of time; they could be making progress through the mountain range and trying to find a city or even a village with some people in it. Sighing heavily, he decided to make his way back to their camp. Olivia and Bronwyn had gone in a different direction today—the three of them had decided that having seen nothing larger than a fat rat in three days, they should speed things up by splitting up.

Feeling frustrated, Morgan determined to tell Olivia and Bronwyn that he wanted to move on from the old city. Olivia was making good progress with her book, and Bronwyn seemed content to explore, but Morgan couldn’t do much other than worry about Issa and feel guilty about leaving her in the Deep Down. Logically, he knew it wasn’t his fault, but still, that nagging voice in the back of his mind kept saying he should have been more careful.

When he got back to the building they’d set up as their home base, a two-story structure with marble floors on the second level that still served as a solid roof for the first floor, he stirred the coals in their little cook fire and added some wood from the stack Bronwyn had set out. She said she’d recently collected a “ton” of it while she was out in the mountains. Morgan sat in front of the coals and pulled out the fragments of his first good weapon—his Umbral Razor. He’d collected all the pieces he could find before leaving the ziggurat, but he had a feeling the only salvageable part was the smokey black gemstone that had given the weapon its infrequent precognitive abilities.

Still, he remembered how he’d felt when Roald had made it for him—his very own magical sword. He shook his head in dismay; Roald was dead, and worse than that, there hadn’t been anything left of him after those gargoyles used him in their vats. Morgan knew he hadn’t seen Roald put into one of those green tanks, but the other prisoners had seen him taken to the ziggurat, and there’d been no trace of him. How could he explain all that to Issa? Maybe he should just tell her that Roald had died fighting. Morgan wrapped the pieces of his sword into the leather cloth he’d used to gather them and put them back into his ring.

“Still moping about that sword?” Bronwyn asked, causing him to jump.

“Jesus! You startled me!”

“I wasn’t even trying to be sneaky; you should be more alert in a place like this!” Bronwyn tutted.

“Yeah, logically, I know you’re right, but I’m bored to tears here, and I feel like we’re wasting time.”

“What else can we do? Olivia’s studying that book more than is probably good for her brain, trying to figure out portals and teleportation magic. I don’t know another way to teleport, do you?”

“We could be moving on, finding some people.”

“Or finding a dragon and getting eaten. It’s not like we’re being lazy; we’ve all leveled our Cores since making camp here.”

“Yeah, I know. What if time is different here? What if every day on this world is a fucking year or month on Fanwath?”

“Why would that be? Are you just trying to find things to worry about?”

“I don’t know. Yeah, maybe I am. This shit is killing me. What if Issa is being held captive down in those tunnels?”

“God, Morgan! We’ve been over this a dozen times. One: Issa isn’t helpless. Two: It’s already been days; there’s nothing you can do about it at this point. Three: You know the Rakeyda fled Fanwath and the Urghat were dead or captured. Issa’s fine.”

“Yeah, I know I’m annoying with this stuff, but it makes me feel better when you say those things, so thanks.”

“You’re welcome, but that’s the last time I’m doing it for, oh, at least two days.” Bronwyn chuckled, but then her face grew more serious, and she continued, “Hey, I’ve been wanting to talk to you about something, but I didn’t want to call you out in front of Olivia.”

“Call me out?”

“Yeah, um, the uh Summer Queen told me something about you that’s got me kind of wondering.”

“Go on,” Morgan said, sitting back against the wall, kicking his legs out and crossing them at the ankles.

“She said you had some kind of title that gave you a pretty big advantage; she said it was transferable and that you might not be the right person to hold it. Any of that make sense?”

“I,” Morgan started to answer, but then he stopped. He hadn’t thought about his Human Champion title in a long while. Even so, it was kind of weird that he’d never told anyone about it. Why hadn’t he? He realized his silence was growing awkward, so he decided to explore his thoughts aloud, “I do have a title; Human Champion. I think the System gave it to me because I was the only one awake when we arrived in the Pilgrim 9. I honestly don’t know why I never mentioned it; I think I’m kind of embarrassed by it, to be honest. I’m not much a champion for humanity, am I?”

“Oh, I wouldn’t go that far—you’ve done a lot for the people on Fanwath. I mean, I’m not a hundred percent sure anyone else could have killed the Overclaw. Not to mention you brought Issa and her people to our aid.”

“Nothing anyone else wouldn’t have done in my shoes.”

“Bullshit! Plenty of people would have laid low or just tried to benefit themselves. I’m not saying you did anything super special, but you at least aren’t, like, a villain.” Bronwyn laughed.

“Oh! Such accolades!” Morgan laughed. “Seriously, though, I don’t know how to transfer this title, but I bet we can figure it out. If you or others think I should pass it on, or we should have some sort of trial or election to see who has it, I’m fine with that too.” Morgan thought about what he’d just said. Was he really fine with it? Would he just roll over and give up the title? The truth was, he wasn’t the kind of person who would want to hold onto something meant for the benefit of his entire species if they didn’t think he should have it. The other truth was that he felt there was a damn good chance the council and the people of First Landing would vote for him to keep it, anyway, if it came to that.

“Sounds like you’ve thought about it a little. I hadn’t gotten that far in my speculation.” Bronwyn sat across from him and began pulling out some cooking supplies. “Sounds fair, though. Let’s maybe get more people to weigh in on the matter when we get home.”

“Sure. You see where Olivia went?”

“She was finishing up exploring along the western wall, going through those alleys and narrow buildings you can see from the top of the gate.”

“And I didn’t find anything worthwhile,” Olivia said, stepping through the doorway.

“Blegh,” Bronwyn said, pushing hunks of raw meat onto a skewer. “Shishkabobs alright with you guys?”

“Yeah, sounds good!” Morgan leaned toward the fire and adjusted a log, letting air underneath so the flames shot up. Olivia walked over and sat with a loud huff, pulling out her book and thumbing through the pages.

“I’m almost ready for you to try a new spell, Morgan. Or, more precisely, to alter your existing spell. If you’re successful, I might be able to develop a similar spell that uses pure Energy.”

“Well, that’s some progress, at least! I hadn’t wanted to bug you for an update because I know it’s complicated.” Morgan couldn’t keep his excitement out of his voice. He felt starved for any progress whatsoever. “I think we should start exploring up the road—see what’s in that cavern. The road might continue out the other side, too.”

“Yeah, I can’t argue. We could spend months going through all these buildings, and we might never see any payoff for our efforts. What about you, Bronwyn? Any arguments?”

“No, I guess not. Let’s head up in the morning.”

They spent the evening around the fire, eating their meal, cultivating their Cores, and watching Olivia pore over her textbook. They’d agreed on a watch schedule that saw Bronwyn sleeping nearly eight hours and Morgan catching an hour or two before dawn which was about all he needed. Olivia spent a lot of the night awake but so engrossed in her research that she wasn’t really reliable when it came to watching for trouble.

After a cold breakfast, the trio started up the long, sloping road that led from the gates into the yawning cavern on the side of the mountain. Every so often, they’d pass an ancient building that looked promisingly whole and give it a quick inspection, only to find more dust, cobwebs, windblown debris, and rodent droppings. “I guess if this place has been empty for centuries, we aren’t the only people who’ve come poking around,” Morgan said as they resumed their hike for the third time.

“Yeah, I guess. Still would be nice to find something. Maybe an old rocking chair or a magically preserved library,” Olivia said wistfully.

“Pretty big contrast!” Bronwyn laughed. “Rocking chair or magical library, hmm?” Morgan was about to make a quip about Olivia and books when he saw a flicker of color in his peripheral vision coming from the darkness of the cave. When he tried to spot what it had been, all he saw were the shadowy buildings within and the road winding toward them.

“Did you guys see that?” Morgan asked suddenly, pointing with his gleaming sword toward the big cave.

“What?” Bronwyn asked.

“I thought I saw something bright or colorful moving by the cave out of the corner of my eye.”

“Well, let’s quiet down,” Olivia said.

“Right,” Bronwyn said in a hushed voice. Then she glanced at Morgan again and said softly, “Hey, do you have an extra weapon? In case we fight something I’d rather not punch?”

“I have a couple of decent spears and lots of knives. I only have one backup sword, or I’d offer you that.”

“Let me borrow a spear for now?”

“Alright,” Morgan’s free hand moved to touch his ring, and then it was suddenly holding a long, black spear with a wicked eight or ten-inch blade. Bronwyn had seen it before.

“That’s the one you left in the Yovashi cave.”

“Not by choice, but yeah.” He held it out to her, and she took it.

“Thanks.”

Morgan nodded, and the three of them continued walking. When they made the last bend in the road, and the wide cavern entrance was directly in front of them, the source of the flash of color Morgan had seen became apparent. The road continued through the mountain, winding upward and exiting through a small daylit opening in the distance, but much closer, amid the ruined, fallen buildings that had once stood in the cavern, a vast, swirling disc hung suspended a few feet above the surface of the road.

The disc was yellow at its center, then darkened to gradients of green which darkened to gradients of blue at the edges. Morgan knew a portal when he saw one, but this one was easily twice as large as the huge red portal he’d taken to the gargoyle stronghold. He could imagine a commercial airliner comfortably soaring through it. “A portal,” he said.

“A damn big one,” Bronwyn added.

“Look at all the ruined buildings in there,” Olivia said.

“Well, let’s stay frosty—never know what might come out of it while we’re poking around.”

“Forget what might come out; we need to talk about if we’re going into that thing,” Bronwyn said. Olivia didn’t respond, staring at the portal with a pensive look on her face. They continued into the cavern, and, as they entered the shadowed enclosure, the portal looked even more vibrant, and its spinning, vibrating pattern of shifting colors was almost mesmerizing.

“I think we should investigate,” Olivia said. “If this portal is responsible for this city becoming deserted, I’d like to know how it’s been held open for so long; portals require a lot of Energy to open, let alone keep open for centuries or more.”

“We don’t know that it’s responsible. For all we know, this city was built because of this portal,” Bronwyn said.

“Even more reason to investigate.” Still holding his naked sword, Morgan walked forward, scanning the darkness with his Void Vision.