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Several members of our party gasped at the dramatic change in lighting, drawing to a stop.

The earth began to shiver beneath us. It was so subtle, at first, that I wondered if I was imagining it. But then it grew more violent, forcing me to brace a hand against what remained of the nearest wall. Little chips of stone rained down, joining loudly rattling piles on the dusty ground. One of the few trees still standing snapped with a series of startlingcracksbefore falling forward, nearly striking two of our soldiers as it did.

The quaking lasted at least a minute.

Another minute passed before our party regrouped, gathering around and looking expectantly at Bastian for an explanation.

“…The lack of balance—and proper Vaelora—has clearly taken a toll on this realm as well,” he said.

We continued on. No one spoke. Most seemed to be trying to quiet their steps, their rattling armor, their verybreathing. There was a lingering sense of something monstrous sleeping just beneath our feet, and no one wanted to wake it up.

But as we passed beyond the final defensive wall—into the innermost yard of the palace—silence seemed impossible. Gasps and confused whispers rang out at the sight that greeted us:Soldiers.

Countless soldiers frozen in various poses of action and stillness, all caught in a moment of time they were never allowed to finish. And the way they were all dressed…

“These are old uniforms of the Elarithian Army,” I said. My stomach twisted as I pointed to the sleeve of one of their jackets, which featured a crescent shape cradling a single, radiant star at its center, the star’s light spilling outward in sharp, clean lines. Swallowing away the sudden dryness in my throat, I added, “And this symbol is sometimes used by the Light Keepers.”

“…Is this Lorien’s army that we were so worried about encountering?” wondered Lord Kaelen, stepping forward. “An army of frozen ghosts?”

“These look like the cursed figures back at Rose Point,” Nova said, quietly. “Like…like my mother.”

Bastian moved closer to one of them, tentatively circling the stoic figure. The buttons on the soldier’s jacket glistened with a hint of movement—no more than a breath, the faintest hint of life beneath its condemned shell.

“That aligns with the theory we’ve discussed,” said Bastian. “This kind of curse seems to befall those who are caught in the crossfire of warring energies from the separate realms. As for what’s happening here…” He looked to the sky as it began to ebb back to the soft shade of glowing white from earlier.

“It’s nothingbutwarring energies in this realm,” I thought aloud.

He nodded in solemn agreement. “I suspect if we stayed here long enough, we’d end up as similar victims of those energies.” He lowered his voice toward the end, but the damage was already done; urgent chatter broke out among our own soldiers,and some of them looked back toward the hill we’d descended, likely wondering if it was too late to retreat.

Cowardly, maybe, but I couldn’t exactly blame them. We had no way of knowing how much time we had before the ill effects of this realm—whatever they would be—started to take hold.

“So it seems the realm itself has done its part to slow Lorien and his minions down…could we really be so lucky?” wondered Captain Voss, carefully weaving his way in between the frozen figures.

I frowned but held my tongue. It saved us a battle, maybe, but nothing about this seemedlucky. And it felt as if these living ghosts were all still watching us—more monsters just waiting to spring to life at our first misstep.

“Let’s hurry up and find the Stone before our luckruns out,” Thalia suggested.

Another slight tremor shook the earth, and I found myself quickly agreeing with her. “We should divide into groups and start searching. It’s somewhere within the palace grounds, correct?”

“According to almost every account I’ve read on the subject,” Bastian confirmed.

Nova was hesitant to divide our forces, but another dramatic shifting of energy in the sky ultimately convinced her. “…Make sure each group has a necromancer among them,” she ordered, “so they can send shadows—a signal of some kind—for any discovery or trouble they run into.”

The details were settled, the groups decided on, and Nova and I were joined by Captain Voss and a few soldiers as we made our way to the left side of the palace. We were forced to sweep wider and wider in an effort to avoid more and more rubble, as well as great craters that looked as though they could have—shouldhave—swallowed the entire palace whole.

The destruction only grew worse as we continued to explore. It was a wonder any of it was standing at all, and a challenge just to get close to it, much less to thoroughly explore it.

Captain Voss pressed on with a methodical, tireless determination. His soldiers followed his example. Nova appeared equally dauntless on the outside, but I could sense her frustration growing, her magic becoming more and more restless with every dead end we reached.

I started to suggest we head back to the central courtyard, and perhaps reconvene with some of the others, when a strange light caught my eye—a flare of gold that illuminated a corner we’d yet to explore.

Searching for the source of that light proved fruitless. And there was nothing that immediately stood out in this forgotten corner, even as I moved closer…only a staircase, half-buried in the debris of the collapsed palace, its steps partially obscured by a tree that had grown twisted and bent around it.

Yet, something about it called to me.

As I ascended the stairs, I realized the palace had once soared much higher than its ruins suggested. At the top of the steps, I entered what had clearly been a vast room on a second story; fragments of marble flooring inlaid with delicate gold patterns lay scattered about, and broken columns stood at even intervals.

The walls had all crumbled away, allowing my gaze to spot an interesting sight in the distance: Some fifty feet away, a massive, circular chamber jutted out, seemingly untouched by the cursed energies that had destroyed so many other parts of the structure.