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“Are you ready for this?” Vynia asks quietly as we approach the temple on foot.

The past two days of travel were arduous. I’m not sure my legs will ever go back to normal after the hours and hours of sitting on Nebula’s back. Even the warm comfort of having Raiz at my back couldn’t ease the discomfort.

“I’m just happy to be walking on my own two feet for a bit.”

She huffs a laugh behind the scarf wrapped around her nose and mouth. “Right?”

The temple itself is incredible. Extending from the floor of a large cave, the building rises into the darkness well above the surface and with spires piercing the sky. Two eternal flames burn from large stone bowls on either side of the massive door.

The structure is the complete antithesis of its surroundings. Huge piles of boulders dot the open space, more than likely leftover from the construction of the temple. How they managed to build something so intricate in such a remote spot, with no technology is astounding. I wish I could spend weeks studying it.

Las informed us he wouldn’t be entering. We left him behind with the kyrils. Raiz and Hyva are going first into the temple, checking to make sure it’s safe. They each light a torch from the bowls of fire and then disappear behind the doors that close behind them.

As the minutes pass my anxiety grows. Vynia and I fall into silence as we wait for them to come back out for us. Snowflakes swirl down around us from above, adding an ethereal ambiance to the already haunting scene before us.

“Forget waiting,” I say finally. “Let’s just go.”

“We have orders.” Vynia frowns, clearly irritated with said orders.

“You have orders.” I point at my chest. “I don’t.”

She glances at me out of the corner of her eyes. “Technically, my orders are to keep you safe.”

I nod, catching on immediately. “Exactly. So if I decide to go in, you have no choice but to come with me.”

“To do anything else would be dereliction of duties.”

There’s no hesitation on my part as I walk up the smooth stone steps. Our boots don’t make a sound as the snow begins to fall heavier. Vynia grabs one of the torches and lights it while I pull open the door and let us both inside.

If I thought the outside of the building was beautiful, the inside is a masterpiece. The arched ceilings and flying buttresses are carved from a white stone, not the black that seems most prevalent on the continent. Each wall is divided into panels with a different relief carved into the center.

Vynia holds up the torch as we walk through; I don’t see words, but I suspect there are hieroglyphs of some sort because I keep seeing repeating symbols. There’s no sign of Raiz or Hyva, so we keep slowly working our way through the long, rectangular room.

“Do you know what any of these depict?” I ask Vynia.

“No. I don’t have a clue.”

“Is this a church? Was it originally built for worship?”

“Yes. I believe this was once a temple to the old gods. But religion fell out of favor long ago.”

“The Bak’hura isn’t a religious rite?”

“No. It’s more of an offering to the Sovereign.”

“You kill each other for him?” I stop and look at her. “Doesn’t that seem backwards? If he was a good leader, he’d want Zeahiri to thrive. You can’t thrive when you erase half the population.”

“I know. That’s why we’re here, trying to find anything to help us. No one wants to see the tradition continue aside from the very few in power who benefit from it.”

“How—”

“Were my orders to wait unclear?” Raiz appears from the darkness behind us with an irritated growl that he directs at Vynia.

“I came in first. She was just coming along to keep me safe,” I say without looking back at him, so I can keep studying each new relief, trying to find a pattern to the symbols.

“That doesn’t change the fact that she disobeyed a direct order.”