Arai took the lead. Sword in hand, he began to climb the dark, winding steps, his armor clanking with every footfall. The scene felt eerily familiar. It had been two years since he was last here, two years since he had challenged the Night Queen at the top of the Nightfall. The circumstances were different -- very different -- but he had returned to it, at last, and his adventure, he suspected, was nearing its end. He had come full circle.

  The spells protecting the tower having finally dissipated, Shell (following Lillandra's instructions) had cast the Baby's Breath spell on the great doors, lightening them, allowing them to be pushed open. With the way now clear, Arai, Lillandra, and Shell had entered the Nightfall together, stepping into the dark gloom of the ancient tower. The Nightfall was tall, cylindrical, and rather narrow, its gallery small and its rooms cramped and crowded. It was also very dark; the last time Arai had been here the tower had been lit by torches, but these were all burned out now and had not been replaced. Shell led the way with the Candle of Hours.

  The tower seemed to be empty; they encountered no one as they moved through the gallery and into the spiraling stairwell. Arai didn't know what to make of this. Was the tower really deserted?

  Lillandra was frowning as well. "Something wrong?" Arai asked her.

  "Yes," she said. "Something's very wrong." She unsheathed her little sword, Helene, which gleamed in the light of the Candle of Hours. The blade trembled in her hands; Arai couldn't tell whether her hand was shaking or whether the blade itself was moving of its own accord.

  "I don't understand," Arai said, puzzled.

  "Neither do I." She touched the Nightfall's dark walls, her fingers brushing against the stone. "Everything's different. My calculation...something strange has been woven into it, something dark and twisted. And Helene is reacting to it."

  "Is the spell complete?"

  "If it isn't, it will be soon."

  "Could I cancel it out, with Silus?"

  "You could try."

  Arai drew the sword, touched it to a wall, and looked expectantly at Lillandra. She shook her head. "Nothing happened. My own spell has been reinforced, somehow, with these darker elements. There's something more than magic at work here."

  "Let's hurry," Arai said, unsettled.

  They climbed the steps two by two, making their way through several stairwells and through several floors, which had to be crossed in order to reach the stairs that led higher up. Arai recalled having fought and killed some of Lillandra's black-armored guards on one of these floors, but there were no bodies here; someone had evidently cleaned up the aftermath. There was no sign of Vex, either, who had remained behind to hold off their pursuers on that fateful night. According to the people of Hammersvik, Vex had not been seen since that night, and Arai had begun to suspect that he must have been killed...but if that was true, what had happened to his body? Where was he?

  A darker suspicion began to eat at him then, but he forced himself to push it aside, to discard the possibility.

  "This place is creepy," Shell commented quietly. "Like the Haunt, back in Addis. Like Urumkesh, in the desert."

  "The Nightfall was built before the Harrowing," Lillandra said. "Just like those other structures. Mankind was united then. The demons..." She stopped suddenly, her eyes widening. "Demons."

  "What is it?" Arai asked.

  "I think I know what's happening now," she said. "I think I know what we're up against. And if I'm right...we have to hurry."

  Arai didn't have to be told twice. With Lillandra following him, and with Shell following her, they sprinted through the remainder of the tower, all the way up to the top floor, to the shadowy workshop where Lillandra had ensconced herself for the better part of a century. The heavy wooden door to her chambers was closed, but Arai could some light leaking under it. Someone was inside.

  He gave the door an experimental nudge. It wasn't locked; it swung freely.

  He stepped inside. The room was much as he'd remembered it, a mess of books, tools, shelves, and strange artifacts, lit by candles, and with a large cauldron set in the center of the room. The cauldron, which Lillandra herself had kicked over during their battle, had been righted, and there was a foul-smelling odor arising from it. Odo and Maya -- or their stone statues, at least -- were nowhere to be seen.

  Someone was sitting in a high-backed chair, facing away from them. This person had been reading a book, but they closed it when they heard Arai and the others enter the room.

  "It's been a long time," an unmistakably familiar voice said.

  Arai stared. "Vex?"

  It was, indeed, Vex. The sorcerer stood up and turned to face them, as calm as could be. "It's good to see you, Arai. I've been waiting for you."

  Arai studied his old friend. Vex hadn't changed much in two years; he was a handsome young man, in his late twenties (though he looked much younger than that), with straw-blond hair and green eyes. He was wearing a white robe, cinched at the waist with a length of red rope, and he was wearing large golden bracelets on each of his wrists.

  Arai was happy to see him safe and well -- he had spent the last two years not knowing whether the boyish young sorcerer was alive or dead -- and Vex's expression was so disarming that he came very close to sheathing his sword, walking up to him, and embracing him. There was something very strange about their meeting like this, though, and no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't let go of that dark suspicion that had been tugging at him lately. He tightened his grip on his sword.

  "I thought you were dead," Arai said cautiously. "What are you doing here?"

  "I might ask you the same question."

  "I've come for the Dragon's Bit. We need it to fight the Al'mud. Where are Odo and Maya?"

  "In the cellars."

  "The cellars?"

  But Vex didn't reply to this query; his gold-flecked eyes had now turned to Lillandra and Shell. "Is that an elf? How interesting. And you..." He grinned, apparently recognizing her. "Ah. The Queen of the Night."

  "A pleasure to make your acquaintance," Lillandra said dryly.

  "I confess I'm surprised to find the two of you in each other's company," he said to Arai. "Aren't you supposed to be mortal enemies?"

  "She's not who you think she is."

  "She's not the witch who conquered Velon, who brought it to its knees?"

  "I don't have time to explain--"

  He laughed. "It's all right. I'm only teasing you. I'm actually glad she's here; I've been wanting to thank her. None of this," -- here he spread his arms expansively -- "would have been possible without her." He gave her a little bow.

  "What are you talking about?" Arai demanded. "What's going on here?"

  "You're the one who cast the protective spells on the Nightfall," Lillandra said.

  "I don't like to be interrupted when I'm working," he admitted.

  The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.

  "And you're the one who's been modifying my spell," she continued. "The spell I cast on the Nightfall, to turn it into a zemi."

  "Yes. It's marvelous, isn't it? This is the greatest calculation in the history of sorcery, greater even than the White Rain. It's an incredible accomplishment, and as I said, I never would've been able to complete it without you."

  "Vex..." Arai growled. "What have you done?"

  "I told you," he said. "I finished what she started."

  "This was your plan all along," Lillandra said. "To take advantage of my work, to twist it to your own ends."

  He nodded, unashamed. "Your calculations were so dense it was difficult for me to make sense of them at first," he said. "But I figured it out eventually. You've spent the last hundred years pouring magia into the Nightfall, fashioning it into a gigantic hammer -- a hammer capable of shattering the barrier which separates life from death. It was amazing, audacious. And it just so happened to suit my purposes perfectly."

  "Your purposes?" Arai asked. This was all a little bewildering.

  Vex gave him a condescending look. "I'm sorry, Arai. The truth is, I only ever joined your little crusade as a pretext for carrying out my own plans."

  "You pretended to be his friend," Lillandra said. "You only got close to him after he found Silus."

  He nodded. "He had the Radiant Blade," he said, "and the Steelmen, and all the people of Velon supporting him. When I realized that the rebellion might actually succeed, I joined forces with him...but for my own reasons. He wanted to kill the Night Queen to avenge his father. I wanted him to kill the Night Queen to get her out of the way, so that I might occupy the Nightfall and finish her work. I thought you might have killed each other, at first, when I found this room empty, and Odo and Maya turned to stone, but I eventually managed to put together what had happened. You weren't killed; you were simply removed to another part of the world. It would've been better if you had killed each other, but it worked out for me, anyway."

  Arai didn't want to believe it -- the sorcerer had been a loyal friend to him ever since he had flown out of the Frozen Mountains, and warned them of Lord Pierce's trap at Harbor Town -- but here he was, proudly boasting of having had his own hidden agenda. "Who are you, Vex?" he said, his voice dark and dangerous.

  "A sorcerer," he answered simply. "A scholar. A student of the Arcs Infernalia, and a servant of the Six Secret Temples."

  "A demon-worshipper," Lillandra spat. "I suspected as much."

  Arai reeled. "A demon-worshipper?"

  "My father belonged to the Secret Temples," Vex said proudly, "as did his father and his father before him. You've heard of Bellarue, I assume, the scheradatze of the Dayan's Holy Legion? He's a member of our order as well. There are many of us, spread throughout Velon and the Holy Empire...and even as far as Elent. Several of the highest officers of the Mages of the Dark Mist are followers of Enlil."

  "Enlil is dead," Arai pointed out. "Maximine killed him thousands of years ago."

  "True enough," Vex said, another smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "But I'm going to bring him back to life."

  Arai suddenly understood. "Lillandra's spell was designed to resurrect Julien," he whispered. "You've changed it, modified it, to resurrect the Demon King instead."

  "Julien? Was that the man's name?" He chuckled. "I wondered about that. He must have been a remarkable man, for the Night Queen to have spent a century laboring over his resurrection. And all in vain, I'm afraid. It's Enlil who's going to be resurrected now, and there's nothing you or anyone else can do to stop it."

  "The demons were invaders from another world," Shell said. "They attacked humans indiscriminately. What could you possibly stand to gain by resurrecting one of them?"

  "Demons?" Vex snorted. "Enlil and his kind were the closest things to gods this world has ever seen. And unlike the gods you pray to, they actually listen to their followers, reward them for their loyalty."

  "What have you done with Odo and Maya?" Arai growled again.

  "I told you, they're in the cellars. It would've been easier to destroy them, but the Night Queen's spell made the stone all but impregnable -- I couldn't even break them up with a hammer and chisel -- so I moved them down there instead, to get them out of the way. I needed this space."

  Arai could hardly contain his rage. "Vex..."

  "I'm sorry, Arai. I actually did grow rather fond of you, you know, and Odo, and Maya, during our adventures together. But..." He shrugged again. "As I said, I had my own goals. I've spent the last two years holed up in here, putting the finishing touches on the Night Queen's resurrection spell. And it wasn't easy making sense of this calculation, believe me. It took me a year just to figure it out how it all hung together. But it's finally complete now...and just in time; it would've been very inconvenient for me if that Al'mud shaman had come around and interrupted my work. But everything is falling into place now. Enlil will bring the Al'mud to heel, and his power will sweep through the Holy Legion, mastering their minds, transforming them into his own invincible army."

  "That's why Bellarue was so intent on coming to Velon," Arai muttered. "He's been working with you all along."

  "Well, naturally Enlil is going to need an army," Vex said matter-of-factly. "The Holy Legion will suffice. After he's secured Velon, he'll conquer the rest of the Holy Empire, overthrow Queen Alfaze in Elent...and then, perhaps, cross the Scarred Lands, to subjugate the kingdoms of the far east. He'll topple the remaining monuments in the Frozen Mountains, burn Pontiaks Cathedral to the ground, destroy the echolai of Elent, and reduce to rubble every Bear's Den and Estellarian shrine in the world. All of Iona Magister will belong to him then."

  Arai had heard enough. "That's not going to happen."

  "You can't stop it."

  "Oh, no?" He stepped forward, sword in hand.

  Vex was unafraid. "Silus is a formidable weapon," he said, eyeing the blade. "But it is no match for a god." He raised his arms and slammed his wrists together, banging together the large golden bracelets he was wearing. A tremendous, reverberating sound issued forth from them, out of all proportion to the noise they ought to have made; it was so loud and strong that the air itself seemed to waver. Arai staggered backwards.

  And then the entire tower began to tremble, shaking down to its foundation. Bricks were shaken loose; clouds of dust and mortar began raining out of the ceiling. Arai, still intent on attacking Vex, eventually found his footing, but before he could raise his sword Vex banged his bracelets together again, and this time the resounding reverberation -- it was as if someone had struck a huge bell -- knocked them all down. And when Arai looked up, his ears ringing, he saw that Vex had disappeared.

  "He's cast the spell!" Lillandra shouted through the chaos.

  "The Dragon's Bit!" Shell shouted back. "We have to find the Dragon's Bit!"

  "There's no time!" Arai called out. "The tower is collapsing! We have to get out of here!" They ran for the door, then barrelled down the stairs, trying desperately to keep their feet as the Nightfall shook and shuddered. Arai, attempting to shield Lillandra and Shell with his body as stones fell out of the ceiling, was bombarded with debris.

  "What's happening?" Arai asked, as they ran.

  "All the magia stored up in the Nightfall has been released," Lillandra replied. "It's shaking the tower apart!"

  "He's succeeded, then?"

  She didn't answer that; she may not have heard him through the chaos. With the tower crumbling to pieces all around them, they barely made it back to the gallery on the ground floor. "What about your friends in the cellars?" Shell asked. "Odo and Maya? The tower will collapse on them!"

  Arai had already taken this into consideration, though. "The whole tower is coming down! We have to get out of--"

  But Shell wasn't listening. She snatched the Griffin's Down -- the zemi Lillandra had made to reanimate Odo and Maya -- off of Lillandra's belt and ran off, in the direction of the cellar steps, which were located on the other side the gallery. "Shell!" Lillandra cried. "Come back!"

  Arai started to run after her, but a huge chunk of masonry fell out of the ceiling at that moment, separating them. The air filled with dust and debris, blinding him, and causing him to choke when he accidentally inhaled some of it.

  "Arai!" Lillandra shouted.

  They had no choice; the tower was seconds away from collapsing. Heartsick, he reluctantly followed Lillandra out of the Nightfall, dodging more falling stones and debris and diving out the doors only a few feet ahead of the destruction. The Nightfall, the ominous dark tower which had stood for well over two thousand years, crumbled to the ground with a colossal sound, sending tremors through the earth and throwing up a huge column of black dust into the the twilit sky.

  Arai, out of breath from their flight down the tower and now coughing his lungs out from the dust, had to stop for a moment to collect himself. When the dust cleared, at last, he found himself on the snow-covered plain upon which the Nightfall had once stood; the Nightfall itself was a smoldering pile of rubble.

  Arai could hardly believe what had just happened. "S-Shell..." he murmured, staring at the devastation.

  Lillandra was staring, too, her dark eyes wide with horror. "It can't be," she said. "It can't."

  And suddenly Vex was standing there, atop the rubble; Arai had no idea where he had come from. He was grinning triumphantly. "He has returned!" he shouted, raising his arms skyward. "Enlil!"

  A very strange, oppressive feeling suddenly filled the air, a feeling of palpable dread and horror unlike anything Arai had ever experienced. An enormous weight seemed to press down on his shoulders, and he felt a pressure building behind his eyes. Thousands of images began flashing through his mind, unbidden -- he saw burning castles, bloody faces, dark corridors, and bestial horrors of all kinds, one after the other, in rapid succession, and all within a fraction of a second. For a moment he thought he was going mad.

  But then it all stopped, just as quickly as it had started. The oppressive feeling vanished and Arai's thoughts were once again his own. He glanced at Lillandra, who was staggering and holding her head; she appeared to have experienced the same things. "Are you all right?" he asked her.

  "Yes," she said. "But..." She looked up, at the pile of rubble. Arai followed her gaze, and saw, to his surprise, that there was another man besides Vex standing atop the rubble now -- a naked man, lean and muscular, perfectly sculpted, with alabaster-white skin and hair. He was looking at his hands, turning them over, as though he were looking at them for the first time.

  Vex approached this man and knelt down before him. "Enlil," he greeted. "You have returned."

  The man, Enlil, regarded Vex for a moment, then went back to looking at his hands. Then, smiling a wolfish smile, he closed them into fists.

  "I have returned," he agreed.