They made their encounter with the messenger. There was no exchange of words and barely more than a glance and a wave of the arm to denote direction of travel. The messenger made his way to a ledge that was lower down from the bridge. He looked over the side, looked back at the two men that followed him and hopped over the side and into the fog.

  Pelos groaned, “You can’t be serious. These cultists are so primitive. Can’t we at least take the stairs?”

  “Shut up and let’s go. You either follow or you get left behind.” Max led the way in leaping over the side. The hot and cold feeling of transition hit him quickly. The tingling was over once he hit the ground with a bit of force. He fell forward, catching himself with his hands. The messenger was already on his feet when Pelos finally fell through the fog and regained his composure.

  The messenger was motioning with an arm almost violently in a come hither movement. “We’ve got to hurry. There are spies everywhere.” He started to jog by the time Max and Pelos started to follow him. They both became confused as they headed right up one of the stair cases that led up and off of the War Plane. They moved through the fog and stood back in Rotheburg in the basement of one of the towers.

  At first, the basement room looked empty, but as their eyes started to adjust to the darkness, that thought was far from the truth. In fact, it would have been difficult for them to have moved much farther into the room without bumping in to someone or something.

  A figure stepped forward with an air of authority. “You will come with us. You will both be safe, just trust us.”

  She turned and the others all started to fall in line around Max and Pelos. Two men took point as they headed into some other chambers in this tower. It must have been one of the larger towers as they saw few steps going up and down and they took none of them. The lead men both held out a hand towards the formation to halt. They disappeared around the corner that was actually lit from somewhere out of sight. A few seconds later, there were two distinct sets of rustling sounds and then thumps.

  They rounded the corner and found two royal house guards collapsed and contorted in ways that meant death. The woman that had previously spoken with the two outsiders stepped up between the two that were leading the way. A thick door was set into the wall. It was armed with a massive lock mechanism and two insets in the walls held lamps. He made a few quick motions to move around some of the parts that were on display with the door. Apparently some sort of puzzle that the woman knew quite well. She then pulled out a long, thin key, unlike any standard key. It was actually more of a rod than a key. She turned it and a loud clicking sound dominated all others. The two men stepped forward with a motion from her. The door easily slid out of the way.

  The next room was larger than any that they saw up until this point. There were several strange podiums with archaic markings placed in a few locations throughout the room. Each of them was immediately manned by a member of the formation. They each pressed a few buttons and moved a few dials on each of the podiums. Dim light shed into the room from the far wall from the door. Pelos and Max maneuvered around the men and women that meandered while waiting for something.

  Pelos’s breathing was calm, “It’s a seasonal portal. Dependent on the season, it takes you to whatever Plane or planetary fragment, as I would say, happens to be dominant in the sky. Right now that would be the Wild Plane.”

  “What would you say? Is that a good thing or a bad thing?” Max asked with some level of knowledge but was assuming he could not compete with the man from Atras.

  “It is too early to tell right now. It doesn’t say much for the moment as to what their plans are or what is going on. Surely, they would not give away such details so early with us still in Rotheburg.” Pelos said with curiosity and analysis. “I do wonder if which ever noble’s tower this is in support of this.”

  Max shrugged, maybe he should care more about the politics of nobility, but from all the tales he heard, they really seemed more like something he wished to avoid entirely. “I guess it’s time for me to experience my fourth plane. Best make the most of it.”

  The first few people near the portal walked through. It was like the two places were connected, quite literally via a doorway. For the briefest of moments, the distance between here and that other place was the same as the distance from Max’s favorite tree to the start of the wheat field back home.

  Finally, the time for the two of them to go through came up. As soon as they crossed the threshold, Max was overwhelmed with heat and humidity. It was an unpleasant level that he could not imagine any being enjoying. Some of the first people through the gate were stripping down to be comfortable and throwing clothes in their small back packs.

  The temperature was not the only thing that made this place extreme. The vegetation was everywhere. It was difficult to get an idea what the landscape was like since only a few meters in any direction were open to view. The first few members of the expedition pulled out large knives and started to hack away some of the brush. Max actually witnessed it recoil as if it was alive. He almost swore that it even made a squealing sound of pain as it did so.

  After a few minutes of making their way through the dense foliage and listening to the sounds of many distant animals, they headed up an incline. This incline was still covered in tall trees, but as they got higher upon it, it became easier to see past the underbrush out into the distance of this place.

  It was more and more of the same everywhere he looked out there. He saw one area that was completely devoid of brush and trees, but it was interesting to see that all of the greenness was growing with enough speed that he could actually see it moving. The other object that caught his eye was on the distant horizon. It looked almost like some sort of swirling vortex. It was dark and foreboding, making him feel like life could never be forever long.

  Before he could look on the vortex for much longer, he was being prodded by the long caravan of people that were stopped behind him from his lack of movement forward. There were grumbles and a few hushes.

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  Ahead, slowly coming into view was a huge opening in the green forest canopy. Lying in the middle of the area, surrounded even above by massive tree branches, was an archaic looking stone temple. It looked wholly different from the Rotheburg city walls and towers. It was made out of a white stone and it looked to be much older than the other city must have been. The temple stood tall, so that at the top, it was probably quite possible to peer out from the trees and so all the landscape around. You could practically walk out on to the tops of the tree canopy. The temples design was like stepping stones, with various walkways on some levels wrapping around. Multiple doorways peppered the tall temple. The doors were made of thick stone and almost all of them were open. If they closed, he was sure it would take some effort to get them open again.

  The female leader of this little escort party from Rotheburg approached them. The woman that spoke before was a little overweight. Her hair was knotted and filled with debris. She looked tough and she didn’t look like any of these other men could take her down in a wrestling match.

  “Garinda is my name. When you get rested and good and ready, I’ll send for you to meet Daefindel. You won’t demand it. I will offer it. For now, you will both be given a meager room, some changes of clothes and a chance to wash up.” She motioned up towards the temple and also reached out with her other hand and forcefully grabbed a man that was standing within reach. “Take these boys to their bed chambers!”

  “Yes, lady.” The man said to her with timid fear.

  Standing at the main entrance on the bottom level were two men, perhaps guards, wearing golden robes. They looked cryptic with such outfits on, their faces completely concealed.

  As the followed the timid man who was now their guide, Pelos leaned over to Max, not slowing his pace to speak with him, “That woman back there is the largest dwarf I have ever seen.” He went back to upright walking position, then quickly leaned back over to Max, “They find that term an insult, by the way, don’t follow my lead on using it around here. The females are always pissed off, it’s best to do as they say and move along.”

  Max whispered an affirmative as they started up the steps that were not on the ground level. They walked around the main entrance and up to near the top of the temple. Then around on the walkway there to an open door. The man motioned inside and stood next to the door, out of the way. They both glanced in and saw that the place was lit with strange looking torches that did not flicker. It must be “magic”, Max thought.

  The accommodations were sparse, and the amount of room they had was small. There were four nooks that each held a small bed that appeared to be stuffed with leaves and other dead plant stuffs. The far wall from the entrance had another door that was made of stone not quite as thick. The walls also closed in up by their heads because of the temples shape. It was also almost as if whoever built this temple long ago were shaped differently from them. There were also a couple of stools and a very small table that almost took up too much room, pressed against one wall. There was a rack forced awkwardly into the wall between two corner stones. It held two sets of cloaks like the golden ones they saw before and some very simple garments that were made of various furs from animals probably native to the area. A small wash basin was around the corner from the beds in another small nook.

  They took turns washing up. Pelos refused to change out of his usual suit. It was still a strange article that Max so far couldn’t find a match for in their travels. Max thought that wearing the cloak at this point would be too hot and a little pretentious. He did change into some of the local furs. They were quite light and soft actually, matching the heat of this place.

  Just then, they heard footsteps, several pairs, approaching the outer door. A large plate of food was pushed in on the floor and before either of them could react, those people and the guard at the door all put their backs into slamming the stone door to the outside shut.

  Pelos reached a hand out and exclaimed, “Wait a minute. We aren’t prisoners! You can’t just...”

  The last bit of light from outside disappeared as the stone slab closed. Max almost laughed, “Well apparently they can.”

  They feasted on strange fruits, hunks of fresh meat, cooked rare, and a few roasted vegetables which Max was unable to identify. There was a range of flavors that he could not have even imagined before. “At least the food is good.” He said, and Pelos grudgingly agreed.

  The two finally gave up and got some sleep when no one came to them for some time. It wasn’t that they were overly tired, but there wasn’t much to do in there.

  After what must have been a full night’s sleep, the inner door started to slide open, waking Pelos and stirring Max from bed. As usual, his sleep was interrupted throughout the night by disturbing dreams and his attempts at analyzing them after waking throughout the night.

  A gold hooded figure stood at the door with two burly guards wearing little more than the weapons strapped to their sides. He spoke, “I am one of our master’s attendants, Sirodin. You will come with me and prepare yourself to meet the great.”

  The two stretched and put on the garments that they removed for sleeping. For Pelos, that was just his jacket, the rest he only took off to wash himself. They followed into the hallway. It was not well lit. There was a third guard standing farther ahead than the others that held a flaming torch. The light flicked off the hallways with irregularity, revealing that the walls were not smooth. Many grooves and symbols were carved here, some of which were split with vines and mosses. Pelos ran his hand over the walls as he walked, almost reminiscing.

  Several sets of claustrophobic stair cases later and another thick stone door led the group into a wide open area in the middle of the temple. It was lit by natural sunlight that seeped in through four skylights near the top of the temple. The openings were small, so the light shot into the place like beams, making the corners dark. There were grooves in the floor under each of those, probably for catching rain water.

  There was an altar present on a higher part of the room near where two of the beams of light crossed. Right in front of this position is the location they were led to. Once they were in place, several sets of stone doors were opened. As they did so, large numbers of people started to file into the room through each of those openings. At this time, nearly all of them were wearing the golden cloaks. Max also noticed in the brighter light here, that the cloak worn by the master’s attendant was lined with silver inscriptions.

  Once the place was standing room only, another door opened somewhere out of sight. Several sets of footsteps and a muffled scream turned into four figures up by the altar. There were two more burly guards, these looked strange with thick leathery skin and almost hideous to the eyes. The third figure was a naked woman with a few scars on her body. She walked freely of the others and moved to lie down on the altar. The fourth figure was wearing a gold cloak that was surrounded by black and gold inscriptions for trim. His hood was deep and long, completely concealing his face.

  “My friends and companions. My fellow believers. The time for the reckoning is almost upon us. The time for the grand sacrifice and the awakening is nearly here. And now, before you, a man who we have waited for. A man whose path was pre-ordained to align with our own. Maximillian!” He motioned toward Max with a grand gesture and the people, other than Pelos, directly around him took a step back. Everyone looked upon him.