The dome was about as large as four of the buildings. It was composed entirely out of a reflective material, like a mirror. Upon closer inspection, Alexandra saw that comparing the dome to a mirror was misleading as the reflections produced by the dome had no imperfections. Unlike every other mirror that Alexandra had seen previously, there was no tint, distortion, or blemish on the surface of the dome.

  “Is this what you were looking for, your highness?” Schwartzbaum asked.

  “I think so, sir. I don't know what else the dome could be…” Alexandra responded as she stared at the dome.

  “Is something wrong, your highness?” Fahim asked.

  “Yeah… I thought it would be smaller…” Alexandra answered. Ekkehardt looked at the princess with concern. He wasn’t sure what was going on in her head. Why did it matter what size the damn dome was? All that really mattered was that it was real, that this journey might not have been a complete waste of time after all.

  Then, out of nowhere, he was hit with a memory, an event from his past that he would have never guessed would have been relevant to his journey. He was training with Ludwig and Siegfried, back when they were still young boys, back before Agrippina drove a wedge between Ludwig and his cousins. After a long day of training, Ludwig had absent-mindedly attempted to sheath a sword in a scabbard that was much too large for it. The blade fell far too deep into the scabbard and required some effort to remove. That was the day he learned a simple lesson: that a scabbard must fit the sword that it is to contain.

  Ekkehardt then looked up at the dome and dread began to leak into his body as he realized exactly what had taken hold of Alexandra. She did not take the same mental path that Ekkehardt did, but he was sure that she had arrived at the same destination: that what is true for scabbards may also be true for the dome. Sure, they did not know the exact size of the creature that allegedly lurked within the dome, but does it not make sense for a container to be just slightly larger than its intended content? Ekkehardt and Alexandra remained in this fear-induced paralysis until a loud shout snapped them out of it.

  “What the fuck are you doing, you imbecile!” A hard, masculine voice shouted. Ekkehardt and Alexandra turned to see where it came from to find Schwartzbaum shouting at one of his subordinates.

  The subordinate, a large man with long brown hair, had reached out to place his bare palm on the dome. He recoiled in fear and turned to face his employer.

  “I’m sorry, sir. I just wanted to touch it…” he answered.

  “Why would you touch it!” Schwartzbaum shouted.

  “Ya-Ya-You didn’t say we couldn’t, sir…” the mercenary stammered. Schwartzbaum then grabbed the man by the sleeve and examined his right hand. He was careful not to make skin-to-skin contact with the man.

  “Fahim, come here! Do you see anything?” He barked. Fahim ran to the men and quickly inspected the hand. He shook his head.

  “It appears to be completely healthy to me, sir.” He answered. Schwartzbaum let go of the mercenary and then turned to Fahim.

  “I want you to keep an eye on him. If you see anything weird, then I want you to perform an amputation. You got that?”

  “What?” The man exclaimed.

  “Yes sir. I believe we should have all of the equipment and materials required to perform an amputation as safely and humanely as possible,” Fahim said as he recalled that the party possessed a handsaw, a bottle of vodka, some rope, and a wooden spoon.

  “Good,” Schwartzbuam said before turning to Ekkehardt and Alexandra, “Did you two see the dome do anything weird?”

  Both of them said no. Alexandra then approached the man.

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  “Sir, are you okay? Do you feel any pain in your hand?” She asked. The man shook his head.

  “No, I don’t feel any pain. My hand feels normal,” he answered. Alexandra nodded her head.

  “I see,” she said, “If you don’t mind me asking, what did the dome feel like when you touched it?”

  The man took a moment to gather his thoughts as a look of concern formed on his face. He then took a deep breath before replying.

  “It… It didn’t feel like anything at all, sir. I don’t know what to tell you…”

  Some time later

  Alexandra looked down upon the green tree-tops of the Frauenwald before turning back at the dark mouth of the cave. Something about Pe?ter? Agonic? immediately unsettled the princess. She wasn’t a stranger to caves as her, her brother, Ekkehardt, and Siegfried had explored some of the caves near the imperial winter palace in Peschtia. However, the caves back in Peschtia were close to civilization and parts of them were even lit up with torches as they were used regularly by the palace staff. This one seemed to be a hole in reality; a place where everything just stopped. The interior seemed as though it actively swallowed light rather than just being shielded by it.

  “Well, here it is. We finally made it…” Fahim declared with a strange uneasiness within his voice. After the incident with the man who touched the dome, the party departed that area and returned to the start of the north-west and south-west paths up Einsamer Hill.

  From there, the party divided itself into two equal groups, one led by Schwartzbaum that took the north-west path and one led by Fahim that took the south-west path. Ekkehardt and Alexandra had traveled with Schwartzbaum’s group.

  The trip up the narrow and winding path up Einsamer Hill was difficult, but otherwise uneventful. The two groups were able to reunite at the top of the hill without either group suffering any casualties. The man who had touched the dome was completely fine, though he was still rather shaken by how easily his commanding officers contemplated amputating his hand.

  Alexandra approached the cave, stopping only to take notice of a strange chunk of stone to the left of the entrance. There were parts of it that were smooth and filed down into right angles; something that could never happen without human hands. It appeared as though it had been some kind of slab. Unfortunately, everything, but its base had been destroyed, rendering any message it may have once contained lost to time.

  The mouth was tall and narrow; about three imperial paces high, but only wide enough for two people to stand shoulder to shoulder. ‘Mouth’ was truly a fitting word for the feature, as it did appear to Alexandra as though she was staring down the maw of some ghoulish creature.

  “Are you ready?” Ekkehardt asked as he turned to Alexandra. She nodded. They then turned back to Schwartzbaum and Fahim.

  “It is probably best if you go alone,” Fahim said. Schwartzbaum turned to him with a surprised and unhappy look on his face.

  “What do you mean by that? Are you afraid of some stupid cave?” He growled. Fahim was completely unfazed.

  “Actually, yes. I am indeed terrified of this ‘stupid cave’. Given how little we know of the cave’s structural integrity, I believe the most prudent course of action would be to send the smallest possible party in order to avoid a sudden collapse of a key structural element and any subsequent…”

  “Say it in normal Alemanian, Fahim…” Schwartzbaum sighed.

  “I’m saying that if we have one or two dozen men down there shifting rocks around willy-nilly then it is very much within the realm of possibility that we could cause a cave-in, which would be a big problem for us. Furthermore, most of us are armored, large, and heavily armed. If we go down there and something happens, we’re going to have men tripping over each other trying to run back to the exit. It will be just like what happened to the Iberistani forces during the siege of La Gran Kasbah,” Fahim argued.

  “...You’re right, but we cannot send them down there alone. How about we just send you and another man to accompany them?” Schwartzbaum responded.

  “I certainly wouldn’t have a problem with that,” Alexandra added. Fahim nodded his head.

  “Okay. In that case, I would like Jean-Phillipe to accompany us,” Fahim said before turning to one of Schwartzbaum’s men. “You were a miner once, correct? This shouldn’t be anything you can’t handle, right?” he asked. The man nodded his head and then removed his helmet to reveal a young, handsome face topped with messy black hair. The man wore a large battleaxe on his back.

  “No sir, not at all,” He replied with a thick Metrovingian accent. Without any further debate, Fahim and Jean-Phillipe removed their armor. Fahim discarded his jarids and Jean-Phillipe traded his ax for one of his comrades’ short swords. Another one of Schwartzbaum’s men produced four torches, lit them, and handed them off to Alexandra, Ekkehardt, Fahim, and Jean-Phillipe. The party then began to descend into the cave. Schwartzbaum watched as the four of them were slowly swallowed whole by the impenetrable darkness.