“It’s easy for humans to fall into despair when they lose what they believe in,” the lord said, even though Orphen wasn’t listening to him.
He wanted to just ignore it, but his anxiety won out in the end. “What did Claiomh lose?” he asked the lord.
“Well, based on what she said...”
“Leki.”
The route they were taking wasn’t particularly convoluted, but as he followed the lord’s instructions, he began to feel like the man was taking a purposely roundabout route to their destination. That sensation was made all the worse since there was no sense that they were actually getting closer as they went. Orphen had to suppress an urge to ignore the lord’s instructions several times as he walked.
They went in circles through an unchanging labyrinth until suddenly Orphen noticed the expression on the lord’s face change.
“...Yuis has spotted us.” None of the composure the man previously had remained in his voice.
Running now, Orphen asked him, “So what’s gonna happen?”
“Yuis doesn’t think he can control the summoner properly with just Lottecia, so he wants to bring me to the Second World-Seeing Tower too.”
“But isn’t that where we’re going?” He didn’t understand the other man’s concern, and the lord’s explanation wasn’t helping matters.
“If you listen to Yuis’s full incantation, I think you’ll understand why I don’t want to let him do it. Unfortunately, I’m not certain yet.”
Orphen had no idea what he meant, and the lord made no attempt to explain further.
Instead, he said something a little more practical. “Even if we hurry, it won’t be enough... Claiomh will likely make it to the Second World-Seeing Tower before we do.”
“What is Claiomh trying to do?”
Orphen leaped into another connection between hallways and continued hurrying as he endured the odd sensation of the teleportation. Even if they wouldn’t make it, he still had to hurry, he thought with some irony. Was he just wasting his time?
The lord and his response caught up to him at the same time. “She’s likely trying to stop Yuis.”
“Why?”
“Once the pact has been ratified, the Deep Dragons will enter the battle. And they’ll likely be wiped out. That’s why,” the lord said calmly.
Orphen knew he was getting upset at the wrong person, but he couldn’t help shouting, “But if they don’t—”
“Maybe she thinks it’s just as well since we can’t win anyway.”
“Dammit. She wants to stop Colgon? She’ll just be the first one killed if she does that. He’ll... He’ll kill her.”
“I suppose he will,” Almagest agreed all too easily. Then he added, “It’s this next door. It’s an emergency entrance to the summoner. It will probably be difficult to pry it open, but—”
Orphen looked at the door on the right side of the hallway. It did look different from the other doors he’d seen, more sturdy—but it was open.
Orphen peered inside suspiciously. It was pitch-black, so he couldn’t see much.
He gave the lord a questioning look and the other man seemed somewhat let down as he said, “This door should have been the next most secure after the door to the Ayrmankar burial chamber. Needless to say, the priestesses didn’t want any other dragons getting anywhere near the Second World-Seeing Tower.”
“Did Colgon leave it open to wait for us...?” Orphen muttered, carefully nudging the door open.
The lord quickly shook his head. “No, the summoner’s just past this door. If a single Red Dragon made it here, Yuis would be in grave danger. There’s no reason for him to put himself in that kind of jeopardy.”
“Then—”
“Yuis was betrayed.” That was all the lord said before he leaped into the room, taking the lead for the first time.
He vanished in an instant. Orphen clicked his tongue and followed.
Just because it was the final hallway didn’t mean anything differentiated it from any of the ones before. The entire sanctuary was maddeningly uniform. Maybe it was because a small number of Celestials had created the whole thing.
He resolved himself to leap; there was a short, strange feeling, and after that... It was the same process as always. And the next time he opened his eyes, he saw the same exact white walls—but since everything was so uniform, the smallest difference suddenly shattered the whole illusion of the sanctuary.
In the assembly hall, he’d seen corpses. Here... If he had to describe it, he saw chaos.
There were tools and objects heaped up in the room of all different sizes and shapes, no rhyme or reason to their placement. The ceiling was incredibly high, making Orphen feel small under it. The rest of the room was spacious as well, cluttered though it was. The random tools almost seemed to be floating in the otherwise pure-white space. Strangely, they didn’t seem entirely out of place in the sanctuary. That must have been because they too had been created by Celestials. He could tell at a glance that they were all sorcerous weapons.
Orphen let his gaze wander for a second. The room was cylindrical, with a walkway circling around the center some ten meters off the floor. Chairs were packed along the walkway and in one sat a familiar figure. It was Lottecia, staring blankly into empty space, and beside her...Heartia.
Only Heartia looked surprised at Orphen’s intrusion. Lottecia hadn’t reacted at all. And...
“Colgon!”
It was a strange sight.
Colgon stood in the center of the room. He had his sword drawn and was holding it straight out in front of him.
Claiomh was on the floor before him. She had no visible wounds. It looked more like she’d simply fallen in surprise. Her mouth was open as she looked up in front of her.
Between the two of them—what they were both looking at—was the lord. He had caught Colgon’s sword in his hand. The blade was stabbed deep into him, but he wasn’t bleeding. He clearly seemed to be protecting Claiomh.
The lord made no particularly aggressive moves, but Colgon leaped back to distance himself anyway. He backed up to the wall behind him, still holding his sword. The sword was a straight blade, glowing with sorcerous light. There was a buzz in the room like the wings of insects.