Alaster followed her inside as they moved closer he thought he could hear many voices whispering to him. “Is this what you were after?”

She ignored him and kept walking forward “Hey, answer me!” he reached out and grabbed her shoulder pulling her back. Something was wrong. For a moment she seemed to be staring through him; suddenly she shook her head as if she was waking up from a deep sleep. But she didn’t focus on him, her ears flattened as fear struck her face, she pushed free of his grip and rolled away. Alaster realized something was moving in behind him, the air rustling from the speed. He grabbed his sword and turned to block. A fist of stone, the size of his chest, smashed through his guard, slamming him across the room into a pile of treasure, knocking him out cold. A small trickle of blood ran down the side of his mouth.

The Inamian looked in shock at the source of the attack. A towering golem, made of ancient stone rebalanced itself, turning its expressionless face towards her. The enchantments that covered its body shifted from blue to a crimson red. She noticed one of her daggers had fallen from Alaster’s belt in front of her. She looked up just in time to see the golem had raised its fist above its head to strike. Discipline had finally come back to her and she steadied her gaze focused on what she needed to do. As the Golem attacked she dove forward, dodging the blow by inches as it smashed into the floor. She picked up her dagger mid tumble and struck at the behemoth’s knee. Sparks showered off the impact, a small nick was the only damage she managed to do to its rock hard skin. The golem turned instinctively, shit! She thought to herself. Her opponent flew into a rage, striking at her with a torrent of blows. Despite her injury, she moved with a dancer’s grace, each one of the attacks missing her completely, only making contact with the floor, knocking up dust and shattering the stone tiling. She jumped back from the golems reach, her back colliding with a wall.

Wasn’t the wall farther away?

She turned around to see what she had collided with, much to her dismay it was a second golem, whose leg had stopped her retreat.

“Oh, come on!” She shouted shaking her head in disbelief. The second golem reached down to grab her, she easily jumped up out of its grasp as its hands closed. Landing on its arm, She quickly ran up to its head; jumping behind and hiding from its view. The golem raised its arms trying to grab at her but it couldn’t bend enough to reach.

“Hey human, if your still alive, I could use a hand here!”

Alaster managed to wake up, his body ached horribly but he could still move. Quickly assessing the situation he grabbed his sword without looking. Something was wrong with his weapon, it was too light. Looking down he realized his sword had been shattered; only a jagged shard remained on the hilt. He tossed it away; looking desperately through the treasure for something to fight with. Everything he found was rusted from centuries of neglect, crumbling as he lifted them out of the pile.

Alaster could find nothing of use. His breath was heavy from exhaustion and pain; something caught the corner of his vision to his right. A large crimson handle with a golden pommel was sticking out of a pile of gold and jewels. Rough burlap enveloped and obscured what was attached to it.

The Inamian woman clung to the back of the golem’s head; staying mere inches from its grasp. In its attempts to seize her, it turned itself around trying to see where she was. The first golem spotted her and readied its arm to crush her. She quickly let go, sliding down the golems back as its partner’s fist collided with its mossy head. Chunks of stone showered from the impact, a rock struck the Inamian’s leg wound as she landed; hurting her to the point she could no longer stand up. The golem she slid down from was stunned by the blow. The other one looked down at her and started to close in. desperately, she crawled back trying to keep her distance. She hit the wall and turned around with a defeated demeanor looking up at the golem who was readying its fists

“damn it” she said as she gritted her teeth and tightly closed her eyes waiting for the final blow. Then came the sound of steel grinding on stone.

The Inamian opened her eyes only to be greeted by the point of a large blade just in front of her face. Alaster had charged into the golems back impaling it with a greatsword he had found in the chambers treasure-trove. Three large runes were etched up the center of its blade on both sides. The lights of magic that covered the golem began to fade as the sword seemed to be absorbing its power; its runes starting to glow a bright green. Alaster started to lift up with the sword. The golem reached down and grabbed the blade trying to stop it from cutting through its chest. Alaster grabbed the second handle in the center of the blade and used all his strength to push it through. The sword cut though the golem’s middle slicing its upper half in two. The magic it harbored fully faded and it’s body collapsed into a pile of rubble.

The other golem had finally regained its awareness. Seeing Alaster as the first threat it threw a punch with relentless force. Alaster readied the great blade to block. The impact made him slide back slightly but his guard held.

Alaster and the golem had reached a deadlock, from behind him a familiar voice yelled, “You idiot! You almost killed me with that stunt!” the Inamian shouted as she started to stand up.

This was the last straw, “You’re welcome, and my names Alaster, not idiot! What should I call you? Pain in my ass, or ungrateful Bitch!?” with that, Alaster channeled his frustration into strength and pushed the golem back making it lose balance. A spark lit in the Inamian’s eyes she charged with blinding speed, grip tight on her dagger.

“FINE, My name is Ciara, and don’t call me a bitch!” she said as she flew passed him, jumping onto the golems leg and launching herself to its eye level. With a sharp spin she slashed the golem’s stone eyes; it hummed with what sounded like a cry of pain. “Most people don’t live to say it more than once!” she said as she landed. Alaster charged forward.

The golem may not have been able to see. But, it could still hear his approach and readied its arms to block. Alaster slashed down on his enemy’s guard as hard as he could muster. The enchanted blade shattered the stone like a hammer to glass. Severing the arms and absorbing the golem’s magic in the process. The fight was over in three more blows. Alaster cut down the golems legs and drove the sword in its chest for the finishing blow. The golem tried to rise only to fall and power down; its stone body falling to rubble.

It was finally over. Alaster sat down and Ciara fell over and rested on the floor, both breathing heavy. Alaster began to chuckle through his gasps of air. Ciara looked at him in disbelief at first.

This human is insane. she thought.

But his laughter was contagious, Ciara soon joined in, their laughter echoing in the room. They had cheated death and both knew it. As they settled down, Alaster heard it again. The whispers had returned. He looked at the amulet still floating on its pedestal and stood up. Ciara got up herself.

“Hold it, that’s mine.”

Alaster turned and looked at her sternly “You can have it if I know it’s not a threat.”

Ciara’s temper burned even hotter. She started to step forward in protest but the closer she came to the amulet the more exhausted she felt. By the third step she fell back to her knees.

“Are you ok?” Alaster asked.

“Ya, just… just give me a second.”

He returned to observing the amulet. Alaster stepped forward, the whispers grew louder. It felt like they were calling to him. Slowly with hesitation he reached forward. Part of him wanted to pull away but for some reason, he couldn’t. The very moment he grabbed the amulet his mind was flooded with images: a massive tower Alaster had never seen or even heard of before, a war-torn battlefield of Inamians and humans fighting against each other.

Outside of this vision Ciara witnessed Alaster convulsing with the amulet in hand. Her energy suddenly returned.

Now’s my chance!

She rushed in, grabbing the gold chain of the amulet. A vision entered her mind as well: A human transforming into an Inamian?!

A wave of energy blasted her away releasing her from the image as she hit the ground. Alaster received one last vision; a cloaked figure standing alone on a balcony, the silhouette of a dragon rising from underneath the veranda, wings outstretched blocking the sun behind it like an eclipse followed by a defining roar. As Alaster came to, the amulets light receded. Ciara sat up head pounding. She looked at him with a shocked expression. “Did you see that?” His question was cut short by the rumble of shifting earth. Alaster ran down to help her up.

“It’s time to leave.” He said.

Ciara’s personality switched back to its normal spitefulness.

“Ya, no shi-“

Another rumble, this one was much louder. As Alaster mounted his new sword on his back, Ciara withdrew the stone key from her pocket. She pointed it at the walls till she found where it glowed brightest.

“That way… let’s go!” Ciara and Alaster hustled to the wall.

A hole emerged for the key. As she placed it inside, the roof was starting to collapse. The Wall opened revealing a long hallway with a light at the end of it. The room caved in behind them and the hall was getting ready to collapse as well. They rushed down the hall as fast as they could. Ciara’s limp got the best of her and she tripped forward. Alaster stopped almost immediately, throwing the amulet over his neck and picking her up off the ground. The hall started to fall apart behind them. Alaster started to run but the destruction was closing in. come-on. He thought to himself. Come-on, come-on, almost there! The light was blinding. He made it out in the nick of time. Dust and rubble exploded from the exit.

The sunset had turned the sky a brilliant orange. Alaster was never so happy to see it. There was a long quiet moment, save for the wind. Ciara broke the silence with a throat clearing cough.

“Alaster…” her face had an apathetic expression. “You can put me down now.”

“Oh! Uh …right.” Alaster replied somewhat embarrassed.

He gently set her on her feet. The faintest smile emerged on her face. But she dared not to let him see it.

“So, now what do we do?” She asked.

“Well… judging by the sun’s position, our battle was on the other side of the mountain. It’s going to take a day to travel around it so we should make a camp down in that glen over there.”

Alaster pointed to a small gap within the woodland that clung to the bottom of the mountainside. “Then, you and I need to talk about what we’ve seen in the chamber.”

Ciara stood in place for a moment in conflicting thought and then started down the mountain side at a steady pace, her tail trailing like a ribbon.

“Fine… let’s go then.” She said stiffly.

Alaster looked back at the sun. The image of the dragon appeared again.

Whatever this is, I need answers. He looked back at Ciara who was getting farther ahead and followed her soon after.

End of prologue