At the center of the ring was a large, flat circle that had a massive rune carved into it. The Happy Sunflowers exchanged glances as they approached it.

“I’m pretty sure I could have found this without the help,” Arek muttered, craning his head back to look up at the top of one of the stones. As far as he could tell, there was no trace of any floating city.

The four of them walked up through some of the gaps between the massive stones and on top of the rune within them. Arek squinted up at the sky. Then he shrugged.

“Anyone see a city?”

“Maybe you need the thing Rovin gave us,” Belmont suggested. “It could be a key of some sort.”

Arek took the metal tube out from his travel pack. He held it aloft, then spun in a slow circle. When nothing happened, the orc tapped it on the rune on the ground beneath them. He frowned and stood back up, giving the party a shrug.

“Let me try,” Malissa said. Arek handed the tube to her, and she waved it around for a few minutes to similar results.

“Does it open?” Belmont asked.

Malissa peered at it. She twisted the top in both directions, gritting her teeth and narrowing her eyes in concentration as she tried to unscrew it. The tube didn’t budge.

“I don’t think so,” Malissa said. “And if it does, I don’t think I’m strong enough to get it open.”

Ming pulled out a strip of jerky and sat down on her bundle of staves, chewing thoughtfully as the rest of her team gathered around the tube.

“This is probably something we should have asked about before we got here,” Arek said, letting out an annoyed sigh. “Maybe it needs magic to activate?”

He peered closer at the intricate golden designs covering the tube. Two intertwined dragons twisted up the sides, curls of swirling fire streaming off their mouths and claws. He ran his finger along the embossed surface.

The golden caps on either end of the tube had thin seams at the bottom. However, when Arek tried to twist them, they showed no signs of giving way. The orc stopped before he broke something and drummed his fingers on his chin.

“Is it some sort of puzzle?” he wondered aloud. “That seems like a lot of work just to get entrance to a city. I thought this tube was supposed to take care of it, not just give us more problems.”

Ming polished off her jerky and stood back up. She wandered over to them and reached up for the tube. Arek shrugged and handed it to her. The small mage turned it over in her hand, leaving some grease from her food on the cap.

“What if it needs some magic?” Ming asked. A small blue orb of pure magic formed in her free hand. Before anyone could say anything, she brought it close to the tube. The metal started to rattle slightly.

“Huh,” Arek said. “That actually looks like it’s doing something.”

Ming brought the orb of pure energy closer. The dragons on the side of the red metal twitched. Then they abruptly shifted, twirling around the tube faster and faster until they became a blur of light. A beam of brilliant gold energy erupted up from Ming, launching into the sky and piercing through the clouds.

Belmont summoned a shield around Ming, but it did nothing to stop the gold light. Ming let go of the tube, but it stayed suspended in the air before them. The rune on the ground beneath them started to rumble. Air crackled and sparked as molten gold energy filled the cracks in the ground beneath them. A loud droning noise filled the air, making it almost impossible to think.

“Is this supposed to happen?” Malissa yelled over the din.

“I don’t know!” Ming yelled back. “But I think I’m getting lighter!”

Ming’s bundle of staves twitched. It started to slowly rise into the air, spinning and turning as it went. Ming’s eyes widened and she lunged for it, but they danced right past her hands and into the sky.

“My toys are getting abducted!”

Ming tensed her legs and leapt into the air. She sailed past the rest of the group, slamming into the cloth bundle and letting out a triumphant cheer. And then she kept going, rising further and further into the air.

“Ming! Get back down here!” Belmont yelled. “You’re flying away!”

“I don’t think she’s doing it,” Malissa said. Her own feet were starting to float off the ground as well. She made to say something else, but Arek never got to hear it. The silk laden woman launched into the sky, her words vanishing into the howling wind.

Arek and Belmont started to rise a few moments later. Arek reached out and snagged the metal tube, but it was no longer frozen in place. Wind rushed past his face and forced his mouth open as he launched into the sky.

The orc’s chef hat started to slip off his head. His hand shot out and grabbed it right before it took flight without him, but that was the extent of what he could do. Arek squinted to protect his from the slicing winds and let the spell carry him off.

They rose higher and higher into the air, the golden light shimmering around them not fading in the slightest. Arek punched a hole through a cloud and sputtered as his clothes grew damp and soggy.

It was all he could do to hold onto both the tube and his hat. The orc caught a glimpse of Belmont tumbling past him, and a flash of what might have been Ming reclining on her back with her hands behind her head in the air above them. Arek squeezed his eyes shut, trying to fight off the encroaching dizziness.