The splash of a droplet echoed through the black abyss. Were my eyes open? I couldn’t tell. I tilted my head and a hand came into view. I moved it around, just to be sure it was mine. There was nothing around me. Was this death? No, I couldn’t have died so easily. Surely?

I got to my feet. There appeared to be no ground beneath me and yet somehow, I could stand all the same. I looked around. Distantly I saw a speck of light. Walking, I came to it far quicker than I expected to. There was a tree, covered in a glowing, white haze. Lying below it was a man, a few years younger than me, watching a small girl playing with a kite.

Her eyes were bright with curiosity. Her laughter filled the silent void melodiously – louder and louder as I approached them. When I got close enough, I could see the slight smile of the man watching her.

The girl had fair hair, and her lithe limbs moved about as gracefully as a nymph as she played. The man’s hair was darker, but his features showed only slight signs of age – his expression shining with a youthful exuberance.

“Emilia, we’d best get inside. Your aunt will be furious if we’re late for tea.”

I stopped. My knees felt shaky at those words. I looked from the man to the girl to the man once again. The solid feeling beneath my feet vanished in an instant and I tumbled through the darkness.

***

As my eyes snapped open the smell of blood hit me all at once. My stomach churned and the bile came rushing up my throat.

“Thanks for the help,” I heard Scarlett say. She sounded tired.

I wiped the tears from my bleary vision and the sick from the corner of my mouth with the back of my sleeve. My throat had been carved raw.

“Need a hand up?” she asked with a frown.

I shook my head slowly, using the stair railing to pull myself to my feet. My head was assaulted by dizziness as I came upright. Steadying myself, I saw a gargoyle lying dead in the centre of the room. I tried to speak, but no words escaped my mouth.

“If seeing this kind of thing is too much for you, maybe you shouldn’t have come.”

I saw a glimpse of Emilia’s laughing face as my eyes passed over the bloody room. I felt sick

“Well whilst you were taking a nap, I finished off that gargoyle and got what info I could out of the mage it was eating before he pegged it.”

My eyes widened and I finally managed to speak. “Did you find out anything useful?”

“I asked him about the barrier. He said that everyone here was killed. I also asked him about the seal.”

“Seal?” I asked, scratching my head.

“For the Chaos Portal.”

“And?”

She sighed. “He said ‘Alcandor escaped with it’. If we can use a seal to close the portal, we could stop the Chaos from entering our world.”

That much I could have guessed. “If it were that easy, wouldn’t someone have done it already?”

“Its existence was only a rumour back in New Sparta. I’d heard the creator was a mage in this city. I guess that much was true.”

“But now he’s gone?”

“Seems that way.” There was silence between us for a moment. “Listen, Sander, I have no idea what I’ll face if I pursue Alcandor. If you’re only going to get in my way, not to mention endanger yourself, it would be better if you found somewhere to shelter alone from the Chaos. You can’t go back home, but it might be even more dangerous to come along with me.”

She was right. There wasn’t any reason for me to go with her in any case. Better to hide. Perhaps even to forget all about Scarlett and what had happened in the last twenty-four hours.

“I saw Emilia,” I replied. I don’t know where the words had come from. They weren’t what I’d been thinking. She looked at me with concern. “There’s nothing for me here; but if I come with you, I may just find what I'm looking for."

She nodded. “I won’t try stop you if that’s how you feel, but don’t think I’ll slow down just because you’re with me.”

“Pah, and don’t think I’ll forget how I saved your ass.”

She made a "hmph" sound and turned away, but I caught a glimpse of a smile from her.

***

We searched the rest of the tower but found no other gargoyles.

“That one must have been a straggler,” Scarlett said.

It probably was. Almost made you feel bad for the guy didn’t it? Not really, though.

Most of the rooms in the tower were devoid of any life. No corpses. No monsters. Abandoned in a hurry. Finally, in one bedroom, Scarlett found something.

“This letter’s addressed to Alcandor. This was probably his room.”

“What does it say?”

“Just some personal business. Nothing that helps us.”

In the cupboards we found some robes, and a few other personal items lay scattered about, but the room had been cleared of any paperwork.

“If he really did have research on a seal, he must have taken it all with him,” the Lunar Knight said.

Understandably. You wouldn’t leave such important paperwork behind.

“He could have forgotten something if he was in a rush to escape,” she said.

I shook my head. “It’s been bothering me for a while, but all these rooms. They’re so empty. It’s almost as if the mages had time to clear their belongings completely.”

Scarlett frowned. She looked as if she’d just realised something.

We continued our search until we stumbled across a body, collapsed in a doorway. Scarlett’s eyes widened. She knelt down and examined the dead man.

“What are you looking for?” I asked.

“Does he look like he was killed by a gargoyle to you?” she asked, her piercing gaze striking me. Her eyes were frantic.

I thought back to the bloody scene at the stairwell. The way the men had been torn apart. I shook my head. A knife materialised in her hand.

“What are you –”

I began but stopped as I saw her cutting open the man’s robes. His bare chest unveiled, I looked it over in horror. A black rash ran from his stomach to his collar bone. Scarlett covered her mouth and took a step back.

“The tower wasn’t abandoned because of an attack by the Chaos; it was abandoned because of an outbreak.”