Epilogue

I never imagined a desert could be this hot. Not that I'd imagined many deserts before.

I pulled the scarf over my nose and kept walking. The wind blew sand against my face, getting into places I didn't even know could collect sand. After three days crossing that place, I'd already given up trying to get it out of my boots.

Behind us, the creature finally stopped moving.

Four enormous serpent bodies remained intertwined across the dunes. It was hard to tell where one ended and another began. Each was nearly as wide as a house, covered in dark scales that reflected the sunlight.

One of the heads moved.

I stopped. So did Helen.

The creature twitched one last time before its head dropped back onto the sand.

"This time it's dead," I said.

"You said that last time."

"And eventually I was going to be right."

Helen let out a short laugh.

I wiped the sweat from my forehead and raised the sword. The red ribbon had already faded considerably. A few grains of sand still slid down the black blade. I gave it a single spin before sheathing it across my back.

Helen watched the movement.

"At least all those years of training were good for something."

I looked at her.

Even after nine years, some things refused to change. Her long dark hair escaped from the cloth covering part of her face and fell over her shoulders. Above it, the same ruby-red eyes watched me.

"You were a pretty mediocre teacher."

She narrowed her eyes.

"Mediocre?"

"I'm trying to be nice," I added, trying to soften the blow.

"I can stop being nice too."

I looked back at the four dead serpents behind us.

"I think I'll survive."

Helen laughed.

We kept walking.

I still hadn't completely gotten used to it. Not necessarily the desert. But seeing.

Nine years had passed, and there were still moments when I caught myself staring at things for no reason at all. The way light spread across the sand. The shadows of the clouds. The horizon trembling beneath the heat.

For a long time, I had imagined what the world would look like. I discovered that imagining it didn't even come close. But my Hero had tried to show it to me anyway.

I touched the hilt of the sword behind my shoulder and kept walking.

In the distance, something began to emerge through the heat.

At first, I thought it was another rock formation. As we got closer, however, it became clear that it was something completely different. Straight lines appeared between the dunes.

Helen stopped beside me.

"So it was true."

A gigantic structure emerged from the sand.

Part of it had been swallowed by the desert, but an enormous entrance remained visible between two columns covered in symbols I had never seen before. Above them, a triangular structure rose against the sky, large enough to be seen even through the distortion caused by the heat.

I smiled.

"I told you."

"You also said that creature was dead three times."

"A little more than that."

Helen stared at me.

"That doesn't help."

We descended the last dune.

The closer we got, the larger the structure seemed. The columns disappeared beneath the sand somewhere far below our feet, as though we were seeing only the uppermost part of something the desert had spent centuries swallowing.

Helen studied the entrance for a few seconds.

"We can still go back."

"No."

"Alicia..."

"Helen," I replied in the same tone.

She sighed.

"After the tournament, the Council was already planning an expedition beyond the old borders. We could've waited."

"And let them get here first?"

"That's usually the point of an official expedition."

"Terrible point."

Helen shook her head.

"You could've at least entered the tournament."

"What for?"

"To become the nation's new Hero."

I looked at her.

"I don't need a title. I'm an adventurer."

Helen fell silent for a moment.

I smiled.

"Besides, the world is ending. Do you really think those idiots would've let us use anything they found here?"

"Those 'idiots' have spent the last nine years trying to keep the Four Nations together. They're the former Heroes."

"They're still idiots."

She tried to hide her smile.

"You've become unbearable."

"That's one thing my teacher was very good at teaching me."

"Keep saying that and you'll be crossing the desert alone."

I started toward the entrance.

"If you cared that much, you wouldn't have come with me."

No answer.

I looked over my shoulder.

Helen was following me.

I tried to hold back my laughter. The look on her face was priceless.

We entered.

The temperature dropped almost immediately.

After days beneath the sun, the interior felt like something from another world. Our footsteps echoed through the corridor as small particles of sand fell from the walls. The light from the entrance followed us for a few yards before it began to fade.

I placed a hand on the hilt of the sword.

There was no Pulse or sound anywhere around us.

We continued.

The farther we went, the more the symbols repeated across the walls. Some resembled the ancient records we'd found years ago.

Others...

I'd never seen before.

Helen ran her fingers over one of them.

"Alicia."

I stopped.

"What?"

She didn't answer immediately. Her eyes moved across the wall, following lines almost erased by time.

"These symbols are older than the records of the Four Nations."

I moved closer.

"How much older?"

"I don't know."

That wasn't an answer I heard from Helen very often.

We continued until the corridor ended. An enormous stone door blocked our path.

At its center was a circular recess, surrounded by the same symbols we'd seen on the walls. Some disappeared beneath the dust, while others could still be clearly distinguished.

Helen approached it.

"Doesn't look like a lock."

"Great."

"Why would that be great?"

I drew the sword from my back.

The black metal reflected what little light still reached that part of the corridor. For a moment, I simply stared at it.

Nine years.

It was still heavy, but in a way that had nothing to do with its weight. Even after years of intense training, it felt as though the legacy it carried had only grown heavier.

I brought the blade toward the recess. Before the tip could touch it, the symbols around it began to emerge from the stone.

One after another.

Helen reached for her sai. I stopped.

A dark line crossed the recess and spread across the door, as though something inside it had recognized the Noctrium.

Then came the sound.

THUM.

Helen looked at me.

"That doesn't sound good."

"You say that about everything."

THUM.

The door began to move.

Sand fell from the ceiling. I took a step back as the two enormous slabs of stone slowly separated.

Darkness appeared between them. Helen stood beside me.

“Do you really believe it’s in there?”

"I don't know." I looked inside.

"Alicia..."

I tightened my grip on the sword.

For nine years, we'd followed incomplete records, stories no one took seriously, and references to a place that didn't even appear on the maps of the Four Nations. Every clue had taken us farther.

To Nhalor. To this place.

“But it’s the only chance we have.”

Helen fell silent. Then we entered.

Darkness surrounded us as we moved through the chamber. I couldn't see its end, even after my eyes adjusted to the lack of light.

Then something appeared ahead.

A light. It was faint. Almost imperceptible. But it was there.

Helen stopped, and so did I.

It wasn't a Primordial Stone.

My hand tightened around the sword. For the first time since we'd crossed the old borders... I felt Pulse.

And something in there felt mine.