"It's finally working!" With a whoop of triumph, Eirn shook the GPS in his hands.

Stomping up the hill, Nikk moved his drowsy eyes at him. "How much further is it?"

"It's about..."

Anya shambled behind them, fighting the constant urge to yarn. The night had almost passed, and the daitias had never stopped. Although, they had crossed the valley and almost reached their destination, or so Eirney said for the past three hours.

Anya felt so tired, the reality constantly tried to slip away from her and muffle her into the slumber. She was on the edge of giving up, and ask her friend to transpassage her to some hotel and pick her up on the way back.

But I must find the book, she was convincing herself. Me. And no one else. Why? I don't know. I just feel that's the only right way. Me and Nikk, we're the only ones who saw the temple in a dream, we're the only ones who should find it.

"Oh..." Eirn flicked his eyes to the dark clouding in front of him, then to the screen, then back to the dark. "It can't be."

"What again?" Nikk and Daphne groaned in unison.

Eirn cocked his head at the others, stunned. "We're here."

Nikk looked at him, incredulous. "No way."

No way indeed, Anya thought. There was nothing but thick forest all around, no sign of the city line or a stone wall or a door or anything.

"Eirn's right, look," Rill's amazed voice was heard from behind.

Everyone turned to see what the daitian had found. The sun disk was slowly climbing up the sky, filling the forest with its ruby light. Yet, the night wouldn't recoil so easily, the jangles were still plunged in shadows, and ominous gloom ruled close to the ground.

Anya peeked down at her feet and her breath caught. Merely an inch above the ground, a faint light hovered amidst the grass. Incredulous, Anya blinked and stared at the light again. Yes, they were still there—the pillars of dim, steady light, casting no shadows. It traced along a narrow trail that would have been invisible otherwise.

"That is... what I think it is?" Daphne prompted, her voice uncertain. She made a broad motion, running her hand over the light and swiftly jerked away, as if were strung. She flicked her eyes at others, "That's pure energy."

"Crystals?" Nikk's eyebrows shot up. "So we're actually close."

At those Nikk's words, Eirn made a face, but said nothing revealing his offence.

Nikk moved his hand into the light, and Anya's eyes widened as the wound on his arm healed, leaving not a scratch.

Without thinking, Anya extended her hand toward the light, too. What she was... unexplainable. A rush of wind down her spine, a gasp of fresh air in every body cell, a spear of merriment piercing through her mind. The energy flooded her body, alerting her thoughts and sharpening her senses. All the sleep wore off.

"Spectacular, right?" Rill smiled, glancing at her. Her fingers glided along the luminous line and then touched a leaf of a nearby fern. The stern swung slightly, and a blooming bud appeared on it. In a heartbeat the bud turned into a big crimson flower,

"A drop of energy," Rill said in dreamy voice, looking at the petals. "And you can literally change the world."

"Let's change our world and find this book at last," Nikk beckoned them to keep moving as Eirn had already dived into the dark.

Soon, the trail guided them to the dead end, a giant rock raising a dozen feet up. As Anya looked closer, peering at the stone, she saw a carved image of some creature holding a snake, it had a square head and faceted sapphires for eyes.

"The journey's over," Eirn sniggered. "Apparently, whoever built Paititi forgot to upgrade the rock to a doorway."

"No," Rill whispered. She came closer and pressed her hand against the rock, carefully as though was afraid to break it. Bracelets on her wrist glittered. "Don't you feel it?" She closed her eyes for a second, listening. "The vitality of the plants behind it? Oh.. There are close. It a door indeed."

Daph brushed the dry leaves off the stone wall, revealing some words. "Puerta de Hayu Marca," she read slowly. "In Kechua it means 'The Gate of the Gods'."

"Do you know all the Earth languages?" Anya asked, surprised.

"Of course not," Daph shrugged. "I only know nine. And just at conversational level."

"Of course..."

"Will it please you to know I don't know Kechua?" A teasing smile tugged on the corners of Nikk's lips. He yanked a knife from beneath his belt and, with a dexterous gesture cut the lianas concealing the rest of the rock.

A barely visible, vertical line appeared, dividing the rock in two equal parts. Space between the parts was so small, it seemed impossible even for a razor blade to slide through.

"This is a door," he said.

"The question is how are we supposed to open it," Daphne pointed out. "Out adris glitch. And we can't just smash it open. We don't know how thick the rock is."

An impish grin crossed Nikk's face. "Every door has a..." He looked at Anya, his copper eyes flickered knowingly in the murky dusk.

She couldn't explain how exactly, but Anya for some reason grasped Nikk's meaning instantly. "A key!"

She glimpsed at the gates. Low to the ground, there was a small hollow, of the shape of a teardrop. Wasn't a stone of the same shape in the parcel Anya once brought to the daitias? Yes, there was.

"I hope, I have it with me," Nikk muttered, fumbling in the pockets of his backpack.

The other daitias stared at him, confused. Only when Nikk fished the stone out, they realized what he was talking about.

"I totally forgot about it," Daph admitted. Seemingly, it was the first time Anya heard Nikk's sister confess she wasn't the cleverest and smartest one. It sounded pleasing.

Eirn snorted. "Nikk, you've been carrying along this piece of rock all this time? I thought you have thrown this garbage away."

"I'm a romantic," Nikk chuckled sarcastically and put the stone into the hole. It matched perfectly. Muffled rasping came from inside, an ancient mechanism started working, and the doors slowly moved in opposite directions.

Everyone froze, waiting. At first, nothing but darkness was inside. Then the sunlight fell in the passage, showing steep stone steps abruptly going down.

"Well, it doesn't look welcoming," Nikk squared his shoulders. "But I don't see another way in."

He began to walk carefully, the others followed. Gradually, the steps plunged into mist, so there was no visible end. At each side of the stairs were faint lines of werelight, just like in the woods, except for the color. Now, the light wasn't of a pale white hue, it was glowing gold.

Once everyone was inside, the doors crackled and shut behind their backs.

"Not a big deal," Rill laughed nervously. "The crystals will work and we'll transpassage back in Kelas, right?"

No one answered her, just exchanged worried glances. What's the point of saying your concerns out loud if you know the others fear the same? It will only make you feel worse.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Monotonous footsteps echoed between the stone walls/ the branches above Anya's head were so thick and entangled, she could barely see the sky.

Thump. Thump. Thump.

Down, down the unexplored steps. Further, further to the unknown. Anya felt the mist kiss her face, the silent breeze chant in her ears, the whole world watch her, waiting for her to falter.

A minute of tense walking passed. Another one, and another. Anya felt like sinking down forever, but it was not. Ultimately, she saw the ground, a small piece of it peeking out of the mist. Once they reached the bottom of the stairs, the daitias stopped and so did Anya. What she saw was... unimaginable. A mountain range surrounding a city gleaming under the sun: the ruins of numerous buildings, large and small, terraces, towers, roads and paths. They got lost in the dense of the trees a long time ago, but never lost their beauty. The majestic, royal beauty...

"The GPS's dead again," Eirn grunted.

The others flinched, awoke from the splendidness.

He shook it in his hand severely, then tossed it into the bushes. "Useless piece of metal." He snatched out of his pocket the original map and turned it in his hands, striving to comprehend where to go.

"Can you hear that?" Rill shifted from foot to foot. Something was amiss.

"No," Nikk said in a low voice as if afraid to disturb the perfect stillness, to awake something dangerous. "Nothing."

"Me neither. The place is a graveyard. Not a bird in the sky, not an insect."

"That must be a guards' post," Eirn mouthed and pointed at the tower next to them, without taking his eyes off the map. "Behind it, down the hill are living quarters, hm... staff block on the left, and on the right is... Oh, the main square, its road would bring us straight to the bunker. Let's go." He waved his hand and flippantly strode off the hill.

"Wait. What's there?" Daphne pointed at a small leveled her finger at the distance.

A few yards away, on the slope of the hill was a silhouette of a building covered in gold shards like a dragon scales.

"Uum, KhanNhu? Yes. It should be an armory. Or something like that."

"Good. We need weapons. I don't want to improvise again if there are more crazy sunset fire-spitting dancers in the city."

They found the entrance easily. There was no door, only rusty hinges as a reminder that once it existed. Daphne came in first, clutching her dagger and looking around, ready to deflect.

The weapon racks and stands along the walls were empty. But Anya found a chest with lack of locks—only lock-resembling hollow of the shape of a circle divided in four parts. with a cross

"That's Sutālian symbols," Daph said, approaching, she examined it by poking the chest with her foot. The chest creaked quietly. "A watery lock."

She sat on his haunches beside the chest and waved her hand demandingly, "do you have any water left?"

Anya handed her a flask. "And does open exactly?"

Daph grinned, self-confident. "Easy."

Daph tossed the tip of her white ponytail behind her shoulder, and splashed the lock with water. Then, she poured a handful of the liquid in her hand and stared at it, concentrating. On her wrist, Anya glimpsed a glowing vein-pattern appear. Just like Nikk's. Do all the daitias have such technology?

The water slowly rose in the air, flowing in a silvery tube, then shaping in a flawless sphere. Daphne made a sharp gesture, and the sphere thrust into the lock, filling the carved circle.

A click was heard, and the lid sprang ajar. A glitter of steel blades appeared—swords, spears, javelin and so many more Anya knew not the names. Satisfied, Daphne stood up, brushing her tight pants.

"Uhh," Eirn whistled behind their backs. "You found a treasure. With that, we can even face the fomoires!"

The daitias soon chose steels for each other, weighing them in her hands, tracing fingers along the shining blades.

"How about this one?" Nikk handed Anya a delicate sword with a golden hilt.

Anya swallowed hard. This blade had probably slid not one throat. "I would probably have more chances to stay uncrippled if I run away from the fight."

Nikk chuckled. "Fair enough," he attached the sheath of the blade to waist. "I'd have to stop your pursuers then."

*

The place that the map referred to as the main square was far from being such. It rather was botanic garden. The ruins of once be a fountain settled in the center, so today Anya could only drown into the ferns. From underneath the pavement, crooked roots protruded, tangled dead to each other.

"Not a single bird still," Rill whispered, walking next to Anya. "I only hope they all left, not died. And all the plants, they're... sleeping."

Some disgusting crunch came from under Anya's right foot. Automatically, she looked down, and a bold of fear snaked down her spine. She shrieked and lost her balance, and hurled almost ten feet, fighting to regain her balance and not to trust her chin in the ground.

"What?" Rill yelped, startled. The she saw the same thing and her face went ashen. "Ahh..."

The others leaped to them in alarm, reaching out to their swords.

"I'm okay, I'm okay..." Anya's voice faltered as she glanced at the crunch again. "Or not."

It was exactly what she thought it was, no mistake. Bones. Lots of them. They whole skeleton in a rumpled, rotten clothes, his back pressed against the fountain.

"Something very bad has happened here," Nikk said, a hint of alarm in his tone. He inspected the shield pierced with an arrow in the skeleton's hand. "He was shot dead."

"Great," Daphne chortled humorously. "We're hell knows where! En los quintos infiernos, risking our lives for the book that doesn't even exist maybe! Always wanted to wind up like this!"

"Poor man," Rill sniffed. "Or a woman? Oh... I think he couldn't even guess his life would be finished here. Let's get out of here, please. He makes ponder out war can end the same."

"No," Eirn shook his head, his expression sullen. "if our war ends the same, nothing would be left of us. Not even bones for vultures."

The others stayed mute. What can add to that?

After the incident, everyone was twice as cautious, looking out for any threat. Grave silence hovered over them. Anya felt being buried alive in it.

Apparently, Nikk felt the same.

"Daph," he sniggered, giving his tone artificial merriment, "Did you learn to spit out in different languages at once from Eirney?"

Daphne smirked, but stayed silent.

"I beg your pardon, por favor!" Eirn groaned, without turning at them. "Will I always be the object of your jokes?" He kicked up his heels in a clown-like manner, and Anya instantly had to strangle the urge to laugh.

"No," she said in order to stop her lips from curling into a smirk. "Only until you invent superheroes from the comics out of your liquid crystals."

The daitias burst out laughing.

"You see," Nikk patted Eirn on his shoulder between gasps. "Even humans notice you're erratic sometimes."

Eirn made a face, "Says the fire charmer."

Well, this small talk wasn't much help improving the mood, yet it was better than nothing.

The daitias and Anya soon saw a shadow of a giant building through the milky wall of the mist. As they approached, Anya grew conflicted. The building seemed not suffer, wasn't touched by time. Stone walls were covered with ivy in some places, but not a single crack was visible.

Wide terraces went far to the right and left, balconies were decorated with gold and red carvings. Anya mused, if she closed her eyes she could see the flowers and people filling the halls. Yet, that looked weird.

"That's the secret base of your ancestors?" she laughed. "It looks more like a cathedral or a temple, not a bunker."

"Apparently, when sunset wilders lop around you, hunting boars and shooting arrows wherever they muse, you need to mask it," Rill shrugged.

"That's beautiful indeed," Nikk agreed. "A bit of a life though won't be redundant."

While the others were fascinated with the walls and surroundings, Daphne strode up the steps and stood by the giant doors glittering in the sun with its golden patterns.

She pushed once, twice, thrice. "Tight shut. How are going to get in without the crystals?.."

Walking along the terrace, Anya glanced at the inner courtyard. Heavy vaulted bulks were supported with massive pillars, marble statues who once were beautiful gods and goddess lined the walls.

"Let me try," Rill said, pulling Daphne away from the doors. She threw her hands up and made a swift gesture. Momentously, the ivies reached out from the walls and looped through the edges of the golden tracery of the doors. Rill waved her hands once more, the ivies strained like strings. A moment, and they plucked. Rill sighed, "Oh."

"We can try to turn the doors to ice and break them," Eirn suggested, scratching his forehead. "or..."

Anya came into the courtyard, scanning the garden. Yes, she remembered this place very well. Here, amidst the shrubs, is a decorative pond where once the waters were singing. There, should have been a big clay vase, and there... Anya gasped. It still was there, a golden falcon profile.

"Rings a bell, uh?" Nikk chuckled, standing next to her.

Anya flinched. How did he manage to skulk to her so soundly? "Do you remember all it too?"

"Every detail," he ran his hand across the falcon. "Though, in a dream it all was..."

"Alive?"

Nikk nodded, uncertain.

"Do you feel like we've traversed to the past? Can you do so in a dream realm?"

"No," Nikk's face darkened. "You can only see in a dream what you've perceived before. All I've read about time travelling with you mind stated the journey would drive you mad."

"But we aren't mad, are we?"

"I hope not."

Next second, a loud clasp was heard, and a large piece of ice glided at their feet. In unison, Anya and Nikk cocked their heads to the gates. Frosty flakes tumbled from the doors. Yet, the doors seemed to be unyielding.

"Some help, maybe?" Daphne shouted, brushing a sweaty lock of her hair from her forehead.

"Maybe," Nikk echoed. "Come over here, there's another way in."

Nikk strode over the puddle that was left of the ice rock and moved further into the garden. Anya saw the frustrated faces of the others and followed Nikk.

The trail, once drowned in flowers, was now obscured with shrubs clinging to clothes. Anya paid with a big hole on her jeans, and Nikk scratched his forearm, before they reached the pond.

"What, you think, is behind that wall now?" Anya asked Nikk, looking at the stone block dividing the pond. At the bottom was not a glimpse of sun rays like in an astral reality, just sea plants.

"The mysteries of the past," Nikk shrugged. "I hope I didn't rush with the encouraging statement, and there's a still way in from here."

"What did you find?" Eirn called. Rill's pink hair and Daph's maroon red cardigan flickered behind him.

Nikk pointed at the stone block. "There's a gallery beyond this wall, it leads into the temple."

Daphne's eyes narrowed into two suspicions slits, "Why would you know?"

Anya opened her mouth, wanted to say, but hesitated and looked at Nikk. He nodded.

"When we were at Manco's hut, we saw a dream that..."

"Another dream?! Tell me you controlled this one."

Nikk shook his head reluctantly.

"And you failed to tell me?"

"Are you telling me everything?"

"Humph!"

"And you were lecturing me on the dangers of astral projecting?"

"Don't raise your voice at me," Nikk spoke through his gritted teeth. "My dreams are different."

"Different how?"

Temper flared in his eyes. "Not haunted?"

"How dare you—"

"Let's leave this squabble for later?" Rill stood between them.

"Agreed." Nikk glowered at his sister, turned to the pond and began to unfasten his belt with the sheath.

"Wait," Eirn gaped at him. "Are you going to swim in there?"

"Any other ideas?"

"But what's behind the wall now can be hell much different from what was in your dream! What if—" He stalled off as Nikk jumped into the water, splashing them with a rain of drops.

Lethe, he made a few scooping motions, dove lower and disappeared under the wall.

The daitias and Anya stood