Gally narrowed her eyes at Giger, but did not say anything back. Although constant bickering was a fixture of their relationship, it was embarrassing to get chided by Mordekai for it. He may have had the mind of a 60-something master wizard, but the face and the voice were that of a 12-year-old boy and no adult with any sense of pride wants to be scolded by a child.

They were close to their destination now, a place the Nylians called Central-Prime, though unlike the major cities at the four corners of the country, there was no city here, or at least no intact one. As the carrot man said, most of the ruins had been stripped of materials a long time ago and only the faintest traces remained. Here, however, more of the original city was left standing, or at least standing as much as ruins could be after three centuries of being ravaged by the elements.

If they were travelling on foot, it would have taken days for them to cross the Hollow Sea. As Mordekai promised, he had a faster mode of transit devised. It was not so much that they flew as they would jump tens of kilometers in a single bound. Giger and Mordekai could manage about ten such leaps before they needed to rest for a few hours. Gally wondered if it would have been easier for them if they did not have to support her dead weight.

While they were taking one of their breaks, Giger and Mordekai sat around the campfire meditating, leaving Gally to find some way to pass the time. She could only watch the two of them sitting with their eyes closed for so long. Giger warned her not to go far and she was neither brave nor foolish enough to ignore him on that.

She went over to one of the nearest bronze statues, a woman holding up a baby. She was positioned so that her baby pointed toward Central-Prime, almost as if she was offering up the baby to whatever was waiting for them there. Gally reached out and touched the woman, feeling the cold bronze and the roughness of the mottled patina that covered it.

Gally nearly jumped out of her skin. Mordekai was standing right behind her. When he got there, how he got there, she had no idea. It was like he was a wizard or something.

Composing herself, Gally asked, "Are these really all people like me?"

Mordekai then asked her, "Have you remembered anything about this area from your time?"

Gally held her head.

"I have a feeling that if there was something important here, it wouldn't be something normal people like me would've known about. The government was always big on its secrets. I think, like, maybe there was a war or something going on. It didn't really affect us, but it'd been going on for a while."

There were bits and pieces of news reports that came and went like the crackles of a log on the fire.

She shook her head. As much as she was trying to remember, there was a part of her that did not want to remember. She felt a sharp pain like a knife was carving open her brain right down the middle. Sweat started beading on her forehead. She reached for her handkerchief, but realized she did not have one. That was a long time ago. Another life...

With her head hurting like it was and grasping at the elusive fragments of her memory, Gally forgot her manners and almost sounded like Giger. This did have an effect, though, taking Mordekai by surprise enough that he reflexively complied.

"Then the Star Seed came, like a blessing from Heaven. Water sprang up from the ground, bringing forth vegetation and then every sort of bird and beast and creeping thing. And of course Man rose up and thrived as well, but this was not to last.

"As Man waxed strong, he grew proud and he invited folly. He scorned the blessings of the Star Seed and so he was punished. The Cataclysm. More than half the world returned to the wastes. The civilization that was Man's pride was laid low, and yet a measure of the blessing remained, that Man might live and be humbled. And should Man truly be humbled in his heart before Heaven, the Star Seed may once again restore the blessing that was taken away."

There was a familiar ring to the story. Yes, Gally had heard it before, but it also reminded her of something buried in the depths of her mind. Maybe it was more than one thing. Bits and pieces cobbled together. And there was something else.

It was like someone else was speaking through her as she said, "Hundreds of worlds were seeded. Thousands, maybe. Seeded with what, though? I don't know. Did they ever tell us? Two hundred years of terraforming in under two decades. It was like magic. Maybe it was magic, but of course they didn't call it magic. Arcana. That was the name...

"My parents weren't part of the first wave of settlers. They came later. But I was born here. I was second-generation. Most of the work was done by then. We never thought anything of it. Our teachers tried explaining what it used to be like, being sealed up in hab domes, the atmospheric processors... I think there was even a field trip to make it real for us, but it never clicked... I could never imagine the world being anything different, not... Not like this..."

The pain started to subside and Gally was left to wonder at all that she had just said. Mordekai adjusted his glasses, muttering to himself, "Intriguing..."

Gally jumped again. How were they so good at sneaking up on her?

Annoyed, Giger said, "Settle down there. Your heart's gonna pop like a balloon if you keep it up."

Appalled, Giger replied, "Lovers' quarrel? Don't be giving her any strange ideas."

Their argument was interrupted by a dull boom at their feet that kicked up a cloud of dust. Once the dust settled and the two of them were done coughing, Mordekai lowered his hand and said, "I was wanting you two to stop, not go into a second round."

Giger glared at Mordekai.

Giger made the neck-cutting gesture for her to cut it out, lest Mordekai intervene again. Gally was no more eager than he was to have Mordekai come up with a more creative way to get them to stop, so she held her peace, albeit with the intention to really let Giger have it the next time there was no one to get in the way.

Giger had to bite his lip to keep from going on a fresh tirade.

Gally could not even begin to imagine that tangled web of rivalries and intrigue, even though something told her the world she came from was just as bad, if not worse.

Gally suppressed her urge to say something back and simply followed after the two wizards. It was a long road ahead of them and she did not want to spend the entire time arguing with Giger. Not that Mordekai would have the patience to put up with it for that long.

As much as Gally hated their flights, it only took a couple hours of walking for her to decide that was worse. There was nothing to be gained by complaining about it, though. She just had to focus on keeping up. She had a feeling Giger at least, probably both of them, were using magic to make the walking easier for them.

As they started to enter the city proper, or at least as proper as you could call these ruins, Mordekai said in a low, level voice, "I don't need to tell you to suppress your magic, Giger."

Remembering how she acted earlier, Gally felt a flush of embarrassment. The muscles in her scalp tensed up, bracing for her mother to smack her upside the head. Of course, her mother was not there to smack her for being rude. She wondered if somewhere in the world there was a statue of a fifty-something woman with her hand raised to deliver some swift correction.

She turned her focus to following Mordekai and Giger with all due caution. If they were going to trip some trap, she did not want to be the one to blame for it. Somehow she felt that Giger would blame her anyway.

Although she was trying to focus on following Mordekai's instructions to walk only where he and Giger walked, she found her eye drawn to the ruins around her. Nothing looked even vaguely recognizable to her. You could not hardly find a single building with all four walls still standing. The taller buildings had the worst of it. Once they failed, their massive weight not only brought down the buildings themselves but also most everything around them. If Gally was an engineer, she might be able to better explain how it all happened.

Over three hundred years and ruins like these and the bits of junk Giger collected were all that remained of Gally's world. It might have been better if she never remembered anything. Would seeing this Star Seed—if it even existed—give her any closure? Even if it did, what next?

While she was wondering about all this, she walked right into Giger's back.

Gally saw both Mordekai and Giger standing with their arms raised.

Giger sighed.

A distant voice replied, "It's ruder still to trespass, little boy. Usually we kill intruders on the spot, but we haven't had any mages come this way in a long time, especially not any smart enough to be hiding their power."

Mordekai tilted his head and said, "If it's the one about six kilometers that way, I would be grateful to you."

Bear in mind that the three of them were barely speaking over a whisper and though Gally was not very good at judging distances by sound, Czeko had to be at least fifty meters away. That was some damnable hearing.

He may have been intending to blame Mordekai, but Gally was quite certain that Giger's warped personality resisted any and all efforts to be straightened out.

Bog then said, "Czeko, Pawlik, keep watch. I'm taking these three in."

Czeko, on the other hand, was not nearly so agreeable.

Gally thought she saw a shape descend from one of the buildings. Shortly thereafter, three figures emerged straight ahead and slowly approached them. They were wearing mottled grey cloaks and hid their faces with dog masks. It would seem there was something to what Giger was saying after all.

Once the three Cerberus wizards got closer, the one in the center said, "Don't try anything funny. I don't know what you're supposed to be, but I highly doubt you can take on three trained battlemages at once."

Gally had no idea how he could be so calm. She remembered him saying something about not having fully recovered his powers. Was he really that much stronger or did he just have the makings of an incredible poker player?

The Cerberus wizard said, "I'm Bogdar Calek, Mage First Class, of the Cerberus Mages' Guild. Who are you?"

Between Czeko's ears and Bog's nose, Gally was starting to wonder if they really were dogs.

They were then led deeper into the heart of the city, to one ruined building that could not particularly be distinguished from any other, but when they got there, the voice of a hidden sentry challenged them.

Apparently the sentry was unwilling to take up that challenge because all he said in reply was, "It's on your head."

In the end, the sentry never revealed himself and Bog went on into the building. He moved some junk out of the way to reveal a stairway leading underground. There was no lighting, so Gally could barely see when they got to the bottom.

Rather than knock, Bog scratched at the door. Gally could hear the spyhole open and a voice say, "You're not due to be relieved for another three hours, Bog. What are you doing back?"

The guard at the door audibly sniffed the air.

Bog growled, "Do you want to start something, Filek?"

There was a lot of creaking and squeaking as the locks were disengaged and the door opened. The apparent leader wore a tarnished silver mask but was otherwise indistinguishable from the others. Beckoning them, he said, "Come in, come in. We have not had guests since, well, never. I cannot promise much in the way of hospitality, but I trust you will be grateful for the slightly longer lease on life you have been granted."

They went inside. Gally could not help but feel uneasy as the guard growled as they passed. More than that, though, she was trying to suppress her reaction to the smell. She noticed it when the door first opened, but now that they were inside, she wanted to plug her nose. She had never smelled anything quite like it, so she could not make any good comparisons. It was nothing pleasant, suffice to say.

The corridors were dimly lit with little crystals embedded in the walls every several meters. They continued a short distance to a little side room. Inside there was what looked like a coffee table in the center of the room, a mat with a couple threadbare blankets piled on top, and all manner of junk strewn about. There were books and a lot of loose papers, dozens of jars and bottles of who knows what, even some bones, it looked like.

The leader motioned to the table and said, "Have a seat."

Mordekai and Giger cleared placed for themselves to sit. Gally found herself instinctively sitting seiza style, even though she had a habit of doing it wrong and causing her feet to go numb. Vague memories of embarrassing herself on several occasions bubbled into her head, but these were things she wished would remain forgotten.

She was sitting a little closer to Giger than either of them would have preferred, but she was scared and he was the closest thing to someone she could rely on. For his part, he did not say anything. Was he actually being considerate? That had to be some powerful magic at work.

The Cerberus leader sat down opposite to them and lit a nearly spent candle. He took a moment just to look at them before saying, "Now, I can believe a charm that would fool my eyes, but there is no fooling my nose, Mordekai Grummond."

"You were lucky a clever boy like Bogdar found you. He knew you were not one of the usual thieves or thrill-seekers, even with you hiding your power. It got you this far, but depending on your next answer, you may not get any farther. Why have you come here?"

Apparently the Cerberus leader saw nothing to gain by keeping up the bluff and said, "You would bring about a second Cataclysm?"

He motioned to Giger and Gally. The Cerberus leader leaned forward and drew in a long breath through his nostrils. He then turned his head toward Mordekai. He raised his hand and touched his mask. Something clicked and he pulled the mask away. There were a number of things Gally might have expected when the Cerberus leader revealed his face. An actual dog face under the dog mask was not one of them.

You might think Gally had grown accustomed to the wonders, the horrors and the other assorted oddities of the world, but this was not one of them. She let out a yelp that she quickly stopped by clapping her hands over her mouth, just half-second before Giger's hand followed. Gally was able to forget her fear and surprise long enough to glare at him for it.

The Cerberus leader chuckled and said, "Once you have been out here so long, you start to forget how a mundane would react to us. No one outside the Guild sees us without our masks, but you did not even flinch, Mordekai Grummond."

The Cerberus leader laughed.

Mordekai folded his hands and leveled his gaze at the Cerberus leader, saying, "Take me to those gates and I might consider it."

The Cerberus leader stroked his beard thoughtfully as he weighed his options. Gally wondered if by 'the Gates of Hell', he meant the actual Gates of Hell. She was not even sure she believed in Hell, but she really did not want to put that to the test. More than ever, she was second-guessing her decision to come along for this journey.