Raith stepped forward and stared up at the massive gates, awe catching in his throat. They rose higher than any structure he’d ever seen, vast enough to admit giants of legend. He tried to imagine the scale of the beings who might have once walked these streets. The sheer magnitude of it twisted his gut with unease.

  He turned to the others.

  “What if that chalice has some kind of power that could help us? This feels like as good a time as any to take a closer look. Maybe see what else is in that bag.”

  Thea tilted her head, considering, then nodded. She untied the pouch from her hip and held it between her hands.

  “What was the password again?” she asked.

  Raith frowned. It had been something bizarre, nonsense syllables. But he’d written it down in his [Mnemonic Library]. He closed his eyes and quickly retrieved the memory.

  “Gibbeldy donder.”

  Nyhm groaned and shook his head.

  “That’s still the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard.”

  Thea smirked but repeated the phrase aloud. As soon as the words left her mouth, the bag shimmered faintly, responding to her voice. She reached inside and withdrew the chalice.

  Now, in the open air and fully visible, it was even more breathtaking. Crafted from platinum and banded in radiant gold, the goblet was etched with ancient engravings and encrusted with flawless gemstones. It was the kind of artifact that would draw the greed of kings, even without magic.

  “Do you mind if I see it?” Raith asked, reaching out.

  Thea handed it over. As his fingers closed around the chalice, he called on his [Skill] to read the enchantments. Runes danced beneath the surface of the metal, ancient and unfamiliar. Subtly different from the runic languages in use today. But his [Skill] pierced through the veil of time, unraveling the spellwork hidden in the weave of its making.

  “It summons something,” Raith murmured.

  Nyhm’s brows furrowed in concern.

  “That could be dangerous.”

  “Or incredibly helpful.”

  Raith didn’t wait to consider what might go wrong. They would need all the help they could get down here. He spoke the words aloud.

  “I call upon the Wondrous Dahbi.”

  The chalice began to hum in his hands, softly at first, then with increasing intensity. A thin ribbon of smoke curled from its mouth, and the metal vibrated with sudden energy. Thea took an instinctive step back.

  "Is it supposed to do that?" she asked, her voice edged with concern.

  The smoke thickened rapidly, billowing out in rolling waves that spilled across the ancient stone. Raith’s eyes burned, and a strange sharpness bit at the back of his throat.

  “It could be toxic, put it down!” Nyhm shouted.

  He set the chalice down hastily and backed away, coughing. Thea and Nyhm didn’t hesitate to follow suit. Together, the three of them watched warily as the smoke surged upward, darker now, swirling with colors until it gathered into a rising column. The vibration ceased, and for a heartbeat, there was silence.

  Then the smoke exploded outward, washing over them too fast to even consider avoiding it.

  In its place stood a small, ostentatious shop made of polished wood and shimmering cloth. Fine trinkets gleamed from brass racks. Strange potions bubbled in crystal flasks. A figure leaned across a velvet-draped counter. A broad-shouldered efreeti with cobalt blue skin, golden earrings the size of saucers, and a grin that was all glittering teeth and mischief. Raith had read of these rare beings from the spirit realm, but never imagined he would meet one in person.

  “Hello, big friends!” the efreeti declared in a voice thick with charm. “You have the incredible fortune of summoning the Wondrous Dahbi. The greatest purveyor of fine magical goods this side of the spirit realm!”

  He spread his arms dramatically.

  “Tell me your greatest wish! The one item that will complete your very soul. If it does not already lie within my magnificent inventory, then I shall find it.” He paused, then winked. “For a price, of course.”

  The Myth Seekers stood frozen, eyes wide, the bizarre little shop flickering in the ambient gloom of the cave like something half-real. None of them said a word.

  Unfazed, the efreeti pressed on.

  “Adventurers, I see. You’re in luck, my big friends! I carry only the finest magical weapons and armor known to mortalkind. Why, the legendary Swanhile himself purchased his famed axe, Dreadnight, from this very same humble shop!”

  Nyhm glanced at Thea. Thea looked at Raith. Raith shrugged helplessly. He’d never heard of Swanhile or his axe either.

  The efreeti’s grin faltered just for a moment, but he recovered with admirable flair.

  “Such stoic and discerning clients! You present Dahbi with a challenge. This is wonderful, for Dahbi loves nothing more than a challenge.”

  He turned slightly, finally taking in their surroundings. For the first time since his appearance, the smooth-talking merchant mask slipped. His golden eyes widened as he looked up, way up, at the towering gates before them.

  “Now just a moment, my big friends,” he said, blinking. “Is this…Tarn?”

  Before anyone could respond, a deep voice boomed from above, echoing through the stone valley like a thunderclap.

  “Who dares approach the great city of Tarn? Bastion of the gods. Seat of the Grand Empire of Deralon.”

  Everyone jumped and looked up. Raith replied, his voice small despite himself.

  “The Myth Seekers?”

  With a low hum, an enormous eye appeared in the center of the gate. Luminous, inhuman, and watching. The ground trembled, and wind kicked up around the team as a beam of golden light shot down from above, splitting the air like a spear.

  From it descended another figure. Tall and grand, robed in flowing veils of silver flame and embroidered starlight. His form shimmered with power barely contained, and his eyes glowed like twin moons.

  His voice boomed with a resonance that rattled their bones.

  “Your fellow mortals have already arrived. The Great Test has begun.”

  Raith, Thea, and Nyhm instinctively took a step back. Even Dahbi stiffened behind his counter.

  The djinn drifted to the ground, his feet never touching stone. He cast a long, weary gaze over the adventurers before turning to Dahbi with something akin to an apology.

  “I might have waited until the mortals are about to open the gates, but I didn’t want to miss this opportunity to see you, my old friend.”

  Dahbi’s grin faltered, replaced by a grim set to his jaw. He stepped around his counter, his silks fluttering in a seeming reflection of his anxiety, and prostrated himself into a bow.

  “Viceroy Sabik? How is this possible? After so many eons, you are still bound?”

  Sabik nodded slowly and moved his robes so the shackled around his wrists could be seen.

  “The gods have tethered my spirit to the aethercore. As long as it pulses within Tarn, I cannot leave.”

  Dahbi stood and shook his head.

  “No, no, no… This is unacceptable.” His voice cracked with emotion. “You did not deserve such a fate.”

  Sabik's smile was faint and he spread his hands wide.

  “Yet here we are.”

  Dahbi whirled to the Myth Seekers.

  “Listen to me, my big friends. You must recover the aethercore so that we may sever its bindings, and my Lord will be freed.”

  Raith held up both palms.

  "Hold on. What is going on right now? How do you two know each other?"

  The dijinn swept into a low bow.

  "If you will allow me. Before being trapped in their towers, the gods liked to make slaves of my kind. In the spirit realm, dijinn rule, but beneath the foot of the foul gods were have been reduced to chattel. Each aethercore has a bound dijinn, to administer the final edicts of the gods."

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  "How does no one know of this?"

  "We do not reveal ourselves, for a clever mortal might choose to hold our shackles themselves, rather than release us when the aethercore is recovered. Indeed, the very fact that the formorians know of this secret why I stand before you now. Many of my kind are held in chains by their rulers, and I have no wish to join them."

  No one deserved eons of servitude, but the room with the aethercore was usually the most well guarded place in the dungeon. It would be extraordinarily difficult for a team of their size and levels. Probably impossible. Dahbi seemed to sense their reluctance, and before they could refuse, he clasped his hands together. Pleading now, all pretense gone.

  “Please, my big friends. Help him. Help us. Should you succeed, I shall grant you access to my finest wares. One item each as a reward. Enchanted weapons, rare relics, and artifacts never beheld by mortal eyes.”

  Thea unconsciously rubbed her injured arms and looked to Raith.

  “This sounds like a death sentence.”

  Raith, was inclined to agree, but they were already in so far over their heads it didn’t seem to matter. Besides, he already knew exactly what he wanted from this merchant. He looked questioningly to Nyhm.

  “What do think?”

  Nyhm met Sabik’s glowing eyes and saw, through all that power, the enormous weight and loneliness of countless centuries. He nodded.

  “It’s the right thing,” he said. “Even if it’s the hard thing.”

  Raith puffed up his cheeks and blew out a long breath.

  “Then we’re in.”

  Sabik’s eyes widened in surprise, and his voice dropped lower.

  “I do not know that you can succeed, but you have my eternal gratitude for trying, mortals. The test you will soon enter progresses every hour. I cannot help you cheat, but I am not forbidden from offering some counsel.”

  “You wouldn’t happen to know where a magical key is?”

  The djinn shook his head.

  “I do not. I can tell you with certainty the object does not lie within the bank, which is directly where the formor headed. Its vaults contain naught but death. Its traps and guardians were designed as bait to lure in the greedy, but everything of value was removed.”

  Raith smiled inwardly at this and wondered how the Hollow Earl could have known to direct the giant-kin there. Sabik continued.

  “The creatures you will face pass on the knowledge of each encounter. They evolve, growing stronger, faster, and more cunning. What works once may never work again.”

  Thea swallowed hard.

  “So they learn and adapt to our tactics?”

  Sabik nodded.

  “Precisely. Your minds must be sharper than your swords. Since the arrival of the formor, the creatures have already undergone several evolutions.”

  “Wait,” Thea interrupted, “What exactly are we actually facing?”

  Sabik exhaled a white plume, and his hand swept through the smoke. Three spectral forms emerged in curling silhouette.

  “First, the Bone Horrors,” Sabik said. “Amalgams of skeleton and steel. They are slow at first, but their forms learn. Slash one down, and its next form will wear armor against the same blow. Bludgeon it, and its bones thicken.”

  Raith frowned.

  “So what does work?”

  “Target the joints. Knees, elbows, neck. Holy sigils will greatly weaken them, but I sense no holy power among you.”

  Raith thought the dijinn’s gaze lingered on him for an extra long moment when he said that, but he couldn’t be sure.

  The second shape swirled upward. The pale white outline of a semi-transparent humanoid. It’s eyeless face a withered mask twisted with hatred and pulsing faintly.

  “These are Spectral Wights,” Sabik said, “spirits forged from radiant energy. They do not need eyes, as they sense movement and fear.”

  Nyhm crossed his arms and frowned deeply. Incorporeal beings could be incredibly hard to fight.

  “How can they be killed?”

  “With difficulty,” Sabik said with a frown. He gestured towards Raith’s rope dart. “As beings of spirit, your dreamforged weapon will be effective. Moreso the better its quality, which I cannot ascertain at a glance. They also fear mirrors. Their own reflection weakens them, reminding them of what they once were and can never be again.”

  Raith resolved to avoid the wights if at all possible, and from the looks on the other two’s faces they were thinking the same. The third silhouette curled like an elongated, legless dragon, writhing in silent menace.

  “Shrike Serpents,” Sabik said grimly. “Predators with paralytic venom. Early evolutions will only make you react slower and feel lethargic, but they become much more powerful as they progress.”

  “They look fast,” Raith said, watching the smoke shape coil and vanish.

  “Too fast,” Sabik agreed, “and extremely smart. If one learns a trick, they all do. Strike their heart, an armspan beneath the head crest. Keep them from watching too long. What one knows, all will remember.”

  “We have a faerie geas of forgetting on us. Will that work on these monsters?”

  Sabik peered at them intently with a slight frown.

  “Hmm, subtle magics. Extraordinarily well done, or I would have noticed it immediately.” He examined them some more, and then nodded. “Yes, that will be most effective in keeping the monsters from learning your tactics. An advantage that will compound with each evolution. This will be an enormous boon for these trials.”

  As his form began to dissipate into the mist, he added, “Beware the guardians at the core. They will have attained the final evolution of each beast, regardless of when you arrive.”

  With that, he vanished, leaving only silence. Thea had been looking increasingly downcast throughout Sabik’s explanations.

  “Great,” she said, “so the whole city’s basically a death trap.”

  “But,” added Dahbi with a cheerful smile, “it’s a glorious death trap.”

  Raith frowned, the mention of traps making him realize he’d forgotten to ask about them.

  “Hey, Dahbi. If you give us those items now it will really increase our odds of freeing Sabik.”

  “Ho, ho, ho. No, my big friend. I am not permitted to part with merchandise that has not been paid for. I encourage you all to purchase anything you might need before entering.”

  “You want us to help out your friend, but won’t give us the items up front? That doesn’t make much sense to me.”

  Dahbi put on a dramatic frown and gestured widely.

  “Forgive me, but it is not that I ‘won’t’. I cannot. I am bound in this way by rules older than humankind, my big friend.”

  Looking around uncertainly, Raith shrugged. Even if the merchant was lying, there was nothing he could do about it.

  “Alright then. What have you got?”

  A wide, shark-toothed smile spread across the efreeti's face. The eternal merchant could smell a deal.

  “The Wondorous Dahbi has many, many things.” He gestured to the shop behind him. “This is but a fraction of my stock. Back in my realm, there is a storeroom of the items to astound a king! Why don’t we begin with how much you have to spend, my big friends.”

  Thea immediately shook her head and pulled Raith aside.

  “Nope,” she whispered. “Never start haggling by telling them how much money you have.”

  Raith arched an eyebrow.

  “How much money do we have?”

  They both looked down at her magical pouch, then back at each other. Raith turned to the efreeti.

  “Please excuse us for a moment.”

  “Of course!”

  The trio walked a short way from the shop. Dahbi pretended to polish a brass cup while watching them from the corner of his eye.

  Thea untied the pouch from her belt and hefted it.

  “Should we just dump the whole thing out?”

  “Is there a way to find out what’s in there without doing that?” Nyhm asked.

  Raith shook his head.

  “If you know what you’re looking for, you can take things out individually. But without knowing the contents, there’s no way to do that.”

  With a shrug and without waiting for further discussion, Thea upended the pouch.

  The first thing to come out was gold, and the coins just kept coming. They began to form a pile on the stone floor of the cavern, while Nyhm and Raith danced around, stepping on the odd coin that bounced away before it could roll too far.

  “That’s…a lot,” Raith said, unable to even estimate the amount of gold piled up in front of him. Definitely thousands. Probably tens of thousands.

  Next came the platinum, and while there wasn’t nearly as much of it as the gold, there was still a considerable sum that at least equaled the value of the gold. As the last shining coin dropped onto the pile, a stream of glittering gemstones spilled from the bag, making a tinking sound as they struck the soft metal. Raith winced at the noise and leapt forward, cupping his hands beneath the falling stones to ensure they didn’t chip or shatter and lose their obviously considerable value.

  Finally, several ornate rings fell out one at a time, followed by a ludicrously gem-encrusted necklace and finally a pouch containing five potions.

  Dahbi was now staring at the pile openly, eyebrows raised high and a predatory grin on his lips. Raith gave a slight frown and met Thea’s eyes. She gave a helpless shrug. There was no hiding how much they had at this point. He looked back at the merchant.

  “What will this get us?”

  The expression on Dahbi’s face went carefully neutral.

  “It is too bad you did not steal from a merdragon or elf. Shells and gems hold much more value to my people than cold metal, although magical items are always best.”

  “We didn’t steal anything.”

  “Of course, my big friends. Forgive me. Might you tell me what are those potions you have there?”

  Thea and Raith looked at Nyhm, who shook his head.

  “I don't have the skill to identify those.”

  Another smile spread across Dahbi’s face.

  “Oh, how fortune favors you all! The Wondrous Dahbi can identify any potion, any item, any scroll for a low, low price.”

  “What is the price?”

  “Fifty gold per item.”

  “That’s robbery.”

  “Please feel free to avail yourself of the other services in the area.”

  He gestured widely around the empty cavern. It was incredibly frustrating, but Dahbi was the only game in town, and they needed every advantage they could get on this [Quest].

  “I’ll pay your fee, but for that price you need to tell us if any of the other items are magical.”

  “Of course! While the jewelry is of exquisite craftsmanship, none of the items are enchanted.”

  Raith was disappointed. They needed help more than money at the moment. He reluctantly counted out two hundred and fifty gold from the pile, which didn’t affect its size in any discernible way, and handed the money and potions over to the merchant. Without so much as glancing at them, Dahbi handed the potions back while the gold vanished into thin air.

  “All five are spirit walk potions. One who imbibes these may travel to the Hueless Realm if they know the way and can avoid the dangers. Quite powerful indeed.”

  Raith had no desire to figure out traveling the Hueless Realm at the moment. He had more than enough on his plate learning about the Dreaming and gossamer paths. Ever the canny salesman, the efreeti anticipated his train of thought.

  “You must retrieve an object before your foes, no? Then presumably flee quite quickly? Please allow me to suggest a humble trade.”

  The problem with a trade was that Raith had absolutely no idea how much this stuff was worth, and no way to find out. Again, the merchant followed his concerns with uncanny insight.

  “Please know that the same rules that bind me from giving my merchandise away without payment also set limits on the advantage I may assume in a deal.”

  “Alright, what do you propose?”

  “An even trade, on this you have my word. Five spirit walk potions for five potions of fabled haste. For an hour, you will be almost too swift for mortal eyes to follow. When the time comes to flee with your prize, there is no chance your foes can catch you.”

  Nyhm and Thea nod enthusiastically. A perfect getaway would solve a lot of their problems on this mission.

  “Deal.”

  The exchange was made, and Raith tucked the valuable new potions away in his satchel. He wasn’t sure what other items to ask about, and was feeling too overwhelmed by the mission ahead to come up with anything.

  “Is there a limit to how often we can summon you?”

  “Of course not, my big friends!”

  “Then we will think on what else we might need and summon you again. For now, I think it would be best to get moving.”

  Dahbi placed the palms of his hands together and gave a solemn nod. The efreeti and his shop faded into smoke and was sucked back into the chalice. The trio stepped back until the process was complete, then Thea placed the chalice back into her pouch and they gathered up the spilled treasure.

  “Are we ready?” Raith asked.

  Nyhm gave a slight smile.

  “As ready as we’re going to be.”

  With a seismic groan, the massive doors began to swing open. Sabik’s voice boomed out from all around them.

  “Enter and be tested, mortals.”

  The Myth Seekers instinctively stepped back as the gates revealed a vast courtyard beyond. Raith’s breath caught in his chest.

  The ground was choked with the dead.

  Bodies lay everywhere. Twisted, scorched, and torn. Blood pooled in cracks between the bricks, the air thick with the iron tang of it. Charred remains crumbled underfoot, and the sheer number of corpses made it difficult to find clear footing. The carnage stretched across the entire threshold, a warning painted in flesh and ash.

  No one spoke.

  Whatever test awaited them in Tarn, it had already begun.