Another rum­bling sound from below. Dron­aja is busy.

At the same time, Gil feels a rum­bling from outside—armored feet stomp­ing on the sand. The sound gets closer and closer, press­ing against the build­ing like a weight.

An echo­ing voice fills the air. The voice is dis­torted and mag­i­cally ampli­fied, but some­how Gil rec­og­nizes it:

Kripa looks dis­turbed. He glances over to Hat­van, but the other warrior’s atten­tion is focused on the main Tem­ple door.

A strange sound emanates from the door—a low, puls­ing hum. Gil peeks around his pil­lar to look at it too.

Then the door shiv­ers sud­denly, unnaturally—and its giant latch lifts itself up and over the lock, as if thrown by an unseen hand.

The door bursts open, and sev­eral things hap­pen at once:

Hoplites stream in through the open door, like a wave of shields.

Some­thing flies towards the hoplites from the Temple’s alcove—it is Dron­aja, lob­bing a lit flame­craft.

A tall, hel­meted fig­ure behind the hoplite shield­wall raises a scepter stud­ded with black gems.

Back • Next