Shadow took a very deep breath as they stood in the entrance to Tenteron.  She'd never seen such a sight in her life in person, and rarely saw anything of such stature in movies.  The archway must have reached about sixty feet up into the air, the walls around the city at least one hundred fifty feet in height.  They were time worn and rough, but strong and incredibly grand looking.  She rather began to think that sky scrapers were only impressive to people who've never seen a one hundred foot wall of stone stretching miles into the distance.
        Evyn glanced at the newcomer, then looked into the archway.  There were no guards at all, a curious thing, but he felt it safe for them to enter.  "Stay close."  He warned, if only to reassure himself of his big brother status.  He'd heard many stories of the happenings within the city in the days of his father's youth, and decided that since then, things had probably gotten even worse.
        As grandiose as the inside was, it had an incredibly sleazy feel to it that Shadow couldn't quite put her finger on. There were no beggars (at least not visible), but the narrow streets and passageways every few yards lead into unusual shadows, sending a shiver up her spine.  She thought back as they passed a few larger buildings and turned onto a well-lit path to the right, and realized that the huge entrance to the city had no doors of any kind.  It suddenly seemed odd for a walled city to have no way to close itself off, but perhaps she'd simply missed something.  She shrugged the nagging thought away and followed Evyn through the passage and toward a very large shop.
        "I don't meant to be rude..." he stopped in front of the small scratched door of a building almost hidden in the shadows, under a sign Shadow couldn't read.
        She decided to finish the sentence herself.  "'But could you wait outside?'" she smiled quite genuinely, rather liking the idea of waiting and watching people pass by.
        He blinked once, as though confused.  "Well, I was going to ask if you had any money... but perhaps waiting outside is a good idea, too."
        She grinned as she searched her pockets, then withdrew three quarters and a dime.  "That's all the currency I have.  But I'm not sure it'll be any good here..."
        "I guess it's worth a try..."  Evyn held his hand out to receive the change, and turned each metal disk over several times.  "Odd coins..." he commented.
        "I think so too."  She offered, noticing his amusement at people on the money.  "That's 85 cents where I come from... not enough to buy a damn thing."
        He looked up and nodded to her, seeming to be thinking of something else.  Taking Taerlyn's hand, he lead her into the shop, closing the door slowly behind them.  Something about the sight made the hairs on Shadow's neck stand for only a moment, and upon inspecting the shop closer, she figured it was probably the fact that the windows were blacked out and the entire place was within a rotting wood shell.  Shaking her head uneasily, she leaned against the building, cushioned from the unusual heat rising from the walls by her backpack, and began to watch the activity.
        The town reminded her of a million movies, most notably Indiana Jones for a reason she couldn't quite grasp.  A small trading town, so it looked, with dark passages everywhere, filled with shops and modest looking people in dull clothing, all trading and buying and walking by quickly.  Nothing in particular caught her eye at first, but she was pretty certain she must have caught someone's attention.  Feeling a familiar tingle at the base of her spine (the one of being watched closely, she was sure), she turned her head just enough to catch a glimpse out of the corner of her eye; an old man around the corner of the shop, appearing to be hiding from her.  The entire situation made her feel rather like laughing or just plain running away--she wasn't quite sure which was more appealing--but she continued to stand guard at the door and wait.  Just an old man in plain light brown clothes, hunched over and staring at her.  Were she in her former neck of reality, she would have cried out for him to come over or wave like a lunatic.  But, for the moment, she thought it then smartest to just pretend not to notice.
        The task of not noticing was harder with the old man than any of the other people Shadow had ever encountered.  He kept creeping slowly, sidestepping, closer and closer as though it was all he could do to stand up on his crippled old legs.  He didn't seem to at all hide the fact he was trying to sneak up on her, and she couldn't keep her lips from turning upward occasionally as she pretended to be looking straight ahead.  While she may not have been the best judge of character, there was something about the old fellow that she found harmless.  Perhaps it was the odd assortment of tiny tufts of white hair that reminded her of an old, skinny Homer Simpson.
        Finally, minutes after he'd began the relatively short journey over to her, the old man cleared his throat and leaned against the building beside her.  She looked over in a surprise pretense and opened her mouth to say something.
        The old man immediately cut her off.  "I've got a story to tell you."  He said gruffly, not asking.  It was the shaky voice of a feeble old man, but somehow it reminded her of those old people that like to play rough sports.
        She looked at him for a long while, his face curled in a sort of sad desperation, and couldn't think of anything to say.  Finally she settled upon, "I'm not alone, ya know."
        The old man nodded and seemed to think quite hard on the matter.  "It won't take much of your time."  He responded slowly.
        "And you want to tell us a story why exactly?" shy tried not to sound disrespectful, but the old man flinched a little just the same.
        "There is danger afoot."  He answered simply, as though that cut off all questions completely.
        She narrowed her eyes in a visual growl and continued to stare at him in silence for quite a few more seconds.  "I don't think that answered my question."  She stated flatly.
        The old man not only didn't look a bit surprised, but he nodded and stroked his short white beard.  He signaled for her to lean down and listen with his wrinkled hand, and after a moment of deliberation and figuring she could probably take him on and win, she did so.  He whispered to her, his voice far less feeble than it had been, "I know you came from a doorway.  I need to talk to you, friends or not."
        She felt her heart jump--then stop.  A very weird heat passed through her body from head to toe, and her heart began beating again quickly as if to make up for lost time.  She was stunned, utterly and completely stunned, and hated a stranger to see her so.  And yet she couldn't think of a single thing to say to him, so she looked into his eyes.  They weren't the eyes of a crazy old man, but they weren't the eyes of an innocent kindly one, either.  Of all of the questions she wanted to ask, she was unable to form a single word.
        The door to the shop behind her opened at that moment, startling her just the slightest bit with its sudden grind and click.  She glanced over to see Evyn, not looking at all pleased, with a still-in-shock Taerlyn hanging onto his hand.  He slammed the door and looked at Shadow, then jumped a little as he noticed the old man beside her.
        Before anyone said anything, Shadow put both hands up, a palm to each side.  "Why don't we all just find a nice quiet place away from here..."
        Evyn simply stared at her, wondering what trouble she'd already gotten them into.  He looked to the old man, the feeble, probably crazy and rat eating old man, then back at newcomer.
        She saw the doubt in his expression, and really wasn't surprised.  "No..." she said softly, mostly to herself.  "You don't have to.  I should probably find my own way from here, anyway."  She pointed to her blue and black hair and joked softly, "This is a target as well as an attention getter."
        "Maybe... it would better if we stayed together."  The boy suggested, his voice obviously unsure.  He tried to make up for it by adding, "And you're good with rocks."
        "That I am."  She grinned, but still felt a mild disappointment.  It's not as though she expected anyone to trust her, as it had never happened before in her life.  It just would have been nice, that was all.
        The old man cleared his throat again, sounding old and feeble on purpose.  "I suggest that we all just sit and talk outside the city walls.  You can decide then, son."
        What was to be decided, Evyn didn't know, wasn't certain he ever wanted to know, but he found himself nodding.  There was absolutely nothing left to do, and nothing to go back for.  There was no place to go at all, and if Shadow had found somewhere that Taerlyn could safely recover, he'd never forgive himself for passing it up.  Then again, if it was a decision about something else or a trap, he wasn't certain if they'd be able to handle themselves.  The hopeless feeling prevailed, and he nodded, not knowing what else he was to do with himself.
        Still keeping up the illusion, the old man wobbled, hunched over, back outside of the city with the otherworldly stranger on one side and the siblings on the other, Evyn gently pulling Taerlyn along.  As they passed the incredible archway again, Shadow stopped to look back and gape in wonder. Better things than these... she could have sworn a voice said inside of her head.  It wasn't quite the voice she'd had inside of her all of her life; that time it was louder somehow, clearer.  She dared not stand there and question it at the time, for as slowly as the old man was moving, she still wanted to keep up with every step.
        They must have walked (crept, slithered) along the wall for at least another silent hour before finally turning an outside corner.  Almost the instant all four of them were around it, the old man stood straight up, stretched, and started walking quickly.  The look on Evyn's face was priceless, so far as Shadow was concerned.  He looked at her for some sort of an explanation, but all she could do was shrug and try to keep up.  He quickly found it impossible to keep dragging his sister along, so he picked her up and carried her for about half a mile before the obviously not so feeble man finally stopped and indicated a discolored section of the wall.
        "And now what?" Evyn grunted as he put Taerlyn down, adjusting his spine with several loud pops.
        The old man seemed quite delighted at the question.  Without a word, he pressed on a seemingly random brick almost hidden by grass.  The discolored sections fell away into the wall and slid over to reveal a small rectangular doorway.  The old man smiled widely and waved his hand, palm upwards, toward it.  Shadow and Evyn looked at each other with hesitation, but her damnable curiosity called to her.  She walked forward and peered inside; it looked like nothing more than a long stone hallway, dimly lit by small torches every yard or so.  Wide only enough for one person at a time; a shiver trickled down her spine.  She wanted to turn back to the old man, to tell him to go in himself, but the unquestioned knowledge that the door would shut right after him filled her.  She glanced back at the siblings once more, then walked inside.
        Evyn hadn't the slightest idea of what to do.  He probably would have picked his sister up and darted away if his legs hadn't felt so numb.  In that moment, the old man looking at him and once more indicating the passage, he instead lead Taerlyn right after.  As the old man followed, the door did indeed slide back and close with an echoing thud.
        Shadow did not like being in the front.  She always had to sit in the corners of places with direct viewing of the door and all people within, and being forced forward in a narrow hallway seemed a worse experience than having her back to a restaurant door.  Still, she reminded herself, I did chose this...
        They walked wordlessly onward as the passage began to descend into very wide stone stairs.  Shadow kept glancing back, making certain that nothing had happened without her knowledge and certain that the old man didn't have a weapon.  She wasn't sure why she kept thinking he had a weapon at first, and then it hit her: television had trained her to know all innocent looking old guys carried weapons.
        At last they came to what looked like another regular brick wall, sealing off the passage.  Shadow's mind soared with the possibilities of what could happen next, but her concentration on the horrors of what could be were broken by the old man's voice, strong and assured.  "Kick the stone at the bottom that looks like a gold triangle."
        She couldn't help but laugh at the instructions, noticing that all of the stones were triangular.  There was one though, in the lower right corner, that was as perfectly triangular as it had been carved, shimmery flecks of gold veins running through it.  With a good swift kick, the brick wall moved forward and slid smoothly to the side.
        Gazing inside, a beautiful sight stole her breath.  It was a large square room of black marble walls, carpeted by several deep crimson rugs laid side by side.  In the center was a grand looking circular dark wood table that looked large enough to serve ten people, seating four dark wood chairs spaced equally from one another, their cushions the same crimson as the rugs.  Right behind the table from where they stood was an archway leading into another faintly lit room, a fancy three tiered candle holder on either side of the doorway.  To the left of the room was a long couch, dark wood and crimson fabric with a table on either side, each littered with candles.  To the right was a shelf lining the entire wall, containing hundreds of books that each appeared ancient.
        "What are you waiting for?" the old man laughed.  "Go on, go on."
        Taking a deep breath, Shadow entered the dreamy space and was pleasantly greeted by the smell of old wood.  She stepped to the side and made room for the others, Evyn standing right beside her nervously.  The old man waved a hand at the door and it sealed immediately with a grind and a click.
        "Niiiiice place you have here..."  The strange newcomer breathed.
        The old man grunted proudly and nodded.  "It's a secret from all people alive... except me."  He stood there a moment, appreciating the place all over again.  "Now, we haven't much time I don't think."
        They were not words Evyn wanted to hear, and Shadow's tone mimicked his thoughts.  "And... now what?"
        The old man invited them to sit in the chairs with a wave of his hand.  Politely, Shadow nodded, looked at Evyn and indicated that they'd better do it.  The instant they were all sitting, Taerlyn having to be lightly pressed into her seat, the old man stared intensely at the girl he'd successfully gotten to follow him.  She only stared right back, surprising him.
        "I guess you must be her."  He said simply.
        "Wish I knew what that meant."  Shadow quipped softly.
        The old man smiled, delighted with her personality.  "You are from a technological Earth of Human nature, am I correct?"
        She nodded, and Evyn listened closely.  He was extremely curious to know more about the stranger.
        The old man continued brightly, almost happily.  "My name is Ruran, and I've great reason to believe that I'm the last of the learned magicians still alive.  All you must know now is to avoid all other magic weavers.  You will figure out what I mean, please don't try to interrupt.  Now, you've been brought here to head west across the world and find the Dead City.  The Heart of Gold.  Names which I cannot even fathom, let alone speak.  Your destiny, I hope, is to help us survive, dear girl.  You must aid this world from falling into abyss."  He nodded and seemed finished.
        Shadow was very silent for quite a while.  "That's it?  Just, 'go west, young lady?'" she countered, not meaning to sound as rude as it no doubt sounded.
        "It is my sole remaining hope, Shadow Daughter, that you go west and stop the realm from crumbling.  You have to stop the killing.  Aliyn will find you."  It seemed as much of an answer as he could offer.
        She remained incredibly puzzled, and quite unimpressed.  "Aren't you old wizards supposed to help clear things up for us common folk?"
        Ruran simply chuckled.  "It's all I may tell you now.  If you keep going west, you will know more."  His features suddenly seemed a little more urgent, and it showed in his voice.  "You all have to leave right now."
        Evyn found himself more than a little uneasy.  "But..."
        "No, no young man!" Ruran shouted, waving his hands.  "Now!  Leave me here, you must run west!"  Another wave of his hand caused the brick doorway to grind open.
        Shadow and Evyn tossed a look to one another again, but neither decided to question the old man considering the circumstances.  Evyn grabbed up his sister, and they quickly took Ruran's advice.  From the tunnel entrance, they began to run west along the wall, unquestioningly heading for the dense forest behind the city itself.  Moments later, Shadow heard a distant yell and looked back.  The picture was clear enough even through a glance; Ruran was being dragged from the passage by two of the same kind of stupid donkey monsters that she'd successfully knocked out well behind them.  Still running, she looked back once more to see a sword come down on the old man, right through his chest, a gush of blood barely visible from that distance.
        "What?" Evyn gasped, still running with Taerlyn in his arms, just noticing Shadow's backward glance.
        "He's dead."  She answered flatly.
        He just didn't want to know any more.  He ran with her as far as he could, until they could no longer see any part of Tenteron, evening falling to twilight, into the  thick woods.  When his legs were finally beginning to ache he slowed, put Taerlyn down, and the three of them began to walk, instead.