At one end of the crescent a hole could be seen where the spiral stairway led down to the base of the statue. Evrin lay in wait, propped up against the stone tiers at the opposite end, where he would see any who made it this far.

The pool was perhaps fifty paces across, lined with a stone wall where it met the crescent, its opposite walls formed by the shell of the statue. It had been filled to the depth of a man's knees.

In the very centre of the pool a stepped island of stone emerged from the liquid. On this platform, the relic of the Evermen dominated the room, graceful and beautiful, ethereal and otherworldly.

It looked like an oval mirror, twice the height of a man and unbelievably thin, hovering in the air without apparent support, with no part of it touching the stepped island in the pool. The mirror initially appeared reflective, but on examination it was not; its surface shimmered silver and was difficult to focus on.

On the mirror were three seals: one on the rim below, a second on the left, and a third on the right. The seals were made of a glossy, metallic fabric, akin to the material that the pages of the Lexicons were made of, and each seal was covered with runes.

The pool was simply the power source for the magic. Creating the relic had required breakthroughs of knowledge even for the Evermen, yet gathering such a large amount of essence hadn't required skill, simply dedication and ruthlessness. Evrin glared at the essence now. Every drop was obtained by blood. The gods had betrayed their worshippers.

Long ago, when Evrin was last here, he had put the three seals in place. He didn't have the power to destroy the portal, but he could turn his brothers' magic against them. All of the energy provided by the pool of essence was now being drained by the seals. The pool now powered the seals that kept the portal closed.

Evrin cast his mind back to the events that had brought him here. It had seemed so simple, back when he had charged Killian with the task of destroying the Primate's refinery and set himself the task of destroying the knowledge hidden at the Pinnacle.

But he had failed at his task, and whether the Primate discovered the location of this place or not, Evrin knew he would die here.

For he hadn't been able to build the traps with a mechanism to allow his passage back out. Evrin's wards would prevent anyone from entering, but they would also prevent him from leaving.

Guarding this place was the whole reason for Evrin's existence. He might have liked to share this burden with Killian, but perhaps the lad was better off not knowing about the portal, just as the rest of them were better off in their ignorance.