Two thousand years of silence. A place undisturbed by outside noise. A dark cavern. A looming steel door. That was it. The steel behemoth was the only means of entry into the most prestigious city on the planet... Edris. It may have been written about in texts long-gone; it might have even been important one day past. Today, she knew, the city of Edris was the ignorant shell of what had once been and never will be again. No one there knew that, though- they were too enveloped in their childhood fantasies of a place that existed no longer.

How did she know?

A smile crossed the woman's lips as she stared up at the gaping maw of Edris, the fluorescent lights turning the steel door into what it really was. A memory of a time past flickered in her mind for a moment; screaming as ash filled the tunnel, thousands of fingernails clawing at that looming gate. She had been one of those people, screaming and terrified. One of the people who changed.

Incredible patience had helped her in her two thousand year wait. Many partners came and gone, the group grew larger, things happened. Many strange things. Strange things that would destroy Edris. Her dried-up hand reached to pat a pocket in her trench coat, the sound breaking the thousand-year silence that had settled over the cavern.

"Over here!"

The petite woman flinched at the sudden noise, quickly turning around on her toes. Her partner's silhouette was barely discernable from the utter abyss. A metal door hung from its hinges behind him, presumably having been broken in some long-forgotten and never-remembered escapade from one world or another. Regardless of its history, the small woman walked over to her partner and gave a brief nod.

"First," the woman's voice was a breathless rasp, an accent falling heavily over her English, "I'm going to find her. You can take care of the rest." She reached into her pocket and shoved something toward her partner, beginning to lead the way from the main cavern and toward Edris. Her partner quickly followed, their footsteps dying into the darkness and the cavern once again lapsing into silence. The monster had failed to protect its ignorant city from knowledge, perhaps by its own choice.

The groan of the unhinged door shutting screamed through the silent cavern, leaving all motives and uncertainties behind. What was about to happen was destiny.