Kamyri barely noticed the cell into which the Ruler's Guard had dragged her. Since the iron bars had closed behind her, there had been lonely silence around her.

Although she had screamed, heaved and protested verbally, that was probably exactly what had brought her here. But what could she have done? Aesuna had been her sister... and suddenly their celebratory ceremony had turned into a nightmare, a nightmare from which the distraught Worker was still desperately trying to awaken.

Sobbing, Kamyri crouched in the darkest corner of the small shack and pulled her knees to her body. She felt out of place. She should be with Aesuna at this moment, not in this dark place where no ray of sunlight could reach.

Here, deep in the vaults of the Palace of Light, there was a bizarre coolness that was at odds with the summer that was pouring its heat out there over Yaradan. The sweat on her bare arms now made Kamyri shiver uncomfortably. She tried to rub the cold from her skin with her hands, but it was unsuccessful.

The Sun's Daughter could neither remember the route nor the guardsmen who had locked the bars behind her. Shadows... it all seemed to her like an intangible shadow, as if all her attention, her reason, had remained at the Golden Square, with Aesuna and her parents. All the thoughts she could remember revolved around her lost sister.

The blankness in her eyes, the blood on her lips... Tanayar, why did you let this happen?

It had taken three Rulers to drag Kamyri away from the lifeless body, force her into the shadows of the Palace of Light, and finally push her deep into the Lightless Dungeons.

Only now, when there was no one left to yell at and curse or beg for freedom, did Kamyri begin to realize what must have happened up there during the Ritual of Ordination. The thoughts flowed back into her head only in fragments and put together what the Worker would much rather have smashed into shards: Aesuna was dead, probably poisoned, and of all things by the water of the holy spring.

"No!" Kamyri slammed her fist on the stone cell floor, hoping to scare the truth away. "No! No!"

How could this happen?

Again she saw the blood running down the corners of her sister's mouth and cheeks, heard her mother's terrible scream, and still felt the strong grip of the Ruler's Guard that had finally dragged her away from the Square of the Golden and the distraught crowd. This all seemed like a bad dream to her. And she couldn't wake up.

After a few minutes of letting her eyes adjust to the dim lighting conditions down here, Kamyri tried to compose herself. She gave up trying to deny the truth, blocking it out like an unpleasant lie.

Whether she wanted to or not, she would have to deal with this situation somehow and neither tears nor angry screams would help her.

With a quick movement of her hand, she wiped her eyes clear and took a deep breath. As the airflow left her lungs, she felt as if she was also expelling some of the confusion. Her head now seemed ready to allow at least a few sensory impressions alongside the burned-in image of her dead sister.

The cell into which she had been thrust was barely a body length wide and only a few cubits separated her from the bars. The three walls, ceiling and floor looked as if they had been carved directly from the surrounding rock. In the light of a distant oil lamp, the moisture on them shimmered gray and black.

Look around, distract yourself, just don't think about her...

Kamyri followed the advice of her inner voice, let her eyes wander and saw a worn sack of straw to her right. In some places the filling was already oozing out, enveloping her cell in a musty smell. Otherwise, their new accommodation seemed to be well maintained under the circumstances. There was no rubbish lying around and she hadn't seen any vermin, nor did she want to. Only in the last lunar cycle had they had to contend with Longtails in the workers' barracks. But given her current situation, Kamyri's other problems seemed ridiculously insignificant.

Finally she rose from her crouching position and curiously approached the iron bars embedded in the floor and low ceiling. Four of them had been forged together to form a narrow door that swung open, but only when there wasn't a lock keeping it closed, like now.

The Worker cautiously peered out into a long corridor. Opposite her cell she could see another one, but its door was open like a cheeky greeting. To the right and left of it were similar dungeons. It probably looked the same on her side of the dark hallway. Out of her sight, the light of a dim flame flickered towards her, giving the subterranean prison the grace of twilight.

Kamyri was grateful that the Rulers had given her this little flame of hope, because as far as she could remember, no lamp had been burning when she moved into her cell down here.

Or was it?

Kamyri didn't know. She knew so little. She couldn't even figure out what she was doing here. Confining a Sun's Child away from the life-giving sunlight was cruel; after a few days of deprivation of light, it would be like torture.

Sighing softly, she grasped the cast iron bars with her fingers and tested their hardness and anchoring. As expected, the cool metal remained unyielding under her pressure. The damn bars were so close together that she couldn't put her head through them. Even without her twisted horns, this would have been completely impossible.

There was no way out of here for her, with a sad gasp Kamyri accepted this fact and sank back to the ground. All she could do was wait and ponder what circumstances had brought her here. But she didn't want that at all. She felt alone, misunderstood and abandoned by the sun god's blessing, like an outcast.

As Kamyri wanted to once again give in to the consuming whirlpool of her thoughts, she suddenly heard a cough. As loud as a clap of thunder, the noise rang through her head and startled the Sun's Daughter. She had assumed that the Ruler's Guard had left her completely alone down here and had not seen, heard or noticed any other sign of life. The thought that she was probably wrong about that gave her goosebumps all over her body.

"It seems to me that you have calmed down a bit now," a voice came over to her. It must have come from one of the cells next to hers that she couldn't see. "I'm sorry it's just now that I'm greeting you here, but you seemed very upset..."

Kamyri considered for a moment whether she should answer the strange voice. She didn't know if she felt the need to talk to someone who made a living in this terrible place, although the voice, clearly that of an aging Sun's Son, didn't sound threatening or suggestive.

"Why did they bring you here?" This is no place for a Sun's Child..." This time Kamyri heard regret in his voice, and having asked herself the exact same question since she arrived here, she decided to answer.

"I don't know. My sister suddenly collapsed. Today she was supposed to perform the Ritual of Ordination and as she drank the water from the spring she... She is... " She couldn't continue, no matter how frantically the previous words had bubbled from her lips, longing for comfort and reassurance. But the old Sun's Son seemed to have already understood what kind of loss Kamyri had suffered.

"Oh Tanayar," he let out a deep sigh, followed by another soft cough, "injustices happen so often throughout Yaradan... but woe betide anyone who stands against the Rulers."

"I didn't stand against them!" Kamyri quickly said between his words. "I just wanted to get to Aesuna, they... they held me and I broke away. That can't be a crime!"

A hoarse laugh came to her from the left side of the corridor, then another cough, this time it sounded worse, somehow wetter.

"The slightest spark of resistance is enough for the Rulers to turn their attention to you. Sometimes it's just a small sign that gives you away. Do they no longer teach you to obey in your caste?" the old Sun's Son demanded. Kamyri neither knew what exactly her fellow sufferer meant by that nor could she interpret his strangely amused tone.

Of course, like any Sun's Child, she followed the rules. She lived with the other Workers in the sandstone barracks in the south of the city, working with them from dawn to dusk without complaining. And she only visits her family during the night hours.

Even the Son of the Sun, whom she had secretly kissed at the Lily Fountain after dusk last spring, had been a Worker, as Yaradan's laws dictated. Her friend Falis, who was secretly seeing a handsome Shaman who was still half-way through his training, could not offer such obedience.

Just this once, Kamyri's feelings had gotten the better of her and she had stepped out of line. She tried to remember.

Did I push away one of the guardsmen? Is that why I'm here?

Violence among the Sun's Children and especially against the Rulers was not welcomed in Yaradan. The city thrived on peace. But now someone seemed to have broken it: her.

Kamyri crawled on the cold floor towards the bars again in order to be closer to her cell neighbor and perhaps even catch a glimpse of him, but in vain.

"I've always obeyed, but in that one moment everything else just seemed unimportant," she voiced her thoughts.

Is that supposed to be a justification?

Kamyri wasn't sure, but it felt good to share the experiences of the last few hours with someone, even if it was the worst criminal that this panting Son of the Sun might be. She believed that all the unspoken thoughts would soon cause her skull to burst.

"So, so... everything else seemed unimportant to you? There's a real Warrior in you, am I right?"

"I'm a Worker, if that's what you mean," Kamyri corrected him. The old man laughed softly again, he muttered something incomprehensible that sounded like a derogatory comment. Kamyri didn't quite understand.

"The Workers, yes, yes... an idiosyncratic caste, at least that's what they used to be," he continued, "let an old Artist tell you that the Rulers don't like it when anyone breaks their rules, let alone Workers! Soon, I tell you, soon they will come and get you. If Tanayar's light favors you, they'll let you get away with it again." Kamyri heard a noise in her neighboring cell, like someone clumsily gathering straw. "Just always reaffirm your loyalty, then they might let you go, but they'll be watching you."

"The Rulers?" asked Kamyri, confused. She only understood half of what the old one told her. He started coughing again. The sound of a wet lump landing on hard ground reached her ears and she grimaced in disgust.

»Yes, the Rulers. "They aren't..." whispered the Sun's Son and suddenly fell silent, as if he had changed his mind. His silence made Kamyri curious, but when she asked, the old just kept saying that she should be a good Sun's Child and have to follow the rules.

"Anyone who breaks the rules eventually disappears... voluntarily or not... If the day comes, oh, it will come, go voluntarily. Find the Thinker. Every warrior is welcome there."

Kamyri frowned. Every further word that sounded from the neighboring cell into the corridor seemed to become more incomprehensible and confusing.

Is he still completely sane? Or has the light of the sun already left his mind in this twilight? How long have they been keeping him here?

The fear that a similar future awaited her clawed into Kamyri's gut.

"I will be submissive to the Rulers, as I have been taught," she promised quickly, stopping the old Sun's Son's confused words. She tried to subtly change the subject with a question.

"Why are you here?" She waited with equal tension and fear for an answer, which, however, only came hesitantly from the artist's lips.

"Because I speak the truth that no one wants to hear," he croaked after a few silent seconds, "because I believe in the Light of Tanayar and long for the good old days that my grandfather's grandfather spoke of." Another cough interrupted his words. Every sound from his throat seemed to make these attacks worse. "Hope brought me here, Daughter of the Sun, the hope for a better world for all of us and the fear... the fear that it won't exist. The Demons of the Night stir in the dark... The Shamans dream of them and I... I can feel them..."

Kamyri was now almost certain that the old one no longer enjoyed his full mental strength. Apparently he hadn't felt the warming rays of the sun for too long.

"I'm sorry about your sister," he coughed out with difficulty, then Kamyri heard the crackling of damp straw, an exhausted groan and nothing more for a long time.

In all the silence she found plenty of time to think about the abstract advice of her cellmate, about the Workers, the Rulers and Aesuna.

When suddenly loud voices made Kamyri jump, she realized that she must have fallen asleep. The light in the corridor flickered brighter and wilder, the shadows of two figures tampered with the barred door of her prison. One carried a burning pitch torch, the other a lance, the polished blade of which shone gold in the torchlight.

Blinded by the bright light and drunk with sleep, the Worker stretched her left hand forward protectively. For a moment she didn't know where she was.

"Up with you! The Lumondis wants to see you!" one of the Sun's Sons said to her, whom Kamyri now identified as members of the Ruler's Guard by their white cloaks and golden belts. She obeyed and brushed the damp straw from her clothes. The memories of the past few hours flooded her mind again. She would have loved to ask what this was all about, but after the disaster at the spring pond, she didn't want to seem any more rebellious than she already was.

No matter how confused the old Artist in the next cell might be, he was right about how to behave before the Rulers.

Peace must be maintained at all costs; no Sun's Child is allowed to disturb it. Maybe with a little humility I'll be able to avoid a prolonged stay in this sunless dungeon.

The door creaked to the side, showing Kamyri the way to freedom. The two guardsmen gave her a rough gesture to clearly indicate that she should now step out.

"Stretch out your hands!"

Kamyri obeyed, watching in silence as one of the Rulers poured a pale green liquid from a vial and spread it on her palms.

"Squeeze them together," he instructed her in a commanding tone, and she did so without argument. The moment their hands touched, Kamyri felt the substance form a sticky bond.

Rock Wax, she realized with horror.

Artists used this liquid to bond stones together inseparably. Kamyri didn't know until now that she also served as a substitute for shackles for Sun's Children. Without a few drops of Tilus Oil, she probably wouldn't be able to use her fingers for a long time. At that moment she felt like a felon.

The two guardsmen now came to her sides and took her into custody with a firm grip on her upper arms. The lancer gripped his weapon tighter, as if he feared the Worker would attack him at any moment, despite the Rock Wax between her palms. Apparently Kamyri didn't seem particularly peaceful during the Shaman's Ordination.

"I'm sorry," she started, but was interrupted by the lancer.

"Save your breath for the hearing, Worker!" His cold words cut like a knife into Kamyri's insides.

A hearing?

The word echoed in her head. Apparently she was in more trouble than she initially thought. She decided to follow the Ruler's recommendation and keep her mouth shut for the rest of the journey before they might drip the Rock Wax onto her lips.

As they set off down the long corridor, both arms firmly in the hands of the guardsmen, she cast a curious glance into the dim cell of the coughing Artist, and Kamyri had to suppress a gasp of horror as she spotted him in the passing torchlight .

By Tanayar!

Eyes blinded by the darkness stared wearily back at her. A creature as thin as a skeleton was leaning there, slumped over a pile of straw, three of its four arms lying limply on the ground. He carefully pressed the fourth, which ended in a bloody stump, to his chest like a precious possession.

Did the Rulers do this to him?

An icy breath blew around Kamyri's heart and she almost stumbled. She was just glad that the emaciated Artist couldn't see the horror on her face.

"Come on, move!" The lancer violently dragged her along and the frightening sight disappeared. Kamyri didn't dare make a single sound. It would probably only get her deeper into the mess, so she stayed quiet and submitted.

After a few steps, the dark corridor turned away and opened up a view of another collection of cells, which were not locked with metal bars, but with thick wooden doors. From some of them came muffled noises, wild knocking, angry screams... Kamyri even thought she heard a faint whimper coming from one of the dungeons. She wanted to close her ears to the sounds, but she could only walk past them in silence, hoping that she was just trapped in a nightmare.

When she was forced down here, she hadn't noticed any of this, she'd been far too caught up in her own thoughts. But now she looked even more stunned at the bare stone walls and thick locks on the numerous doors, and was glad that she hadn't been locked up in one of these isolated dungeons. The darkness that reigned there must have been terrible.

The passage crossed several times with others that disappeared into darkness to the right and left. Kamyri didn't want to know what else was waiting for her in this underground labyrinth. She had no idea that there was such a terrible place beneath the Palace of Light.

For all she knew, when Sun's Children broke the Rulers' laws, a different kind of punishment awaited them. Although there were rumors that the worst criminals were locked away from sunlight, she had never imagined that the dreaded dungeons extended so far.

There must be hundreds of cells like this down here, for hundreds of terrible crimes...

The thought and the cold air on her bare shoulders made Kamyri shiver.

The gaping mouth of a Taragir, whose skull adorned the archway they were passing through, looked as if it had come straight out of a nightmare and did little to improve their condition. The needle-sharp teeth in the long snout of the feared creature glittered in the torchlight as if they were thirsting for blood. Even if they had simply been carved into the stone by some Artist for decorative purposes, the predator's features appeared anything but harmless.

"Don't stare like that, he won't hurt you!" snapped the torchbearer at Kamyri. She quickly diverted her gaze and instead concentrated on the lance of her second companion, which rocked gently with every step. The blade had a strange shape. It had numerous indentations and in some places it appeared as if whole pieces of the metal were missing. Either it had experienced numerous duels or time had eaten away at it.

»I leave you at the Stone Gate. Can you make it the rest of the way alone?" The torchbearer's question was directed at his armed companion. He replied with a curt nod.

"Sure. TheWorker won't do anything stupid." Her jailer's steel-blue eyes regarded Kamyri for a tiny, searching moment, then returned to the second guardsman. "Do you have another appointment with Gurod?"

"Well, the old stubborn guy just doesn't want to talk to me, maybe I can talk some sense into him today," he said with a broad grin that Kamyri could imagine probably meant nothing good.

The two talked over her head as if the Worker between them didn't even exist. She wasn't bothered by it, didn't want to hear or even imagine what the guardsman was planning to do with this Gurod. Each additional step would be one step closer to the sunlight, everything else was in the background. She just wanted to get out of here and hopefully never return to this dark place.

After a few minutes they came to a round portal that looked like it was made entirely of black granite. Kamyri couldn't see any door hinges or a knob, just a finger-length opening in the middle that didn't extend to the other side of the barrier. The lancer then inserted the notched blade of his weapon into this recess and turned it like a key. A distant click sounded and the guardsman immediately pulled the shaft out of the rock again. Not a second too soon it began to move and finally rolled with a crunch into a hidden niche.

Kamyri, who could not remember this miraculous door, which could only be the ominous Stone Gate, was immediately pushed through by her companion.

"Doheral still has a keyblade in his chamber," he told the torchbearer as he stepped through the circular passage himself, "not that you have to spend the whole day with Gurod." The Ruler on the other side let out a small laugh, fumbled around on the wall and found a lever. After he pressed it, the stone slab rolled back into its original place, closing the passage behind Kamyri and her companion.

"Come on! Down the hallway and then up the stairs. We don't need any more torch bearers here!"

As she joined the Ruler's quick steps, Kamyri realized that her jailer had not been lying. A dim light illuminated a winding staircase that spiraled upwards along gray walls.

Finally!

A crushing weight fell from her shoulders. Kamyri didn't know how long she had remained in this dungeon, but she was already longing for every ray of sunshine that would dissolve the horrors of the past hours like morning mist. She was only too happy to climb the stone steps and with every step she fought her way more and more out of this dark hole and into the light.

The rest of the walk turned out to be much friendlier, more open and brighter. The white marble from which the Ruler's Palace of Light was built invited the beloved light of the Sun's Children into the corridors through long, narrow window openings and shone on the polished floor tiles. In contrast to the gloom beyond the Stone Gate, there was a dazzling brightness above the winding staircase, which lay next to the spacious entrance hall.

They walked along a high vaulted corridor. To the left, the floor-to-ceiling windows in the whitewashed walls opened at regular intervals, letting the morning sun shine diagonally onto the corridor. Wind chimes made of colorful glass beads and shimmering rock crystals hung from the ceiling, dancing in the warm breeze of the approaching day and sending their light play along with bright sounds across the corridor.

Can it really be morning already? Did I spend the whole night in the cold cell?

Kamyri seemed to have completely lost track of time down there. Only her growling stomach gave her an indication that the time of day was actually correct.

On the right, her gaze fell again and again on archways lined with round columns and framed with all sorts of decorations, which seemed to lead to other areas of the palace. Twice she even spotted a Scribe in a white toga busily crossing her path laden with rolls of parchment and sending a curious look after the Worker.

Even for the most mundane tasks that took place in the palace, the Rulers only used members of their own caste. Artists were only tolerated when it came to beautifying or repairing the palace. Workers like her had almost no access here.

As they walked down winding stairs and long hallways, Kamyri secretly wondered how many Workers had seen the inside of the Palace of Light before her, but couldn't imagine how any of the Horned Ones could be of any use here. With this realization, an unpleasant feeling crept into her gut. The reason that had brought her here now stabbed her thoughts with all its might.

Kamyri wished to return to the fields of southern Yaradan. She would much rather have been cutting cabbage from the fields or cutting wood in the Weaver Forest, but she didn't want to be here. She didn't belong here. She felt like a dirty foreign object in a shimmering crystal.

When her companion suddenly stopped in front of a double door made of white Ghost Wood, she tried to swallow all her unease. Four members of the Ruler's Guard flanked the sides of the portal. Like silent statues, they looked back at them with serious faces and lances propped up. Meanwhile, Kamyri's gaze crawled up the carved decorations in awe and she recognized a sun made of dozens of crystals adorning the pale wood. The morning light reflected hundreds and thousands of times on the gemstones, giving the impression that a second sun was actually sparkling down on them from the portal.

Kamyri didn't know for sure what awaited her behind that door, but it had to be important.

"Vhareg from the Enforcers," her jailer introduced himself to the guards in a cold voice, pulling Kamyri a little closer to him. "I'm bringing the Worker who disrupted the Ritual of Ordination." Kamyri had to pull herself together not to immediately start an indignant counter-speech.

I didn't disrupt the ritual, I just wanted to help Aesuna! That's no reason to treat me like a criminal!

But the thought of her sister quickly caused the anger she felt towards her jailer to evaporate and turned it into helpless sadness. Maybe it was better that way. A part of her still hoped that Aesuna was still alive, even though she had clearly seen the light in her glowing marks go out.

How nice it would be to be able to explain everything to Lumondis and to be able to visit Aesuna at our parents' house when night falls. The smell of mother's herbal tea would cover all this excitement with comfort...

The sudden creak of the portal opening abruptly pulled Kamyri from her reverie into harsh reality. If she wanted at least some of her wishes to come true, she would have to pull herself together now and present her best side.