This was the last chamber of the great complex; its inner sanctum. Here was the treasure that the four of them had come to find. Now, only a pair of great, bronze doors barred their way.
Val lifted her torch to illuminate the portal. "Any ideas how we can get past these?" She had found the map that brought them to this place and, to her, the doors were just one more obstacle to be overcome.
Dermut shrugged. "I can see no obvious mechanism. Perhaps if I search?" His quick mind and nimble fingers had got him and his companions out of - and into - many tricky situations.
Urgarr, a halfbreed from the mountains, put a meaty hand on one of the doors. "Perhaps if we push together?"
Vilan laughed at this. "Are you that much of a simpleton that you think we could gain entry just - ?" She stopped and gaped in amazement as the bronze door swung inwards at Urgarr's touch. "I'll be ... ." The halfbreed just grinned at her, then entered the chamber beyond.
The light of their torches revealed a hall made from white marble blocks, plain and austere. Their footsteps echoed in the empty vastness. Vilan stopped and looked around in disbelief. "What is this?" Her voice reverberated from the walls. "Where are the treasures? The jewels? Anything? We came all this way - and for what?"
Dermut knelt and ran his fingers over the marble flagstones. "Perhaps this is just the antechamber?"
Val consulted her map. "No. This is it."
"And you believe that?" Vilan asked.
"The map has been true all the way."
"Perhaps," Urgarr pointed towards a long slot in the far wall, "we should ask him?" The others looked. There, in the what looked like a funeral niche, was a body enveloped in a shroud. The four of them approached.
Dermut prodded the white-haired body. "Is he - ?"
At this, the body stirred. "I am awake," came the murmured reply. "Help me up."
Val and Urgarr helped the old man to sit up. "What is this?" Val asked.
The old man smiled in reassurance. "Do not worry. This is as it should be." He took Val by the hand. "Yes. You are the one." As he spoke these words, his features flowed until they matched hers.
"What?" Urgarr drew his sword, but the old man/Val lifted his free hand. Everyone froze, their eyes blank and unseeing. Then he eased Val into the slot in the wall, covering her with the shroud.
"Do not worry," the old man/Val said. "This has happened before, and it will happen again. You will rest here and dream the world into existence, until such time as another comes to take your place. In the meantime." The old man/Val looked at the others. "We shall leave her to sleep. Come with me."
Together, they filed in silence out of the marble chamber, closing the bronze door behind them.
