After Erik made his way through a colpsed se of the wall, he found himself in a small, dark alleyway. Two story stone houses lined both sides of it, some of which had colpsed rooftops or walls, while others were in ruins.

  Staying still he strained his ears and eyes, but nothing stood out. There was no movement. Slowly he made his way forward, while peaking through some of the windows. Derelict wooden furniture was inside most, and there didn't appear to be anything of value.

  This is probably the residential district.

  Reag the end of the valley it opened up on a main road. He peaked oher side but he saw nothing that moved. The road itself cut across the city from south all the way to the heart of it, where a rge half-ruined castle stood. Cautiously and keeping to the shadows Erik decided to check it out.

  Steadily he moved down the main road, and a clearer picture of the city's state unfolded before him. Many of the buildings were in plete ruin, some heaps of rotted wood stood here and there on the road itself, most likely carts and carriages. However something was starting to bother Erik, he wasn't sure what, but he felt like he was missing something.

  After a while he was starting to close in on the castle, but stopped as he saarticurly rge wreckage of a building. He went closer to exami and found numerous books among the remains.

  A library? Or some sort of a guild?

  He got a little excited, perhaps he could find some answers here. But after looking through some of the books, they were all pletely destroyed. Their insides fell apart the moment he opehem. The pages were far too molded, and the runes far too faded to be legible.

  Still, he looked around and noticed that there was smaller building that still stood, which seemed to have been attached to the rger one.

  Curious the young man walked over to one of the windows and cautiously peered through to vines i was dark ay, some of the wooden furniture of peared to be a living room was overturned, dust and cobwebs were everywhere. There was a small bookcase against the wall, at the far back.

  He decided that he should look into it, maybe these books had survived.

  The front door was unlocked a slightly ajar. He ope slowly to make sure it didn't start creaking loudly and made his way to the bookcase.

  The titles on the books' spines were faded, but he could still read the majority. Most of these were on on topics. Erik pulled out one on cooking, but unfortuhe runes on the pages were quite faded. Still these books were better preserved than the ones outside.

  He put it ba the shelf and pulled another. It had an iing title.

  World History: The First, Sed and the Current Third Age

  Current Third Age? The current one is the Fifth...

  This book was in the same dition as the others and revealed nothing new. But there were still a few more on history, none of them from anythihahird Age—the Late Antiquity Era.

  Either this person was fasated by the history of the first three eras or they never lived past the end of the third.

  It seemed likely to Erik that the city had e to ruin during that time. He skimmed through the rest of the titles, but he didn't find any that could help him.

  Signing in disappoi he turo leave, but noticed from the er of his eye something shinny buried under a colpsed staircase. Curious, he iigated.

  After removing the wood that iled on top of it, he found that what had caught his eye was a woode with metal paddings. Runes were carved on it, but whatever sorcery they preformed had long stopped funing. Iingly there was no lo it.

  He flipped open the lid. Inside was a bundle of modest clothes, along with peared to be mementos and family memorabilia.

  Seal...

  Whoever lived here, out of everything they had, they had chosen to keep safe the stuff nobody would steal.

  However, he did find something that was of io him. Another book, but this oh a metal csp, and waxed leather.

  No title...

  Flipping it open, Erik was delighted to find out that this one had partially survived. The writing was a bit faded as well, but still legible at times. After sing the first few pages, Erik realized that it was the journal of the person who was most likely the owner of the house.

  There were a few dates written and he firmed that this city existed during Third Age. Most of the writing was mundane and personal, the everyday going about of this person. Apparently they were the librarian iy, which expihe books.

  Erik skimmed through it, and towards the end he found a passage that gave him a better uanding of what happened iy.

  ...The governor's vile practices are getting out of hand tely. It's an ope at this point, most are afraid of talking about it, but it's palpable in the air how everyone feels about it. Even in our current era, when everyohinks that the end is approag, and abhorrent practices are everywhere, it doesn't justify it. It's just... sometimes I feel like I've been corrupted by the past...

  ...I've spend most of my time p over aext and the history of Nelum. Especially The Dawn of Humanity—The Goldeh the rise of the first Exalted and then the following reigns of the subsequent two, eae shepherding humans into greater heights, has left me dreaming and wanting of better times... And what have we e to now? C and hoping that HE doesn't find us and sughter us...

  There art that was scratched out after that.

  ...Instead of banding together to weather these dark times, everyone devolves further into hedonism and barbarity. The library practically has no resources allocated to it. Everything is going towards buying more sves for the mines or for hunting the local essence beasts. The poor creatures were docile in the wild, preferring to roam uhe open sky yet...

  The runes in the following part were nearly carved out erratically on the paper.

  ...the fighting pits are practically full at all times! FULL! And not just with essence beasts... despicable...

  It was followed by a barely legible st line.

  I am losing hope.

  The rest of the writing was too faded.

  Erik sighed in disappoi, as he was uo glean any information about the Whisper Tree. But what was written made him think.

  Although he did not find what he wanted, he learned a bit more about the potential causes to the downfall of the city. Based on the wild destru it was most likely the result of the essence beasts going feral.

  But no matter how degraded things had gotten, there should have been Rune Bearers present to taiuation... mere animals should not be enough to do this. Maybe it rising against this governor? Hmm... I am missing something.

  The Third Age was known as the Dark Era because all three of the Exalted who arose during that time spread chaos aru, earning them the title of Fiends. Was the librarian suggesting they were in hiding because of one of them? There were still too many questions.

  He pced the journal ba the chest and made his way to the outside.

  His gaze moved towards the ter of the city. There was the castle he had seen earlier, but now he could see that on its west side and pced right o it was a rge circur building. It looked like a fighting arena.

  Those must be the pits.

  Suddenly, Erik was curious. He should take a peek before expl the castle—he might learn more about what awaited him in the Whisper. With that in mind, he adjusted his course and made his way toward the arena.

  The building had marances. A ns supported it all along its outer wall. And interspersed between them like guardians that had long overstayed on their duty were crumbled statues of all sorts of warriors as. Like the rest of city the wilderness spread its reach over it as well.

  A rge turetched from the point where he approached. O had likely been the grarao the arena, barred by magnifit doors. Now, it stood wide open, sending him an ominous invitation.

  Seeing no danger he cautiously made his way inside.

  The passage led directly te open area. Surrounding it were enough seats for the whole city, in fact...

  Wh-what happened here...

  The stands were full skeletal remains—thousands of them.

  Erik swallowed hard, uo tear his gaze away from the spectacle. He worked in a graveyard so he was ner to corpses and skeletons, but he had never seen so many id out bare in the open like that. Many of them were fag towards the arena, as if they had been watg it in one moment and thehe .

  He couldn't his head around what could have caused this. It send a shiver down his spine.

  Tearing his gaze away, he'd almost seen enough, but wao have a quick look ihe rge holes before he made his way to the castle. Ing forward he reached the closest one and peeked inside.

  It took his eyes a while to adjust, but to his relief they were... mostly empty. The walls of the pits were reinforced with stone. And on each side there were metal doors. Most of which had colpsed and opened up to peared to be underground passages build underh the arena.

  Ihe pit there were shattered s everywhere. There were also skeletal remains of what looked like wolf-sized rats.

  It reminded Erik of the Shackled King's Mischief.

  Although the Nilgrim was far more deformed, while this one looks... so normal. These must be the essence beasts.

  He was mostly sure that the one he fought earlier had e from here. Which made sense, Nilgrim in some cases were inally essence beasts.

  Deg that he had seen enough, he quickly backtracked ahe arena.

  In a little while he was standing in front of the castle. It was located in the middle of a pza that all the main roads seem to lead to. Out in the open Erik felt a little exposed, but he did not want to rush things.

  Fog on what was the castle he saw that signs of its flory could still be seen here and there, iricate facade or the imposing tower that still stood at its ter.

  What caught his attention most was a rge, striking statue of a female warrior leather armor, standing above the main gate. Her hair flowed down to her thighs. A quiver was slung across her back, and a bow rested in her right hand. Perched on her shoulder were the half-crumbling remains of a hawk.

  Despite the statue’s poor state, Erik felt as though her gaze pierced him… He had no trouble reizing the figure—and the runes below firmed it.

  This city was build by the will of Vast Horizoed Sage. May she always watch over us.

  Some of the twelve Exalted had maions, their images well known across the world. One would be hard-pressed to find anyone who did nhem at a gnce.

  Vast Horizons was among those well knowhird to rise to the Rank of Exalted, the first explorer, and the founder of the guild that had spread across the world. She had expanded humanity’s borders into the wilds more than anyone before her.

  I wonder what she would have though about the state of the city now...

  Leaving any further musing for ter, his sight then moved back down to the broken portcullis of the mairahe castle was rge and although colpsed in pces, Erik could not see any other entrances.

  He took a deep breath aered.

  The halls were desote, nothing had survived. But when he peek ihe closest room his breath caught in his throat.

  It was full of bones.

  Keep as quiet as he could, Erik tinued down the hall, and every room he passed was full of human remains.

  Aside from that, the castle ractically barren. Just skeletal remains everywhere.

  Slowly he made his way through the main corridor, and as he neared what would most likely be the main hall, he stopped dead in his tracks.

  That was because he heard human voices.