MAK

The castle should not have existed. We had flown beyond all known maps, past the final frontier. And yet there it was, ancient, waiting. A golden kingdom and a massive engraved door. A staircase ascended, in a room a wheel within a wheel, spinning on its own. Golden statues, faces eerily lifelike. At the center, an ancient map, edged into stone. And then the ache, flickering with the fire from within. The air was heavy, the silence unnatural as our team studied each room. The others hesitated, but it was not over. Inside ancient thrones, still occupied by skeletal remains, stared back at us. We were not the first to stand here. They had been waiting, watching. It was here that I knew this place was never lost. It was abandoned, left behind for reasons we were not meant to understand. The eyes did not bury it. It protected it from us. It protected it from us.