A/N: Oops! I just realized that I COMPLETELY forgot the preview for the sequel at the end of chapter 52! O_o Sorry about that; there WILL be a preview at the end of this chapter, however. In fact, I'm putting it in before I write the actual chapter. XD As a side note, has anyone seen The Hobbit yet? May I just say, BEST MOVIE EVER. XD

Warning: This chapter is LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG. I planned out the entire storyline from chapter 53 to the end (there will be exactly 60 chapters, I think) and I added more plot to this chapter than I originally thought.

In response to reviews …

NightSkyWolves: ?

QJXZ: Ashley Spellsword is a Thaumaturge O.C. from Flo. I definitely haven't used her as much as I probably should, so I'm going to try and focus on her a little more in these next few chapters.

Scarletfireblaze: Lol, the entire maze isn't in the house, just the entrance to it. XD Also, thank you very much for your review of chapter 52; that made my entire week. :)

The house was eerily silent as Moira led us through the hallways and rooms. I could faintly see the photographs on the wall beneath nine years of dust and grime. I recognized every piece of furniture and each item in every single room. A vase of fire lilies still sat on the living room coffee table, although they'd long since wilted and lost their petals. A thick layer of dust coated everything, and the colors seemed a bit … washed out, almost. It was like the entire house had turned gray and lifeless.

"So, where's the entrance?" I asked the albino Necromancer.

"Basement," she replied shortly, heading for the kitchen.

"Hold on a second. There's something I want to see." Most of the group paused and waited, but Evan and Destiny came with me as I climbed the wide, once elegant stairs that were carefully crafted in a Dragonspyrian fashion. I let one finger trail in the dust on the wide banister, leaving a squiggly pattern of cleared red wood on the gray surface.

"Where are we going?" Destiny whispered as we reached the top of the staircase. Her voice sounded strangely out of place in the silent hall.

"My room," I replied over my shoulder. "I want to see if everything's like I left it, and if it is, there's something I need to get." My two friends were silent as I cautiously pushed open the last door on the right.

There wasn't an object out of place, not a single thing different from how it had been when the house was still inhabited. I saw my small, simple bed with the violet bedspread. The scarlet dragon emblem still contrasted heavily with the dark purple. A carved wooden dragon that had been painted gold hung just above the bed. I gently set my hand down on the comforter, remembering all the times that I had sat on this very bed and dreamed of Ravenwood. I slowly approached the wooden desk and blew the dust off the lamp. It still turned on. I had done my homework by the light of that lamp. I had read late into the night by the light of that lamp.

The bookshelf was still piled high with books, books filled with words and pictures that would take me to faraway lands, places that I could escape from the haunting silence of my house that was no different from the present. I could still read all of the titles, and I saw some of my very favorite childhood stories. Sitting on the nightstand was a doll. She wore a faded green dress, and her black yarn hair had long since come out of its neat braid. Her eyes were still blue, and her stitched, pale pink mouth still turned up in a merry smile.

"Christine," I murmured, picking up the doll. "I used to carry her with me everywhere. She was a gift from my mother when I was five. The day the house was destroyed … I had her in my backpack that day. She's the only thing I have left from that old house," I said, more for my own ears than those of my friends.

"What do you have to get, Alex? We'd better get going; there's no time to waste," Destiny gently told me.

"Well, I wasn't sure if she would be here, but thankfully she is." I brushed the dirt off of Christine's dress and tucked her into my backpack. "Christine is the only thing I have left of my mother, and so she's coming with me."

"You needed a doll? I mean, I can see how important it is to you, but couldn't it have waited until after we fight Malistaire?" Evan asked skeptically.

"There's no guarantee that we're coming back, and besides … maybe she'll bring us luck." I smirked as I turned and headed back downstairs. Moira was waiting by the door to the basement, which she held partially opened.

"Hurry up," she told us sourly, starting down the stairs. The other Necromancer led the group to the back left corner.

"There's nothing … here," Erica said slowly, giving the albino a strange look. Moira rolled her eyes and pressed her hand into the floor. A large section of the stone floor melted away, revealing a wooden trapdoor.

"Yes, of course, there's absolutely nothing here," she snapped, kicking the door open. "Let's get this over with." I followed her down three steep flights of stairs, which ended in a circular room filled with doors. The moment the last group member had stepped into the room, a wall appeared in front of the stairs.

"Well, there goes our way out," Ashley laughed nervously. "What do we do now?"

"Every one of these doors except for one will lead us into a trap."

"W-w-what kind of t-trap?" Heather asked. Moira shrugged.

"Oh, you know, fiery infernos, spikes that will shoot up from the floor and impale you, the occasional crushing wall, nothing too bad." I was slightly disturbed when I barely detected a trace of sarcasm in her voice. "I'm pretty sure I remember the trick to finding the right one-"

"Pretty sure," Tristan muttered, but Moira shot him a glare.

"… However, to find it, I need absolute silence, which translates to 'shut your mouths.' Got it?" We all nodded, and the Necromancer approached the first door. She pressed her hand flat up against it, and then removed it as though she'd been burned. She raised her wand and drew the Death symbol on the door. "That one's out." She repeated the procedure with the other doors, eliminating three more.

Her next test was to knock hard on each door. I heard a loud thump as she tapped on four of them, and Moira added the Death symbol to those. Two doors remained. "This is the hardest one," she murmured, carefully inspecting first one door, then the other. She got down on her knees and peered under the first door. She nodded. "Other one." With a flourish, Moira flung open the second door, leaving a clear path.

"How'd you do that?" Ashley asked. "They all look the same!"

"The ones with fire behind them are hot. The crushing walls will close if you knock hard enough, and there are holes in the ground for spikes behind that other door." She grinned smugly at us.

"Let's just go already," I growled, drawing my cutlass and stalking into the passage.

We hurried through the twisting and turning hallway in silence. Moira was in the lead, and I was directly behind her. "What's next?" I called.

"A whole bunch of road forks right in a row," she replied over her shoulder. "If you go the wrong way, you'll activate a trap that will vaporize you in a second. The right order is left, right, right, left, left, right."

"I'm not gonna remember that!"

"Then it's a good thing you're not in front!" She laughed darkly. We arrived at the first fork. "Left." We took the left path. "Turn right up here," the albino called to the others." We followed her command again. The other Necromancer led us through the rest of the sharp turns, and we arrived in a circular room much like the first one.

"What do we do here?" Chelsea asked.

"This is the end of the road," Moira answered, walking in a wide circle around the room. "The orb is in the very center of this room." She walked in a slightly smaller circle.

"But … there's nothing here!" The Magus protested. Moira smirked.

"That's because we haven't found it yet." She made three more laps around the room, each one smaller than the last. Finally, she stopped in the middle of the room, drew her wand, and tapped the floor five times with it. Each tap echoed throughout the room, and after the final one, there was a loud screech as a hole opened in the floor. A small orb on a pedestal rose from the ground.

"And there you have it." Moira gestured to the orb. "One school at a time, starting with the Elemental Schools. Fire dude, you're first. Blondie, you go second … uh, can anyone else cast Storm?"

"Just Brooke and Donna," I hissed.

"I can cast Storm, too," Ashley informed us. "Want me to do that one as well as the Ice?"

"Nah. Glasses girl can do Ice and Balance, and you can do Storm. After Storm is Myth, Life and Death … Stutterer can do the Myth, Brat can cast the Life spell and Firesong, you cast the Death." I glowered at her.

"We have names, you know."

"Well, seeing how I'm not a 'real' member of this group, no one saw fit to tell me these names," Moira shot back.

"And whose fault is it that you're not a real member? Mine or yours?" I spat.

"Will you both SHUT UP?" Ashley yelled, thrusting an arm between us. "No one cares if Moira uses our names or not, okay? Let's just get this over with and get out of here!" Moira and I were both silent as Evan stepped forwards to cast his spell.

"It doesn't have to be big; any Pyromancy spell will do," the albino girl muttered. My friend nodded as he drew his wand and selected a card. A Fire Cat sprang from the red card and breathed fire on the orb. The others went on to cast their own spells; on my turn, I cast a ghoul. When Erica's scarab was finished, the orb slowly creaked back into the ground. A gate appeared and swung open. "The dungeon is that way. You guys might want to see if there's anyone still alive in there; they'll want to be freed, and that's one way to spite Malistaire." I had a feeling that there were other motives behind Moira's words, but I didn't question them. I figured that I would find out soon enough.

-V-

The group split up when we reached the morbid dungeons. I was horrified as I walked along one of the numerous rows of cells. There were bloodstains in some and entire skeletons in others. In one or two, I saw a rotting corpse with eyes still wide in terror. Marks of torture were evident on their skin. I shivered, feeling a strange chill in the boiling hot dungeon.

A scream immediately drew my attention, and I hurried towards the source. Kestrel had backed up against the bars of a cell, staring in horror at the opposite cage.

"What is it?" I asked urgently, stepping towards her. She raised a shaky finger and pointed at the cage.

"That's … that was my old cage!" She whimpered, gripping the bars behind her tightly. "I was chained there and left without food for days! That one, the one next to it … it was Donna's. I killed her there." Her voice broke, and she began sobbing loudly. I hesitantly approached the cage. In the one Kestrel had indicated, there lay a thick, heavy chain. The stone that made up the back wall and the floor was covered in long scratch marks. I slowly turned my gaze to the cell on the left. There was hay scattered across the floor, and a few smaller scratches were carved into that wall. Scraps of red cloth were tossed here and there within the cell, and on the floor was something large, white and familiar: Donna's leg brace. I looked away, trying to keep myself from crying.

"It wasn't your fault," I told Kestrel quietly. "It was Moira's fault, and Malistaire's fault, but it wasn't yours. Don't blame yourself." I hurried on down the row of cells, wishing I could do more to help the other Necromancer but knowing that there was nothing more I could say.

-V-

I reached the end of the cell, and I was about to turn back when I heard a weak cough. I spun around, trying to determine where the sound had come from.

"Who's there?"

"Alexandra?" I hadn't heard that voice in nearly a year, but I recognized it immediately.

"D-Dad?" I took three steps towards the back cell and peered inside. An emaciated, bloodied figure lay inside on a pile of straw, dressed in tattered scarlet robes. He tried to sit up, but he failed.

"Alexandra. It's you," he sighed, sounding relieved. I slammed the blade of my cutlass into the lock, trying to pry it open. The lock snapped open, and I yanked open the door, rushed into the cell and knelt beside my father.

"I thought you were dead," I whispered, staring at his pale face in shock. He reached his thin, bony hand out and touched my face.

"You're really here. I've dreamed of you a thousand times, Alexandra, and you're finally real." He smiled faintly.

"Yeah … I'm here, Dad. I'm here to get you out. You're free."

"Thank you, Alex, but I don't …" his voice trailed off. "Is Miss Dragonflame here? I gave her a letter just before I went after Malistaire … I believe it's nearly time you read it."

"Donna … she's dead. I have the letter, though- at least, I think it's the letter. Brooke had it when she died." My father frowned.

"Miss Dragonflame and Miss Swiftriver are both dead, then? It's fitting, I suppose; they were never apart, and they did everything together. If Donna is dead, she would have passed the letter to her friend. It makes sense."

"Do you want me to read it now?" I pulled the letter from my backpack, but he shook his head.

"Not yet. Your friend was given instructions that you were not to read that letter without proof that I was dead. I think you'll be reading it very soon." He smiled sadly. My eyes widened.

"No, Dad, you're not gonna die! There are Theurgists here- Destiny! Sabrina! One of you, come here!" I called. "They'll heal you, Dad! You're gonna be fine now; you're free. Everything will be okay. We'll get you help, and then you can get out of this dungeon and go to a proper hospital … Wizard City! Someone can bring you there, and you'll be fine-" My father squeezed my hand, and I fell silent, staring at him with wide eyes.

"Alexandra." He paused. "I'm so sorry … you never deserved what I did to you. You deserved to make your own decision, and I should have been with you every step of the way. You should have had my support in everything you did. I was never … never there when I should have been. You've become a very strong girl, even without me, and I hope that you can forgive me someday. Now, read the letter, my daughter." He stared at me expectantly, and I realized that he was waiting for me to open it. Slowly, I removed the letter from the envelope and broke the seal. I noted that it wasn't the Pyromancy seal, but the Firesong family's. "Read it out loud," my father instructed. I nodded slowly.

"Dearest Alexandra: If you are reading this, than I am dead. I do not regret what I did when I entered the Death School in your place; you deserve life far more than I do. The things I have done to you make me deserve every punishment I could receive within that School. I was unable to give you the love and support you needed, and so now, with what may be my last minutes, I give you life. I would not have you die when I am able to take your place. Take my gift now, and use it to the fullest. Don't let anything I've said hold you back from following your destiny, for it has been laid down by the Titans for you to follow. No one can determine what his destiny is before it reaches him, but I know now, without a doubt, that you have a great destiny. Follow it, Alexandra, and go wherever the Titans would have you go. They will lead you somewhere fantastic; I know it. Good luck, and may you have my blessing-insignificant though it is- in everything you do. I love you. -Patrick Firesong."

I looked down as I felt my father's grip weaken on my hand. His eyes were closed, and a peaceful smile was on his face. I knew that he was dead, and I finally let my tears fall.

"I love you, Daddy."

A/N: What did you guys think of the scene with Kestrel and her old cell? I'm still debating whether I should have put that in or not …

As promised, here's the preview for The Journey of Fire's Song. :)

"You know, Sabrina, you've been acting pretty strange lately," I commented as I chose a card. My dueling opponent only frowned at me before selecting her own card.

"I've got a lot on my mind, that's all," she muttered. I raised an eyebrow.

"Such as?"

"Moira said something back in Dragonspyre … she said that she knew how to free my mother."