The lift came to a stop and lowered a foot and a half into its docking cradle at which point the energy walls dissipated and vanished. They stepped off the lift and the energy receiver, a black spiked crystal ball no bigger than a person's head, settled into place resting upon the center of the metal disk. They were about to approach the door when a wild 'yahoo' of amusement came from the barely lit mechanical confusion above them, followed shortly by a blond mullet haired teen that hit the platform a little too hard and too near the edge.

Quickly Lea grabbed him by the straps of his oil stained overalls and pulled him onto firm footing before he could fall. "Careful kid. I won't always be there to catch you." Dante looked at the boy sternly. "Dyme, one of these days you are going to get yourself into a situation that could get you killed if you don't start using your head."

"Well it's good to see you too Dante. Yeah that could have been bad, a hundred foot drop into the Eastern Drive Core would have been no fun. I misjudged my leap. But thankfully Lea was here to catch me." Still holding the straps of Dyme's overalls Lea shoved him toward the door and slapped him up side the head as well.

"Dyme, why did the palace get rotated anyway? We called for the lift from the main gate. Shouldn't the main entrance be pointed South to line up with the main gate?"

"Yes, well the king wished to watch the sunset from his rooms rather than the gardens this evening. He felt it would be a waste of the Guards' time tonight trying to lead him out of the maze. His rooms overlook the thing and he can't seem to find his way out from the inside. So, where are we going?"

"You are going to go get cleaned up monkey boy. We are going to call the council." "Good luck with that. As I was going through the maintenance shafts I heard that some of them are rather unhappy." "Only some? Thanks for the warning, but they will all be unhappy and have to agree on something when we are done with them for the capital is under attack as we speak."

Finally looking around the small group to see who was there he noticed Kira's presence for the first time and nearly tripped over himself in his excitement. "Kira, ma'am. How are you feeling? You look a little unwell."

"I'll be fine. Lets just go, this Darkness is making me uneasy." As if to illustrate her point, somewhere nearby the unlit machinery gave a protracted metallic groan of protest. "Okay. All those in favor of getting the Hell out of here?" As one the group raised their hands and said 'I'.

Before any other strange noises or random events could come snaking their way out of the Darkness they went through the door. However they found themselves presented with a new set of problems on the other side.

They were on one side of a pit overlooking an artificially heated pool of lava, the ledge they were standing on barely large enough to hold a Volkswagen. While the small one person platform which was the only apparent way to get across and the leaver to activate it were on the other side of the pit. There was nothing to indicate another safe way across. The sound of enormous machinery coming to life filled the chamber as any number of fiendishly deceptive traps around the palace came to grim and fatalistic life.

The communicators on the group all chimed to indicate an incoming signal and the same voice, sounding a bit strange because of the five different sources within close proximity, came from each one. "Attention all residents and employees of the palace. An unknown force has entered the palace through the Northern Drive Core and has overrun the Arcane Tower. To prevent their spread through the entire palace all security points have been locked down."

They exchanged worried looks for this was news that could lead to someone's death, for the palace had been designed to keep its people safer than even the most heavily defended fortress could. "The entire security system has been brought on line and the puzzle based locks have been randomized. For those of you in the towers, I'm sorry but the safety of the King and Council was of utmost importance. May the Gods watch over your passage to the next life."

"Kira, do you think you could create a bridge across this?" Her earrings chiming darkly she shook her head as she answered. "My barriers make for excellent protective shields against attack or walls to create a sanctuary so that you could rest undisturbed. Trying to cross that on my barriers would be suicide. You wouldn't get more than a few steps before the magic stopped sensing you as a threat, because you would be walking away from me rather than trying to attack me."

"Well what about yourself, wouldn't the magic recognize the lava as a threat to you and keep you aloft?" "Dante, I just don't know. I have never tried to use the magic that way and I don't think this is the safest place or time to test it, just on the off chance that it fails."