Blood Ties

Scylia stood in awed silence as the room around her slowly crumbled, tiny piece by tiny piece. The once mighty pillars that held up the immaculately carved walls were slowly crumbling, ever eroded by time. The walls were covered in now faded tales of the lives and deaths, loves and losses of the men and gods of ages and empires passed. An expression of wonder as she turned her face to the walls as specks of rock and dust even as she watched were chipped away by age.

She paused for a moment as a particular carving caught her eye. The lines were faded, the corners rounded but it was still recognisable. A living history painstakingly recorded by a master of the craft, now crumbling away. The scene Scylia was drawn to was a horrible one, a scene of tragedy, a scene of child sacrifice.

Of course Scylia had known that such things had occurred and by all accounts been commonplace within certain ancient religious practice, but she was no less taken aback. Something drew her toward this carving, though she could not quite place what about it attracted her. She asked herself whether it could be some morbid sense of curiosity though she had never experienced such proclivities up until that point. Violence had never raised in her the same sense of almost sexual excitement that it seemed to stir up in a number of people, she had never had any special attraction but nor had she felt a special aversion to it. It was just a thing that happened, and while (like any normal creature) she avoided pain directed toward her, gore was not an issue. She’d lived long enough to be desensitised to most things.

As Scylia watched, the images carved into the wall seemed to move, distort, only slightly, almost imperceptibly. She rubbed her eyes and attempted to clear her head of the sudden fogginess that had descended upon her. Scylia opened her eyes and took another look at the carving. To her surprise the wall had stopped moving, but the carving had vanished entirely. The wall was now smooth and, as far as she could tell, new! Again she rubbed her eyes, shook her head and looked back at the wall but the same sight greeted her, no carvings on the smooth unspoilt walls.

Scylia was roused from her hypnotic confusion by the sounds of hurried footfalls approaching her from the darkness at the other end of a long, thin corridor. She turned in time to see a young man, probably around seventeen by her reckoning, stumble into the room, all the while looking over his shoulder at whatever had been behind him in the darkness. He was fairly tall with broad shoulders, and a pale, grubby complexion and messy, untameable dark hair.

It was a few seconds before he turned away from the corridor and saw Scylia. He leapt back and almost tripped

‘W-who are you?!’ he said with all the pseudo-masculinity he could muster though he was still out of breath.

‘I…’ Scylia began but before she could go on she found herself taken aback as she took in her surroundings anew ‘What happened to this place?!’ she blurted as she saw that the ancient, crumbling pillars around her had been replaced by magnificent, towering ones, pristine as the day they had been made. It wasn’t only the wall that she had been looking at that had changed; all of the walls were now smooth and new; even the air felt deeply reminiscent of an age before fossil fuels.

‘What are you talking about?’ the young man asked as he pressed himself up against the wall so as to stay out of the line of sight of whatever had been behind him.

‘Everything seems to have, um…deaged or something. A second ago these were crumbling ruins now they’re some kind of architectural marvel!’

‘Look,’ the man snapped as he moved away from the wall and strode toward the gaping mouth of the temple ‘I don’t know what your problem is but I can all but guarantee mine is bigger, not to be rude but I’m getting the hell out of here and if you’ve got any sense you’ll do the same!’

‘What? Why? Tell me what’s going on?!’ Scylia demanded

‘No! I don’t have time to be-’

He was stopped short before he could say any more as a serrated black tendril shot out of the darkness and buried itself in his head.

---
Time slowed as Scylia watched the man she had just met fall to the ground. The attack hadn’t fully penetrated his skull; rather it had slashed the side of his head, causing his skull to partially collapse inwards leading to massive internal bleeding. He laid there for what must have seemed to him like hours as blood filled his skull and he felt himself slip away. His fingers twitched for a few seconds before he succumbed to the massive trauma caused by the tendril which had now receded back into the shadows from whence it came. Scylia heard noises, voices maybe, coming from the direction the tendril had come from. It didn’t take long for her to decide against trying to break bread with whoever had just killed her new friend. Admittedly she didn’t know the ins and outs of the situation but they didn’t seem like the type to sit down around a table and discuss things over a tea and crumpets, and if they asked her what she was doing there she could hardly tell the truth, it would have been even more cryptic to them than it was to her.

Scylia made up her mind and acted on her decision simultaneously. She sprinted for the exit, having to jump over the poor man’s body she landed awkwardly as the sight of the man’s grey matter spilt over the ground had shaken her. She turned back for a moment and saw tendrils reaching out towards her from the darkness, clawing at her from the hallway, getting closer and closer. She turned and ran as quickly as she could out of the temple, through the massive stone archway and out into the sunlight.

She hurried down the temple steps though she barely recognised her surroundings. When she had walked up them they had been ancient, rounded and decaying but now they were pristine and perfect, the surrounding area that had been tangled up in trees and vines, steeped in foliage that had grown between the cracks was now devoid of any natural entanglements. At the foot of the temple had been an arid desert. Devoid of all life, not even a single flower survived. However, before her now Scylia saw a huge village, signs of life, signs that there had been people, but the village was empty,

A glance back proved that Scylia was right to run. The tendril that had killed the man in the temple wasn’t the only one. They were a part of something, something huge. It charged through the doorway of the temple, tendrils flailing wildly above its four-legged bestial form. Scylia didn’t stop to chat. She reached the bottom of the steps and hit the ground running straight down the street and into the seemingly abandoned city below.

She heard the creature behind her as she ran between the buildings. A tendril shot out at Scylia, narrowly missing her and blasting a chunk out of a nearby building. Scylia heard people inside trying to stifle fearful screams. The village wasn’t abandoned; everyone was hidden away in their houses, and who could blame them. The best pursued Scylia with single-minded fervour through the streets, uncaring of what got in its way as it’s gargantuan frame and bladed tendrils were more than enough to level any obstacle.

It was getting closer. Scylia knew it. Its powerful quadrapedal sprint was by nature superior to Scylia’s awkward bipedal shamble. The streets were empty but Scylia could almost feel the tension of the people huddled in their homes. The mothers that held their children close, preferring to sacrifice themselves if needs be than to let their children die. Scylia led the beast down one road and the next, turning left then taking a right, then left, then right, entirely at random in hopes of shaking it off her trail until. It was futile, she couldn’t get away. She turned down a narrow alley and instantly realised he’d found herself in a dead end. Trapped.

She ran to the end of the alley, knocking on doors and screaming for help but none came. No one would save her, they knew that if they did they would all suffer the same fate. Scylia heard the creatures footfalls approaching, then its figure blocked the light. It sniffed the air and watched her for a moment before it slowly approached. It knew it had her cornered and was moving in for the kill.

---
Just then Scylia heard a door open to her left and felt a tiny hand pulling at her arm. She turned to see the fact of a little girl, framed with short, black hair

‘In here! Quickly!’

Scylia didn’t have to be told twice. She leapt in and shut the door behind her. The little girl beckoned her onwards, opening a hatch in the ground and leading her into an underground tunnel. Scylia’s breath was heavy, her heart racing until she felt a comforting squeeze of the wrist from the little girl.

‘It’s okay,’ said the girl with a reassuring smile ‘you’re safe here. I’m Raia, nice to meet you’ said the younger girl with a smile, reaching out a hand in greeting

Scylia shook Raia’s hand and shook it gently, taking a moment to catch her breath before she replied

‘Hi, I’m Scylia,’ she said, returning Raia’s smile ‘Thanks for that. If you hadn’t opened the door I’d have been ripped apart’

‘No problem, I know what it feels like to be hunted. I wouldn’t wish that on anyone’ Raia carefully tied a rag that had been soaked in pitch around a piece of wood and touched it to a torch on the wall. She gestured ahead with the newly lit torch ‘the mines are deserted today. It shouldn’t be able to find us in here. We can make our way around the village without being detected by Ramenak’

The two then descended into the mines. Raia took the lead, torch in hand and Scylia followed by her side.

‘So what are you doing here anyway?’ Scylia asked ‘It can’t be safe for a girl as young as you to spend her days wandering abandoned mines’

‘No…’ said Raia ‘I…I think it’s safer here’

‘You mean you’re safe from the monster here?’ asked Scylia

‘It,’ Raia stammered ‘it’s not a monster, not exactly’

‘No? Sure seemed like one to me’ Scylia remarked ‘I’m no expert but a demon dog that kills people with big pointy tentacles more than qualifies as a monster in my book’

‘Well that may be but it’s not, not technically’ Raia explained ‘Many believe it to be a demigod, the productive of relations between one of the ancient gods and a beast of the earth. Its name is Remenak’

‘A demigod? Are you serious?’

‘Yes,’ Raia went on ‘but it is believed that because of its bestial parentage it can’t reason in the same way as you or I. All it knows is duty…and hunger.’

‘I’m sure I’ll regret asking but…how does a thing like that satisfy its hunger?’

‘Sacrifice’

‘Sacrifice? Human sacrifice?’

Raia nodded

‘I see’ Scylia said, downcast

‘Once a year the elders to offer up a young girl in order to satisfy Remenak’s endless appetite and keep him from destroying the village’ said Raia

‘That’s awful’

‘It’s a choice between one girl and the whole village, the elders of the village did what they thought needed to be done…’ Raia said solemnly

‘So what happened? It didn’t seem like a happy demigod to me’

‘I…if I tell you, do you promise you’ll keep it a secret?’

‘Of course’ Scylia conceded. She didn’t need to hear what Raia was about to say, by this point it was clear

‘I…I was meant to be the sacrifice’

The two walked on in silence for a while. Scylia wasn’t sure what to say. What could a person say? On the one hand is the life of an innocent girl, on the other the lives of an entire village. In the silence of that moment she had to make a choice. She would have to choose between helping the girl or the village. Of course, she could always just run away and leave events to unfold on their own, but she had nowhere to go and no intention of leaving even if she did. She had to choose.

‘How did you get away?’ Scylia asked

‘I hid. Everyone stays within their homes when it’s time for the sacrifice. They’re all so scared of Remenak. Even the miners stay at home with their families which means that these tunnels that are empty and make an excellent place to hide’

‘I see’

‘Please don’t tell anyone’

‘Don’t worry, I won’t…’ Scylia said ‘but what happens now? To the village, I mean.’

‘I…I’ve heard stories of men from far off lands who kill gods and devils. Maybe we could find one of them to help us?’

‘I don’t think that’s practical’ Scylia said ‘Not when we can only move within the tunnels’

‘No, I don’t suppose it is…’ Raia conceded, feeling her case slipping away ‘hold on!’ she said as a bolt of inspiration hit her ‘The temple! According to legend the gods of old sealed away their mightiest enemy within the Blood Stone in the heart of the temple and left Ramenak as the guardian to prevent it’s his release.’

‘So you think there’s some way to seal Remenak in the Blood Stone with this other thing?’

‘Maybe’ Raia hesitated

‘Maybe? Why maybe?’

‘Well…even if we are able to use the Blood Stone Seal against Remenak, there’s no guarantee that we’ll be able to contain what was already in there…’

‘What? The great enemy of the gods? What kind of creature is it that?’

‘They say he had the face of a man, the eyes of a demon, the tongue of a serpent, and the voice of a dragon. The scriptures speak of him as a creature of pure destruction, knowing no mercy, no love, no compassion. Nothing but death.’

‘Ah…well…probably best not to wake him then…’

Silence hung in the air for a second time. It was one thing deciding between a girl and a village but now Raia asked her to decide between a girl and what may well be the end of all life. She didn’t know what to do, try as she might she felt herself drawn to this girl, felt as though she couldn’t let her die. Scylia felt within her an inexplicable affinity with Raia. So much so that she found it nearly impossible to make a reasoned decision. The world or the girl? Scylia knew the right choice, but try as she might she found it almost impossible to accept. She decided she would play along until they reached the temple. Maybe, tragic as it would be, the decision would be made for them and they wouldn’t be able to make the seal and Remenak would take Raia. Then all of her problems would be solved…maybe.

‘Okay,’ said Scylia ‘we should get going then. We’ve got a demigod to stop’

‘Right…well these tunnels lead to a dig site very near the temple. If we can make it back there before Remenak gets back there we can work out how to seal him before he gets there’

‘Okay, let’s do this.’

And so the two made their way deeper into the mines in hope of somehow saving the village and the girl, without damning the world in the process.

---
Raia and Scylia had been wandering about in the dark for what seemed like hours. For all Scylia knew they’d been wandering around in circles in the dark.

‘How far away is the temple? Are we close?’ Scylia would ask every time the boredom would become too much

‘Not far’ Raia answered without fail

Scylia was beginning to wonder if Raia actually knew where she was going until she stopped dead without warning

‘This is it’ Raia said looking into the darkness and pointing the torch in that direction. Scylia thought she could just about make out a door in the passage ahead.

‘This is it’ echoed Syclia

‘This door leads to an exit a little way from the rear entrance to the temple’ Raia explained ‘From there it’s just a matter of getting to the room that houses the Blood Stone and trying to figure out how it works before Remenak gets back from searching for us. There should be a copy of the sacred rites needed to control the stone somewhere inside.’

‘And if there’s not?’

‘There will be.’

On the other side of the door Raia and Scylia found themselves, as predicted, near the rear entrance of the temple. This entrance was far more humble than the grand archway at the front of the temple. The two made their way through a small wooden door and entered the poorly lit temple. The two moved through the corridors as quietly as they could manage, keeping their voices down to a whisper.

‘So how long until Rema-whatever gets back?’ Scylia asked

‘He’s not one to give up easily but he’s already been out for a while,’ said Raia, then her expression darkened ‘I just hope he comes here before he decides to take out his frustrations on the village.’

‘Don’t think about that for now. Once we know how to seal him we’ll get his attention and lure him back here so he can’t do any damage, okay?’

‘Right’

‘How do you know so much about all this anyway?’

‘My dad, he…he’s a priest at the temple’

‘Woah…’ Scylia said, taken aback for a second. She knew what she wanted to ask next, she knew the great, big elephant in the room but she wasn’t sure how to phrase it, how to put it delicately to avoid hurting Raia or bringing up something best left unexplored, for the moment at least, but she had to ask ‘So…your dad…he…’

‘Was okay with sacrificing his only daughter to appease the gods?’ she said, as matter of fact as one could say such a thing ‘No. Not really. He came here earlier today to appeal to the gods on my behalf, it was unlikely they’d change their minds, they aren’t merciful gods. But it was worth a try.’

Neither of them said anything for a while after that. They walked on in silence and Scylia desperately hoped the man she’d seen murdered when she first arrived had been someone, anyone else.

‘So it has to be a girl?’ Scylia asked, her awkward attempt at changing the subject without mentioning the man ‘Why?’

‘I don’t know, I guess it’s traditional or something. They only take girls and she has to die in the temple; I guess they’re just fucked up that way’

As she said this, the corridor opened up onto a gorgeous domed room ornately decorated with every precious jewel imaginable. Stone statues of the six gods of old (standard, beardy types for the most part) stood in a circle at the edges of the room all looking inward, at a scarlet rock roughly the size of a beach ball being held in place on a plinth by twelve small stone hands at the top of the plinth. The Blood Stone. Remenak sat beside it, teeth tearing the flash from the bones of a man. Raia’s screams filled the room.

Remenak turned to see Raia collapsed to the floor in fits of tears. Scylia tried to comfort her while keeping an eye on Remenak. The beast sat there and watched as Scylia put her arm around the girl and held her tight, a vain attempt to comfort a mourning child. The monster watched and waited, Scylia couldn’t tell why and before she knew what was happening, Raia pulled from her grasp and ran across the room and buried her face in her father’s chest.

Scylia watched in horror, frozen on the spot as Remenak looked down at Raia from mere metres away and did nothing.

‘Raia!’ she whispered, as if the slightest noise might aggravate the beast ‘Get back here! We need to leave!’

‘Now we can’t be having that, you’ve only just arrived’ said one of the gods of old as all six of the stone statues pulled themselves from the walls and, towering above her, closed in around Raia ‘you’re just in time for dinner.’

‘Stop!’ Scylia shouted

and they did, for a moment, then they turned and looked at her

‘You will not stop us from having our way’ said one of the gods, an elderly, bearded god with an almost skeletal frame covered by a patchwork of robes and battle armour

‘We must feed, that is the way of things’ said another, smaller god. Chubby and clothed in what Scylia thought must have been formalwear of the time

‘But if you try to leave this place we will not stop you,’ said a third, a woman, with long hair and twelve dark eyes, six on each of her two heads

Scylia stood in awe for a moment. They were showing her mercy, they would spare her life but at the cost of Raia. But who is Raia to me, really? She thought to herself, she’s just some kid I met a few hours ago, what difference would it make if I just left her here? She wouldn’t even notice. And it was true, Raia was so distraught and racked with grief that she had barely acknowledged the presence of the gods. She seemed to have given up on life.

‘So leave,’ said one head of the female god ‘and live your life in peace’

‘Or stay’ said the other head ‘and suffer for all time’

‘Choose’ demanded the bearded god

Scylia hesitantly stepped backwards towards the exit and as the gods turned to Raia, their figures looming over her, she ran.

---
Scylia ran through the darkness, holding back the tears as she left Raia at the mercy of the gods. She knew she couldn’t stop them, she knew there was nothing she could have done, she was powerless. As she ran she began to hear the screams of Raia behind her as the gods were doing…whatever they were doing, but there was no use in turning back. There’s nothing I can do to save Raia, why go back and end up suffering the same fate? She asked herself as the tears ran down her face as she kept running until she tripped and fell to her knees.

‘What are you doing?’ said a voice that seemed to come from the walls themselves

‘T-there’s nothing I can do!’ she replied aloud

‘So you’ll run and leave her to die before you’ll even try to save her?’

‘It’s better than both of us dying’

‘I see. Then live with her blood on your hands’

‘I…’

Then she had to make a choice, find a way home and leave this place in the grips of tyranny or go back and try to save the little girl who’d saved her first, the latter meaning certain death. She got back to her feet, wiped away her tears and turned back.

She ran, ran as quickly as her feet would carry her in the direction of the screams and when she burst out into the central chamber to see the gods surrounding Raia’s cold body. They all had a hand on her, holding her up above her father’s body as they pulled out her soul. As her body withered her screams grew ever weaker. Scylia felt powerless but something inside her compelled her to do something. She ran over to Raia, grabbed her by the waist and tried to pull her free but she wouldn’t budge. She was trapped in the vice like grip of the six gods of old that towered above them both.

‘You have returned?’ said the bearded god with a smirk ‘How strangely predictable’

‘Good. I feared there would be no dessert’ said the smallest of the gods and he kicked Scylia to the side as if swatting a fly, sending her crashing to the ground clutching her sides ‘we’ll get to you, don’t worry’

I knew it would be this way Scylia thought as she got to her feet, trying to ignore the possible broken ribs There has to be something I can do, some way to save Raia. She grabbed at the feet of one of the two headed goddess and tried to pull it over but couldn’t budge it an inch before she was the goddess shook her free and Scylia fell onto her back.

‘Do you not understand, girl?’ said one of the goddess’ heads scathingly ‘We are gods! We are the conquering masters of the world. Entire civilisations are at our feet, our power is eternal and unshakable!’

‘No mere human could overpower us,’ said the other ‘much less one as weak as you’

Scylia stared at them in silence for a while, then got to her feet and a smile spread across her face.

‘Let go of her’ she said

The gods laughed and ignored her

‘I’m warning you,’ she said, walking over to the centre of the room ‘put her down or you’ll regret it.’

‘What do you think you’re doing?!’ the bearded god shouted at Scylia as she picked up the Blood Stone in both hands and holding it out in front of her

‘If you don’t put her down I’ll break the stone,’ Scylia said, deadly serious ‘I don’t know much about you bastards but I know you don’t want that to happen. So let her go or all hell breaks loose.’

The gods loosed their grip on Raia and she fell to the ground and let out a short groan

‘I know this thing is all that keeps your big bad enemy from wreaking havoc. Eyes of a demon, tongue of a serpent, voice of a dragon, all that crap.’

‘You have no idea what kinds of forces you’re dealing with!’ the bearded god shouted

‘Step away from Raia and I won’t have to find out’

The six gods all stood transfixed on Scylia and Remenak, the bestial demigod, bore his fangs and growled at her.

‘Drop it’ said the voice from the walls that had convinced her to turn back

‘What?!’ the gods were confused by this outburst, it seemed as though only Scylia could hear the voice

‘They’re a bunch of stubborn bastards and you’ve injured their pride. They won’t let you out of here alive after this. You have to show them you mean business!’

‘But what if this enemy thing kills everyone?’

‘He won’t’ the voice assured her

‘How do you know?’

‘I’m a man of my word’

Just then Scylia felt the stone thrash about violently in her hands and tear itself out of her grasp. It fell to the ground with a crash and a deep split formed where the stone had hit the ground.

---
The gods stood in silence but the fear was evident on their faces. The crack in the stone continued to spread until the whole thing had crumbled into dust.

Scylia stared at where the stone had been…

Nothing happened…

‘Foolish girl!’ shouted the smallest of the gods as he drew his sword and charged at her, ready to slice her in two. As he swung his blade Scylia felt all hope disappear, instinctively she covered her face with her arms and shut her eyes tightly and waited for her fate…

‘NO!’ the small god screamed ‘NOT AGAIN!’

Scylia heard a gentle laugh from above her. As she opened her eyes she saw a man draped in red who had apparently stopped the swinging of the small god’s sword and now held onto the blade with his bare hand ‘I’m afraid so, old friend’

He pulled the sword towards him and in one movement tore out the throat of the small god that had attacked him, leaving his limp body to fall to the ground. His face didn’t show the slightest change of expression as he walked over to Raia and lifted her eyelids.

‘Up to the same old tricks, I see’ said the man, directing his burning black eyes toward the bearded god ‘I should have gotten rid of you pretenders centuries ago’

The gods all stood around him, transfixed but unable to move

‘You caught me off guard last time; my powers were all but drained but now I’ve had a little time to regroup. More importantly I’ve had time to think about what I’m going to do to you, to all of you’ he said, looking from one god to the next in turn ‘You’ll see, Jensak was the lucky one’ he said as he gestured towards the small gods corpse.

He stood up and took a deep breath in. As he breathed out the noise that he made was like nothing of this world, it reverberated through the entire temple and shook it to its foundations. Little by little tears began to appear out of nowhere, tears in the air, tears in nothing it seemed, through which could be seen a swirling void.

‘Please!’ cried the bearded god ‘Don’t do this!’

The other gods let out similar cries for mercy but the red man’s voice got louder and louder and the tears grew larger. Seven tears; one for each god, one for Jensak, the dead god, and one for Remenak, the demigod and all at once they began to warp the air and draw the gods through the tears and into the void.

When they had all disappeared the red man closed his mouth and the sound dissipated. He raised a hand into the air and white smoke curled around him and drew itself into his palm which he placed on Raia’s head. In a matter of moments her deflated body was once again healthy. He turned to Scylia who ran over to Raia and held her sleeping body close, comforting her and silently begging her forgiveness.

‘Thank you for freeing me,’ the red man said ‘it’s good to be able to stretch my legs again’

‘What happened to the old gods?’ Scylia asked ‘They…they’re gone, that’s all you need to know.’

‘I know it’s um…rude but could you help me with one more thing?’ Scylia asked hesitantly

‘You want to go back to your own time, millennia from now’ stated the red man

‘How did you-?’

‘I brought you here,’ he explained ‘centuries sealed away left me time to gather strength once again and with great effort I called you here through the ages.’

‘Why me?’ Scylia asked

‘Blood leads to blood,’ the red man said ‘Raia Asythia is your great, great, great, however many greats you may wish, grandmother. I’m sure on some level you’ve been able to sense that.’

Suddenly Syclia looked down at Raia, this fragile child, in a new light and her affection for her made all the more sense.

‘But what will she do now?’

‘Well, her father’s dead, that much is irreversible’ the red man said, referring to the bloody corpse that laid beside the plinth where the red stone had been ‘but I would imagine her mother will be relieved to know that at least one of her household wasn’t devoured by false gods. Take her home, she’ll live a happy life and somewhere down the line you’ll be born to save her.’

‘How does that work?’

‘Time is a tricky thing; maybe you’ll understand one day.’

So when Raia awoke, Scylia carried her home. The two chatted along the way and Scylia filled her in on what had happened while she’d been unconscious. She relayed every detail, not even omitting the fact that she had almost run away and left her to die, and begged her for forgiveness which was freely given. She did, however, leave out the detail of Scylia being her descendant of some hundreds of generations, it seemed too much to say to a young girl who had only hours earlier been on the brink of death, besides, what difference would it make?

After Raia was safe in her bed and Scylia had said her final goodbyes she returned to the temple to see the red man who smiled, thanked her and placed his hand on her forehead. As he did the world around her was caught up in a whirl of change. The smooth walls were engraved with fresh depictions of the old gods which quickly descended into myth and these fresh depictions soon faded and the temple was overtaken by nature, tangled vines and trees encircling the once mighty temple.

Scylia was pleased to find herself back in her own time and went to leave through the aging archway but felt herself unable to before she had seen one last thing. She walked over to the once clean wall, expecting it to have the same carving of a child being sacrificed to the gods. When she saw it she smiled and walked happily away. The carving now depicted a woman with a girl in her arms, carrying her away from the monsters.