in both directions. A little way to his right, it wound around to a large gated entrance. The entrance looked familiar. Then it came to him. This was the old school that he'd recognized earlier.
If that were true then would he see a second archway? He wondered. His path turned down an alley beside the school wall. At the end of the alley, the path turned again. He raced down the alley way and turned to follow the back of the school wall.
About halfway down to the next building he found what he was looking for. A large white stone archway stretched half way across the road, making it difficult to go around. He approached quickly, checking behind him to see if anyone was around. The last thing he wanted was crowd. Fortunately there didn't seem to be anyone around.
Up close the archway was quite different from the other. The white stone blocks were cut perfectly smooth and perfectly square. The stone gave off a glow like the little figurine he found. Cut into the stone on each pillar were two figures. One on each side, one male, one female. He studied their details. They weren't stooped over in posture like the Zo. Nor where they squat and rounded like the Petra or twisted and stretched like the Botann. They were unusual, to say the least, he thought.
The pathway beyond the arch seemed to be made of the same white stone. Not surprising, it seemed to be playing the same visual trick. When viewed from the side, the path was the same as the one he was on. From through the arch it became white and glowed.
The school to the side of him sat on a high point in the city. Through the archway, he could see the street drop off into the distant expanse of buildings and roads. He traced the glowing line of the path as it wound down into the city. He could see it emerge on the other side and disappear into the green line of the forest. Even from a distance he could spot where it peaked out here and there from under the trees, continuing with the forest as it lifted up into the maintain range. He could see it then rising up right up to one of the peaks.
He blinked as he realized what he was looking at. Without thinking, he'd followed an impossibly thin line across the city, through the forest and up to the top of the mountain. Some how he could still see it. He could see the path leading up to a white building, a building below the mountain peak. He squinted. There was no way he should be able to see a building on the side of a mountain a thousand miles away, at night. This was making his head hurt, he thought, as he turned away.
Still, he'd come this far. Was this enough for him to reconsider? No, he supposed. He stepped forward through the archway. As he passed, his vision burned to white. After a disorienting moment of blindness, the flash receded, and he found himself standing on a mountain, below the peak where saw the path had led. In front of him was the same white building he had seen from a far.
The scene burned to white. A moment later he found himself standing in a room with impressively high walls of white stone. He was inside the building he'd just been staring at, he assumed. There were two sets of stairs on opposite sides of the room. One led up, and the other led down.
As soon as he took notice of them, he felt himself move. In an instant, he was in the upper room beyond the stairs. In the center of the new room, he noticed a large basin of water. He moved closer again with the thought. Below the surface of the water was an assortment of weapons and armor. One long sword he noticed in particular was unsheathed and had a blinding white blade.
With a flash of white, Raj found himself again somewhere else. Now he stood in an open field. In front of him, a wall of soldiers advanced. He spun around. Another wall of men stood behind him, their eyes fixed on him, with their weapons half raised, waiting. He looked down. Held tightly in his hand was the long white sword with the blade of white. His arms, chest, and legs were covered in armor, white armor.
With an