"Atheline."
He walked over.
"What is it?"
She brushed away thick layers of moss. The familiar emblem appeared. Three crescents surrounding a tiny star. Everything was exactly the same, even the crack running diagonally across the lower edge.
Atheline frowned.
"This..." He circled the pillar once. "...is impossible."
He knelt beside its base. There, barely visible beneath the moss... Was the mark he himself had carved earlier that afternoon while examining the first pillar. A simple scratch made.
His own mark.
He stared at it in complete shock. Neither of them spoke; they had nothing to say.
The little fox whimpered softly.
Atheline slowly stood.
"We've been walking for hours."
Lilith nodded.
"We should be several kilometers deeper."
"We are." He looked around carefully. "No, We're here, exactly where we started."
