Rexicorg was something else. Yem had never before been there, had never witnessed its myriad of arches and walkways, and yet he felt he understood the place. It was like the forest; seemingly random but not random at all. There was a pattern to it, a structure. It was a maze to those who didn’t know it, like the deep woods after dark, but as open as a meadow in midday to its inhabitants. Yem could find his way through any forest. It was in his nature. But he could not yet find his way through here. Some considered him a master, but here he was but a novice.
The place was beautiful; the bittersweet balance of old magnificence and pride tempered with new decay and forgetfulness. There were great ruins here, shells of past glorious palaces, but who knew their history now? Who cared? Whatever it had been, it had shattered with the rest of the world and lay now unmourned and unburied. It had once been the home of civilized people, cultured people, giants walking the earth. Now only shadows remained, and those who dwelt within them.
I shall have to dream of you more, old soul, Yem thought to himself. He was standing at the top of a great mound, his back resting against the thick twisted trunk of an olive tree. He was in the outskirts of the ancient city, the vast and strange landscape painted burning red before him in the light of the setting sun. He would eat now, and drink, and make camp for the night. Then, in the morning, he would greet Rexicorg properly and brave its bowels in search for his prize: the long lost relic of old, and the promise of power.