Vennik immediately drew a thin, flat knife from somewhere and threw it with the same motion.  It spun through the air directly at Tremel's head.  A perfect throw.

The blade spun through the Voy's face and clinked against the stone wall behind him.  The image of Tremel shimmered.  It smiled and said, "Already gone, Ven."   

Vennik stepped forward.  "You can't be far!"

Tremel had a grand smile now.  "I'm farther and faster than you think, Ven.  I know my own castle quite well.  But I'm not actually here for this," he nodded down at the crystal.  "And I'm not here for you, Ven."  His image looked straight at Roran.  "I'm here for him."

"What?" said all three of them together.

"I heard a rumor of a svarosmith so attuned to Arcanum that he could actually sense it from a distance.  In all of Creation this has never happened.  We can't even craft a spell with Arcanum to detect Arcanum.  The Gift of the Great God remains... elusive.  But with him, all that changes.  So I lured him here with stories of fancy and a pretty bauble as a test.  You, Ven, you're just an unwelcome guest who killed off my capture team."

"Capture team?  Those Chain thugs?" said Roran.

Chon moved closer to his brother.  "Where is he?"

"Very close.  I think there's another stairway leading back down right past that screen."

"Where I am is irrelevant," said Tremel's image.  "Don't even try to find me."  He closed his fist around the crystal.  "I'm moving to my second plan.  That means I just leave you all here to die!  Why, I could--" his eyes shot wide in horror.  "Oh, no, no, no!"  His image ducked and a ghostly tail flipped through the air where his head had been.

A blast of wailing filled every corner of the room.  The sound hammered at their ears, thundered in their chests, and shook their very bones.  Roran grimaced, hands going to the sides of his head, when he saw the real Tremel running up into the workshop and knocking over the screen.  The wailing stopped, replaced by low growling like the angry purring of a huge cat.  A sizzling surge of fear ran down their spines.

Vennik shook his head, trying to clear his mind.  He pushed a table out of his way and drew his sword.  Tremel dodged to his right, keeping the Arcanum forge between him and the Rennon while running around towards Chon.  Then Roran saw the hunched back of the holong come up from the floor, grey and ghostly.

Chon yelled for Roran to move and then leaped up onto the forge.  The ethereal back snaked down under Vennik's feet.  The hind end of the beast rose up and the tail whipped around the other side of the room, solidified, and smacked Tremel in the back.

The Voy was flung up in the air with a large black scar across his clothing.  His arms and legs splayed out and the huge Arcanum crystal flew through the air.  Roran jumped up to catch it but missed and the gemstone clattered across a wide bench with old broken bottles and clay pots.  

Roran landed and saw the holong's head rise up out of the floor, mouth gaping wide with double rows of sharp teeth.

Chon stood on the forge.  The wraith grappler was folded up in his left hand and he threw it hard, putting a spin on it that came naturally with his training.  It billowed out, flashing in the dying sunlight, and landed on the holong's face.  Bright snapping and flashing of the remaining arcanum crystals sparked across the net.

Roran fell back, now seated directly in front of the holong's mouth.  The beast screamed and thrashed like a bucking horse, throwing the grappler up and off itself.  With a horn blast of a scream, the holong shifted ethereal again and plunged its head down under the floor.  The rest of its body followed like a sea serpent on an ancient map.

Roran looked up at Chon.  He was terrified and near frozen in fear but his brother held a professional determination, his eyes fixed on the holong as it moved through the room.

Vennik leapt past them as Chon ducked under the holong's whipping tail.  Tremel was crawling towards the entrance on their side of the room.  The holong's midsection rose up out of the floor, partially solidified, and knocked Vennik up and off balance.  The Rennon tried to catch himself but tumbled through some old wooden crates.  Tremel scrambled to his feet.  He saw where the Arcanum crystal had landed on the table and started clawing for it.

Chon jumped down to gather up his wraith grappler.  "I need that crystal!"  Out of the corner of his eye he saw the holong tail slipping around towards him again and brought up his left arm.  The Arcanum bracer lit up and the tail snapped back.  The holong wailed again.  Chon was forced head over heels.

Vennik knocked the crates back and pulled himself up.  He used a rack of tools to balance himself and saw Tremel push clay pots off the table and grab the Arcanum crystal.  With a primal shout, Vennik launched himself forward.  He jumped over the phantom tail and swung his sword down hard.  Tremel looked up just in time to see the blade slice right through his forearm.  He screamed and stumbled back.  The crystal remained clutched in his hand as Vennik's sword chunked into the table.  Vennik twisted his sword free and jumped after the Voy.

Chon staggered to his feet, pulling himself up next to the forge.  He watched as the holong weaved its way around the other side of the room, up and down through the floor.  In another few seconds it would come back around with a mouthful of teeth, followed by claws and a tail.  

Roran flew past him and jumped up on the table.  He grabbed the crystal out of Tremel's severed hand.

Tremel had regained his feet and made another attempt at the stairs.  Clutching his wounded wrist he turned as he ran.  Vennik was several paces behind him.  "This isn't over," snarled the Voy.  "I'll see all of you dead!  I'll see you dead, burned, buried, and--"

The holong's jaws came down on his head and snapped closed.  The beast took the Voy's body and slapped it against the stones before flinging it aside.

Vennik couldn't stop fast enough and the body flew into him and knocked him over.

The holong wailed a shrill horn blast and arched its neck, driving its open jaws at the sprawling Rennon.

Roran got the crystal free of Tremel's clutching dead fingers and threw it back towards his brother.

Chon jumped to catch it.  With the same move he brought the crystal down on the edge of the grappler.  The net sizzled with rainbow flashes that lit up the entire room.  Chon threw it.  It blossomed round, spun through the air, and landed on the holong's head and shoulders.  A perfect throw.  With flashes, crackling, and a sudden scent like burning horses, the holong went rigid.  Its color began shifting to darker grey.

Roran looked back at Chon with jubilation but for the first time saw his brother terrified.  "Run, Roran!"

Stones began shattering as the holong's body solidified down its entire snaky length.  The floor had nowhere to be once the ghostly force intruded into this world and pushed it aside.  Roran scrambled on his hands and knees towards the exit.  

The floor began giving way and falling into the atrium below.  Then the holong thrashed left and right and the collapse was complete.  As Roran and Vennik tumbled into the narrow stairwell the floor, the tables, the racks, everything just dropped away.

Roran looked back to see his brother leaping with arms extended.  Chon landed on the holong's head and clutched both it and the grappler together as they suddenly fell into open space below.   

Roran heard himself screaming.  His heart burned like a flash of lightning and he reached forward.  But he could do nothing as his brother fell into darkness.

He felt as suddenly hollow as he'd felt suddenly triumphant.  The days by the brook, shouting in victory.  The days in school, helping each other cheat.  They whirled though Roran's mind and he both saw them and didn't.  He was nothing but empty.

Rough hands grabbed his shoulders.  "We gotta go, kid.  This place isn't done falling apart."

Roran didn't feel what happened next.  He just stumbled down the stairs as more cracking and crashing happened behind him.  He didn't remember Vennik lighting a torch and leading them down the grand staircase and back to the ruined entrance of the ruined castle.  He barely felt anything when he looked into the dank passageway to a deathly dark interior with clouds of dust floating out of it.  

He simply found himself on his knees, feeling alone and helpless, and cried.