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The branches directly in front of him shivered, then stretched themselves to create an opening for him--some to the point of even snapping apart and falling to the floor.

“Ah, geez,” said Hector as he moved through the hole, “don’t hurt yourself on my account.”

The branches formed a narrow tunnel for him, arching around the great orb until leading him over to it.

He remembered seeing Agrian, one of the forge’s two creators, standing here and working with it. This was the spot where the orb could open itself up and reveal its contents.

During all the time he’d observed Agrian using the Candle, he’d never seen this kind of overgrown state from the forge. He had to wonder what prompted it.

Well, clearly, even if Abbas succeeded in creating a powerful new artifact, some part of this must not have been intentional. Abbas wouldn’t have been trying to exhaust himself and end up unconscious. So perhaps all these vines and branches were merely the result of things going a bit haywire at the end.

It might also make sense as to why he’d never seen Agrian end up in a state like this. Agrian’s main problem, by Hector’s estimation, was that the Candle itself ended up turning on him. Over time, it simply refused to work for him, anymore. Its power never went out of control for Agrian, probably because the Candle never allowed the man much access to its power in the first place.

Hmm.

Thinking about it like that was a little exciting, Hector felt. And worrying, too. Because if that was correct, then it would mean that the Lord Abbas Saqqaf had already accessed more power from the Candle than Agrian ever did. In fact, given the state of things, Abbas may have accessed more power than even he himself realized existed within the forge.

He remembered Abbas telling him about the Candle’s “disposition.” About its gentle nature. Calm and warm with an affinity for flame, not unlike a crackling fireplace.

As a perfectly straight crevice appeared in the great orb and the drooping green vines all trembled around the opening glass, Hector had to wonder what Abbas might say about the Candle’s disposition now. If his opinion might have changed at all. Or if the Candle itself had changed, perhaps. That didn’t seem impossible, either, at this point.

He stepped through the opening and pushed away the vines in order to finally get a clear view of the object waiting therein.

It was entangled on a pedestal of branches, and he still couldn’t quite tell what he was looking at. Some sort of lamp? And was that a flame encased inside it? A lantern, then?