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Athene nodded at Thraen's suggestion that they go right, taking the right-hand turn on the dust and stone road that ran outside of the gate.

He stepped carefully, the right-hand path seeming to be in about the same condition as the left - which wasn't saying much given the unevenness of what had perhaps once been paving but was now pitted and rutted.

A part of him had been half-expecting the other eternal to comment on his pretty comment in relation to the sashes and had been relieved when the taller man hadn't - he knew it was silly, even though he thought it true - even so it was nice not to have it pointed out.

There were more buildings this way, again in varying states of disrepair, the flash light illuminating onto the same yellowish stone as elsewhere, shining onto what appeared to be more carved patterns here and there.

Athene frowned thoughtfully at the buildings - one lacking a roof here, another lacking bits of wall there, yet another almost completely collapsed into itself a little way down...

"The buildings" or more perhaps it was more accurate to call them the remains of buildings "Seem to be closer together this way." He shifted the torch beam illuminating another crumbled building where all that appeared to be intact was part of a front wall before turning the beam so that it shone further down the path in an attempt to try and gauge how far it went.

He turned his attention back to the buildings, turning the torch light on some of the carved patterns so he could look at them closer "They look almost like sym..." His voice trailed off as he heard the sound of voices behind them, his head turning

"So you'll be going to the markets of course" the voice was jovial as the speaker a large man with a long beard looked over at his companion, a woman of middling age beads braided into both hair and beard clicking together softly, the sunlight shining on the blue sash tied around his waist "And you cannot visit Varϊsvaara without going to the markets... She has four you know with the West Market being the largest."

"I heard the West Market is full of pickpockets" the woman's voice was low, dry.

Another laugh "All the markets are full of pickpockets, except for the one in the upper city - but up there's not for the likes of us" he gestured back down the road behind them "Down here's for common folk like us and besides if you keep an eye to your purse then you will be do well enough in the West Market - especially if you know your craft."

He waited for her to follow before starting to walk "And now I promised to show you to an Inn so over this way..."

It was with a start that Athene found himself standing in front of the bit of carved pattern that he had gone over to look at, eyes blinking a little in disorientation from the sudden lack of voices - from the shift from day back to night.

"It was like the first time that I came here with Liryn" for a few moments Athene stared down at the patterns that he had gone to take a closer look at, gaze behind his glasses distracted. "Although I wasn't touching anything this time."

He stared at the patterns for a few moments more before looking up and over at Thraen, a slightly awkward note in his quiet voice as he admitted "Sorry that came out a little muddled," before adding, perhaps a bit redundantly "Yes it was another vision I think - but of here" he thought about it before adding "Well I'm kind of assuming it was here. It was definitely some of city, though although it wasn't in ruins like it is here. Some of them had markings" he hesitated and then added "And there was another sash too - but blue this time round and it wasn't as fancy as the red one in the first vision either."

Athene nodded, taking the offered notepad and jiggled the flash light a little until it was in a position to cast enough light on the paper for him to see to write.

He drew what he could remember of the markings that he had seen etched into the buildings. Then he considered the finished page for a few moments before scribbling out some of the markings that he had written down in order to re-draw them.

"You know know that they're on paper they really do look kind of like symbols of some" said as he offered the notepad back to Thraen, flipped as it was to the page he'd been writing on before taking the flash light back up.

"And perhaps" he continued at the taller eternal's suggestion about the visions. "It's as good a theory as any other to go on" particularly as he didn't have anything else to go on.

He looked back at the stones, "Do we want to try taking a rubbing of these or wait until we come back in daylight and try pushing further on?"

Athene nodded at Thraen's suggestion, setting down the torch in order to take the offered leaves of paper and box.

Taking a couple of sticks of wax from the box, he set the box down next to the torch before tucking wax and paper into his sash.

He didn't pick up the torch again, instead trying to angle it in such a way that the beam would shine up and onto stone.

The end result wasn't great, but Athene hoped that it would be enough to serve its purpose - after all he had a feeling that trying to get rubbings of some of the markings whilst balancing on Thraen's shoulders whilst was going to be awkward enough as it was without adding trying to juggle the torch into the equation - after all acrobatics wasn't something that he counted amongst his list of talents.

Then finally he had removed his boots, revealing serviceable bronze socks that seemed somewhat out of place from the elaborate costume that was his senshi outfit, before moving to get up on Thraen's shoulders so that the taller senshi could give him a boost up.

After all his 5'3" of height wasn't exactly tall.

It had been awkward - or at least from where Athene had been standing it had felt awkward and once he was on level to reach he had tried to get rubbings of the markings that had been carved into the stones that they had chosen to take said rubbings from as quickly as he could.

He managed, fumble-tucking each sheet of paper back into his sash as he finished with it.

Finally the last of the sheets was covered in wax and he said "All done," handing over the sheets to taller eternal once he was once again on the ground before reaching out to pull his boots back on as he added "I'm sorry if I stepped down too hard whilst trying to get them."

Athene finished slipping his boots back on as Thraen stowed away the rubbings he had taken "It's habit" he admitted slightly ruefully, lips tilted up in a slight smile from the taller senshi's earlier breath on the shoulder comment.

Then he reached over and picked up the flash light. "I can try taking some photos with the senshi phone in the daytime to go with the rubbings" he said as he started walking.

He lapsed into quiet, letting the flash light illuminate the way forward as they dust and stone road took them past more remains of buildings.

He wasn't sure how long they'd been walking for when the road forked, but it felt like they'd been walking for a bit.

Athene glanced at the fork, and pointed to the part heading upwards and further into the city "I think we should head up that way" he said. He hesitated for a moment as he considered the flash light. "Do you think the light will be okay if we go on for a bit?"

Because it occurred to him that he hadn't thought to pack replacement batteries when he'd been putting things together for the trip down from where they had set up camp and he didn't really fancy trying to make his way back to the camp site without the aid of the flash light, but at the same time there was a part of him that wanted to take the upwards path fork - even if he could think of no real reason why heading up would be better than continuing on along as they had been doing.

Athene might not have thought to pack replacement batteries, but by Thraen's words it was clear that the other eternal had definitely done so. He had also thought to bring a back up light.

"I've brought a first aid kit" he admitted as he started walking, "Although we should maybe leave any in depth stuff until tomorrow - when we have the benefit of daylight."

There had been further remains of buildings as he and Thraen made their way up and further into the city, the flash light beam falling on yellowish stone and Athene couldn't help but find his thoughts drifting towards those who had once walked here, had perhaps called this place home.

Had it been home for the man and boy with the wagons up by the arches above the city? Or for the older man? The woman?

And what had it been like to live here?

They were questions he had no answers for, secrets tied up in broken stone and crumbling buildings.

He continued walking, stopping from time to time to look closer at some of the remains.

He wasn't sure how long they'd been walking for by the time that they reached the wall. The path they were on leading towards an arch that had been set into it almost like some sort of gateway, more markings etched into the stone.

He started to walk towards it and then paused at the sound of the voice.

"Liryn" The voice sounded exasperated, its owner a young man - no boy really - small in stature and clad in white sleeveless top and shorts, a sash in dark jade wound round his waist from under which a bag of some sort hung. Part of his shoulder-length, was caught up in a braid, bronze breads woven into the blond strands.

"Liryn" he wore dark jade and bronze sandals on his feet, the patterning matching the trim on his shorts.

"Liryn!" The boy walked briskly down the path, turned the curve of the path and was gone...

And just as suddenly Athene found himself standing on the path, torch beam glinting downwards, illuminating the remains of cobbles.

Athene was silent for a long few moments, his mind still churning on what he had seen.

This vision had been different to the others in that whilst the boy had been unfamiliar, the outfit that he’d been wearing had been familiar - very familiar - too familiar.

Because give or take a few differences he had worn pretty much exactly the same outfit back when he had been a basic senshi.

There was also the fact that he was wearing some of the ‘differences’ - for a moment his hand went almost absently to the clip that helped to keep the thick mass of his dark hair in its braid - or perhaps it was better to say that some of the things that he wore as part of his eternal outfit looked remarkably similar to those that the boy in his vision was wearing.

And that was not counting the name that the boy had been calling - a name that he was very familiar with.

But therein lay the problem, at least for Athene - because whichever way he looked at it the boy had been just that - no more than a child.

Eventually he said, his quiet voice hesitant “I.. I don’t know. There was a boy in my vision this time round, about this high” he held his left arm out at the approximate height. “Standing over there” he moved his arm into a point by where he had seen the boy stand. “And he was calling Liryn’s name.”

Although come to think on it perhaps it was just a coincidence and perhaps the whole outfit thing was a coincidence too.

Perhaps too much a coincidence, but Athene really wanted it to be a coincidence...

Because he really wasn’t liking even the potential idea that the former Athene had been just a kid.