Kai clutched the first crystal tight in his hand and ran toward the stairs. Behind him, he heard the sound of breaking dreams and the Keeper's voice shouting magic words he did not understand.
The stairs seemed longer going up than they had going down. Each step echoed in the darkness. Above him, Kai could see a thin line of light where the door was still open.
But the Shadow creatures were fast. Kai could hear them coming up the stairs behind him. They made sounds like whispers mixed with screams.
"Faster," he told himself. "Must go faster."
When Kai reached the door, he looked back once. The Place of Lost Dreams was now filled with black smoke. In the center, he saw the Keeper fighting against three dark figures. Her hands glowed with silver light as she tried to protect the remaining dreams.
Kai wanted to help her, but he knew she was right. He had to save the crystals. That was the only way to save all the worlds.
He stepped through the door and it slammed shut behind him. The symbols on the door flashed once, then went dark. The door became part of the wall again, as if it had never existed.
Kai was back in the tunnel under the city. But now the tunnel looked different. The crystal in his hand was glowing, and by its light he could see new passages that had been invisible before.
"The Library of Forgotten Words," he said to himself. "I need to find it."
One of the new passages had words carved above it in many different languages. But thanks to the crystal, Kai could read them all. They all said the same thing: "Where words go to die."
This had to be the way to the library. Kai started walking down the passage. The crystal's light showed him more writing on the walls. These were not symbols, but actual words in languages from across all the dimensions.
Some words were sad: "Goodbye." "Never." "Lost." Other words were happy: "Love." "Home." "Hope." But they all looked faded, like they were slowly disappearing.
As Kai walked, he felt the first crystal pulse in his hand. It was trying to tell him something. He stopped and listened carefully.
Far ahead in the tunnel, he heard a new sound. It was not the Shadow creatures. It was the sound of pages turning. Someone was reading in the Library of Forgotten Words.
Kai smiled. He was getting close to the second crystal. But he also felt worried. If someone was already in the library, who was it? A friend or another enemy?
He gripped the first crystal tighter and walked forward into the unknown.