En route to the Forbidden Zone in the heart of the Himaat, Brishen and Jynx are riding on the deck of an airship at night, when Brishen senses the Artifact trying to tempt her with promises of power. She does her best to resist … while Jynx notices that they have a visitor – a large dragon flying overhead!

The dragon attacks, and the crew is quite outmatched. Brishen leaps over the edge to the rescue of a falling Skreek crewmember, giving him a soft landing on the Sea of Sand. (The Skreek spreads himself out to keep from sinking.) Meanwhile, the dragon smashes into the airship – and into Jynx – and the black Khatta finds himself riding on the back of the dragon. Brishen pokes the dragon's belly with her sword, and Jynx falls off. Brishen again comes to the rescue, helping Jynx to make a soft landing … but he doesn't float as well as the Skreek.

Some Nohbakim scavengers quickly come to the scene to pick up some cargo that fell to the ground when the airship's hold was damaged by the dragon. The airship lurches away, and the dragon flees. Brishen tries to stop the Nohbakim from taking the Artifact, but "help" comes in the form of a sand-burrowing Shriken – a great monster that attacks! The Nohbakim flee, apparently with the Shriken in pursuit … but it either returns, or else another one shows up as well. Brishen figures out that the Shriken hunts by sound, and convinces Jynx to be still and quiet. The Shriken appears to be mesmerized by the Artifact – in a sinking crate – and goes for it. Brishen takes the Artifact, and distracts the Shriken by air, while Jynx makes his way to "dry land" at the edge of the Forbidden Zone. Brishen heads into the Zone as well, where the two are overtaken by a storm.

When our heroes awake, they find themselves in the middle of a clearing in the heart of the Forbidden Zone, as if a hole were cut right in the middle of the swirling storm. In the center of this clearing is a stone and crystal tower, and Jynx finds a way in at the base. Inside, Jynx and Brishen explore the twelve archways and the windows that light up, showing alien worlds as they approach. They figure out a connection between these scenes shown, and the twelve orbs floating in the center of the chamber – namely, that one of them represents Primus – the sun – and the other eleven represent eleven worlds orbitting Primus.

Our heroes consider going to Abaddon through one of the windows, but it appears to be most uninviting – especially when some war-like people with skull masks appear on the other side of the Abaddon window. As it appears that the warriors may be trying to get into the tower from the other side, Brishen and Jynx hastily pick a world to flee to … and end up on the planet of Morpheus, "world of dreams".