Rose and the Doctor trekked quietly through the secret passageway, led by Uriel and his Blades. The Blades kept warning their Emperor that the two strange visitors that accompanied them could be working for the assassins, but the Emperor denied it. He walked alongside The Doctor and Rose, watching them intently.

"They cannot understand why I trust you," he said, his voice deep and powerful. "They've not seen what I've seen. How can I explain it? Listen. You know the Nine? How They guide our fates with an invisible hand?"

The Doctor and his companion shook their heads simultaneously.

Uriel didn't seem to notice. "I've served the Nine all my days, and I chart my course by the cycles of the heavens. The skies are marked with numberless sparks, each a fire, and every one a sign. I know these stars well. The signs I read show the end of my path. My death, a necessary end, will come when it will come."

"What about us?" Rose asked, her voice barely audible.

The Emperor sighed once more, "My dreams grant me no opinions of success. Their compass ventures not beyond the doors of death. But in your face, I behold the sun's companion. The dawn of Akatosh's bright glory may banish the coming darkness. With such hope, and with the promise of your aid, my heart must be satisfied."

"Aren't you afraid to die?" she whispered.

The Emperor shook his head, "No trophies of my triumphs precede me. But I have lived well, and my ghost shall rest easy. Men are but flesh and blood. They know their doom, but not the hour. In this I am blessed to see the hour of my death... To face my apportioned fate, then fall."

Rose shuddered slightly, "Where are we going?"

Uriel looked into her eyes sadly, "I go to my grave. A tongue shriller than all the music calls me. You shall follow me yet for a while, then we must part."

They encountered the cult of Mythic Dawn assassins numerous time during their march through the passageway, but The Blades protected the Emperor and his two friends. Sadly, Captain Renault was lost in one of the attacks. But the group could only mourn her for a few moments, and then they had to continue on.

They reached a dead end, and when The Blades disappeared to fight off the last of the assassins.

Uriel turned to the Doctor and Rose, aware that his time had come. " I can go no further. My guards are strong and true, but even the might of the Blades cannot stand against the Power that rises to destroy us. The Prince of Destruction awakes, born anew in blood and fire. You alone must stand against him and his mortal pawns. He must not have the Amulet of Kings! Take the Amulet. Give it to Jauffre. I have a secret son, and Jauffre alone knows where to find him. Find the last of my blood, and close shut the jaws of Oblivion."

He yanked a chain from around his neck and placed it in the Doctor's outstretched hand. Attached to the chain was a large blood-red stone.

With that the Emperor turned to the stone archway where an assassin stood, sword drawn. In one swift movement the cutthroat thrust his sliver dagger into the Emperors heart. The old man fell to the floor, a pool of blood forming quickly around him. The armored man raised his bloodstained weapon, ready to hurl it at the Doctor, but The Blades slaughtered him before he had the chance.

Despite Rose's pleas Barus, the last remaining Blade, declared that he would not escort them out of or back through the secret passageway. So the Doctor and his companion walked on through the wooden door to the Imperial Sewers.

Rose was puzzled by the Doctor's attitude. Usually he was very talkative, but since they'd arrived he had barely said a word.

"Are you okay?" she asked him, as they carefully felt their way down a crumbling stone stairway.

The sewers were even darker than the dungeon.

"Yeah, just a bit freaked out," he murmured.

Rose smiled, her tongue poking out of her teeth. "That Emperor guy scared me too," she whispered back.

The Doctor froze. He raised his finger to his lips, warning Rose to be quiet. She raised her eyebrows questioningly. Gazing down at the floor -which was still many meters below them- she saw a green-skinned creature with bat-like ears and the most ugly face she'd ever seen.

"What is that?" she mouthed to the Doctor.

He mouthed back, "I don't know," and then silently slipped out his sonic screwdriver.

But the screwdrivers high-pitched whining attracted the creature's attention, and it came bounding up the step towards them, followed by several rats the size of small dogs. Rose shrieked and started scrambling up the steps back the way her and the Doctor had come. Suddenly, a flash of flame struck the green creature and the rats all at once, and they collapsed and fell back down the stairway to the marble floor. A shadowy figure stood in the doorway.

"Who are you?" the Doctor called to it.

Rose began crawling back down the steps.

"I am Jo'Ren-Dar," it replied in a deep growling voice.

The person was a man. The Doctor approached Jo'Ren-Dar slowly and cautiously.

"I won't harm you," Jo'Ren-Dar said, a slight laugh in his words, "I just saved your lives, didn't I?"

The Doctor and Rose stood in front of the man's dark form. His silhouette was slightly different from a human's, but still similar. He lowered his hood and revealed a lion-like face framed by shaggy blond hair. His short fur was a reddish brown.

"What race are you?" he asked them. "Are you Nords? Or Imperials?"

Rose spoke up, "I'm human and he's a Time Lord," she replied.

Jo'Ren-Dar's large, pointy cat ears perked up. "I've never heard of those races before. What province are you from? Not Elsweyr like me, I presume."

The Doctor hesitated, "We're from a different world," he stated to the cat man.

Jo'Ren-Dar's lips curled showing long white fangs. "Did you come from the Gates of Oblivion?" he snarled, demanding an answer.

"No!" The Doctor said, before Jo'Ren-Dar could roast them with one of his flames.

The Doctor explained how they had arrived in the dungeons, and all that had happened after.

The cat man seemed to believe them. "Would you like to travel with me? There will be more goblins up ahead, and since you don't have any weapons and obviously aren't mages, I should think you'd need an escort."

The Doctor smiled slightly, "We'd love to go with you," he replied.

So hand in hand, the Doctor and Rose followed their new-found friend through the Imperial Sewers, and finally out into the sunlight.