Board Thread:Episode Discussion/@comment-1599757-20151212162645/@comment-11188061-20151213074458

From what I see, this sets up the beginning of the loss of the Maidens' power. At this point it's almost guaranteed that Cinder is going to gain the full power of the Fall (or Autumn?)'s power.

The next Arc will likely show team good guys trying to defend the maidens' from having their power stolen. How they'll proceed from there is pure speculation, but I personally think it will be best if ALL of the maiden's powers got stolen by the villains. With the good guy's power taken away, their Dust stolen and strong warriors subverted, in the end it all comes down to the human will to keep fighting despite all hope seems lost.

So the 'Guardians' mentioned at the very beginning of Volume 1 is now properly confirmed in this Episode. I'm going to guess the monuments to be something like Beacon's Tower.