I have been a bit under the weather lately, so I would like to give a heads up in advance. I was ahead on chapters for a while, but I finished today’s chapter just the day before posting it. I hope to finish chapter 9 by next week, but if not, we’ll take next week off. Apologies in advance and thank you for your continued support
Doroly returned two days later, with four villagers in tow. One of them was Teddy. He had volunteered to be in charge of keeping the camp fed and working properly. Despite his worry for the smallfolk farmer’s safety, Mirgia was happy to have the jolly spirit among them. Of the other three, two would help out Teddy and the last person would actually come with Mirgia, Doroly and the small group of Sahalid that had been selected. Raol, as the man was called, was a smallfolk mage. Trained in the specialized arts of his people, he would be able to provide them with many tricks and cantrips as well as some very potent healing magic. Of the Sahilid camp, four would come along with them. Captain Arios would stay in camp, his position as an overseer requiring him to keep things civil. As the plan had been carefully constructed by the men, several of the Sahilid present had already shown their discontent for the more organized structure of this mission, wanting to go in on their own terms. One party of three men ignored all warnings and went into the dungeon last night. No one had seen any sign of them since, so they were presumed dead.
The four Sahilid selected were all veterans and all of them were well into their thirties and forties, wearing the scars of their experience proudly. The two brothers Lym and Jom were these broad shouldered humans with deep suntanned skin that looked serious at all times, but weren’t unfriendly when spoken too. They wore thick layers of armor and had these large shields on them. Their specialty – as Mirgia would be able to guess without asking – was to be at the front of the group and hold off whatever came at them. Sereh was a tall, lanky woman with an affinity for magic. Her skill with telekinesis was apparently well respected throughout the empire, although Mirgia had never heard of her. She seemed like the nervous sort, reminding him a bit of Mana, but the man accompanying her, a bowman named Quint, assured Mirgia that she was more than capable. Quint was the friendliest of the lot, making small talk with the people he didn’t yet know. All together they were a party of seven which was a little bit too large for Mirgia’s liking, but he did appreciate having a solid front line that would protect them from imminent danger.
With Teddy’s help and some quick thinking on the farmer’s end, they had a pack of provisions ready, including some tools and things that he had brought from town. The man was endlessly clever in the things he prepared ahead of time. Raol would carry most of their burden, as most of his skills were useful outside of a fight, so he wouldn’t be hindered by it too much.
Mirgia, Doroly and Roal were to be at the center of their marching order with Lym and Jom up front as Sereh and Quint covered their rear. Having checked everything they needed, the two brothers stepped into the dungeon. Mirgia followed and shuddered as he stepped through the threshold. His elven senses immediately told him that they were no longer in the desert near Redsan. That or they were on the other side of some sort of magical barrier that changed the climate. “You feel that?” He asked Quint?
The bowman nodded. “Strange business afoot. Lym, everything good up front?”
“Nothing yet, just a hallway.” Quint turned to Raol. “Can you give them some light?” he asked the smallfolk mage.
Raol nodded and took a strange metal contraption from his side. It looked like a book but when he opened the clasp it changed form into what looked almost like a mechanical spider. Raol fiddled with one of the spider’s legs before it suddenly extended and protracted into several red hot needles that melted in place. The needles each dropped a bead of metal onto the floor, which stayed there for a moment before taking shape and changing color into a bright blue. The blue blobs of light then floated up from the ground and Raol willed them to sit atop the shoulders of the two men near the front, with another flying to Raol’s own shoulder and the final two moving to Quint and Sereh, the latter flinching as it reached her. “They’ll be warm to the touch, but nothing beyond what your skin can handle, so don’t worry. They use air to stay alight, so if you need to get rid of them quickly, fully cover them with your hand or some fabric.”
“Neat trick,” Quint commented, poking at the small blob of lit metal.
“Neat tricks are my specialty,” Raol grinned. “They should last a couple of hours, but I can renew them twice more today.”
“That’s good to know.” Quint looked at Lym and Jom. “Lead the way.”
The initial hallway led on for a good ten minutes at their slow and careful pace. Seemingly carved from some type of sandstone, the hallway was wide enough for two people to walk side by side without too much issue and seemed to be sloping downward as they went on. Eventually it widened out into a square chamber of about five meters. Two passages went deeper into the dungeon, opposite of where they entered the chamber from. A raised dais stood at the center of the room with writing inscribed on it. Lym walked up to it and shrugged. “Not a script I’m familiar with,” he remarked. “It looks somewhat similar to the elven alphabet, but it’s not the same.” He looked over at Mirgia and Raol. “Either of you familiar with the script?”
The two walked over. Mirgia recognized the script but couldn’t read it. He had seen it before, but had no interest to learn the old language.
“It’s ancient Venorian,” Roal said.
Mirgia was impressed. “I’m surprised you’ve heard of it, that’s a long dead language and culture.”
Roal smiled. “I’ve done quite a bit of studying in my time, but unfortunately I also cannot read this script.”
“So we know absolutely nothing then,” Doroly commented.
“That’s not necessarily true,” Roal said.
“What do you mean?” Mirgia asked.
“Well, for starters, knowing that the writing here was done by someone who knew the ancient Venorian language gives us some idea about where this place comes from. I doubt there are many survivors of a fallen kingdom running around, so that makes it more likely that this place was built a long time ago but suddenly appeared here. It’s also a little ways away from where Venoria was historically located.”
Mirgia nodded. Venoria was a kingdom of scaled people, draconic beings that were distantly related to the dragons of legend. The story of their fall was well known, as they were at odds with a flying kingdom helmed by serpentfolk. The two races couldn’t stand each other and when the kingdom of Venoria stole the holy animals of the city kingdom of Kanarth, an all out war broke out that eventually destroyed both nations.
“But more importantly,” Roal continued, “if I know what language it is, I can use some of my magic to read it.” He produced a rolled up piece of parchment from his pack and started reading it. While Roal was immersed in his scroll, Quint and Lym investigated the two hallways leading away from here, both making sure not to step into them in case something strange would happen. They looked for footsteps and traps. They found the former, but no sign of the latter. The footsteps they did find were quite fresh. “Probably those who were impatient and went in against the wishes of the captain,” Lym commented. Quint agreed with the assessment. “But how do we know which of the ways is best, if they’ve gone both ways?”
Lym pointed at some scorchmarks in the ground. “Didn’t the creature’s blood leave behind strange marks too? The one that came out of the dungeon?”
Mirgia walked up and looked as well. “I think you’re right. That means it retreated into the left passage.”
“What does that tell us?” Quint asked.
“Not much, but I hope Roal can tell us some more.” He looked back to the smallfolk mage who finished his incantation. The scroll shriveled into a small little ball and fell to the ground. Roal’s eyes looked strange and when Mirgia found himself staring into the man’s eyes, he realized he could see letters and numbers scrolling around the man’s irises at rapid speeds.
“How does that work?” Lym asked.
“When someone writes something, the text is imbued with meaning, regardless of what sort of script they use to write it. This spell allows you to look past the written language into the intent of the message.”
“Oh,” Lym said, not convinced. “So what does it say?”
Roal looked at the text and Mirgia could see his pupils grow and shrink as his eyes tried to focus on something beyond the words. Then he read the message out loud.
“At the discretion of the highest order of the Na’s temple in Venoria, we warn any who travel into this tomb to do so at grave risk to their own safety as for what lies hidden deep within is something of power great enough to turn away any who would seek to find it.”
“Ominous,” Jom commented.
“But is it enough to stop us from exploring deeper in?” Quint asked.
“I don’t think so. I would say it gives us cause to be cautious, but we already were,” Mirgia said. He looked at the smallfolk, whose eyes were still strange and alien. “Does it say anything about which path to take?”
Roal shook his head. “Just a warning that this place is dangerous.”
Mirgia thought for a while. Na was one of the two creator gods, alongside Nera. It was said that both deities were one soul split into two that would coalesce and diverge at times, turning each of the two entities – chaos and harmony – into different versions of themselves, to allow for a neutral creation of the world. Few sects nowadays actively worshipped the duo as they did not interfere with the world of mortals at all, leaving that task to the Arpentara. But many of the ancient kingdoms probably still had worshippers to the creators. The Arpentara were ancient beings even by elven standards, but there was a time before they existed. He had no idea if any of that information was relevant to the problems at hand, but it was always good to keep information given freely at hand. You’ll never know.
“I suggest we go right,” Sereh said. “No real reason, it just feels correct.”
Mirgia looked at Lym and Jom who both shrugged. “I prefer picking a random hallway over splitting up, so unless someone has a better idea,” Lym said.
“Let’s go into the right pathway then,” Quint said, and none disagreed.
Opal Kaharis 