The Dark Monolith

by F. P. Spirit

Glo, Elladan, and Seth recognized the outer ring as depicting the ancient Dwarven language. That ring was laid out exactly the same as the inner ring, with numbers dividing the alphabet. The middle ring, however, proved to be a mystery—the symbols portrayed on it did not match any known language. Glo could state that for a fact since he was familiar with the basics of all written languages—in fact, he could speak sixteen of them, some better than others. While Glo fretted over the central ring, Aksel examined the entire platform.

  “I think these rings are actually wheels,” the little cleric mused softly. He reached a tentative hand toward the outside ring when Seth interrupted him.

  “Um, are you sure you want to do that?”

  Aksel glanced up, his face flushing. He immediately stepped back and shook his head. “Guess I got a bit carried away.” Aksel ushered Seth forward. “Would you care to do the honors?”

  “Thank you,” Seth responded, in a mock polite tone. Yet, despite his obvious displeasure, he strode forward and carefully examined the platform. Donnie followed Seth around, hovering close over the halfling’s shoulder. Every once in a while, Seth would look up and glare at the slight elf. Donnie would back off for a while, until Seth resumed his scrutiny of the platform, then Donnie would then return to his position over the halfling’s shoulder.

  After about a quarter of an hour of searching the dais, Seth finally pronounced it safe. The halfling puncuated his announcement by grasping the outer ring and giving it a good shove. The ring spun a few degrees clockwise, eventually coming to a stop. Unexpectedly, the middle and inner ring also moved, though each progressively less.

  Aksel positively beamed with pride. “I was right; it is a wheel!”

  For the first time in awhile, Glo smiled. “Indeed you are. So it’s another puzzle, the key most likely being the lining up of all three wheels.”

  Seth gazed up at them and let out a short laugh. “Heh. Not going to be easy, especially with them all moving at the same time.”

  Glo grimaced, the intricacy of this puzzle causing his head to ache. He reached up and rubbed his temples with his fingers. “That and the fact that the middle circle is a language none of us has ever seen before.”

  “Look at this.” Glo glanced up and saw Elistra bent low over the platform about a quarter way around the dais. Glo strode over to her side and followed her gaze. Elistra pointed to a few of the symbols along the center ring. “Notice how the markings around each symbol are lighter and flowing. It almost looks like they are surrounded by water, or wind perhaps...”

  Glo took a closer look at the symbols. The designs around what had to be letters did indeed look like water and wind and...

  “...even fire,” Elistra finished his thought. “What’s more is, the pattern repeats itself.” She pointed to each letter as she went. “Water, wind, fire, and, assuming that last design represents earth, it starts all over again. Water, wind, fire, earth...”

  Glo’s eyes widened as he too now saw the pattern. “Every fourth letter. Brilliant!” he burst out in excitement. Before Glo realized what he was doing, he threw his arms around the seeress and kissed her on the cheek. Elistra turned toward him, and suddenly they were face to face, their noses no more than an inch apart. A small smile crossed the seeress’s lips.

  “You’re welcome,” she replied in a low tone that practically dripped senuality.

  Glo felt the blood rushing to his cheeks. He quickly let go of her and took a step backwards. “S-sorry. I didn’t mean to overstep myself.”

  Elistra’s eyes twinkled with amusement. “Oh, I didn’t mind at all.”

  Glo abruptly felt a hand clasp his shoulder. Elladan leaned in close and whispered, “Got yourself a live one there, Glo.”

  Glo spun around and saw everyone watching him. Seth and Ruka both smirked. Elladan gave him his familiar half-smile. Donnie and Alana exchanged a knowing glance. Even Aksel wore a thin smile. Glo’s cheeks grew even hotter, if that was possible. Now thoroughly embarrassed, the elven wizard spun back toward the dais and tried to focus on the puzzle of the middle wheel. Yet try as he might, his mind kept wandering back to a certain pair of violet eyes. The flustered wizard began to muse aloud in an effort to regain his focus.

  “An elemental language. An elemental language. Who in the world would...”

  All at once, it dawned on him. An unknown language, the four elements, all depicted in flowing script—there was only one race that would have developed such a language.

  “The Titans!”

  Glo and Aksel had called out the answer simultaneously. The elf and gnome turned toward each other, grinning from ear to ear. The Titans were purported to be masters of the four elemental forces. Of course, there were none roaming the earth these days, but before the elves, during the Second Age of the world, the Titans ruled supreme. No known texts had survived that unnamed era, but it was always rumored that the Titans had a written language. Any books that may have existed were most likely destroyed during the Dragon-Titan War, the cataclysmic event that shook the world to its foundation and reformed the continents. Only the Dragons had any records of that age, and they jealously guarded that information. Now, though, in front of them, was clear evidence of a language that could only belong to the Titans. Glo was positively bursting with excitement.

  “What a remarkable discovery!”

  Seth, pragmatic as ever, interrupted his reverie. “Yeah, yeah, you can gush over it later. Right now we have a puzzle to solve, unless of course, you want to spend the rest of the day stuck up here?”

  Glo took a deep breath and reigned in his enthusiasm. Seth was right. They needed to figure this out. A tap on his shoulder caused Glo to spin around. Donnie stood there, a paintbrush in his hand. “If you want, I can sketch out each of these symbols for you.”

  Glo smiled at his fellow elf, a bit of his former enthusiasm returning. “Thank you, Donnie.” He cast a hard look at Seth. “At least some folks have an appreciation for the significance of this find.”

  “Oh, I understand it,” Seth shot back. “I just don’t care.”

  Before Glo could respond, Aksel held up a hand. “Not now, you two. Glo, come over here and help me figure this out.”

  Glo took another deep breath. Aksel was right. This was neither the time nor the place for a discussion on the significance of a long lost language. Glo cast a glance at Donnie, but the artist was already engrossed in sketching the newfound letters onto his pad. Glo decided to let him be, and joined Aksel in re-examining the platform. The little cleric was thinking aloud.

  “We can assume this wheel has letters and numbers in the same order as the other two, so all we really need to do is decipher just one of these symbols.”

  “You all do that,” Seth said with more than a just hint of cynicism in his tone, “while I try and figure out the movements of these rings and how to line them up.”

  It was rather obvious the halfling did not think much of their chances of finding a solution anytime soon. Askel chose to ignore the halfling’s lack of faith in them.

  “Good plan,” was all Aksel said, not looking up from his study of the middle wheel. At the same time, Glo felt someone next to him. He turned and saw Elistra standing there, gazing up at him with those violet eyes.

  “I have an eye for this sort of thing. Maybe I can help?”

  “S-sure,” Glo stammered, his concentration evaporating as she stood right next to him.

  Since they had reached the top floor, Ruka had remained off to the side, silently watching their progress with the wheel puzzle. Perhaps not surprisingly, her patience had worn thin. “You all go ahead. I’m going to go and scout outside.”

  The young teen strode across the chamber toward one of the four windows in the top floor chamber. Alana gazed after her, a wistful sigh escaping her lips. “Wish I could come with you.”

  Donnie gaz
ed up from his sketch pad at the lovely lady knight, his eyes glittering with obvious interest. “You can always keep me company...”

  His expression remained hopeful as her gaze fell upon him. A small but satisfied smile spread across Alana’s face, but then she shook her head. “That’s alright, I’ll just keep watch out the window.”

  With that, Alana spun around and trod after Ruka, the young teen having stopped in front of a window, preparing to shape shift. Lloyd, quite obviously just as bored as the rest of them, swiftly rushed to join her. “I’ll go with you.”

  Donnie mooned after the lady knight as she crossed the chamber, continuing to watch her as Ruka shape-shifted into the now familiar visage of the white-tailed hawk and flew out of the monolith. Once the lady knight and young warrior took up positions at the window, Donnie let out a brief sigh and returned to his paintbrush and sketchpad. Glo lost track of the others after that. Elistra stuck close to his side, the warmth of her body, scent of her perfume, and the occasional brush of her hair a constant distraction. Of course, it didn’t help that Seth kept turning the wheels at odd moments. Glo was not sure how much time had passed when the halfling called out, “Got it!”

  Glo raised his eyes and saw Seth standing across the platform from them, his arms folded across his chest and a smug expression on his face. “The outer wheel turns twice for every turn of the middle wheel, and the same for the middle to inner wheel. So you have to turn the outer wheel four times to get one full turn of the inner wheel.”

  Aksel grinned at the self-satisfied halfling. “Nicely done, Seth.”

  Glo gave him a nod as well. “Yes, very nice piece of deductive reasoning there.”

  “Yeah, not bad for a little guy,” Elladan chimed in.

  Glo nearly choked—height was definitely one of Seth’s buttons. Seth’s smile abruptly faded, his eyes narrowing as he glared at the bard. Elladan stared back at the halfling with an innocent expression. “What? It was a compliment.”

  Aksel, trying to keep the peace, spoke up before Seth could respond. “Anyway—anyone having luck with this alphabet?”

  Elladan, still trying to suppress a grin, turned to the little cleric. “Not so far. Other than the repeating pattern, there isn’t much else to go on.”

  Elladan was right, neither Glo nor Elistra had gleaned much from the wheel either. What they needed was more information. Glo knit his brow as he stared down at the wheel and mused aloud. “If we only knew what element was primary, we could cut down the possibilities for the first letter...”

  “Why didn’t you just say so?” Elistra interrupted him. Glo gazed up at the seeress. She stood there with her hands on her hips and her head cocked to one side, wearing an expression of thinly veiled amusement. “Our present-day Zodiac signs were derived from ancient lore, dating to before the elves, all the way back to the age of the Titans. The first Zodiac sign is Ares, the sign of the Ram, and its associated element is—fire.”

  Glo’s eyes went wide as her words sunk in. “Elistra, you’re beautiful!” he cried, nearly throwing his arms around her again.

  Elistra’s eyes glittered. “Oh, Glo, you say the sweetest things...”

  Glo, however, was too excited to respond, instead whirling back to the middle wheel. “That just cut the number of potential starting symbols down to nine...” Glo pored over the symbols with renewed vigor. If what Elistra had told them was correct, one of the fire symbols represented the letter ‘A.’ Of course, that meant that the symbol could also be ‘E,’ ‘I,’ ‘M,’ ‘3,’ ‘7,’ ‘O,’ ‘S,’ or ‘W.’

  After scrutinizing the wheel intently, Glo became convinced that one of the symbols was the letter ‘I.’ Abruptly he realized he was not alone. Glo looked up and saw Elladan on his one side, and Elistra on the other. The three of them hung over the same symbol. He exchanged a glance with Elladan, the two of the speaking simultaneously. “That has to be an ‘I.’”

  The duo exchanged grins. Glo turned to Elistra and saw her nod as well. Aksel came over to join them. “Which one?”

  Glo pointed the symbol out to him. It was rather elaborate, with a curl over the top—it appeared to be a scripted letter I with flames shooting out from the bottom. Aksel bent over the letter, then stood up and nodded at the three of them. “Let’s try it.”

  The little cleric strode over to Seth. Following Aksel’s directions, the halfling spun the wheels. The outer wheel had to be spun three times to get the three rings lined up the way they wanted. Seth slowed the wheels down as the three letters approached each other. The inner and middle rings lined up first, the outside ring the last to fall into place.

  Glo held his breath as the Dwarven letter for ‘I’ finally came even with the Common tongue ‘I’ and the Titan letter in question. They were rewarded with a loud click. A moment later, the symbol of Larketh in the center of the platform split in half, each side sliding away and disappearing under the wheels. A glowing circular disc, also with the symbol of Larketh emblazoned on it, appeared underneath. It was not attached to the platform, but merely hovered there in mid-air.

  Elladan proffered his hands toward the floating disc, a half-smile on his face. “Ladies, gentlemen, it looks like our ride is here!”

  Aksel and Seth slapped their hands together in triumph. Glo, equally elated, turned to hug Elistra. The seeress, however, had other ideas. As Glo wrapped his arms around her, she pulled close to him, stood up on her toes and firmly planted her lips on his. Glo was completely taken by surprise. He stood there wide-eyed at first, but then the softness of her lips, the smell of her hair, and the warmth of her body emptied his mind of all else. He closed his eyes and lost himself in that kiss, the world around him swiftly fading away.

  From somewhere seemingly far away, he heard Donnie’s voice. “Get a room, you two.”

  It was immediately followed by Elladan. “Shhh, don’t spoil it. I’ve been waiting for this moment ever since they met.”

  Any other time, Glo would probably have been embarrassed, but at that moment he didn’t have a care in the world. The lovely woman in his arms was all he wanted just now. She was smart, funny and beautiful, everything he could ever ask for. That amazing kiss went on for a while longer, until he heard Seth’s voice.

  “Okay, okay—I’m happy for you—I really am, but geez, guys, there’s a time and a place.”

  Glo pulled back from Elistra, still holding her gently in his arms, and turned his head toward the halfling. Seth knelt on the platform, a wide smirk across his lips, as he searched the floating disc carefully for trip wires or the like. Donnie knelt beside him, grinning broadly at the duo. Aksel stood off to one side of the platform, wearing a bemused expression. Elladan stood next to him, grinning from ear to ear. Alana and Lloyd had returned from the window. The lady knight smiled and winked. Lloyd also wore a smile, but had a faraway look in his eyes.

  Glo felt a sudden pang of sorrow for the young man. He could only imagine that he was thinking of a certain strawberry blonde young noblewoman. Ruka had returned as well, standing silently next to Alana with a smirk that mirrored Seth’s.

  “We really should get a move on,” Aksel said in a gentle voice.

  Elistra let out a brief sigh. “Yes, you are quite right, good cleric.” She turned back to Glo and placed a slender finger on his nose. “We will continue this later,” she told him, then gently pulled away.

  Glo’s cheeks burned hot. He imagined his face must be a bright shade of scarlet. Shortly thereafter, Seth declared the platform safe. The floating disc was easily wide enough for the nine of them to comfortably fit on it. Despite that, Elistra snuggled close to Glo’s side. The tall elf gladly draped an arm over her slender shoulders.

  Seth was the last to join them. “All aboard!” he declared. “Next stop, the sub-basement.”

  “Is this thing ever going to move?” Donnie moaned impatiently. They had been
standing on the floating disc for two full minutes, with no sign of it descending.

  Seth eyed the elf darkly. “Did you see a control mechanism? Because I sure didn’t.”

  “Maybe a vocal command?” Aksel suggested. He swiveled his head toward Glo. “How do you say ‘down’ in Dwarven?”

  Glo had been half listening, his focus on the lovely woman by his side. Elistra nudged him with her elbow and whispered, “Glo, Aksel asked you a question.”

  Glo shook himself out of his reverie and looked at his gnomish friend. “Oh, right. The Dwarvish word for down. That would be ‘Turzhr.’”

  The disc they stood on started to descend, slowling sinking into the pillar. The movement was extremely smooth, as if they were floating on a cloud. The companions soon dropped below the top of the pillar and were surrounded by solid stone.

  “Well, that was easy,” Donnie said with a wry smile.

  “Maybe a bit too easy,” Aksel responded with just a hint of nervousness in his tone. “Who knows what’s waiting for us at the bottom.”

  Lloyd’s voice abruptly rang out from behind them all. “Should I get out my swords?”

  “Not in these close quarters! Are you a moron?” Seth cried. Everyone spun around to look at the young man. Lloyd stood there with a huge grin on his face, his blades securely sheathed.

  “Dragon dung, Elladan! You’re rubbing off on him!” the halfling grumbled angrily.

  Elladan responded with a closemouthed laugh. “Yes, I am, aren’t I?”

  As they descended, the light from above disappeared, but the shaft did not darken appreciably. The glow of the disc they stood on was rather bright, and every so often they would pass a row of glowing tiles. Glo gazed around in wonder—in all his studies, he had never heard of anything like this before. “Remarkable. The inside of the pillar is completely hollow and is traversed by this floating disc.”

  Aksel peered around as well, a look of wonder on his face. “It is quite a feat of engineering.”

  Glo was about to say more, but stopped as a calming tune suddenly filled the air. He glanced over his shoulder and saw Elladan strumming his lute. Glo eyed the bard quizzically—Elladan merely smiled and shrugged. “I don’t know why, but I got the sudden urge to play. It somehow felt like we needed soothing music in here.”