by JD Franx
“I posted two guards at the entryway and left orders for her meals to be brought out to her, so I doubt she has been back to the village since I left to find you. The ruins would be the only place I can think of where she would be. A little tenacious for her age, she is,” he laughed.
Giddeon chuckled at how obsessive the Elvehn scholar could be. “You’re right. When she sets her mind to something, she charges ahead like an Elloryan gladiator. It won’t be any different here.”
Toman smiled as he led the way past the two-storey inn. Heading towards the centre of town, he stepped onto the first of the floating boardwalks, forcing the others to follow single file. “You know her quite well?” he asked, raising his voice, but didn’t look back. Giddeon merely grunted, concentrating on his footing as he followed the townsman. Toman, used to the floating boardwalks, continued speaking without missing a step. “She spent the first night in the ruins before we even knew whether or not it was safe. I stationed town guards because the soldiers from the garrison refused to come, but still… there was no dissuading her,” he chuckled, shaking his head.
Saleece laughed along with Toman, answering his original question. “We know her quite well. She has helped us with research about the Ancients on many occasions, always determined to be the first to solve any problem. She is a cherished friend to Father and myself.”
“Then let’s go see if we can find her and hopefully, you can help her this time.” Toman bounced on, his pace never slowing as they left Stillwater’s town square behind.
They followed carefully as Toman traversed more floating boardwalks, the walkways over the deeper water beyond the town square were longer and much more unstable than the previous set. Ember and Max walked as if on eggshells, and not used to the swaying movement of the floating planks were forced to slow their pace. Ember stumbled repeatedly, nearly falling into the murky water several times. Yrlissa’s steady hand kept her upright every time. The disturbances roused all manner of insects from the dirty water, but none threatened the small group. A swarm of fist-sized creatures buzzed Ember’s face and then darted off, chasing a large, gull-like bird. Thirty feet away, the insects attacked with a startling ferocity. A single squawk emanated from the assault and within seconds all that remained were white feathers floating on the evening breeze.
“Jesus Christ what the hell was that?” Ember shrieked, stepping back and almost plunging into the water yet again.
“Easy!” Yrlissa hissed, jumping forward and grabbing her by the travel pack slung across her shoulder. Ember nodded her thanks.
Toman glanced back over his shoulder. “Shudderbugs. Don’t worry, they’ve fed now. They won’t hurt us,” he replied.
“Fuck. What if they hadn’t fed?” Max yelled, from the rear of the line.
Toman winced and shook his head as he turned to look at Ember. Her visible shudder made him smile. “Now you know why we call them shudderbugs. Welcome to Stillwater.”
They passed through the open-air marketplace and passed the last set of homes. Leaving the boardwalks behind, they climbed a well-worn mountain trail towards the quarry’s demolition area, where the villagers had been removing the useless mountain rock in an attempt to get to the valued granite beyond, all of which would eventually make room for more homes. On the far side of the partially-cleared area, they could see the broken stone of the mountainside where it had been blasted away from the black granite, revealing the dark entrance to the ruins. Unlike Toman had said, however, there was no sign of guards on duty anywhere.
“Toman? Perhaps you should go back to the village and find out why there are no guards here,” Giddeon ordered.
The Stillwater scout rubbed the back of his neck in an attempt to flatten the prickling hairs. He stuttered, “Y-yeah. Yeah, G-Giddeon. I… I’ll go do that. Uh, how many do you want me to bring back?”
“A patrol. Or two if you can get them together fast enough.” With a respectful nod, Toman ran to get the guards the ArchWizard had requested.
Sliding the rune-carved staff off his back, Giddeon shook his head in disbelief. “Why would they only post two guards, Kasik? That doesn’t make sense. Surely they understand the danger of opening such places.”
Shaking his head, Kasik snorted. “I don’t know, Giddeon. A village this size likely doesn’t have that many of their own guards. The royal garrison is only one patrol, six men, no more. They’ll be more concerned with hunting bandits or creatures, not guarding an old ruin. Two was probably all the town could spare, or all that Salabriel requested. It’s not like she needs protection.”
“Perhaps,” Giddeon mumbled, tugging at his beard. “Let’s go see if we can find her.” He turned sideways so he could slip through the narrow crack in the ruin’s outer wall and disappeared inside.
As everyone readied their weapons and followed him through the crack, Max waited outside for a few seconds in order to cover their backs. His suspicions clearly having been raised by the two missing guards, he scanned the surroundings for several more seconds to make sure no one could sneak up on them from behind. Ember knew he’d been troubled by the itch tickling the back of his neck for several days, leaving him with a strong sense that someone or something was following them. That every time he turned to check, he would see nothing but a bush moving in the wind or the distorted shadow of some creature. A retired U.S. Army Ranger sniper, Max had warned her days ago to be aware of the cliched “gut feeling”. In movies or books the cop or soldier’s gut feeling was always right, reality seldom worked that way. Once in a while, however, that feeling would pay off. Ignoring it at any time was a mistake; it kept you alert, and alive. Ember slid through the crack and then looked back to see if he was coming. He shook his head and followed the others into the ancient ruins, letting her know the itch at his back was stronger than ever.
Once inside the ages-old structure, Ember and Yrlissa walked side by side as they followed Giddeon, Saleece, and Kasik. Max continued to trail behind, a position he’d kept for most of the journey. Knowing better than to speak, Ember watched for dangers and studied the amazing architecture of the ruins. Admiring the intricate carvings on the walls, she quietly moved down the narrow corridor. Built from what appeared to be polished black granite imbedded with cream-coloured streaks, she recognized it as natural to the area. The stone exposed by the entrance was similar in colour and markings.
Walking down a passageway wide enough for their horse and cart, yet nearly twice her height, she noticed an arched entryway at the far end fifty feet ahead, but saw no exits from either side of the long hall. When they reached the curved doorway to the next section, a hexagon-shaped room with three points of egress stood before them. Positioned at ten, twelve, and two o’clock, Giddeon chose the middle exit to continue their search for the Elvehn scholar.
The next corridor was a carbon-copy of the first, with the lone exception of arched shelving cut into the granite every six feet, extending the entire length of the wall on both sides. Though empty of paper material, an unknown writing had been carved on the inside of the mantle-like niches. Reaching the halfway mark of the corridor, Giddeon and Saleece stopped suddenly as an older Elvehn woman rushed through the doorway at the far end. With her head down and studying some papers, she nearly stumbled when she saw Giddeon’s group standing twenty feet in front of her with their weapons drawn.
“Salabriel!” Giddeon called out. “Are you all right? What’s wrong?”
The middle-aged woman put her hand to her eyes to shield the light from the hallway’s oil lamp hanging just in front of Giddeon.
“Giddeon Zirakus? Is that you sneaking around in here like some Ancient’s ghost? You blooming fool ArchWizard. Trying to give an old woman a heart attack?” she snapped. Immediately casting a globe of light, Saleece threw it to the ceiling where it stuck fast, the hall brightened, allowing everyone to see.
With a wide smile, Salabriel’s mood shifted and her eyes lit up with excitement. “Saleece! By the gods, it is you. Is your face a sight
for my tired old eyes.” She rushed forward, grabbing Saleece in a hug. “It is so good to see you again, my favourite niece. Though I could have done without the scare your father gave me. I presume Toman found you both? Or did you hear about the ruins from some other source? Did archivists come from the Eye? Is this all you brought?”
“Slowly, Salabriel. One thing at a time. Yes, Toman tracked us down... five days ago, I believe. Right, Kasik?” he asked, turning slightly towards the Northman and getting a nod in return. “How about you, Sala? Are you okay? Your guards are missing. We thought you were in danger.”
“Oh, you’re worse than a mother hen. Don’t be foolish. I sent the guards home. The were horribly bored. There’s no danger about.”
Giddeon shook his head. “How do you know it’s safe? These ruins seem to pre-exist anything we have uncovered to date.”
Salabriel frowned at the implication of being so careless, but it quickly turned to a beam of excitement. “Not seem to, Giddeon. They do. And by several millennia, I’m sure of it,” she chuckled. “There is nothing alive or dead moving around down here. Now come, follow me. You really do have to see this.”
Salabriel turned and headed back in the direction she had just come from. They entered a second room, hexagonal in shape like the others, but ten times larger than the first and containing rows upon rows of book shelves over sixty feet long in every direction. The outer walls were lined with recessed alcoves designed for private study, and a stone lectern on a raised dais stood at the head of a small lecture area. It was the biggest library ever discovered in an abandoned ruin. Until several days ago, it had been sealed and protected. Most of the books and scrolls on the shelves had quickly succumbed to the invasion of fresh air. The library’s most valued collection was located in the centre of the room. On top of a heavy polished granite table sat four, large, stone mounds covered with a cloth.
Salabriel approached the tablets, and pulling gently on a cloth shroud, uncovered four stone tablets, all in as perfect a condition as the day they were placed on their hand-carved pedestals. The lone exception being the first tablet. Covered in a thick black crust, Giddeon picked at the ancient residue with a small blade he pulled from under his robe.
“Kasik?”
“Not sure, Giddeon, could be blood.”
“That’s a lot of blood, if so,” Max pointed out.
Salabriel cleared her throat. “That residue could have been some kind of protective barrier, or coating. It took me days to complete the puzzle that opened that door,” Salabriel said. “I wish I had known it was a library. I would have acted more swiftly in casting the door barrier, perhaps it wouldn’t have deteriorated so quickly. It would have helped to save some of the paper and printed knowledge in here. Unfortunately, the only thing recoverable so far are these tablets, but there are miles of shelves. My apologies, Giddeon. It was a foolish, novice mistake. There was no indication anywhere else in the ruins that this might be a library. The gods only know what was lost because of it,” she said, her voice heavy with guilt and regret.
Giddeon frowned, but nodded none-the-less. “Nothing to be done about it now. Tell us what you have found.”
Salabriel rubbed her forehead as she spoke. “I’m not sure. I have spent the last two days working on translations for the tablets. It’s not going well. Not at all well, to be honest.” She didn’t do well with academic setbacks and the stress showed.
Saleece had been looking at the tablets with Ember and Yrlissa when she asked, “Is this the Ancient’s written language? It’s not like the others we’ve found. I don’t recognize it.”
“I believe it to be Ancient,” Salabriel replied, “but the dialect is strange, the design of the characters are unfamiliar. Do you recognize it, Giddeon?” she asked, running her fingers down the archaic script chiseled into the granite slab.
He studied the tablet’s writing for several minutes before he spoke. “I would say it is definitely Ancient. You’re right though, Sala. About it being a dialect we haven’t seen before, I mean. Look at the symbols; they’re similar to those used during the last few centuries of the DemonKind Wars. A line here, or a curve there, and yet these characters are entirely new. It’s fascinating. This ruin could be even older than you thought. These four tablets will take months to translate properly, let alone anything else still salvageable that’s found in here.”
Ember stared at the end tablet, the first in the line of four. Her voice was hollow and far off as she spoke, almost as if in a trance. “How old are these tablets? Who wrote them? Why?”
With his hands coated in blue wisps of misting magic, Giddeon handled the fourth tablet. His magic curled away from the stone as if it couldn’t get away fast enough. “There’s no way to tell for sure,” he said. “The tablets are protected from magic, which proves they pre-date the Cataclysm at the very least. We can protect objects from the ravages of time, like the TimeKeepers do with collected journals, but we don’t have the magic to make an object repel magic like this. I would guess them to be twelve, maybe thirteen thousand years old. Sala? What have you managed to translate? Anything? I don’t mean to rush you but we can’t spend much more time here. We have a prior commitment we must get back to.”
Salabriel quickly stepped back to the first tablet and stood beside Ember. “I don’t know, Giddeon. A few words are similar to the DemonKind War era, as you mentioned. I’m almost positive that first tablet talks about the ‘children of the Black Sun’, someth—”
Giddeon spun towards her, grabbing her arm. “What did you just say?” he barked, pulling her closer. “What else? Tell me, Sala.” Startled, Salabriel was speechless, and fear lit up her face.
“Father! Let go,” Saleece snapped. Stepping between them, she grabbed Giddeon. “Stop. You’re hurting her.”
Realizing what he had done, he released Salabriel’s arm and took a breath, trying to calm himself. “I... My apologies, Sala. Forgive me. I shouldn’t have done that. There’s just so much going on... I’m sorry. Tell us what you’ve learned. Please.”
Wary, Salabriel took a step back. “I apologize if I upset you,” she said. Giddeon shook his head and raised his right hand, gesturing for her to continue. She gave him a slight bow and carried on. “It’s nothing more than a few words here and there, but I am sure that the first tablet talks about what the Ancients refer to as the ‘children of the Black Sun’. Later the words ‘danger’ or maybe ‘threat’ show up as well. Whether they posed such to the Ancients themselves or not, I don’t know. It is so different from other Ancient writings we have found, and translating it is time-consuming. Perhaps at one time this ruin was where a secluded group of their people recorded histories and events. Or perhaps it was storage for a depository of knowledge, overseen by a closed society of monks. It might explain the language’s new lettering. I’m not sure.”
“It would explain the new dialect, especially with all the paper writings and printed books that are here,” Giddeon agreed.
“There was once a lot of information stored in this library,” Saleece added.
Ember nodded absent-mindedly, having moved to study the third tablet. Though the topic of expertise was well outside both Max and Kasik’s realm of comfort, both had already found an alcove to relax in. Ember was becoming more and more curious, as if an unseen force was attracting her to the tablets. “Would it make sense that they felt the knowledge in these tablets was so important they wanted to preserve it for as long as they could?” she asked. Pointing around the library, she added, “Knowing that paper or books would eventually deteriorate, even with spells, they made sure to carve it into stone as a second copy, protecting it against damage with their strongest magic. Something that would last forever, maybe? It’s clear not everything in here was put into these tablets, but maybe the most important information? Or a specific account of something important? Something they didn’t want to chance being ruined or lost? Spells? Rituals maybe?” she asked. Unsure, she looked back and forth between Giddeon and
Salabriel.
Surprised by her hypothesis, Salabriel turned. “Giddeon, who is this young, intelligent woman? Where ever did you ever find her? I’ve never even considered the tablets might be a Cenotaph.”
Giddeon raised his hands in a show of bafflement. “Neither did I, never even crossed my mind. As for where she and Max came from, that is one hell of a story, I assure you. We’ll explain later.”
“What’s a Cenotaph?” Ember asked, once again glancing between Giddeon and Salabriel.
“A spell Cenotaph,” Yrlissa answered, finally stepping forward and taking a close look at the tablets. “They were used to record spells during eras of magical shift.” Ember’s puzzled expression prompted the assassin to continue. “Magic in Talohna changes at certain times. Its rare and only happens during catastrophic events or with very rare and specific astrological alignments.”
“Like the Cataclysm that Jasala brought on?” Ember suggested.
Yrlissa flinched, her right eye twitching slightly, as she answered. “So history tells us, yes. Magic was damaged during that specific event to the extent that hundreds of spells from that time no longer work, or the ones that do backfire, some to the point where another disaster could happen.”
“It is illegal to possess a Cenotaph anywhere in Talohna, except in DormaSai. Their laws are different,” Saleece explained. “When one is found anywhere else and we’re made aware of it, Father seizes it and we secure it inside the vault far below the Eye.” Seeing Ember’s confusion, she explained, “The university of magic in Corynth.”
“Right. I forgot you call it the Eye.”
“The Wizard’s Council is responsible for how all acquired Cenotaphs are used, most never will be,” Giddeon said. “They’re just too dangerous. Which means until we know for sure... Sala? It’s officially your archeological discovery. As the first member of the Eye and the Wizard’s Council to be here, it should be you,” Giddeon added. Salabriel nodded, but the haunting look in her eyes showed her true feelings.