by Noah Layton
But I couldn’t see a damned thing down there.
I retrieved the torch that I had used to light the fuse and returned to the hole with it in hand, laying down upon the platform and lowering it through the gap.
Rough, rocky walls framed a small tunnel that led directly down, but the light failed to show more than a few feet.
Fuck it.
I dropped the torch, watching it fall several yards before slamming into rock and sand, grains billowing up in clouds before quickly settling.
And to the right, a passage just tall and wide enough for a person to walk through led into unseen territory.
I clenched my eyes shut, pushing myself up and looking about. The smoke had cleared and I was still alone, but shouts from the North and the East could still be heard. They may have been running away from where I was, but I didn’t know how long my luck would last on that front.
But that wasn’t what scared me most. I wasn’t claustrophobic by any means – hell, if anything, I preferred a small, cosy place as much as anybody.
But this wasn’t my apartment back on Earth, or a closet that I was fooling around in with a work colleague.
This was a hidden passage that nobody had likely walked through for years, deep within enemy territory, on an island filled with creatures and monsters that wanted me dead.
‘I don’t know…’ I muttered to myself, barely audible.
But what was the alternative? We were out here on a mission that either resulted in success or death. The only possible way not to end up in the hands of the latter was to see it through.
‘Fine…’ I said to myself through gritted teeth. ‘End up in a different world, fight monsters and risk your ass a hundred times for a queen that you hardly even know… Fine…’
I threw my sword into the passage, lowering myself over the gap with both hands and suspending myself in place. Taking a deep breath, I pulled my hands away and dropped into the tunnel.
Chapter Twelve
Ruaos
Despite my newfound strength and my readiness to take the impact coming my way, I still staggered to the ground as I hit the floor. Brushing myself off before taking up my blade and the torch, I looked around the small space before setting my eyes on the passage ahead.
The light provided a view onto the closest few yards that lay ahead, but nothing beyond that.
All I knew was that it looked as if the passage descended slightly on a steady slope.
I waited, listening for any sign of a threat, but all I could hear was the echoing of my own breathing straight ahead.
There was nothing else for it.
I pushed onwards, keeping the light held high and my sword at the ready in the cramped tunnel. For twenty or thirty yards the passage continued, and as my heart raced I thought back to a video I had once seen about the Paris Catacombs, the hundreds of miles of tunnels that contained the remains of millions of dead, where countless people over the years had gone missing after losing their way.
To them, though, there had been several directions that could be followed – here there was just one, and as I reached the end of my current path and took a sharp left along the only route available, I saw it.
A glowing blue figure stood at the end of the passage, perhaps twenty yards away. It was around my height, cloaked in similar attire to myself, with a helmet akin to those worn by the harpies.
The only difference was that its body glowed blue, almost transparently, emanating a light that bounced off the walls and illuminated the passage around it.
And beyond, over its shoulder, I could see something else glowing in the darkness… Something blue.
The core.
The figure faced away from me, and as I tightened my grip on my weapon and took a few steps forward in a steadfast approach, it turned to face me.
I was close enough now to see its face, this ghostly apparition. But there was no face; only a skull, with gaunt, eyeless sockets, exposed teeth and a gawking mouth.
I halted, breathing hard, totally focused on my enemy. For a dragging moment he did nothing, before his chest rose and he released a brutal, piercing screech that rang through my whole body.
A pair of skeletal wings unleashed from its back, batting wildly against the rock walls, and he made towards me in a sudden sprint.
I gritted my teeth, readying my weapon, but with a raise of a fleshless hand in my direction, my foe sent both my torch and my sword flying from my hands and slamming into the walls either side of me, suspended in place.
I moved to my sword as he drew closer and closer, desperately trying to wrench it from its place, but it was glued in place by some latent telekinetic power that my enemy possessed.
I could run, but where would that get me? Time wasn’t on my side.
It was a stupid move against a spectre that could likely crush me with his mind, but even in the face of this terrifying attacker, I raised my fists.
Pulling my arm back for a raring punch just as he reached me, I quickly prepared myself for the inevitable damage that I would face in smashing my closed hand against solid bone – but I hit nothing.
Flying forward with the strength of my strike I dived through a cloud of blue, dusty matter, which promptly fell to the sandy ground.
I turned to look behind me in search of my assailant, but he was nowhere to be seen, the only sign that he had been here at all being the echoes of his screeching that eventually vanished completely.
‘What the fuck?’ I panted, looking about frantically in the torchlight… But there was nothing else.
Looking back up the passage, the blue glow of the core remained. I was a short run from retrieving the prize.
Scrambling for my sword and torch, I headed on up the passage, keeping an eye out for more threats either in the form of hidden traps or evil creatures. The passage began to slowly widen out before turning off in both directions. The rocky roughness of the walls remained, but I now found myself in a much larger room, a final chamber lit by only the flames that I held and the blue orb, situated on a table on the other side of the room.
The ceiling rose to six or seven yards in height and scanning the room for further threats I found nothing else, which made me more terrified than if another monster had awaited me.
No obvious threats meant that there was something hidden.
If there was one thing that I had learned over the past few days it was that the Harpy Cores were valuable beyond belief, and the Ancients had done a damn good job of keeping them hidden and protected.
I threw the torch from my hand into the centre of the room, casting a little more light in the hopes that something would bring itself to my attention, or that some Indiana-Jones weight-trap would be set off…
No.
With nothing else to go by and no other options, I started towards the Core.
Twenty yards away.
Fifteen yards.
Ten.
I approached the platform it stood upon, seeing rusted, decaying clay pots and cups, as well as some rotting ancient volumes either side of it. There was a sword with the blade drenched in orange rust, the handle caked in grime, and an axe in a similar condition.
I returned to look at the Core that would save Queen Athina’s life. I had no idea how it would do that – I could only assume that it would cure her somehow.
I stepped up to the orb, hearing that familiar, quietly resonating sound, the aftermath of a tiny bell being rung.
I brought a hand forward to where it stood on a small platform on the slab, pausing just a few inches from its surface. I thought back to the moment in the house, back when I had touched the first Core and taken on the Warrior’s Rage, back when I had seen the myriad faces looking down upon me.
Pressing my hands to either side of the orb, it glowed and swam faster where my fingertips met its surface. I lifted it up, stepping back as I fought to keep my hands from shaking.
It was unlike the first time. There wasn’t a sudden sharp jolt, no surge of pow
er that filled my body.
‘No…’ I said to myself, ‘this better not be another freaking decoy…’
‘It isn’t.’
I didn’t jump at the words – I was well beyond that sort of reaction in this world, even when I thought I was alone.
Slowly I turned to see the source of that resonating, deep voice. It was standing in the centre of the room, looking down upon me from a height of at least ten feet. It was humanoid in appearance, not another armoured ghoul screaming in my face, but a man clad in armour with a strong face and glowing white eyes. His possessed a white translucent glow tinged with blue.
The Harpy Core slipped from my hands, and a moment later I scrambled for my sword and shield, holding them readily before me. I didn’t know how much of an effect they would have, but I had been wrong before.
This guy looked like he could end me with a flick of one of his giant fingers.
He stared down at me ambivalently, his white, lidless eyes judging me silently, until he raised a hand.
‘There’s no need for that, young citizen. I have no intention of harming you, nor the means to do so.’
The voice was one of the most resolute, affirmed and reassuring things I had ever heard. Every fibre of my being wanted to believe him – but that was merely a desire, and more often than not most living things I had met in the last few days had tried to murder me.
‘Who… Who are you?’
‘I am Ruaos,’ he said matter-of-factly. ‘The Core that you have just dropped to the ground belongs to me… Or at least it once did.’
‘Belongs to you?’ I repeated in confusion. ‘Wait… Wait… You’re one of them, aren’t you? You’re… One of the Ancients.’
‘That is correct, citizen.’
‘You’re real?’
‘Of course I am.’ For the first time the man, or god, broke from his image of glory and prestige, sniggering lightly before breaking out into a booming, hysterical laugh. It was the strangest thing I had ever seen, and you’re being told a story by a guy who hangs out with actual harpies. ‘Well…’ He continued, ‘I am an image of one at the very least.’
Ruaos’s shoulders slumped a little, his gigantic wings flapping lightly in a flurry before he crossed to the corner of the room, left of where I had entered. Waving his hand in the air a large chair in the same white and blue form as that which he appeared in materialised from nowhere. The Ancient pulled off his scabbard and leant it against the chair’s side before turning and falling back into it, releasing a long sigh.
‘An image of one?’ I repeated. ‘What does that mean?’
Ruaos leaned forward, looking over at me from his corner.
‘You’re not from these parts, are you?’
‘Not exactly. Did the wings give it away?’
‘Well, that, and the shock at my appearance. I mean, it’s not every day that you come face to face with a god, is it? But belief in the gods within these lands is second nature to all beings. But not you – not until now.’
I gulped hard, thinking back to my conversation with Ariadne and Evelina in the cave.
‘… Are you reading my mind right now?’ I asked with trepidation.
Ruaos laughed again in an even more hearty fashion.
‘Now how would I be able to do that?’
‘I don’t know. In my world a lot of people believe in God. A god, for that matter, but people believe all sorts of different things.’
‘Indeed… And what world would that be?’
‘It’s called Earth. It’s… A long way from here, no doubt. I don’t even know where here is…’
‘I don’t doubt it at all… Interesting…’ Ruaos stared at me, a smirk rising at the edge of his mouth before disappearing once again into an analytical gaze. ‘A young citizen from another world arrives in these lands and not only manages to survive, but to find a Harpy Core. My Harpy Core.
‘What you see before you is my spectral form. I am not the Ruaos – I am simply a whisper of his being, a projection of him that was left behind after his passing. That is what I mean when I use the term ‘image.’’
‘His passing? So… You’re dead?’
‘Yes. Ruaos is long dead.’
‘Gods can die? Yeah, that’s a pretty new concept for me.’
‘The concept that all of the Ancients are dead will also be a very new concept, then, I suppose?’
Finally I lowered my sword and shield, not out of a feeling of safety but out of bafflement.
‘The Ancients are dead?’
‘Long dead. They have been for centuries.’
‘The citizens of the archipelago seem to think that you’re all watching over them.’
‘Perhaps the term ‘dead’ is not the most appropriate. Ambivalent is perhaps a little better. As life in the archipelago began to progress, our kind came to an agreement that we were no longer needed, so we decided it was time to end our collective role as leaders and colonisers. We chose to end our existence, instead confining our souls to the Cores that are scattered throughout these lands.’
‘You voluntarily gave up power?’
‘It is perhaps a strange concept to your mind, no doubt?’
‘It’s more than strange, it’s… Insane. There’s a saying in my world – ‘absolute power corrupts absolutely.’ The more power you get the more corrupt you become, no matter who you are… And here you guys are giving it up voluntarily at your peak, the moment you’ve actually built something.’
‘I am sure it is a strange idea to a… What did you say you were again?’
‘A human.’
‘Hew-man. Interesting. I am sure it is a strange idea to a hew-man such as yourself. It is also an idea that is very strange to the citizens of these lands. But the Ancients do not think in the same way as you. Our purpose is not to dominate life nor to control it, but to nurture and pass on our abilities to those worthy enough to lead and flourish.’
‘Well, you guys stepping back didn’t exactly go according to plan. It’s chaos up there. The harpies were doing great for a time, but now the kingdom is in pieces. There was a war that split the archipelago into a hundred different factions, and people are being killed every day.’
‘And what of the Harpy Cores? How are their powers being used?’
‘You really have no idea?’
‘My image has been contained within the Core since our departure from these lands – until you picked it up of course, mister… I never asked your name.’
‘It’s Kit. Kit Jones. And according to the harpies, the Cores are lost. The traps that you and the other Ancients put in place are doing a damned good job of keeping them all hidden.’
‘Comforting…’
‘That’s comforting to you? It’s a literal warzone up there! I’ve been in more fights over the past few days than I can even count! People are dying!’
Ruaos remained still, looking over at me from his chair before a greater smile emerged on his lips, one surer and more resolute than before.
‘We left these lands in the hope that the peoples of the archipelago would be able to govern themselves, to grow and nurture and prosper. Maybe that is not the case now, but allow me to ask you something – does war exist in your world?’
‘Of course it does.’
‘How many?’
‘Hundreds… Thousands probably. There are still some going on now.’
‘And what happens after they occur?’
I thought for a moment, running over them all – world wars, civil, even the battles within conflicting factions in modern society.
‘They end, and… People pick up the pieces, mend, and get better.’
‘Exactly, Kit, exactly,’ Ruaos said emphatically. ‘They make amends and they fight for a better world, but not without the leadership of great people, men and women who light the way into a prosperous future.’
‘That’s why I’m here,’ I replied. ‘The queen of the harpies is on her deathbed, and the only way to save her is this Core
. I appreciate having an audience with an Ancient, I really do, believe me, but I have to get back to Aries so she can lead us into-’
‘This Core does cannot save someone from death.’
I froze up, staring at Ruaos
‘… What?’
‘The Core cannot prevent the death of a mortal. None can. What you seek does not exist.’
I felt like I had just been hit by a brick wall, each one with its own question stamped in block capitals across individual bricks.
‘Then why would Queen Athina send us on this mission in the first place?!’ I shouted in frustration. I knew Ruaos didn’t have the answer, but I couldn’t help it. ‘I’ve dodged death and put my ass on the line a hundred times in the hopes of saving her, and now you’re telling me it was for nothing?’
‘Not for nothing,’ Ruaos said with quiet importance. ‘For everything. Think about what you have just said. You arrived in a strange land and managed to survive. You’ve risked your life in an effort to save a righteous kingdom. You have surpassed every obstacle that I have placed in your way, right down to the apparition that I placed before you in the passage back there. That passage is a final test – an enchantment that rids you of your weapons and pits you against an armed enemy. If you run, the cave collapses – but if you choose to face your enemy, even with the prospect of death being the likely outcome, you are admitted into this chamber, where the Core you deserve awaits.
‘This world needs leaders, Kit. Leaders who are brave and noble, and who can stare death in the face even when it seems undeniable. This queen of yours – did she ever tell you that this Core would save her life?’
I thought back to where we had left Queen Athina, when she had first set us off on our journey.
‘Finding it and bringing it back is the only way to ensure any hope of survival.’
She hadn’t said a word about her own life being saved. I, Ariadne and Evelina had just chosen what we wanted to hear.
Suddenly a heavy boom resonated through the walls, sending dust from the ceiling.
‘Is this the part where the ceiling collapses?’
‘This is not my doing,’ Ruaos replied, looking up at the rocky cavern above from his chair. ‘I fear it may be time for you to go.’