Chapter 1 -- An Unexpected Find

Chapter 11

An Unexpected Find2

The sound of something falling over inside the corridor woke Ardhanari up. It took him a few seconds to remember where he was, could it be that he had fallen asleep during his watch? Looking around, he saw the other three guards sitting motionless. Perhaps nobody had noticed, or perhaps he was not the only one at fault here.
As he peered into the darkness and tried to make anything out in the corridor, he could swear he saw something flash by. He turned around to grab a torch when he noticed the bed of Thraël, one of his fellow excavators, was empty. Not wanting the others to find out he fell asleep during his watch, he chose not to wake them. Quietly he grabbed a torch and went into the corridor alone, determined to find out what had happened to Thraël.3

Through the dim light he could barely make out the walls on either side of him. The warm light that the torch spread seemed to grow thin, even the usually so joyful dancing of its’ flame seemed to have changed into a slow, burdened motion. Choked by forces unseen.
As he kept on walking through the corridor his heart beat so loudly, he feared that anybody within ten feet would hear him coming.
Was that a sound behind him?4

In a flash he turned around.5

Nothing.6

He tried to calm himself down.
‘It’s probably just a bat, or the wind blowing through the cave’ he thought.
However, the unmistakable feeling of being watched took hold of him, slowly it skulked through his body, waking that dreaded emotion. Fear.7

Suddenly something stirred right behind him, and as fast as he could he turned around again. This time he did see something, if only for a split second; a shape fled before the light of his torch.
As soon as he turned and moved on, another pair of eyes started to burn in his back, slowly crawling closer, ready to jump at him from the darkness.
By the time he neared the end of the corridor his limbs had gotten very heavy and his back glowed feverishly, he hardly dared to move another muscle. Ever since he was a child, darkness was one of the things he feared most, and now that he stood here, alone, in the dark, he was as scared as ever. 8

Tense as a wound up spring, he finally reached the small room at the end of the corridor. He stopped dead only a few feet away from the entrance itself. The sound as that of a deep rasping breath, along with scratching against rock, came from just around the corner. What hideous creature made them he did not know, and it took some time for him to recollect himself.
Finally he managed to scrape enough courage together to draw his sword. He let out a yell, which sounded more like a canary dying in a coalmine than a warrior, and jumped into the room. At least some sound escaped his lips.9

Had there been a real threat inside, he would not have faired well, as one tends to see more with one’s eyes open.
When he did open them he saw there was nothing but Thraël, digging with his bare hands and talking to himself. There was something strange about him, his voice constantly changed pitch, as if more than one tried to speak with the same voice.
He kept on digging, breathing loudly and chattering on, not noticing Ardhanari had even entered the room. His fear changed into compassion, he felt sorry for Thraël. All this pressure, one of them had to crack first. In fact he had already expected something like this to happen much earlier.
Suddenly Thraël stopped digging, and slowly he turned his head towards Ardhanari.
“We must find it, must find it!” He spoke fast, his voice confirming what Ardhanari already knew; Thraël had lost it.
“We will in due time, please, just come back with me. You need sleep.” Ardhanari tried to say with a reassuring voice, but the words came out all wrong and shaky.10

“No! There is no time! Don’t you get it? We are all going to die! We must find it, now!” He rasped, panic invading his voice.
He turned and continued digging, panting: “It’s this way, right this way. Help me!”11

“Thraël, this has gone far enough.” Ardhanari said as he laid a hand on his shoulder.
Suddenly Thraël seemed to snap out of it, and slowly Ardhanari raised him to his feet.
“There, there, buddy. Everything is going to be fine, let’s get back okay?” He said, turning Thraël around.12

For a moment Ardhanari faltered at the look in his eyes, never had he seen such sheer desperation before.
“I don’t want to die.” Thraël whispered as a tear ran down his cheek.
“You are not going to, not as long as I’m here to watch over you. First let’s get you to bed, come.” 13

He handed the torch to Thraël, then straightened his own scabbard and put the sword where it belonged. When he took the torch back he noticed Thraël’s hands; his fingernails had pretty much worn off, at places even missing a few small chunks, and through his dirt-covered fingertips one or two dark-brown droplets of blood fell to the ground. Gently taking Thraël’s hand to look closer, Thraël suddenly seemed to become aware of the condition his hands were in. He quickly pulled it back with a painful look on his face.14

“We have to get that fixed.”
Thraël did not reply, he stared at his hands in disbelief, probably wondering how, or why. Ardhanari knew him well enough, and also knew it was best to let him be alone with whatever went through his mind right now.15

They walked back in silence. Once they were back at their camp Ardhanari cleaned Thraël’s hands. After carefully washing the dirt off of the first finger the extent of the damage became clear; countless tiny cuts ran across the surface of his fingertips. At points they converged into larger ones where parts of his flesh had worn away.
“Flesh vs. Rock. Couldn’t be much more unfair.” Ardhanari mumbled as he washed the last finger. Thraël just stared blankly at his hands, obviously still deeply confused.
With great care he bound Thraël’s fingers, but not even the greatest care imaginable could take the pain away. His face contorted.16

He had put Thraël to bed and taken his watch. This time he had enough on his mind not to fall asleep though, he kept looking back every once in a while to make sure Thraël was still there. 17

‘It’s been hard on all of us, and Thraël just caved in, nothing more. The lack of sleep and sunlight must be getting to us.’ played through his mind.
Throughout the rest of the night he kept feeling very tense, and expected to see something flash by at any moment. Nothing happened though. Nothing but absolute silence and the occasional flapping of a bat’s wing.18

‘Another short night, perfect, just what I needed.’ He thought when he was woken the next morning, after only measly hour or so of sleep. Taking Thraël’s watch had not been the problem, he needed some time to recollect himself anyway. It was just that after Thraël’s watch was over, sleep was still nowhere to be seen, and by the time he finally managed to get some, a hand touched his chest.19

“Was there a problem last night?” Shakti asked a drowsy Ardhanari. It was horribly early, the time of day Ardhanari had heard so much about, but had never really seen for himself, not even at the military academy. The lack of sleep wasn’t helping much either.
“Hmm? Oh, that, nothing really. Thraël just lost it for a little while.” He said without opening an eye.
Shakti did not remove his hand, obviously not satisfied with the answer.
“Why did you leave your post for so long then? There’d better be a good explanation behind it soldier.” He asked in a suddenly very business-like tone, and added after a short pause: “You know we’re soldiers first and friends second Ardhanari, don’t make me do this.”
His hand pushed down hard, forcing all air out of Ardhanari’s lungs.
Ardhanari opened his eyes in shock, only to find Shakti was not there at all.
Nobody was. The hall around him was very quiet, nothing stirred.20

“Was there a problem last night?” A voice whispered from behind. This time it really was Shakti.
Ardhanari turned and eyed him with large, fright-filled eyes, slowly backing away.
“Hey, it’s just me Ardhanari. I wanted to know what happened, why are Thraël’s hands bound?”
Ardhanari did not hesitate this time, and told Shakti what had happened. After he finished, Shakti let out a sigh.
“Well he has to stop digging, that’s for sure.” He said. “I will have a word with Jillian.”
“Thank you.” Ardhanari said, though he did not really know what he thanked him for.
Shakti smiled and turned around, then seemed to change his mind. “Fear,” he said while slightly turning his head back. “is poison. It is something we all feel, but something that none of us should ever show, lest we all fall to it.”
He opened his mouth to say more, but changed his mind at the last moment and simply walked off.21

That morning was just like any other: full of dirt, with them uncovering nothing except of course, more dirt. After some time Ardhanari had finally given in to all the questions about Thraël and told the men what had happened. He did specifically leave the part about him falling asleep out, the feeling that all of this could have been prevented and was somehow his fault kept nagging at him.
“The poor bastard finally cracked eh?” Djörnai said after the long silence that had followed.
“Well, it was what could be expected under these conditions, one of us had to go first. Let’s just pray he is the last one as well.” One of the men replied.
They all agreed and kept on digging in silence, much like they had been doing for the past few weeks. There had been a tense atmosphere ever since they started excavating, no laughter, few sharp remarks, mainly just dead silence all day long. Suddenly a shovel audibly hit something solid.22

“I think I’m on to something here!” Djörnai said enthused.
As they all gathered around they saw a flat and polished surface at the bottom of the wall. Djörnai’s shovel had accidentally punched against the wall and exposed what lay behind.
“Looks like there is something behind it.” Ardhanari said, inspecting the wall on his side. He tapped it with his shovel, nothing happened. He tapped it again, a little harder this time. A small bit came off.
“Perhaps these aren’t the chamber’s real walls.” Djörnai mumbled, and lifted his shovel up above his head.
“Stand back everybody!” He yelled while swinging his shovel against the wall. It cracked, and a few pieces came off. He hit it again, and again. Suddenly a low rumble made him stop and step back. The entire wall cracked from top to bottom and started to crumble. They had to shield their eyes from the dust this blew into the small chamber, and spurted out of it.23

“Well that was fun, now who’s up for round two?” Djörnai coughed.
A few snickered, and Ardhanari gave him a friendly punch.
The dust slowly settled, unveiling something they least expected to see. The entire wall had turned out to be less solid than they had thought, and had collapsed completely. The exposed walls were smooth, and covered with many strange golden patterns, obviously inlaid with great precision. Opposite to where they were standing a door of some sort contrasted with the lighter walls around it, a golden scroll was inlaid.24

Jillian, the archaeological overseer, was called in. After hearing what had been found he came quickly, with Shakti following close behind. Upon entering the room their mouths fell open in wonder.
“I can’t believe it.” Jillian gasped. “Even the paint looks like it has only just been applied!”
There was a moment of silence in which they all gazed around the room, which seemed to have become quite a bit larger. Shakti eventually broke it.
“Have you tried opening it?” He asked.
“Not yet sir, we waited for Jillian.” Djörnai replied.
“Well, he is here now, see if you can open it.”
Djörnai pushed and pushed, but the heavy door did not give way. After trying (and failing) with several men they stopped to look more closely. There had to be a way to open this door, after all, it was a door.
“I have come to understand a few words and symbols of their language.” Jillian said.
“It seems as if the writing on this door says: ‘Solve my riddle, and I will’... I am not sure about the last symbol. I have seen it being used for both death and opening. It either says ‘Solve my riddle and I will open’ or ‘Solve my riddle and die.’
Well if you don’t mind I’ll take my chances that the door will open.” He laughed.
“Try searching for hidden switches on the walls, that’s about the oldest trick in the books.”25

Under Jillian’s directions it did not take them very long to find that one of the bricks slightly gave way when you moved your hands over it. One of the men pushed it.
Slowly and without making much of a sound gears and chains were set in motion, jagging at the door and sliding it open.
They were almost blinded by the light coming from inside the next chamber. Once their eyes had adjusted they beheld a spectacular sight.
“My –.“ Was all Jillian could say.
Gasp, Shakti wasn’t capable of much more than that right now.
“Who would’ve thought –.“26

Before them lay a huge hall, at least five hundred feet long and two hundred high, not even to speak of the width. Several openings had been carved through the ceiling, sunlight poured through them. The beams of light were straight, and shone upon a huge building in the centre of the room.
It was enormous; its massive walls held huge coloured windows, like some massive indoor cathedral it stood there bathing in both light and shade.
The building itself was situated on an island in the centre of the entire hall, with deep gorges surrounding it on all sides. A long stone bridge ran towards it, over what seemed to be a bottomless abyss filled with heavy fog. Everything together formed gloomy atmosphere, and the men were not eager to enter.
“Now we’re getting somewhere.” Shakti said “This is incredible!” He paused a bit and beheld the spectacle. “Unbelievable.”
“Perhaps they’re inside and we’ll be gone by the end of the week.” Thraël optimistically brought in.
“I doubt the artefacts are in there.” Jillian said slowly, then continued sounding very enthused: “Nonetheless this is an opportunity rarely given, this might end all the mysteries and gaps around Sho’sûn history! Unbelievable indeed.”27

As they crossed the bridge, a few swore they could see movement deep down in the abyss. Hurrying across in response, they quickly reached the entrance. After climbing over the necessary rock and debris, the building loomed up even taller and ominous than it had from afar. The exterior had partly been hewn out of the rock, and to Ardhanari it seemed as if the mountain had gotten hungry and started devouring the cathedral.
Above them a lofty tower rose up high, and two huge iron clad doors blocked the entrance. Djörnai pushed one of them with all his strength. As it swung back, the sighing of tired metal filled the hall. All held their breath, waiting for the intimidating echoes to die down.
“This place is fit for a king!” One of the men said as they walked into a short but nonetheless high hall, situated right underneath the tower. Inside the light was considerably dimmer, and the roof above them could hardly be seen. The ceiling and its visibility was something however that none really noticed or gawked at. The ground was far more interesting, being inlaid with strange symbols and runes, embedded in a circle in the centre of the room. Next to the main door a small crystal rested on the ground. A strange greenish glow seemed to emanate from within, but it could just as well have been the ambient light reflecting on it.28

“In my studies I have come across races that, according to myth, discovered a way of using crystals as an energy source.” Jillian said. “Some writings spoke of specific markings and runes as a way of enhancing the effect. I have never seen these before though.”
“What? You mean like magic? You know I don’t buy that nonsense.” Djörnai bumped in.
“Do not be afraid of that which you do not understand.” Jillian said sternly, and slowly slid his fingers over a small niche in the wall, right next to the door through which they just entered. Sounding somewhat absent, he added: “As I have learned, reality can in fact be a lot stranger than fiction.”29

“Hand me the crystal Ardhanari, I want to try something.” He said while looking at Djörnai.
Ardhanari picked the crystal up, and noticed it was strangely warm to the touch. At its heart he saw a light, pulsing in and out. When he touched the crystal its brightness increased quite a bit, he almost dropped it in amazement.
Walking towards the door, still gazing at the strange object he held in his hands, Jillian motioned him to put it into the slot in the wall.
It fell in place with an audible click, but as the click’s echoes died down, nothing but silence took their place.
“Ha! I knew it!” Djörnai blatantly exclaimed, but before his little ‘victory’ could be celebrated the crystal started to glow brightly.
A small green line, embedded in the wall, lit up and shot down towards the ground. There another continued its path, heading towards the centre of the room.
As soon as the line reached the centre, it split up into seven different ones, each pointing into a different direction. Slowly the circle, along with the runes and other symbols, began to light up. Strangely, it lit up with something very unlike any form of light they had seen before. Unlike the vivid light of a fire, the kind to which they had grown so accustomed over the past weeks. Rather it shone with a cold radiance, the kind that does not really illuminate anything, a dead light.
With a low rumbling like that of rock scraping against rock, the inner part of the circle started to revolve, slowly rising up as well.
A high-pitched sound rose above the grinding, and with it, vapours of the same cold greenish colour started to leak through clefts in the floor. Gradually they grew thicker and started to swirl around the rising pillar, gaining the appearance of both fog and flame combined.
Warily all backed away from the circle, Djörnai muttering: “Black arts! Of what secret dark art is this?”
Unexpectedly all sounds stopped, and a deep, awaiting silence crept into the room. A few moments later, still nothing.
After a while Ardhanari made a few cautious steps towards the circle, half expecting something to happen at any moment. Yet, everything stayed just the way it was, as if the pillar and the flaming fog had always been there.30

Intrigued, he moved closer.
Still nothing.
“Hey guys, I think it’s sa–“
His words were cut short, there was a flash and a crackle, and Ardhanari was flung back with force.
A clear beam of vivid green light shot up towards the roof, violently pulling and swirling the mists up and around it. Somewhere up high in the tower it hit a large glass ball and dispersed into three separate beams, each of which exited the building through a glassless window at the top of the tower. A fourth one shot the other way, refracted on a mirror, down onto another one, and then jetted through a small hole above the wooden doors into the next chamber. Slowly and without making a sound they began to open, showing a huge hall lit with the same greenish glow.
For a moment they all stood motionless, trying to comprehend what had just happened.
“No…fucking…way!” Was all Djörnai could bring out after a while.
Shakti was the first to recover, and he walked over to the now opened doors. Without saying a word the rest followed.31

What they beheld there was simply beyond their imagination; five huge chandeliers hung in a perfectly straight row from the ceiling, shining with the, by now, familiar green light. Most of the walls were covered with shelves, which in turn were filled with many books.
“Fancy place for a library.” Djörnai mumbled.
“No artefacts for us today eh, a shame it is as well.” Thraël said.
“Who is to say it can’t be a book?” Ardhanari suggested.
“Surely something as important to the Sho’sûn as these artefacts isn’t something as dull as…a book.” Djörnai replied.
“Not really one to read now are you Djörnai?” Shakti asked.
“He doesn’t know how.” Ardhanari put in.
“Shut it!” Djörnai snapped.
Later on Ardhanari would blame himself for assuming everybody knew.32

Ardhanari was the first to notice it; a round stone table cockily took up most of the space in the centre of the building. On it lay a pile of books, one of which had been opened and still had a feather in a jar of dried ink standing next to it.
As Ardhanari picked it up and examined it, he began to understand it was a journal of some sort. Glancing up from the opened page, he found all others gathered around, looking at him with questioning eyes.
“Read some of it to us, if you will.” Jillian asked.
Thus Ardhanari began to read:33

“I fear this will be one of my last entries in this book, for we have failed, failed to stop them. It is exactly as I knew it would happen, there is no defence against them. Moving shadows in the dark, you know they are there, but you cannot see a thing.
I have never seen them, but Balsassar has. He told me only a few hours before he just…disappeared. Apparently they pick targets and stalk them for some time, as if it’s all just one big game, the hunt on us.
Tomorrow we’ll all gather in the main hall and light a huge fire there, they seem to stay away from the light. We plan on holding out as long as we can, at least long enough for us to figure out if there is a way of stopping them.”34

“It’s hard to make the rest out, it seems to have been written in a hurry, and the writing is very irregular.” Ardhanari said. “I’ll try to make something of it.”35

“We tried, tried to stop them. This is it, there is no going back now. I’ll soon be next. Darkness has engulfed most of us. Those that remain untainted, like myself, have barricaded themselves in the western library, the only place where sunlight can directly enter the city. For some vile reason we cannot light any fire anymore, even the crystals have lost their energy!. So, this is it, soon night will fall and they will come for us.”
Ardhanari turned the page. The others saw his eyes widen with fright. Without saying a word he turned the book towards them. It was clear to see for all, the entire page had been splashed with blood, and in large letters the only written line read:
“The darkness comes.”36

After a pressing silence Shakti opened his mouth.
“Let’s not linger on this, surely this account is exaggerated, being unable to light a fire? Come on, that is just impossible.”
“Hello? We have just seen an entire building light a firecracker from up under its own ass, need I say more?” Djörnai replied. “I think we have all seen that there are older and stranger things down here than we have ever thought possible.”
Another silence washed over them, and slowly the men started to examine the shelves of books. Not Ardhanari, he just stood there, staring at that page. He flipped it back and his eyes hit the line ‘I have never seen them, but Balsassar has. He told me only a few hours before he just…disappeared.’
He knew he had seen something in the corridor. Could it be that it had just been his imagination? He liked to believe that now, because he had no intention of disappearing at all.
As he stood there his thoughts went back to the day he first heard of this assignment, and how thrilled he had been by the find of an almost intact city of the Sho’sûn.37