What should have been my pitch-black purgatory was interrupted by a shining something within the small space I fell into. The space was barely a few meters wide and long, but the stone ground seemed smooth and solid compared to the jagged and crumbling crawl space I used to get here. In the back of this sudden space was a glinting shine echoing out of what looked like a sack or bundled cloth. I barely crawled to reach the strange item, and after unfurling it from the cloth wrappings, the strange glow was revealed.
Causing rays of green illumination was a metal-bound book. Defying what I assumed to be normal, the book itself let out a dull glow that shone on the metal bindings causing a spectral display of spectacular rays to echo around the small space. The book itself held strange curving runes and circular writing, both of which I strangely found myself able to read. Yet the contents of the text made no sense. Creating a spiral on the cover were the words, “Helnuan, by thy word, the world’s law.” I muttered to myself. After mumbling the phrase the inner parts of the written letterings began to glow brighter than the book itself, not a blinding light but a more noticeable source of light than the dull ambiance the book held before.
I was taken aback by the instant response to what I thought were simple words. Letting curiosity distract me, I read a set of words forming a circle on the bottom of the cover, “Power, forge the bones.” and like before the words began to glow. Yet in addition the inner parts of the circle glowed like a round gemstone. Eager to see another reaction I turned the book to read the writing along the binding, “Intent, where none else are seen.” then the metal bindings clicked, and what looked like thousands of sparkling specks of dust began to illuminate across the metal binds. I turned over the book, searching for another set of words to read, but none were left that I could see. Except for one place.
Where the book should open there was a large clasp. It was made out of a silvery material with strange swirls of silver-blue twisting and twirling into various unknown icons. On the lock was written a single word, “Release.” When the command was spoken the book swung open, illuminating the small space with an array of greens, silvers, and strangeness I couldn’t quite understand. Dark black tendrils seemed to whip out in response, but they seemed more of an effect of the light and shadow than anything real or mystical. As the book’s illumination fully lit the space, I could see what had been safeguarding the strange treasure.
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The small cubby I sat in seemed, strangely enough, made out of cut and carved stone, however extremely old and ruined. A collapse of precarious rubble completely covered one side of the cubby, balancing in a way that looked like it might suddenly fall at any moment. Sitting in the middle of the cubby alongside me was an ancient corpse. Not unlike myself, it was nothing but skin, bones, and strangely well-preserved cloth robes. The book seemed to have been hidden in the corpse’s hands with layers of cloth covering it. There were strange icons and glyphs carved into the stone behind the corpse on what once might’ve been a wall. Yet their age had long since eroded any semblance of legibility.
The peculiarity of the situation was not lost to me, somehow, by complete chance I had made my way into a room that seemed to be on the brink of collapse only to find a glowing book. The contents of which, I had only just thought to read. After looting the corpse of its robes, as I still felt shame at my bare bones, I began to sift through the book.
The strange book was filled with words, unknown, strange, arcane, and entirely illegible. Unlike the outside inscriptions, I could barely even stand to stare at the glowing contents. The brightness seemed to repel me the longer I looked at it. Yet as I searched the pages I found a few lines of text that I could read. Reading quietly, the contents read as random lines of short phrases. One after the other the phrases seemed to respond simply to my gaze, glowing almost in sync with my reading pace. The first few lines read, “Contagion, the flame of hir’eant.”, “Gaze, far thy shall reach.”, and “Ascertain, forgotten dream and wakeful night.”
As I read the words I could feel a certain pull to them. They seemed similar to the magic I had conjured before, but their grammar and structure were strange. My mind seemed to want me to invoke them, but I worried what tax my body would take from such an experiment. Yet even so, I began to realize that my self pity and idleness would not repay the debt I had to my endangered savior. I didn’t know if this book of spells would help or even work but I had no choice. If the contents of the book weren’t capable of helping me, I must return the way I came and figure out some way to at least recover my savior from that pit of fiends.
Bundling myself within the ancient robes, I began my crawl out of the rubble. Almost as if awaiting my exit, the wall behind the skeletal corpse began to crumble and collapse to leave no evidence of my interference. There was no turning back. The fiends will feel pain and my debt will be paid.