Chapter Twelve.
You know, I’d always had the idea that learning magic would be fun as hell because… well, magic. How could magic be boring? Life, however, conspires to make learning anything a trying experience to the patience-impaired.
I’d made it through my first week (and the second wave of Bane, just like Veris said), and flying just would not come to me. I could pull off an ominous hover, maybe even an aggressive float- but actually flying ended up with me careening through the caverns out of control. The only plus side was that I got to keep exploring the cave, although the natural beauty wasn’t quite as nice as one that hadn’t been stripped of all life by the Bane.
Enhancement magic in general was proving difficult, and a round of questions from Veris eventually pinned down why: I knew too much. Sounds a bit egotistic to say out loud, but my [Law] ability is very much dependent on my will to work- and my post-high school level of knowledge was enough that it thoroughly colored my perception of how things should be. So when I tried to alter things with [Law] my subconscious was subtly correcting in the background and undoing all my work.
Gravity pulls down. Air has resistance. You have mass, you matter! Ect. Giving it all my attention I could force it to work, but then I was effectively blind to the world around me. It was intensely frustrating and Veris’s assurances that ‘things would get better with practice’ helped as much as saying that ever has.
My overall gloom was put on hold as I returned to the new campsite, which had taken on some very interesting additions during my practice. Pollo had taken one look at the wondrous pile of raw materials and declared the vast majority of it off-limits to the rest of us. Grudgingly portioning out a small amount so that his siblings didn’t starve was the only concession he’d made before going to work with feverish intensity. What he was actually making was anybody’s guess, but the results so far were… disconcerting.
Using the same quasi-living resin from before alongside the dead Bane, he’d laid the foundations of an impressive circular structure spanning well over a hundred meters. The same tube-y look was prevalent and had even begun spreading out on the ground like twisted roots. He’d fashioned the frame from Bane chitin, making a circular pattern that looked like enormous ribs connected by the black veins of resin and spiraling upwards into a rough dome shape. The new ‘hive’ was nowhere near complete and already a trypophobe’s worst nightmare, while also looking like somebody had murdered a giant snake and left it to rot for a few weeks.
Feeeeeeed...
Oh, and it was freaking alive. It had scared me almost to death when a voice like a movie monster had announced its birth by hissing that across the link two days ago. The only thing missing was Pollo cackling ‘it's alive!’ in the background, although given the… intense state of his connection to the link I was starting to get concerned.
The hive had proven its worth in the last ‘Bane-wave’ though; even expecting it their sudden onslaught had caught me off guard and they’d swarmed the structure before I could move out with my aura. At first, I panicked thinking they’d eat Pollo and his new project before I could stop them, but I couldn’t have been more wrong. The whole time they swarmed, the hive was eating them.
Black tendrils and roots snaked out and struck viciously, ripping the Bane to pieces and devouring the remains. I only needed to kill about half the swarm before their numbers were depleted and all it did was add to the mass of the hive- and give it a voice.
Feeeeeeed...
That was gonna get annoying quickly. Shoving thoughts of whatever abomination my minions were trying to create aside, I found Veris had returned and was waving excitedly.
“Hello there young Kos! I see your underlings are making… progress?” He regarded the burgeoning ‘hive’ with some trepidation. “Most unusual architecture… I’ve heard of making a throne out of the skulls of your enemies before, but never while they were still alive. A novel practice to be sure.”
Still alive? Examining the growing sides more closely showed clusters of Bane that I’d thought were corpses being digested (what with black roots growing through them and all) actually were in fact, still horrifyingly alive.
“Ah… yeah. Home sweet home.”
That got me an incredulous stare. “Right... Well, I’ve come today with something of a proposition for you if you’re interested. Perhaps shake things up a bit and alleviate your frustrations with training?"
To be honest, I was getting bored out of my mind in this cavern practicing magic all day so I quickly agreed.
"Excellent! We'll be going on a bit of a cultural expedition. I've identified a series of ruins that could predate Achoran civilization not far from here and your abilities will be essential to access them undamaged."
Cool. Other than Veris’s unimpressive home I hadn’t actually seen anything of what people here actually lived like yet, and I couldn’t help but wonder what kind of people had lived such an incredible depth beneath the surface.
Following Veris, I headed off into the cavern, though we quickly found our way blocked by the imposing form of Skritter coming out of the shadows.
“Why are you leaving without us?”
Freezing like I’d been caught sneaking out past curfew, my whole troop of minions (minus Pollo) scampered up behind us- mirroring their older brother’s sentiments perfectly through the link. I stammered out an embarrassed apology to them.
“Sorry guys, I’ve been caught up in trying to figure out all this magic stuff. I didn’t mean to forget about you.” I gave Veris a questioning and slightly pleading look.
“I don’t see why they cannot accompany us. Though we shall likely have to use my ward shell for transportation to arrive in a timely manner, I’ve no wish to spend three days meandering through endless caverns.”
“No.” Skritter surprised me with his reply. “We have a way, we will follow.”
Veris arched his eyebrows but he was cut off before he could speak by an ear-splitting wail reverberating from the hive structure like someone was trying to murder a pod of mutant whales. That was all made all the worse by coming through the link as well.
The agonizing psychic screech continued to rise as Pollo’s project started to twist and contort with loud crunching and wet grinding noises, gradually folding in on itself until the bony ribs were completely obscured by a writhing nest of black tendrils. Then with a sharp crescendo, it cut off and everything went still.
“Uh… what--” A roar shook the cavern as the inert black mass was explosively ripped open in a hideous parody of birth. What emerged was a monstrous worm that would have had the ‘graboid’ fleeing in terror. Obsidian black and nearly sixty meters long, what I’d taken for ribs on the hive had become segmented armor running down its entire length. Sharp spikes protruded in rows the whole way; each spike digging into the ground as the worm flexed to propel it forward at an impressive speed. Five powerful jaws built for crushing stone opened up around a circular mouth lined with wicked teeth.
Pulling alongside us, one of the armor segments behind the worm’s head opened up and a stream of black goo poured out- quickly coalescing into an exuberant Pollo.
“Is finished! We become blood, become strength! Can keep up!” The [Blightlings] all cheered and clambered all over the worm to investigate it.
“You do not cease to surprise me, Kosimar,” Veris said with light applause for my minion’s efforts. “I retract my earlier statement, your fellows are free to join us at their convenience. Perhaps you’d like to join them in your new… transport?” His ‘scanner sphere’ came out and began examining the worm, which made the [Blightlings] hiss at it in annoyance.
“Extraordinary. Well, unless there are any other objections?” He glanced Skritter’s way and the [Blightstalker] shook his head before liquifying into the worm with the others. “Right. In you go and let's be off!”
I nodded and returned to puddle form before flowing inside the worm. My puddle spread out once I was completely inside and linked up with my minions, not unlike when they all went to sleep but on a much greater scale. Each of us flowed throughout the body like blood, our individual minds working together with the more primitive worm to pilot it like an organic Voltron. The mutations my minions had undergone even had some minor effects on the worm’s body, though most came from Skritter’s more advanced evolution as he used his ability to ‘stealth’ us.
Veris waved at us to follow and we shot off into the cavern once again. The pace he set was blistering but our new transport was up to the task, rapidly plowing our way across the stone floor and obliterating smaller obstacles.
“That’s more like it my boy! Keep up, we’ll be there in just a few hours at this rate.”
We left the main cavern shortly and entered one of the many twisting side tunnels. I was almost disappointed when we didn't encounter anything hostile to test out the worm's combat prowess on the way. Although given the impressive size and intimidating nature of our transport I couldn't really blame critters for keeping well clear.
After a couple of hours of travel, I noticed the tunnels had changed subtly. It wasn’t anything I could pin down directly, but certain spaces were just a bit too wide or too smooth to be natural. Stalactites stretched down from the tall ceiling in ways that didn’t impede a growing walkway in the middle. Circular recesses in the walls appeared with stone shaped just right to be a decent rest stop. The changes all had a natural feel like the stone had just decided to take increasingly convenient shapes by pure coincidence.
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“Noticed it, have you?” Veris grinned at me. “Just a tad too much ‘order’ in the natural order here?”
“Yeah, who did this? How long ago was it?”
“That is precisely what we’re looking to discover here, although I have some theories. The working of this stone far predates any recorded history and given the vanity of Achoran historians that is quite a statement to make. Their records go back tens of thousands of years before their disappearance around eight thousand years ago, and nowhere is there any mention of who created these structures. You’ll see more when we get to the ruins proper.”
I couldn’t help but wonder at the idea of a kingdom that had existed for tens of thousands of years and then suddenly vanished. Who were the Achorai? I’d have to ask Veris later.
Eventually, the caves changed from subtle alterations to overt stoneworking. Natural features disappeared and the tunnels took on a flowing, almost organic look with rounded edges and bizarre patterns decorating every surface. Nowhere could I see any seams, and even a brief pulse of [Law] failed to find any evidence of tool-work or construction methods. It all followed the same pattern of ‘it just happened to look this way’ in increasingly flagrant disregard for what should be possible.
The tunnel came to an abrupt dead end with a huge circular wall blocking the passage forward. There were no visible seams and the color shifted from the typical brown/grey stone of the caves to a smooth purple so dark it was almost black. I gave Veris a curious glance wondering what he expected us to do.
“Well go on then, this is why I brought you here after all! Try to open it.” He said with a chuckle.
I was immediately suspicious- anything the powerful mage couldn’t do was likely to be well beyond me- but I decided to give it my best shot to see what the old man was up to. Exiting the worm, I shifted back into my humanoid shape and approached the wall. Pushing and pulling did nothing (not that I had much to pull on) so after a quick check with Veris, I tried to break through by force.
For the next ten or so minutes, I punched, kicked, and clawed at the wall to exactly zero result. Not so much as a scuff mark showed on the pristine surface, so I decided to escalate my force a little bit.
A booming crash resounded through the tunnel as I rammed the worm at full speed into the wall… and bounced right off, floundering as pain from the worm was transmitted to all of us inside.
Veris looked at me patronizingly and I realized I was being stupid. If physical force was enough to get through then there’s no way he wouldn’t have made it already, so I used [Law] to see what I could about the wall and instantly gave myself a migraine.
Under the observational effect of [Law] the wall turned out to be almost paper-thin, hiding a hideously complex series of mechanisms and channels that twisted and turned in ways that I had to hope defied the laws of physics or this world had some serious problems.
“I take it from your expression that you understand the problem then?”
Nodding at Veris’s question I asked, “What is all of that, a door lock? If that’s the case then I don’t see how opening it is possible. The wall is totally impervious and that mechanism is insane.”
“Just so my boy, just so. By the rules of this world as we know them, opening this doorway is quite impossible.” He said with a slight smile.
“Then how--” I cut off as his words clicked in my mind. By the rules of this world… Chuckling to myself as I realized the solution. If only somebody had the power to change the rules as they needed…
Activating [Law] again, I extended my reach through the nauseating layers of the door and tried to grab hold with my magic. A few minutes of magical fumbling later all I’d managed was to drain my reserves and give myself another headache. Everything in the doorway seemed to fight each other, individual mechanisms resisting as I tried to adjust the whole.
I was getting frustrated, and Veris seemed content to let me struggle and figure things out on my own. It was such an irritating feeling at first, but my stubbornness kept me going and gradually gave way to something more profound. That exciting feeling of discovery, like the answer to a question, was lurking at the back of my mind. Each failed test brought me closer and closer to a working solution, an epiphany just out of reach. Even when I had to take breaks as I used up all my mana, I couldn’t help smiling at the sensation.
When I finally found the solution I couldn’t help but be impressed by whoever had made this door, it was simultaneously elegant, simple, and insanely complicated. The locking mechanism extended well into the walls around us and pushing on any specific place accomplished nothing. Trying to move the entire mechanism didn’t work either until I realized the problem was again that I was forcing change with [Law] rather than just letting the change come to be.
The key was to alter the physical laws of reality in just the right way, changing the rules across the entire doorway and then just stepping back and letting things work. Gravity shifted, turning into a spiral originating from the exact center of the door. Air resistance, friction, even magnetism all subtly altered, and without fanfare the myriad mechanisms behind the door started to move of their own accord; slowly turning until they created a fractal pattern that matched up exactly with the walls around us.
Then starting from the center the stone liquified, complex inner workings vanishing as the door flowed into the walls around us leaving no evidence it had ever existed.
Veris applauded with a grin stretching his slightly wrinkled features. “Knew you’d get it! Quickly now, use what you just learned. Fly Kosimar!”
He leapt up into the air and flew into the open doorway, and I didn’t hesitate to follow. [Law] pulsed, the rules around me bending in just the right way and suddenly I was flying. No longer out of control hurtling through the air, but really flying.
Laughing as I followed him, we entered a truly bizarre space. A roughly spherical room stretched around us, and I guessed the space to be about half again larger than Veris’s home cavern. The entire place was made of the same invulnerable stone as the door, with small lights scattered around making everything look like a scaled-down night sky. The image was reinforced by several floating spheres orbiting slowly around the empty space in the center.
The walls of the place were studded with odd sculptures and small open domes that I took for housing. Everything was placed with absolutely no regard for gravity, with walkways and domes lining the entire surface of the room.
The only exception was a large dome at the center of the cavern. About five storeys tall, the bottom of it was ringed with open archways leading inside. Weak light shone from within the large structure and I felt myself drawn to it.
As we crossed the threshold into the large space, I felt a strange resonance from my aura. A feeling almost like a humming at the edges of my perception, tingling at the very edges of my domain. Reaching out to it, I felt it change in a regular pattern that grew in intensity as I listened. After a few moments, it stopped and then repeated itself. Remembering the door puzzle, I let my aura shift along with the resonations I was feeling, and gradually they transformed from a vague hum into words linked almost like a song. The words were complex with meanings seeming to jumble and overlap, though I could feel the intent of the speaker from them.
Welcome/greetings/peace to all who take/seek/find refuge here.
The weary/lonely/lost shall receive rest/shelter/comfort.
Feel no fear/sorrow and know peace/tranquility.
By our Oath/Life/Blood, here is Sanctuary.
The words felt… binding somehow. I could feel them interacting with my aura and I realized that the entire cavern was under an effect similar to my [Law]. A simple change in reality that was insanely complex to pull off- peace. The builders of this place had somehow made it so inside this room violence in any form was impossible on the same level as the very laws of physics.
It was an awe-inspiring use of magic that I frantically attempted to imitate before I realized it was utterly beyond me. Maybe if I could pull my aura in all the way to just above my skin I could replicate the effect, but even if I managed that (spoiler: I’m not even close) the effort would still completely drain my reserves instantly and leave me comatose.
“I hadn’t dared to hope... an unbroken Sanctuary!” Veris’s excited gasp startled me from my discovery. “Kosimar, you can’t begin to imagine the significance of this place. True safety is so difficult to find in the Hollows, even the warded cities contain dangers of many kinds. But a Sanctuary… Since the fall of the ancient kingdoms, only two others have been found, and they were each a shattered wreck. This place... for all my power I could no more harm a fly than lift the world with my bare hands! Think of what we could learn here…”
He trailed off as he began exploring excitedly, remarking to himself as he flitted around the cavern. I found myself continually drawn to the central dome and the faint light from within, so I eased myself onto the sloped ground and began walking towards it. To my surprise when I landed I felt gravity reorient itself to the floor so that it felt like I was walking on a level surface instead of the inside of a sphere.
Shaking my head at Veris’s excitement when he discovered the same thing on the ceiling, I passed through an archway into the dome. The inner surface of the dome was lined with crystals that glowed softly, arranged into patterns that looked like unfamiliar stellar constellations. In the center of the room was a large, shallow pool with wisps of steam coming off it, and lining the edge of the pool were six statues of men in the lotus position.
Curious about the statues, I drew closer and saw that they were very different from my first impression. They were in the lotus position, but they each had four spindly arms arranged around them. Their features seemed bony at first until I realized they were covered in an exoskeleton. The heads were conical and wrinkled, with oversized empty eye sockets over a round mouth of tentacles hanging together almost like a trunk from the bottom of their faces.
Little bit creepy, were these the builders?
Scanning them with [Law] brought a startling revelation- they weren’t statues. They were bodies. Shriveled, fossilized tissue shone to my senses underneath my aura’s scrutiny.
“Veris! You’ve got to come see this!”
An irritated grunt sounded out before he came flying through one of the archways.
“Yes yes, what is it? I was just starting to… oh my word…” He shot over to the ring of bodies, his scanner-sphere blazing around each of them as he darted back and forth in excitement. “Actual undamaged specimens! I can’t even begin to imagine how long these have been down here… and in such peculiar circumstances. They appear to have died near-simultaneously over eighty thousand years ago! This discovery completely overturns all known history of civilization on Haven!”
I smiled at his exuberance despite not really having much context myself for how important this all was, it was still cool as hell to explore a place like this.
“We cannot risk disturbing the remains, so we shall have to remain here for a time whilst I catalogue everything.” Stopping in mid-air he regarded me critically. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten your training! This place is absolutely perfect for one of your talents and I expect you to learn as much as you are able.”
Nodding at this, I agreed that I had a lot to learn from these people about using my aura. Even in death, each of them radiated a feeling that matched the resonance of the chamber. Voices combined even beyond death to give safe harbor to all within reach. I knelt and imitated their pose, briefly wondering about their names before my domain expanded and filled the chamber with my own stars.