Kal was about to run but the voice spoke again before he had taken two steps.
“Kalum Lesta. Mortal. Is known to this site but no association has been listed. Which of the seven do you follow, Kalum Lesta ?”
Kalum froze, midstep in his retreat. How was he known to this place? He definitely hadn’t been here before. He was on edge, the whole place radiated a powerful feeling of dread and violence the moment the rune had turned red. He felt that what he said next would either save or end him. But what were the seven? He had heard of the Seven Towers. Each of the towers was associated with a specific god except for the seventh which Melisia was a member of. The third and fifth towers were the most prominent in the Empire. The Third tower is aligned with the goddess Earae, the goddess of abundance, fertility, and life. Kal’s mother often paid her respects to Earae which was common amongst most households in the empire. The Fifth Tower is aligned with Kal's now most hated god, Dhinir. The Fifth Tower wasn’t as prominent as the Third since most of the gods' followers were spread throughout the many armies of the Empire but men like the prophet who used mana over their other resources were often inclined to join the tower as members of the Dhinir’s priesthood. The Seventh Tower was a bit of a mystery to Kal. Melisia and Leo were members but they were also followers of Quotz the goddess of law, logic, and mathematics. This confused Kal because the Seventh Tower was not directly aligned with any of the gods from what he knew. The Second Tower was Quotz’, so why weren’t they members of that tower? Kal was really starting to regret not speaking more about the past of his friends. If he ever got back he hoped he could correct that, but now he had to answer this rune. He doubted it was talking about the Towers but he had no other ideas so he decided to ask the rune.
“What do you mean by the Seven?” Kal held his breath while the rune continued to shine red.
“The Seven is the designated pantheon for this universe, I may list them for you if required.”
Kal breathed out, relieved but then was immediately sidetracked by the rune's words. It was speaking like it was an actual person, but surely it couldn’t be. How could anyone live in this place for so long? The place felt like no one had been here for a very long time, it wasn’t dusty or particularly worn but it felt hollow somehow.
“Can I ask you some questions before I answer?” Kal asked
The rune glowed slightly before responding, “Yes, but due to your current access level. My responses may require authorization from a site administrator.”
Kal relaxed a bit after hearing the rune's response. It appeared that it wasn’t going to force him to answer the question or kill him if he tried to leave so he moved on with his questions, “Are you a person?”
“No, I am a mana construct created by my lord to act as both a hostess and security for this site.”
“So you can control the doors and prevent those abyss-spawn things outside from getting in?”
“I’m sorry, you do not have the correct authorization for discussion of my specific functions,” the rune hummed, it almost sounded excited, words coming quicker than before and its tone had become much lighter. It almost sounded like his mother.
“Ok, then can you tell me how you have heard of me before? I have never been here and have no idea how you could have learned my name,” Kal said, fully letting himself relax for the moment and taking a seat on the ground in front of the door.
“Your name was added to the records approximately one hundred and seventy-six cycles ago during my creator’s last visit,” the rune replied calmly,
“What? How? I’m only seventeen, my grandparents weren't even alive then let alone me.”
“The flow of time in this layer of the abyss is much more turbulent than most of the prime planes in this region. By my calculation, one cycle in your world is approximately ten cycles here- Foul language is frowned upon by my lord. Please refrain from using such language when interacting with me in the future.”
Kal barely listened to the last part. He was in the gods damned abyss. Sure he probably should have assumed that but hearing from the rune really sent it home. He was in trouble and it was a miracle that he hadn’t come across anything more dangerous than the Kuroxet. His stomach rumbled and a wave of weakness hit him, he had been here for nearly a week by his count, and with the time difference, it had been less than a day since he fell through tears from the point of view of Dalen and the others. They were still probably fighting for their lives. It frustrated him that he couldn’t help them while he was there, he was too weak. Now things were different, he had leveled and growing stronger with every kill. He still wouldn’t be a match for the things that left the tear but he at least wouldn’t be dead weight. He sighed and looked back to the rune.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
“Since you know who I am, do I have access to any of the rooms in this place?”
“My creator requested that I inquire about your associations before assigning you access to any of the areas on this site. But once you have answered I will inform you of your access level.”
“Ok fine, then my answer is none. The gods can go fuck themselves. Sorry for the language,” Kal said, climbing to his feet. He wasn’t expecting hostility at this point but the magic in this place made him nervous. The runes' color changed several times going from crimson to orange then through the spectrum to blue.”
“Excellent, as my creator had hoped. To see any god as holy always bothered my creator, he believed that to be a god was to serve the weak and ensure that they may become the strong. You have been granted access to all general areas in this site. The runes above the door will be blue if you are authorized to enter.”
As the rune finished speaking the door in front of Kal was suddenly alight with rows upon rows of tiny glowing runes before it slowly opened inwards giving him a view of a large rectangular chamber. Before Kal entered he looked back towards the rune, “Thank you, is there any food here?”
“You are entering the site's mess hall, though those stationed in this site were beyond the point of requiring sustenance. My creator likes to treat those who stayed here for long periods to feast on occasion. You may be able to locate some in the storage area in the back of this chamber.”
Kal literally ran into the chamber but thanked the hostess as he went.
Like the hall the chamber was very utilitarian with no decorations but in the center of this chamber was a huge dining table that could seat at least fifty people. There were still chairs in place on each side of the long table but several were missing, probably taken to be used somewhere else all those years ago. It took Kal a moment to realize as he jogged through the chamber but everything was literally bigger than normal, the chairs were as large as thrones and the table went up to almost his shoulders. Whoever used this place was big. Perhaps he would ask the hostess who used to live here but first, he needed some gods damned food. Kal got over to the other side of the table and spotted what he guessed was the storage room.
Its door looked just like all the others but as he approached the runes above it immediately shined blue and the door slowly opened. The room behind it was significantly smaller than the mess hall and around the room were several benches and cupboards. Kal went straight to rifling through all the drawers and cupboards he could find. He was starting to lose hope as everything he looked through was completely empty but eventually after twenty minutes of searching he found something. In the back of the room, there was something that to Kal looked like a large sealed stone barrel. But all around its rim were tiny rows of runes none of which he could make any sense of. Kal went to try and find a seam to pry it open but the moment he touched the thing’s top his hand fazed straight through it and he was surprised as his vision suddenly changed and it was as if he was looking inside some kind of large pantry. He looked all around as his stomach growled at the wondrous sight. Rows of neatly stacked fresh goods greeted him and on the floor of the strange dimensional space was a neatly divided section of various raw meats. He couldn’t recognize any of them but he didn’t care and he tried to reach in and grab some. Nothing happened.
He tried again this time he willed one of the vegetables that looked kind of like a carrot to leave the space, kind of like how he willed his cloud form to move, and this time it worked. Kal pulled his arm out to see the fresh bright yellow vegetable in his hand. Kal immediately began to stuff his face with whatever vegetable looked like something from his world. After eating his third carrot-like thing he realized how thirsty he was as he was almost sucking the juice from each of the vegetables he ate. He got up and looked around the room for some kind of well, but there was nothing that Kal could find that would be able to get him water so he walked over to the door's rune and asked the hostess, hoping she would be listening.
“Of course, you may fill you a suitable receptacle here,” A blue glow suddenly appeared above one of the benches on something that reminded Kal of a teapot’s spout but this one's shape was all wrong, it twisted in the opposite direction and pointed upwards. Kal went over to it and fiddled with it for a moment trying to get it to work.
“You must use a valid receptacle,” another light appeared over one of the drawers that Kal had already looked into and disregarded when he had only found cups. He went and grabbed a white stone cup and took it over to the supposed water maker, “Now place the receptacle above the filling station,” Kal did so and was amazed as suddenly the cup was full to the brim. He immediately downed the first cup but took the next few much slower, as he already felt a bit sick from eating too quickly after going for so long without food. He didn’t need drinking too quickly on top of that, so he took his cup and a couple more vegetables back out to the mess hall and climbed up onto one of the chairs. He felt like a toddler again sitting in these chairs but his joy of eating again and the relative safety of this space had greatly improved his spirits compared to the last few days walking through the darkness. He took his time eating, he even took his incredibly foul and half-destroyed boots off and lay atop the dining table for a while just resting but eventually, he decided he needed to learn more about this place and try to prepare himself for any future threats he might face. He was in the abyss whatever that meant but it surely was good.
“If you can still hear me, is it ok if I ask a few more questions?” He called out to the hostess.
“Of course. I will answer all that I am able,” the hostess replied.
“Do you have a name?”
“I do have a name but the residents of this site called me the Hostess.”
“Well, I’d like to know your real name if that is ok.”
It took a moment for the hostess to respond, seeming to Kal like she was uncertain, “The use of my name is not required to benefit from my services. But if you must know, my name is Mira.”