The staircase leading up from where we’d been held ended with a small wooden door. Fortunately, this time there was no lock to be seen, and so after Ascilla pushed it open just an inch and took a look to confirm that there weren’t any guards standing right on the other side she pushed it open and we slipped through.
The room that we’d found ourselves in wasn’t anything like the dreary rough stone basement that we’d just been inside of. In place of rough stone there was polished marble lining a large rectangular room lit overhead by green stained glass chandeliers that cast dancing colors across the open space.
Six pillars, three on each side, lined the room and extended to the tall cavern ceiling above, and at the far side from where we’d appeared, a large jet-black altar was set into the wall.
Four totems stacked atop one another, each marking a different animal, were carved into the wall behind the altar in a stack. I immediately recognized one, a deer with fine marble antlers that extended to about four meters across. The other three were a goat, a bear, and a wolf.
Kneeling in front of the shrine was the priest that had apprehended us earlier, though this time he didn’t have knights alongside him. Instead he was kneeling in a circle of other people wearing green robes, contrasting his white. It seemed like they were in the middle of some sort of prayer or ritual
To be honest, the whole thing kind of gave me death cult vibes… yep… definitely a good idea to sneak out while we have the chance.
To the left and the right of the room were a series of other doors that at the moment were closed, and directly to the right of where we’d popped out was a huge set of inward opening double doors. It was lucky for us, the large open door provided quite a bit of shadow to the room, making it easier to hide.
Our equipment had to be in one of the rooms surrounding this temple area. Though not knowing what the other doors could lead to was definitely a cause of anxiety. I briefly imagined sneaking into the room and finding a knight sitting in a bathtub or something… That would be an interesting way to die…
With the door right next to us there wasn’t a way to cross over from where we were on the left side of the room, to the right side where more doors lined the wall. It was for that reason that we decided to start from the left, hoping to get lucky.
Trying to step as quietly as possible, I inched myself along the open door until it ended and peered around the corner. It seemed anyone who was in the room had their full attention turned towards the priest kneeling at the center of the circle.
I dashed out from behind the door and came to stand in the shadow of the first pillar on the left side of the room. Ascilla was fast on my heels.
It looked like there were only two doors on this side of the room. One in between each pillar.
The one in between the first and second pillar, the one easier for us to get to, was closed. Ascilla, however, pointed to the second door and after following her finger I noticed that not only was it open, but a series of travel bags and crates were stacked next to the door.
A huge sense of relief washed over me. That was probably the store room. The only issue was… since it was in between the second and third pillar, we would be right across from that priest and the ritual he was attempting. At least some of the other cloaked figures making a circle around him would have a perfect view of us as we crossed into the storeroom.
We’d have to wait and hope for an opportunity. For now, we had to get to the next pillar. I waited for a moment to gather my nerves.
Just as I was about to move from the first pillar to the second, the sound of footsteps entering the room made me freeze in place. Someone had just walked down the stairs and through the double doors and was now making their way across the floor. The steel armor that covered their body immediately identified them as one of the level twenty boss knights that had been with the priest before.
They stopped just on the outside of the circle of priests and took a knee, lowering their head as low as it could.
“Lord Olaive. Your Verdant Knights, have placed the offerings. You may begin the ritual.” A male voice coming from the steel-clad knight said.
Olaive? Was that the priest in the middle, the one who had apprehended us? Seemed likely.
Apparently this knight had given them the information they were waiting for, because immediately after, a chanted hymn filled the room. The green chandeliers flickered
Ascilla slapped me on the shoulder and nodded to move further. Under the cover of the priests’ focus, we dashed from the first to the second pillar. Fortunately, it seemed like whatever they were doing took enough concentration that they didn’t notice two people slipping along the side of the room.
“O great Lapina! O great Kallekan! Forgive us the deaths of your brother and sister. See with your omnipotence that it is not we, but cowardly villains that break now the treaty that has been upheld for all these years! Forgive us our transgression and lend us your esteemed guidance! The wood answers your call and wishes to provide succor! Open thy branches and allow us to pierce the veil of your canopy!” The head priest, Olaive, chanted. As he did, wind began to swirl around the room and the chandelier light began to flicker and dance.
The green light from the chandeliers that was once bouncing around the room bent at wild angles and collected above the shrine, sucking most of the light out of the room and casting the temple into darkness. Only the faint shimmer of oil lanterns whose flames were flickering in the harsh wind remained. My breath caught in my throat. What kind of magic was that?! It almost looked like an aurora had appeared across the ceiling, carrying the light into the altar.
I didn’t have time to think on it, as Ascilla grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me into the room surrounded by crates.
As soon as we were both through, she pulled the door closed and let out a sigh. The chanting coming from the other room was augmented with the sound of rushing air. I was glad to be out of there, but there was definitely a part of me that wanted to see what happened next…
“Come on. Our shit’s gotta be in here somewhere.” Ascilla said. Her face was a bit pale, and the tone of her voice was a bit tense. I guess that made sense, I was a bit shaken up as well. That definitely wasn’t what I’d expected to see when we had originally gotten locked up.
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Looking around the store room the place was, to put it charitably, a disaster zone. Crates and boxes half open and half empty laid strewn about the large room. Shelves overflowing with this and that lined the walls. Racks held weapons that looked so old and worn down that they wouldn’t even be useful as scrap metal… the whole place just felt… ancient.
“Where do you think we are?” I asked her, pulling the lid off of the first crate I could reach and peering inside.
“Some sort of temple, I don’t know…” Ascilla said, doing the same on the other side of the room.
“That ritual was pretty cool lookin’ though.” I said. This got Ascilla to throw something at me from one of the nearby shelves.
“You’re lucky that I need your help here, or I’d sacrifice you on that altar myself.” Ascilla said. I winced. I’d almost forgotten about her sour mood since we’d left the prison. Looks like she still wasn’t exactly over the whole accidentally getting both of us kidnapped thing…
“Yeah, sorry.” I replied, putting my attention back towards the search.
“Aha! Ascilla said. I turned my head towards her and saw her standing in front of two small crates that had been pushed in between two shelves. They looked significantly less dusty and more recent than their neighbors. I rushed over and gave them a look, sure enough our items were listed as contents.
Ascilla had already tapped her crate and hit the “loot all’ button by the time I’d made it over to where she was standing, and she very quickly walked over to the door, keeping an eye out for anything that could be happening in the temple.
Just as I’d tapped on the crate, the floor began to shake beneath my feet. A moment later, a series of crackles and pops came from whatever was happening beyond the door. I fell over awkwardly, and looking over it seemed like Ascilla had only stayed on her feet thanks to the door handle which she was grasping onto for dear life.
“The fuck was that?” Ascilla asked. The room had gone from a torrent of wind to dead silence in an instant. I couldn’t even hear the chanting of the priests coming from the room over. I shook my head to recover from the shock.
“No idea, let’s hurry!” I replied, tapping the side of the crate and hitting the “loot all” command which automatically returned my equipment to where it had been before we’d been captured.
As I approached the door, prepared to finally leave this place behind, Ascilla made a sour face.
“Tch. This ain’t gonna work…” Ascilla said, leaning by the door.
“What’s up?”
“More of them just showed up… like thirty of those dudes in the green cloaks. They’re everywhere. There’s no way that we’re gonna be able to just walk outta here.” She said.
Whatever that boom was must have put the whole place on high alert. We’d have to assume that they were also about to find out that we had left our cells and escaped… if that was the case then we were running out of time.
Looking out into the room through the crack in the door, just as Ascilla had said, the rooms on the other side of the temple had opened, and an army of green-cloaked priests flooded into the space. They were frantically running here and there, the thoughts that they may need to get into the store room made my palms even more sweaty. We had to do something, or at least find… a place to hide…
An idea popped into my head.
“Ascilla, tell me if anyone’s coming towards the storeroom!” I said, just loud enough for her to hear me from over at the door, then I turned back to the room full of crates and supplies.
“There have to be some in here somewhere…” I said, pulling lids off of crates and opening storage lockers one after another.
Ascilla at one point turned back to me and gave me a pointed look that very clearly meant “Whatever you’re doing, hurry it up!” but I could only search so fast…
Finally, in a locker stuffed into the back of the room I found what I was after.
A series of dark green cloaks hung on hooks. I grabbed two of the bundles of green cloth in my hands and quickly made my way back over to the entrance to the room where Ascilla was still keeping watch.
This’ll work… I grabbed the two bundles of green cloth.
“Ascilla!” I called, tossing one to her, she reached out and caught it and gave me a look.
“They’re the robes those priests use. We can use them to sneak out in the chaos.”
She gave me a strained look for a second, peering out the door and looking out into the temple. After a moment she unequipped her axe and pulled the cloak over her armor. Right, it would be hard to hide something like that in a disguise…
I joined her at the entrance and looked out into the hallway. Tendrils of magic were still dissipating into the air, and the light coming from the chandeliers on the ceiling was still notably dimmer than it had been when we’d arrived.
The biggest change, though, was that every one of the priests that had been performing the ritual had collapsed to the ground. I winced at the sight of them. Some of them were being attended by others, others weren’t so lucky and looked as if their bodies had been twisted and broken by some unnatural force. It didn’t take much to realize that they were dead. The NPCs moving to heal their friends completely ignored those that looked like they were beyond saving, and instead were working diligently on the ones who were writhing on the ground in pain.
“This… This is impossible! For the ritual to fail…” One of the priests said, pressing her hands onto the wound of one of the downed chanters. Another stepped back from the scene in shock.
“Should this corruption spread and the seals be broken…”
“They shall not. They must not. We shall extract the truth from those heretics and recover the hearts of the sacred spirits at once.” Lord Olaive said. He was slouched over on the ground, clearly pained by his efforts to cast whatever spell that was, but his voice was clear and resolved.
Two knights who had rushed in amidst the commotion stepped to his sides and put his arms around their shoulders, forcing the man to his feet. His face had gotten even paler than it was previously, and even from here I could see his chest rising and falling in ragged, desperate breaths.
Eventually, he spoke once more.
“Send a message the rest of the Verdant Knights. Have them scour the forest… Should the protections granted to us in this wood fade… it will be more than the Great Darkness that we must fear.” Lord Olaive said, his voice was stern but had a grave intonation that seemed to cast a dark shadow across everyone in the temple. So the ritual had failed, after all?
Finally able to move on his own, he took a purposeful step away from the shrines.
“I will go and see to the prisoners personally! What information they know could prove useful. And what information they refuse to tell, I will force out of them by any means necessary. Dismissed!”
“Fuck. They’re gonna notice we’ve slipped away soon. If we want to get out of here, now’s our only chance…” I said. Ascilla nodded.
“As soon as that big wig goes down the door to the prison we go for the staircase through the double doors.” She said. I nodded, peering out into the bustling temple just beyond the door.
The priest turned to leave, and two silver-clad knights formed up behind him as they marched to the small door we had just come from. Now we really were on a time limit.
“Ready?” Ascilla asked. I nodded. She pulled her hood up over her head and I did the same.
We opened the door and as casually as possible, walked out into the unfolding scene. Good… nobody seemed to notice that we were out of place.
We walked past the middle pillar, then the pillar closest to the door. So far, so good. All around us, people in green cloaks were sprinting this way and that. Two knights barked orders and were ducking into rooms at the far side of the temple. As soon as they both had their backs turned we made our move.
I struggled to remember a time in my life when my heart was beating faster, or when I was more sure that something was about to go wrong, but I confidently put one foot in front of the other and made a bee line directly towards the still open double doors that seemed to lead up to yet another unexplored floor. From our trip down the tunnel the first time, I figured that this would lead to some sort of pathway or tunnel to lead us out into the woods… but there was always a chance things were different. If there was a whole third floor to this place, then we’d have to find a way to hide and wait while this all blew over. There would be no way for us to simply slip out and escape.
Fortunately, in the bustle and chaos of the temple, nobody stopped us, and so we slipped through the door and began to climb the stairs two at a time. The further we got from the crowd the faster we went.
We probably only had about a minute left before they realized we weren’t in our cells…
As we reached the top of the stairs I sighed in relief. Stretching out before us was a long tunnel filled with growing moss and vines hanging from its ceiling. Far in the distance, a small speck of light brought a smile to my face.
“Let’s hurry.” Ascilla said, taking off down the tunnel.
I nodded and followed close behind.