The path followed by the golem was evident, destruction left in its wake whenever it went. Nua noticed a guardian dog crushed against a wall and immediately thought about her companions. There were several other clockwork guardians scattered about. It seemed like they were designed to wake when confronted with an aggressive intruder, ignoring the order Nua gave them. Another security measure, and even that wasn’t enough.
Both Nua and Raya made it into the chamber with the golden tree. The near immortal plant that survived here for the past thousand years was toppled over, its boughs broken, its pale roots exposed to air. The view was almost physically painful.
“Wait a minute.” Nua remembered Anki’s advice. “I’ll take a few branches.”
Raya raised her brow.
“Is there a particular reason?”
“It’s a shame if it dies and leaves no offspring,” said the girl, then proceeded to the tree. “It’s sorcerous. And beautiful. Maybe it could be planted somewhere.”
“You do realize that you’re about to travel through the desert,” Raya remarked. Regardless, she followed her example.
“I’m sure Ashra could leave it in someone’s care, here in the city,” Nua answered. “She must have people she can trust. Even if she does not, Ezekiel is a wise man and he’s going to have it figured out. I mean, I thought you’ll have it figured out. You’re the herbalist after all.
“Actually, I was an alchemist first,” Raya corrected. “Healer, second.”
“Um. Yeah, that.” Nua said in a sheepish voice, avoiding Raya’s sight. “Thank you for healing me.” She carefully picked three small branches with an intact tip. They reminded her of olive tree, only firmer and thicker. Their leathery, golden leaves seemed almost artificial. “You saved my life.”
The priestess took out a ceramic container from her bag, then passed it to Nua.
“It was most appropriate,” she said, “Since you saved my life as well.”
“But Raya… all of this happened because I made bad decisions. I’ve lied to you. I’m sorry.”
“Yes, that’s true as well. But as you’ve already heard from Quintus, you weren’t the only one making your own decisions,” Raya replied. “Life is mostly like that. Bad decisions piling on top of another and us trying to make the most of it. You risked your life and don’t you play that down. That was heroic.”
Raya did not know the full extent of Nua’s deception. But… she was right. Nua frowned and looked at her dirty, scratched hands holding the glazed ceramic jar with thin golden branches inside. She could have run. If it was just her, she would have. She was a runner, not a fighter. A liar, a trickster, a scavenger… no, an explorer perhaps. When did she become a person that chooses facing the danger?
It was not the first time, too.
In a moment of clarity, Nua understood that if a similar situation happened, she would make the same choice again. For the protection of others, she would fight. Now she knew that she really had to learn.
“Thank you.” She bowed her head.
“Come,” Raya said. “We need to get back soon.”
The inner sanctum was a scene of a disaster, filled with charred rubble and incomplete human skeletons. Most likely, multiple explosions happened here, leaving bodies and molten equipment behind. At the time, their spread had been contained by the invisible barrier, now gone. The destruction stopped abruptly beyond that point, as if someone drew a line.
A ray of daylight illuminated the floor in the center.
Nua looked up and then she saw it. There was a crude shaft leading to the surface, clearly drilled by the intruders. No prior exploration took place. The Antiquarians didn’t discover any hidden entrance despite one apparently present in near vicinity. They just brute forced their way inside. Which meant that they didn’t have any decent plans or information about the place, but at the same time they had one information they needed – that their goal was in the straight line below.
“Bastards.”
“I agree,” Raya was inspecting the rubble. Nua followed her lead. Without Anki’s help she could not tell apart pieces of machinery as fast as before, but the glass and crystal she was seeing, along with broken casing, looked like it belonged to a bigger and fancier version of the healing tanks downstairs. She could also feel the king’s spirit lodged in her soul, driven to unspeakable sadness and despair. The feelings did not seep into her mind as before, but she could hear them bubbling under the surface.
“There are far more bodies than the containers,” she noticed.
“Yes. My guess is that the defense mechanisms, or whatever they had in here, wiped out the exploration team after they destroyed these.” Raya looked at her directly. “Do you understand what that means?”
Nua returned the gaze, baffled.
“Well, that the Antiquarians killed them?”
“Let me reiterate,” the priestess said. “Were you aware that there could have been living ancients hibernating in this room?”
Oh crap, Nua thought. Of course. It was not exactly common knowledge.
“They look similar to the ones we found before,” she said. “Eaten by ghouls. It’s a tower of healing. I though we were over this already.”
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“No no no,” the priestess said. “Don’t play dumb. These people, in these chambers, defended by their goddess none the less, targeted by the Guild of Antiquarians…” she pointed to the bodies, “Had to be the governers of this place. The actual accursed Forsaken, Nua. Not the baby ones. Did you know about it?”
Nua’s thoughts were speeding up. She had to invent a convincing lie, and fast. The priestess of One was not a friend of the Antiquarians. But she was no free agent either. Any information she collected here would likely reach her temple.
“I mean, I kind of guessed. There were stories,” she said. “I found to hard to believe, though. They are a myth to us just as well. I kind of put two and two together after seeing the containers now.”
“So, you didn’t come here all the way looking for an opportunity to free them?”
Their eyes met. Nua shook her head.
“That would be…”
“An outright rebellion against the Tiberian Empire and all its Azurian Overlords,” Raya said. “An attempt to restore the mythical Forsaken to power. Do you realize that?”
“I wanted to say, that would be a stretch,” Nua corrected, in full swing of white lies. “I didn’t think I’d really find them alive. I was more like, hey, they were gods, they had the best treasure. Stealing from gods! I think Quintus would appreciate the idea. But anyways. The Antiquarians got here first.”
She hesitated. She had to throw Raya a bone.
“Do you know it was their man that came after me in the canyon? They kill Unsagga that use ether. I was thinking, maybe that’s part of the same thing.” She pointed to the shaft. “Which, just in case, still doesn’t make me an Autarch.”
Raya glared and folded her arms.
“Whatever you claimed you were before, you aren’t,” she said. “Autarch or not, you have the makings of greatness. Provided you’ll survive with this kind of attitude. I’ve known fledglings that did not.”
“Excuse me?” Nua wasn’t sure what to make of such a backhanded compliment.
“What I mean is that you stick out, and it’s only going to get worse. Acting meek won’t work for you. You don’t feel humble, and thus it seems so fake you’re begging for a closer look. Find a different strategy.”
Nua opened her mouth. It’s not true, she wanted to argue. I’ve felt worthless and hopeless many times over. I’ve come into my powers only recently, and I’m just getting used to them. I know that I’m an orphan from the city, an Unsagga none the less, and in the eyes of the world, I am not worth much.
Then she realized it was a thought that always made her upset. Because even at her worst, deep down she did not accept it. That’s why she would mouth off to powerful people despite it being a bad idea. And argue with the ghost of an ancient king.
After all, Hala repeatedly told her children that even the poorest beggar was worthy under the two brother suns.
“As for toppling over the Tiberians, or developing your own forbidden powers,” Raya continued, “My kind won’t get in your way. But that’s between me and you. Our companions don’t need to know.”
Nua deflated.
“I’ve heard that all the great people are killers.”
“There might be some truth to that, although I’ve met healers as well. Great deeds cause great change. Which might get people killed.” Raya continued exploring the room, touching everything through a piece of cloth. She examined what looked like an oddly vertical pile of scrap in the back of the room. Under her touch, a piece of metal casing creaked, then started sliding off the pile. Raya backed up a few steps, then watched the scrap fall apart like a tower of wooden bricks, loose metal banging at the floor. A seemingly solid metallic structure appeared.
“Now, that’s interesting.”
It looked like a human sized date fruit made of metal. It was silver, only slightly darkened by the ash. Nua approached with her heart beating fast. What if that was the sleeping goddess, locked in an additional container?
She touched the silver wall, pouring a good portion of ether into the structure. Raya caught her hand only a moment after.
A pattern of clear, angled cracks appeared on the casing. Solid silver turned into separate leaves, or petals, and the whole structure opened like a flower, only for the metal casing to retract entirely into the base. A clear blue polyhedron crystal emerged, stuck to a pedestal, the size of Nua’s head and entirely intact.
“Crap,” she said.
“Never do this again,” gasped Raya at the same time. “What in the Heaven is that?”
“Goddess said something about a memory crystal,” Nua was too entranced to lie.
“So, not a weapon of mass destruction that killed everyone in the room?” Raya asked. “I am entirely serious. Because maybe that’s what they were after.”
Nua focused her ether sight, unsure what she should look for. There were blue and silver swirls circulating in the crystal, like galaxies. Everyone knew what galaxies were – flocks of stars, painted often on the vaults of temples.
“It didn’t kill us,” she finally said. “It answered to me.”
“Can you make it work?” The priestess almost touched the crystal, then she hesitated.
“Now you’re asking me to make it work?” Nua eyed her. “Wait, you still think that I am… Raya, that was a thousand of years ago. It’s impossible.”
“You’re their kindred, and whether you have their blood or not, you’ve already proven that you can break into their secrets,” the priestess said. “So what if we are only a shadow of the glorious past. We might still unlock it, if we will.”
“And the temple of One will know.”
Raya chuckled.
“Yes. We’d like to know. Damned Antiquarians monopolized the market. Knowledge should belong to everyone.”
Nua touched the surface. Power like cold freshwater tingled under her fingertips. It was waiting for something. Asking a question she did not have an answer for. She tried giving it more of her golden, burning ether. The power recoiled, leaving her with a sensation of loss.
So it was like Ninisina Nammu said.
She shook her head. “It wants another password,” she explained. The truth was that the crystal somehow knew that the ether she had wasn’t really hers, and it rejected her just like the goddess predicted. She wasn’t telling Raya everything, though.
“I see,” the priestess folded her arms. “Too bad. Perhaps it’s a mystery better left unanswered. For two decades, the Guild of Antiquarians did not return here even once to try again. They didn’t send another team to investigate the fate of the previous one. I don’t want to know what stopped them. Let’s go back. We’ve pushed our luck in any chance.”
On her way out, Nua stopped to look at the crystal once again. She watched it return to its former shape, silver leaves forming an impermeable metal wall. Right now, she did not have to fight or struggle. There was no interference from the king. She had all the time in the world to reflect on the past events, and process Raya’s questions and statements. Who am I? Whoever I thought I was, I am not that person anymore. Or maybe I never was. I was just buried under a pile of rubble.
She was certain of one thing.
The Guild of Antiquarians was the enemy.
They killed Anki’s family. They tried to kill her, and they would continue offing every Unsagga who dared to stick out. They were willing to keep her brethren in the dumps. To make them believe they made it in the world for as long as they could keep their bellies full.
They profited from her ancestors while erasing any memory of them.
They would hurt her family, her friends and anyone that got close to her.
She had to take them down. Because she did not want to run anymore. Because running and acting meek never worked anyway. She did not want to start a war, but they had already started it, attacking her and hers.
She would make it so they are never a threat again.
And she was the person to do that.
There was a stir somewhere in her mind, and the despair she sensed before abated a little. Nua didn’t know if ghosts could sleep, but it felt like Anki fell into a long deserved slumber. She decided that until he wakes up, she would manage just fine on her own.