Javan was claustrophobic, so when he realized he was trapped underground in what appeared to be a coffin, he panicked. He tried to push himself out of the coffin only to phase right through it. His momentum carried him out of his earthen enclosure to the outside. Much to his chagrin, he had resurfaced in another cemetery. How could anyone’s luck be this bad?
As Javan wondered how he was going to die, an old man approached the tombstone. His spectacles nearly fell off his nose. The man took off his top hat and laid some roses on the grave. Then he knelt down and prayed.
As he got up, and Javan could see the old man’s face more clearly, he recognized the senior. Much better looking than when he nearly fell into Javan’s car. The grandpa he met when going on the date with Tiffany stared at the tombstone. Javan tried to wave to him, but the man didn’t respond. Javan tried to reach out and touch him, but much like with the dirt, he phased right through him.
He swerved to his feet in midair before he could phase into the ground again. Javan wondered what tomb the old man was looking at. He knew it was bad to say it, but at that age, visits to the funerals became more of a custom.
Javan felt gross traveling through people, so he went to the side to see who the grave belonged to. The name on the tombstone was Javan Lambert.
***
“We’re here,” Stheno said.
Javan buckled under the force of the giant iguanas, no lamperes, who stopped at, well… the middle of nowhere. The area looked just like the swampy bio they were traversing. No wall, no building, nothing.
“Are you joking, Stheno?” She shook her head.
“No, Javan. Look below you.” Javan did and saw that the entire warrior army was inside of a giant circle. Inscriptions filled the circle’s area. They appeared to be hieroglyphics.
“Snakestongue,” said Stheno as if reading his mind. “Much older than the Samenese we speak now. That’s the only language we can write commands in. Sorry, but even I can’t tell you what the inscriptions mean.”
“Samenese?”
“Correct. That’s what we’re speaking right now.”
Javan did a double-take. It made perfect sense that an alien world would use an alien language. Yet, the fact that he heard what they said as English, and that for all he knew he was speaking English...he could only guess that one of his re-life gifts was a Google Translator feature.
Estreia stepped off her ride. She was the only one in the party who looked down at her reptilian steed. She planted her feet at what looked like to be the circle’s center. Then she chanted something in a strange language, a mixture between a snake hiss and a crow’s cah.
The outline of the circle glowed blue. The Earth trembled, so much so that Javan almost fell off his lampere. Stheno had to catch him before he encountered death number three.
Then, the ground opened up, revealing an underground crosswalk that might as well have led to the center of the Earth.
Estreia jumped back on her ride. Dracon pulled on the reins.
“Everyone, march,” she said. The Empress and Dracon rode first down the tunnel.
“Hope you're not afraid of tight spaces, Javan,” said Stheno.
Javan would like to say he didn’t scream, but he couldn’t even lie to himself since Stheno kept bringing it up. The entry wave into what he would now call the fantasy underground railroad was rather tight at first, just tall enough to let Estreia walk through. A minuscule amount of screaming might have occurred, but only Stheno was annoying enough to keep on mentioning it.
Luckily, the tunnel widened out into a larger open space. They were in a labyrinth. Underground trenches extended like roads from every direction. The formation of these crossways looked unnatural with rock walls that rose and fell as the warriors rode through and winding pathways that opened and closed through the power of the magical circles.
Javan could hear a sharp pounding noise echoing all around him. Click, clack. Click, clack.
“We are going down to level four,” said Estreia. The circle that they were now standing on glowed as earth next to them sunk into another pathway. They traveled down it until Javan saw what was making the noise.
Miners, wearing torn cloth tunics that didn’t cover their legs, swung iron axes into the rock. Their arms were red, dirty, shaking, and strong. Their bodies were as broken as the stones their axes struck. They rarely looked up from their work and when they did, all Javan saw was spheres of cobalt glaring back at him. They were short, ranging from 4 feet three to 5 feet.
What shocked Javan more than the conditions of the workers was the range in ages. While most appeared to be young adults, there were an alarming amount of children working along beside them, their hands just as rugged as the adults.
As the lampres marched onwards, one of the workers jumped in front of them. His age differentiated him from the other workers. His white beard was sprinkled with dust, his face wrinkled. He stuck out his right hand to the upcoming beasts as he had no left one.
The lampres kept on advancing. No one seemed to heed the old man who stood right in front of what would be his final resting place. The old man too did not heed the upcoming monsters. He stared directly at the Empress, his legs planted firmly on the ground. And yet, Javan could see that the man was quivering just like he did before Tiffany stabbed the knife in his chest.
Javan was about to shout until Estreia’s lampre stopped right before contact. The lampre let out a high-pitched whine.
“Quartent, tell me why you block our path less we make that a nonissue.” The man stuttered. His voice was rasp and uneven. Opening his mouth revealed quite a few missing teeth.
“Please, Empress. I mean no disrespect, but I desperately need your help.” The old man fell to the floor. The sound of his weary frame crashing against the ground sent shivers down Javan’s spine.
“My granddaughter. She’s gone missing. She was working in the Alurium Sector, but it's been three days and she hasn’t come back. Her family...I’m the only one left. Her mother and father both died far too early. I’m the only one who can care for her now, but I don’t have the strength anymore. No one here is willing to help me. They fear the Alurium Sector. But you, you are warriors led by the Empress herself. Please, help me.” His head slammed into the ground---a final act of submission.
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“We do not have the time for this.” The Empress waved her hand. The lampre snorted and started to move forward. The man didn't move from his bowing position.
“Stop!” Javan yelled. The empress held onto the giant lizard's reigns.
“We should help him. He’s…”
“That’s enough, traveler.” Dracon looked at him with disdain. “The Empress does not have the time to deal with these people. The fate of the quartents remains ever distinct from that of the royal family. Personal issues such as this should not concern us.”
“Why you?” Javan was about to say more, but Stheno placed her hand on his shoulder.”
“Calm down, Javan. This is simply the destiny of these people. Her eyes looked sympathetic, but the words that came out of her mouth sickened him.”
He looked back at Estreia. She looked back at him with a face barely able to contain its frustration.
“Traveler, I understand this might be hard for you, but there are things in this world that at this point you can’t understand.”
“Sorry, but I can’t take that. This old man is looking for his granddaughter. In any world, I believe that it is necessary to do something.”
“Your morality is true, and yet you don’t understand the importance of what is about to come. I can not, under any measure, miss the ceremony.”
“My Lady, if I may, let's humor our little friend.” Zephir stared at Javan from his steed. He smiled, though what lay underneath that grin Javan could not tell.
“It should not take long to search for the old man’s granddaughter. We have twenty-two hours until the signing commences for the ceremony. We should make our guests comfortable in our land before then, don’t you think?”
Estreia sighed. “I suppose you are correct, Zephir. I believe it should not take too long. And if it pleases you traveler,” This time her frustration was clear to see. “It would be best to get it out of the way now.”
“Oh, Empress, thank you.” The man fell down, kissing the floor as he did so.. “You will ride with Stheno,” said Estreia.
“Thank you Empress.”
Water dripped from the stalagmites that crowned the cave. Flat railway carts containing red, gold, and blue minerals were pushed by miners whose eyes had long lost the knowledge of sunlight. They looked even more soulless than the miners above.
The warriors rode across the floor. The old man’s gaze was steady ahead. Javan thought that it was only his age that differentiated him from the rest of the miners. That was incorrect. He had topaz eyes that shined so bright in the dark underground that some of the miners took a break from their work to gaze up at him. Warmth wrapped around his feeble frame. Perhaps it was that warmth that allowed him to live as long as he did.
“We’re almost here,” said the old man. “This speed. No one here could have ever crossed that distance in such a time. Truly, Empress, you are one of the anointed.”
“Silence.” The empress hand was glued to her forehead. “Your voice only adds to my ailing headache. Speak only when we arrive at the gate.”
“Yes, Empress.” Even on the lampre, he managed to kneel, his head nearly colliding into Javan’s back.
“So sorry,” said the old man.
“It’s fine.” Javan looked at the jewels the miners were harvesting. Glow stones would be a more apt comparison like multicolored fireflies.
“What are these minerals?” The old man looked at him with confusion.
“Sorry, you can say I’m a visitor to this place.”
“Lapterian vessels.” The old man pointed to the jewels in the carts.
“ They help the higher ones connect to the Earth. Powerful items they are, though far stronger exist where we are going.”
“I see.”
“Beautiful aren’t they?” His mouth widened into a smile so that Javan could see the few teeth he had left, shaking back and forward in his brown gums.
“You've seen nothing yet. My granddaughter...she has a job farm ore important than the rest of these miners here. Her vessels go directly to the royal treasury. She’s truly made it far. Bless fate for her success.”
The gate that the Empress spoke of couldn’t be considered a gate, even by the broadest definition. If anything, it was the anti-gate, a giant pillar of phosphorous rock. However, in this world, solid walls were as pliable as tissue paper given the use of those glowing circles and this wall certainly had one. The circle was the largest one Javan had encountered so far with hundreds of hieroglyphics.
“Zephir,” said Estreia. She raised her head.
“Of course, my Lady.” He maneuvered to the front with his ride. He palmed the center of the circle, causing it to glow white.
The word danced across the circle. A chorus sprung from stone that resembled gospel music. Harmonic, soothing, but then chaotic. A cacophony of discordant sounds: screeching, yelling, howling. The music pierced ears better than the axes pierced stone. The rock shook and pebbles fell, but ultimately, the Earth refused to bend. Zephir tried again, this time pushing with his entire chest. Still nothing.
“What’s going on?” asked Javan.
“The pathway,” Zephir said. He bore his knuckles into the rock before retracting his bruised hand.
“The pathway is closed. Somehow, it got disconnected from the Great Root. There is no way to access it anymore.”
Zephir turned to the old man.
“Sorry, but there is nothing we can do. Without a powerful reconstructionist, this area is unrecoverable. ”
“This can’t…,” The old man stuttered before turning to Estreia. A strained voice turned to a cry.
“Surely, Empress. You know of a way we can get in there. You are a higher being--one of the elect. Please, use your power to reopen the gateway. I beg you.”
“You ask me to do the impossible.” Estreia looked up at the ceiling. For all the attention she gave him, she might as well have been talking to the stalagmites.
“But, Empress.” The old man was to say more but Dracon interrupted.”
“Enough with your quivering, quartent. This affects more than just you.” He sighed, glancing at Estreia with a somber look.
“ The Alurium District is no more. There is no way to access it in time. This must be destiny.”
Javan’s heart shrunk. He stared at the old man, who for once looked up at the warriors. A fiery, bone-clenching sight for one moment, one moment where the facade of kindness and subservience fell under the weight of such loss, such pain, for now and forevermore. Only a moment did the facade break before he knelt further than ever before until his very soul was buried into the ground with his granddaughter
“May Fate bless her.” His eyes lost their color, topaz eyes returning to grey marble.
“May her heart never rest.” Zephir gripped his shoulder.
“Let’s go,” Estreia commanded her squadron to move onward. Javan began to protest only for Stheno to cover his mouth.
“Don't push your luck, gecko.” He could see the fumes coming off of Estreia. Maybe it was best to call it quits.
“He should come with us.” Javan barely managed to utter the words under Stheno’s hands. Everyone was looking at him, the old man especially.
“You dare oppose a direct order.” Dracon readied his spear.
“Wait a moment.” Stheno put up her hands. “He’s delirious from being in such an enclosed space. Forgive him.”
“That may not be in my power to do.”
“I’ll stay,” said a weary voice. The attention directed to Javan was now transferred to a broken old man. He glanced at Javan, an empty expression that likely harbored much more, before staring at the ground.
The old man was placed where he was before. The energy Javan had found unique in him was put out. A cold husk was all that remained. Now he truly did belong with the others in the mine.
“We haven't much time,” said Estreia, galloping on her reptilian steed. The Great Conference of the Five Emperors will soon commence. Let Fate be always on our side.”
Javan watched as the warriors rallied behind her, chanting their vows to fate and the everlasting reign of the Volcanian Empire. The weight in his palms caused him to stare at his wrists. That comforting item from his past life was no more. Now, he felt even more involved in this world's affairs. His connection to his past life grew ever more tenuous. What actions he should take was unclear.
He did know one thing, though. His tiny heart understood it even though his mind was uncertain. Fate was beneath praise.