Chapter Thirty-Eight: Textiles

~Run 5, Textiles Room, Floor 2, The Fallen Merchant City of Aerlyn~

I pushed open the door and stepped through the archway, completely taken aback by what I saw. "What is this place?" I whispered, my eyes wide in astonishment.

[You are in the Textiles room. This used to be a place where citizens of Aerlyn would create, clean, and care for the textiles of the town. This city used to love color, but now it is a ghost of its former self.]

Fabrics of every color imaginable filled the room. Crystal's light barely pierced the pervasive gloom that clung to every surface, yet the tapestries glowed faintly, their colors just visible in the distance. The contrast was surreal, and the oppressive size of the room made me feel small and insignificant like a lone figure lost in an endless dream.

I stepped forward, and the gate slammed shut behind me with a deafening clang. I jumped, heart pounding. 'Not cool,' I muttered, shaking off the shock. The room stretched out before me, a labyrinth of textiles. Rugs, carpets, and upholstery formed intricate pathways, while clotheslines hung overhead, draped with various fabrics that created makeshift tunnels and barriers. The sight was mesmerizing and daunting, each path seeming to pulse with a life of its own, beckoning and threatening simultaneously.

I could barely see my hand in front of my face, yet the kaleidoscope of colors on the quilts was clear. "Weird," I whispered, a shiver running down my spine. An intense mix of perfumes and soaps clashed violently in my nose, overwhelming and almost suffocating. A quiet murmur in the background made me feel watched. The disorientation made my skin crawl with unease.

Hoping it wasn't a trap, I scanned my options, heart pounding in my chest. Each path forward was lit up with a different color of glyph pattern on the textiles, casting an otherworldly glow. To the right, a tunnel of hanging fabrics swayed gently, the cloth forming a narrow passageway. The red circular glyph leading the way seemed to pulse with an almost hypnotic rhythm, making the path feel alive.

Straight ahead, a narrow path lined with discarded clothes led deeper into the room, the air thick with the musty scent of old fabric. At the end, a purple triangle glyph formed a compass, its sharp lines cutting through the gloom and drawing me forward with a sense of direction and purpose.

To the left, brocades glowed faintly, their intricate spiraled patterns illuminated by the faint green light they gave off. The gentle hum of the green spiral-shaped glyphs resonated in the air, giving the path an eerie, almost inviting warmth. Each path screamed at me to choose them, as if my choices were sentient and would disappear without my choosing them. Each path called out to me, but something about the red circles seemed promising.

"Okay, here goes nothing," I muttered, my voice trembling slightly. Just then, I heard a sharp, blood-curdling scream like something or someone had been murdered coming from down the red path. I gulped. I glanced down the other two paths, uncertain which was the path I should take especially now, but my gaze kept lingering on the red circles.

[Don’t be a coward, Rod. Red is likely the proper path forward.]

Deciding to trust my instincts and needing no further insults from Crystal, I moved toward the tapestries on the right, feeling the soft brush of damp fabric against my arms as I entered the tunnel. The room's oppressive size made me feel small and insignificant like a lone figure lost in an endless dream.

As I ventured deeper, the maze became more complex. Rugs of varying sizes and patterns overlapped on the floor, creating uneven terrain. Occasionally, I had to step over or duck under fabric lines stretched taut between poles, forming barriers that forced me to change direction. Upholstered furniture, long forgotten and covered in dust, acted as walls, narrowing the paths and adding to the maze's claustrophobic feel.

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I reached out to touch a quilt's slightly wet surface. Light clung to my fingers like tiny, reluctant flames. 'Gross,' I gagged at the chemical smell that now seemed to cling to me.

I shook my hands to remove the moisture, but then the fabric patterns caught my eye, everything else forgotten. It was a second magical mural. I didn’t know they could form on a quilt, but there it was in front of me, words and all.

Just like last time, the mural told a story, except this one was much easier to understand. Silhouettes of differing colors depicted the Goblin king's rise to power. His kingdom started small—a village formed when he was kicked out for being too weak. The King raised a family and a tribe. They raided cautiously at first, but eventually, they overthrew most of Aerlyn's outskirts. All except for an area protected by the Guardsman—fifteen soldiers who struck down everything the Goblin King threw at them.

There were at least a dozen more murals spread out among the quilts. Still, I was afraid of triggering another killer headache, so after a lingering glance at the language beneath and a brief pause while Crystal read the language, I moved on.

I rounded a corner and, lost in trying to figure out why a mural about the history of the Goblin Tribe wasn’t in Goblish, tripped over two crates that had been stuck together. The impact sent a jolt of pain through my knee, and I bit back a curse, my frustration mingling with fear that the noise would attract unwanted attention.

After dusting myself off, I opened the crates. [You have received a basic health potion and 65 Gold.]

"Yes!" I fist-pumped, elation surging through me before slapping my hand on my mouth. I looked around, hesitant, looking into the darkness for a hint of light or movement. After my pulse lessened, I focused on the red bottle in my hand. Now, I could heal some damage whenever I got hurt next. Unless I encountered a room with moonlight at some point, I would probably be out of luck regarding healing on this floor, what with the marketplace never experiencing nighttime.

After my brief looting adventure, I rounded the corner. My eyes adjusted to the dark just as a blast of golden light hit me. "Whoa," I shielded my eyes. The tapestries had transformed into brightly glowing, patterned quilts, shining like the sun in the darkness. The quilts led me forward, and it was probably the right way ahead, but the light was so bright I blindly turned left down a corridor that had formed a cut-up quilt that parted before me to escape the pain in my eyes. New and old glyphs and patterns appeared in a new three-way fork. The Green spirals were back, as were the purple triangles, an energy emanating from those paths as if something was trying to suck me in, to force me down those paths. I could almost feel my feet moving forward without my consent.

The new glyphs' light was gentler, though, and the energy less demanding. An alternating yellow and blue pattern made up these new glyphs, almost looking like the sun and a snowflake back and forth back and forth. Without realizing it, my feet surged forward, but instead of feeling forced, I felt invited to go down this path. It made me feel wanted—something I hadn’t felt in a while. I smiled despite the clear danger, ignoring the pit in my stomach; the sensation felt so far away, I didn’t have to try to ignore it; it was just gone.

As I walked down this new corridor, instead of an omnipresent and clinging darkness, it was obscured by a dense, frozen fog. Crystal hadn't said anything for a hot minute, so I said, “You still there, Crystal? I hope we’re doing good?”

Just then, the air grew frigid, and I paused, confused by the sudden shift.

New Inventory

Name

Amount

Condition

Effect

Description

Gold

65

NA

The Currency of Penance.

A simple gold coin on one side is the visage of the Merchant of Death, and on the other is a Thumbs up.

Simple Health Potion

1

10/10

Heals 10 HP Instantly.

It's a potion. It heals you. Try not to let the enemy get at it.