*****

Ah, another crypt, it would appear. This would make it the fifth now. We have been walking by many of these chambers for over an hour since that little scuffle. Anton looks no worse for wear, but I fear Charlotte might be too receptive to the Y'ashi's whispers. The very atmosphere here must weigh on her. She doesn't look at me or Anton without being called, I can only imagine what she's hearing in her mind right now. But that's proof that we're getting closer to the center.

Anton marks the wall with chalk again, he's looking as solemn as always. The group could use a little more cheer. I try to stir up conversation with him to break the silence. My mind races to find a topic before my eyes land on a small sheath in his belt.

"Mr. Krendal, is that the venom infused dagger you picked as spoils from Brehella? The one that belonged to that Arlak fellow?"

"It is. The same one that was pressed against my neck. The same one that gave us trouble at the Verhnsburg checkpoint, if you remember that." Anton doesn't even glance at me as he responds, his eyes focused on the path ahead. "You diffused that situation with some sort of poison resistance spell."

"Of course!” I had actually forgotten about that before he brought it up. “Were you worried about me when I cut myself with it to prove to the guards that it wasn't poisonous?"

"It's hard to worry about you, Raum."

Was that a compliment? A snide? Either way, his contempt reaction is always amusing, even Charlotte can't help but tease him sometimes.

"Frankly, I was hoping to pawn it off in Verhnsburg. It's more trouble than it's worth. I don't like carrying around an object that could kill me with a single cut."

"True, Basilisk venom is very potent." The lizard-like creature is feared and sought after for its venom, even my sect used it occasionally for our ritual sacrifices... but I won't bring that up now. "So why didn't you?"

"I told him. Not to sell." Charlotte replied for him. "Scruff always carries. That big sword. He should carry. Smaller blades too."

"I have my own knives, thank you." Anton protests.

"But none as deadly. As that one. It is special."

"It's too much of a liability, is what it is-" The two of them start bickering. They're so adorable, like an old married couple. A wide grin raptures around my face as I delight in watching their bonding.

Ah, Praise the all-loving Grogoth for guiding me to such wonderful, endearing people. This is what an adventure should be like.

But I do feel guilty for with-holding the truth from them. My spiritual communions with the all-loving instructed that they learn of it from him instead. It will be soon. Once we reach the center.

Oh would you look at that. It came sooner than I suspected.

*****

Anton and Charlotte immediately stopped arguing as they were confronted with a three meter tall double iron door in front of their path. It was the first door they had seen in the entire Mausoleum, its surface was rusting from the bygone ages.

"This is it." Raum announced. "The King's tomb."

Anton surveyed every square centimeter of the door. What it lacked in grandeur and excellence, it made up for in function and protection.

"This is going to be a tough one to get open." He crouched down to look at the lock mechanism. It was a series of holes made fit for the Y'ashi's claws; he had seen it before. As he analyzed it, he could hear more whispers for a brief second. He immediately turned to Charlotte to see how she was reacting. She had become quiet and despondent again, she was certainly hearing whatever it was more clearly than Anton.

"Charlotte?" He couldn't even muster the words 'are you ok?' before she responded with a nod and a grunt. 'I'm fine' was what was conveyed to him.

Anton spoke to Raum. "There are different ways to get through this door. Option one: We try to brute force through it, probably triggering a trap. Or option two: We go back to take a Y'ashi's claw from one of the crypts and use it to pick the lock."

"So, I suppose option two is the wiser decision?" Raum guessed.

"No. We have option three: Use your magic to rust away at the lock."

Raum was astonished by Anton's strategy. "Are you sure? I've never used it in such a way before."

"You can probably pull it off." Anton reassured him.

"I'll give it a try then."

Raum brought his left hand to the holes, poking his finger in. Concentrating is Od, he materialized his mystic veil into woven fabrics that slithered into the lock like snakes. He felt his way through, like feeding a thread through a needle. Triggering the veil to rust the iron around the lock into a coarse filings, he could hear what sounded like sand grinding before a loud click reverberated through the door.

Raum pulled back. "Did I do it?"

"Only one way to find out." Anton heaved with all his might and pushed against the door. It opened with a screech that echoed across the corridor. Once it was open, Anton shone the Wisplight lantern into the final chamber, only to find it redundant, as other sources of light immediately manifested across the chamber's walls. They were runic engravings with a purple hue inscribed upon the burial holes that lined the walls, much like the previous crypts, though on a much larger scale, approximately twice as many as what they had seen before.

Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.

Their attention was drawn to the center of the chamber, where an open coffin on a stone plinth. Inside it was a Y'ashi skeleton adorned with a golden laurel crown. Anton felt something ominous emanating from this particular skeleton. The whispers faded in and out of his ears, and his head throbbed as he tried to discern them.

"Let me introduce you," Raum announced. "To the last king of the ancient Y'ashi dynasty: Tehvent' Ungul."

The trio cautiously circled the coffin, inspecting it from a meter away. Tehvent' Ungul's skeleton was no different from the other Y'ashi; it was only adorned with the crown, resting loosely on his withered skull.

"It's definitely a trap. His crown, that is." Anton warned Raum.

"You need not tell me, Mr. Krendel. I can sense its runic attunement with the rest of the chamber. Looking at the runes themselves, it is likely to trigger a summoning spell upon its removal. We shan't be taking it."

"So what do we do here then?"

Raum deliberated for a moment.

"How much do you know of The Collapse, Mr. Krendel?" Raum quizzed Anton.

"It was the time period four-thousand years ago when every race except humans faced calamities that ruined their civilizations."

"Is that the extent of your knowledge?"

"It's more legend than history at this point. In school, I was told stories of wildfires burning Elven forests, and earthquakes burying Dwarven cities. Disasters like storms, volcanic eruptions, or monster scourges. The gist was that it was an apocalyptic period."

"And that was most true of all for the Beast-people, who were wrought with famine and disease. Whereas every other non-human race survived The Collapse, they were the only race to be driven to extinction."

"They didn't completely die out." Anton pointed to Charlotte, who had tuned out of the conversation. "They have descendants to this day."

"Half true." Raum corrected him. "Demi-humans like the Felidaen and the Caninaen are the descendants of the unions between Beast-people and Humans. After The Collapse, the remaining Beast-people were forced to integrate into Human civilization, usually in chains. Over time, they were completely bred out. Only their lineage and few traces of their culture remain to this day in the form of Demi-human tribes."

Anton looked at Charlotte to ask for verification, but she was completely entranced by Tehvent' Ungul.

"What are you getting at here? Is our affliction really from some kind of curse after all? Is it from this guy?"

"I'm afraid he must be the one to answer you. Can you hear him, Charlotte? What is he telling you?" Raum pulls out his notebook, ready to write.

Charlotte doesn't respond to him, she only steps forward closer to the coffin.

"Charlotte?"

Something was amok. The ominous aura had permeated so thickly in the room. Anton could sense it but wasn't sure of what it was. Raum, lacking the curse that afflicted the others, could not sense it at all, only piecing together what was happening when it was too late.

"Charlotte, stop!"

She reached out into the coffin and placed her hand on top of Tehvent' Ungul's ribcage. Her pupils dilated, and drool poured out of her mouth. Charlotte collapsed onto the ground, sprawled, convulsing, unresponsive.

"What the hell is going on Raum!?" Anton's mind blurred as he rushed to her side. It had been a long time since he had felt this way, the kind of panic you feel for someone else's safety.

Raum's face was agape as he dropped his notebook. "By Gro, I was not expecting for him to be so forward."

"What does that mean!?"

"She's having a direct audience with the king."

"WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!?"

"The Shadow Dreams. She's being forced in there." Raum reached into Anton's satchel to pull out his chalk. "Hold her hand, or her shoulders, any part of her body. Just keep physical contact and close your eyes." Raum drew a large circle around Anton and Charlotte, hastily scribbling symbols around its edges. "I'm sending you to rescue her via Oneirokinesis. I can't follow you there, I don't have the curse."

Anton didn't even hesitate, clasping Charlotte's hand in his and closing his eyes as Raum activated the Oneirokinesis spell.

*****

"A curse upon them, and their children, and their children's children." Whispers arose from the dark.

They speak to me. In a language. Similar to my native tongue.

Darkness envelops me. But I can see them. The whispers and their shadowy forms. Bestial and horrific. Vengeful and hating. A mutated mass of agony. Twisting into a tapestry

"A peaceful death is too good for you." They murmur. Their limbs twist and contort. They reach out to defile my soul. But among them.

There is one figure. A Y'ashi with a crown. In the center. Standing tall. He looks down on me. With grim satisfaction.

"O lost kin who hast awakened to our tainted blood." He spoke in a regal voice. "Wretched child who bearest our will. Thou who dost inherit our wishes. Let it wash over thee, the pains and wails of my people. Mothers who held their stillborn infants in their arms, fathers who gave their flesh for their family's sustenance, brothers and sisters who scrambled to gather what was left. Hearken to their cries and plant them deep, deep within. Cast away all else that thou art. Surrender thyself to our curse. The curse upon all Humanity."

He offers his hand to me. He wants me to take it. What happens if I do? I'm scared. The shadows will drown me again. But what if I take his hand?

No. Please. Let me go. I don't want this! I don't want this! I don't want this! Get away! Ge-

Huh? Something touches my hand. It's not the Y'ashi. It's warm. So very warm. It's you. You're here for me.

*****

I grab Charlotte's hand. I can't see her face or her tears, but I know it's her. That sobbing is hers. I don't know what else to do but hold her hand. It felt like I just fell in here from the sky. This is the nightmare plane that we've seen time and time again. The morphing shadows that whisper curses surround us on all sides. But now, standing above them is probably Tehvent' Ungul. What the hell can I do here? I'm just as hopeless as she is. Damnit. Raum, what do I do? What's going to happen to us now?

"Thou who transgreseth, interloper to the dream. How didst thou enter, Human? This realm existeth solely for the curse to nurture and grow. It is a seedbed for a flower yet to bloom. Who art thou to enter this defiled space so ludicrously? Wouldst thou Humans even deny us this privacy?" Tehvent' Ungul raises his voice, his words are spoken in another language, but I can understand their meaning. "Unless... Ah, I see. It festers in thee as well. Smoldering in thee like a small cinder, our curse burneth within thy blood, our blood. Thou art also our lost kin, far more lost than expected, yet kin nonetheless."

He opens his hand and offers it to me. "Join us, most wretched child."

I muster my will and my bravery to stand off to the ancient king. "Piss off!"

The shadows writhe in their lord's fury, they dive towards us to smother us again. But before they reach us, A light pierces the darkness behind us. We're suddenly pulled backward by some outside force, leaving them behind as we are ejected from the dream.

*****