For a long time, Aethellin lay there, her limbs weak as she took air into her lungs. Her vision was still cloudy, although it was clearing quickly. The roof that was swimming into focus was dark, illuminated by some outside source, she squinted slightly and tried to focus on a strange shape in her vision before realising it was the remnants of an ornate capital, that once graced a long-lost pillar.

With a heavy effort Aethellin turned her head, she quickly widened her eyes as she beheld intricate stone carvings in a worn and ancient stone wall, although, as she noted quickly, she could not make out any true details.

She let a long groan escape her as she forced herself to sit upright on arms that felt too weak. She looked down and realised that she was wearing nothing, and in a momentary flight of panic glanced around her, before calming as she realised that there was no one else in this place, she was alone and the air was still "Like a tomb...." she softly whispered, before shuddering and drawing her knees up to her chest.

For long moments she stayed like that, before stretching her arms out before her and examining them. To her eyes and what she could see in this oddly illuminated place, her skin tone was the same as it had been when she lived before, a pale white, with a very faint shade of ice blue. Her arms were no longer as muscled as they once had been, and as she frowned she noted the calluses on her hands were gone, the skin as smooth as a newborn.

She sighed and pulled her hair in front of her noting that it was longer than it had been before, although it still retained its glossy black sheen, picked out in little flecks of deep dark blue, like stars in an ink black sky. Satisfied that if nothing else, she was mostly the same as she had been before her death she swung her legs around and gently stepped onto the cold stone floor.

She managed to wobble forwards like a child until she managed to grasp a pillar and draw in ragged breaths. "How weak am I..?" she said, addressing the question to the uncaring walls.

She shook her head and forced herself to move towards the only exit to this room she had found, pacing herself one step at a time until she reached the frame and leaned against it. She noted as she huffed for breath once more, that her legs were at least no longer shaking, and the burning in her lungs had receded a great deal, "At least things are getting easier, but where in the hells am I?"

Shaking her head to dismiss any further thoughts Aethellin slowly but surely trudged through the dark and faintly illuminated walls, wondering once more what gave these stones their luminescence.

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Long hours passed as she walked through this structure, there were some side rooms that she had glanced in, but most were empty or filled with ancient rotten and destroyed furniture of an unidentifiable design.

Aethellin felt far stronger than she had before, moving as smoothly as she once had, as her body slowly adapted to her muscle memory. She still had no idea if she was headed in the right direction, the layout of the place she had awoken was almost like a maze. Sighing heavily she kept moving forward, as she did so her thoughts turned inwards, "Why did the Goddess send me?"

Her face deepened into a frown as she made a cursory glance into another ruined room. Seeing nothing new she moved on and continued talking to herself in a soft voice, "I certainly wasn't the strongest Knight or Mage, nor a figure from legends. I was no one exceptional, so why me? What was it that made me stand out and be given this chance when She had so many others to choose from, so Why?"

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For a long time, she continued moving in Silence, letting her thoughts work at the problem, but no matter what, she simply could not fathom it. Lost in thought she suddenly stumbled and caught herself on the wall, looking down at whatever had caught her foot, her eyes suddenly widened as in the dim illumination she saw the skeleton.

She cursed slightly and listened carefully in case anything else had heard the noise she made when she tripped. After waiting and confirming nothing was coming, she moved to inspect the skeleton, it was still draped in what looked like long ragged robes, most of which had rotted away in places, and it had a belt of some description, like scalloped shells overlapping one another.

Despite its age and tarnish it still had a slight shine to it in places through the patina, she thought for a moment and quickly made a decision, "May you rest with the Gods, and forgive me." She said a quick prayer over the body, and delicately and respectfully separated the bones from the clothing, carefully laying them out next to the wall.

When she had finished she inspected what she had found, in addition to what was left of the robes, the belt had a knife and sheath that had been hidden at the back of the corpse, a bag that she presumed was leather, filled with coins of varied sizes and shapes with writing on them she could not decipher. With this, she also found a small pendant with an engraving of a softly smiling bearded male face attached to a necklace made of wooden beads with a thin metal string looped through them.

While the skeletons underclothing had all long rotted away, the robes themselves were serviceable enough, made of some kind of heavy dark brown cloth that despite the age and occasional hole seemed remarkably well preserved. She nodded in satisfaction, "at least it's better than being naked" she remarked with a soft smile, once more bowing her head in thanks to the bones.

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After she had gathered what she needed she had quickly pulled the robe on, only to note it was too long for her, so after ten minutes with her newly acquired knife, she had cut enough cloth that it reached only halfway down her calves.

With what she had removed she made footwraps for herself and cut the sleeves to reach her elbows, using that to fashion a very crude chest wrap and loincloth. She finished tying the knots that held her undergarments together and shrugged the robe on, securing it with the belt she had found, it seemed as though the metal shells could grip each other tightly through some unknown mechanism, allowing her to adjust it to her size easily, she shifted the sheath of her knife round to her right hip, placed the necklace around her neck grabbed up the pouch to carry, and with a sense of satisfaction bowed her head once more in thanks to the unfortunate soul she had encountered and set off.

She felt much better now that she was both dressed and armed, and continued following the path she had chosen with a bit more of a spring in her step. As she progressed she encountered yet more rooms, and perhaps more disturbingly yet more bodies. Some were missing limbs, or showed signs of burning, she had checked each of them as she moved onwards adding a few more coins to her pouch, and noted that all of the ones she had come across to this point wore the same pendant she had found on the first one.

She finally came to a door, half broken down where it had been smashed to gain entrance, and shoving it out of the way emerged into a large vaulted hall.

For long moments she took in the sight, this hall had similar carvings to the room she had first woken in worked into all the walls. Scattered around the hall though were yet more bodies, only many of these were garbed in the remains of armour, she noted that there were two distinct styles, marking them as seperate victims of whatever had happened here.

Stepping into the hall proper she saw that at one end there was a raised altar of some description, with a statue of a man, his arms outspread and with a face similar to that on the pendants shed found.

She walked around this place running her fingers over the carvings and found yet more words carved into them, although the language was different from what was on the coins shed taken.

After almost half an hour of exploring this place she finally sighed and looked around, although in places the walls were pitted and scarred, and she had found the remains of broken arrows where they had struck there was little more she could do here.

She guessed that the defenders had holed up here, and the larger cluster of armoured figures was strewn about near the door she had come through, she guessed they had defended that door to the last man, not that it had saved the poor occupants that she had first stumbled upon she noted. Finally, she decided there was little point remaining here any longer she made the decision to take what she needed, and proceed through the double doors at the other end of the hall.