“We’re here at last,” said Friedrich, looking towards the cave in the cliffs and then checking Adajun’s map. “It doesn’t look much like a ruin.”
“Neither did the goblin den look like a shrine,” said Teleri, “but appearances can be deceiving.”
“Indeed,” said Friedrich, smiling slyly before turning into a fox and making his way towards the cave entrance and then turning back to normal.
Marina smiled half-heartedly at him. After seeing what Friedrich had done to Namavar and his men, she had been rather distant from her closest friend. She knew that he had slaughtered those people to keep her and Teleri safe, but to think that Friedrich and the spirit of the minotaur shared the same murderous will was a torturous thought. Especially as he gave into bloodlust on her behalf.
Friedrich had noticed her distance, of course. Marina’s usual bubbly attitude suddenly vanishing for was easy to notice, especially as her quietness had lasted three whole days. He kept trying to make her laugh again, but he couldn’t find a way. He had thrice made Teleri laugh, but it was obvious that she did not feel the same sorrow as Marina after the events of Legama.
“In we go,” said Friedrich, walking into the cave and spying a large metal door a couple dozen feet in. “Well, that was easy.”
“Are you so sure?” asked Teleri, walking up to the door and giving it a push. To her surprise, it opened with ease. “Hmm…”
“Don’t get overconfident,” Friedrich whispered to himself. “There’s going to be a catch. There’s always a catch.”
Friedrich led the way inside and into the entrance hall which stretched out ahead of him. He had expected a crumbling stone ruin, however, the structure was in remarkably good condition. The walls were lined with a ledge where dozens old and dusty pots and vases made of brass sat, each of them a work of art and of varying shapes and sizes.
In the centre of the room was a large podium square platform with a brazier in each corner, stacked high with magical crystals emitting light, but they had long since lost their lustre. They hummed and hissed, glowing faintly. In the centre of this platform was a large lever that was in the forward position, pointing towards an even larger door than the entrance to the ruins, standing at least twenty feet tall.
“I’ve never been in a ruin like this before,” said Friedrich, looking around in amazement. “I wonder what that level does. Opening the door would be too easy, wouldn’t it?”
“I suspect it does open the door,” said Teleri, “but I agree. There must be some level of trickery or this place would have been plundered. I cannot understand why the pots and vases are still here.”
“Maybe we’ll take some on the way out,” said Friedrich, walking towards the platform at the centre of the room. He peered into the braziers were the piles of poorly glowing crystals sat.
“I can feel some sort of energy from this place,” said Marina, looking towards the far door uneasily. “We should tread carefully.”
“We should indeed,” said Teleri. “Now, who wants to be daring enough to pull the lever?”
Friedrich cracked his knuckles. “I’ll do—”
“Me,” said Marina, walking over to it, grabbing it and pulling hard, but it barely budged. “Oh…”
Friedrich walked over and grabbed hold too. He and Marina pulled together and the lever creaked loudly as they dragged it backwards until it clicked and the doors started to open. Slowly at first, then faster as they built momentum before grinding to a sudden halt before hitting the wall.
Looking around, expecting something else to happen, Friedrich shrugged and walked towards the open doorway that led into the next room. Marina and Teleri followed, also rather perturbed by the lack of monsters and traps.
“Ah,” said Friedrich, stopping suddenly upon seeing what lay within the next room.
“Oh,” said Marina, while Teleri looked on silently.
The room was a large hallway and it was littered with dozens of skeletons, most of whom had not reached even halfway towards the door upon dying. The floor was covered in long-dried blood that was dark and crusty. The blood was spread out in large splatter patterns, which made things all the more unusual.
“What could have done this?” asked Friedrich.
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“I do not know,” said Teleri.
“I do,” said Marina, looking towards an amethyst embedded in metal that twinkled faintly from its resting place above the far door. “This is what I could feel. The electricity from the gemstone.”
Teleri drew her bow and nocked an arrow. She took careful aim at the amethyst and let her projectile loose. It soared down the corridor and as it came within a few inches of the amethyst, it was blasted to pieces, leaving the pieces of the arrow smoking at the far side of the corridor.
“Well, I guess that’s our trip over,” said Friedrich. “I doubt we can get to the door faster than an arrow can.”
“It’s not like you to give up so easily,” said Marina, taking her staff in one hand while holding out her other.
Friedrich was horrified. “No! This is not the place to test your new spell.”
For more than two weeks now, Marina had been studying the tome her magic tutor, Hansel the Striker, had gifted her before she left Akatfall. She had only ever had the opportunity to test it on herself, but now she had a true trial that would test her training.
“Are you sure about this?” asked Teleri.
“I have to be,” said Marina, keeping her eyes fixed upon the amethyst.
She took a slow step forward, but nothing happened. A second step and still nothing. Upon taking her third step, a lightning bolt erupted from the amethyst just as it did from her staff. It flew across the room in a split second, striking Marina’s hand, but she did not explode; she did not even buckle. She dug her heels into the ground as the bolt compressed into a ball of crackling energy in her hand. She strained, trying to resist it and then yelled as she dissipated it in a flash.
“You did it!” cheered Friedrich, impressed that her new ability had worked.
“Stop talking and run!” ordered Marina before sprinting down the corridor before the amethyst charged another lightning bolt.
Friedrich and Teleri kept right behind Marina as they ran and skipped over the scattered bones. When they were halfway across the room, another bolt shot towards them. Marina caught it in her hand and squeezed it tightly, turning it to white sparks within her fist.
The trio reached the door and pushed, but it was much stiffer than they had expected. Marina’s face turned to panic as she watched the gem above her crackle. Friedrich turned into a fox and slipped underneath her while Teleri ducked. Marina caught the third bolt, but her arm was shaking vigorously as she tried to dissipate its energy.
“I...can’t…hold it…” she said.
Friedrich leapt out from underneath her and returned to his human form. He placed the minotaur mask on his face and transformed into the terrifying beast. He leapt up and grabbed hold of the gem above the doorway, secured tightly in its metal bracket. He placed his feet on the door and pulled with all his might. The gem did not budge, but the metal bracket did.
Friedrich was struck in the chest by a lightning bolt as he fell to the stone floor. It was immensely painful, but he pushed through and climbed back to it feet. Marina squeezed hard one last time and destroyed the bolt caught in her fist. With nowhere to hide the gem, Friedrich ran down the corridor. Halfway down, the bracket shook as the amethyst unleashed another bolt straight into his hand, tearing strips of fur and flesh from his fingers. He let out a wild roar as he made for the entrance hall. Upon entering, he immediately threw the bracket and gem into one of the pots lining the room and dove back into the corridor, out of reach of the spell.
“Friedrich!” called Marina, running towards him as Teleri tried to hold her back.
Friedrich was on his knees and looking at the raw flesh of his hand. He caught a few glimpses of his finger bones and was relieved to not have lost his entire hand. Had he not been a minotaur, the gem would probably have killed him instantly.
“Are you alright?” asked Marina, grabbing his hand and looking into his eyes.
Friedrich nodded.
“You’re still you?”
Friedrich nodded again. The minotaur was not trying to dominate him this time, perhaps the soul of the beast knew that its best chance of survival was to let Friedrich do what he needed to do this time. If there was one thing the souls within the masks appeared to care for, it was ensuring that they could continue to manifest physically through their wearers.
Marina looked over Friedrich’s hand, desperately trying to think of something that she could do to help, but she came up short. “You shouldn’t have done that,” said Marina, slapping him on the arm. “What were you thinking?”
Friedrich snorted and stood up, leading her back towards the doors where Teleri stood with her arms folded. She flicked her head towards the doors, wanting to make use of Friedrich’s enhanced strength while the opportunity was there. With a nod, Friedrich slammed his shoulder into the doors, forcing them open with ease.
“Very good,” said the elf. “Now, I suggest we wait until your magic runs out. If there are any beasts inside, I would not want you to get a taste for killing once again. Once you start, you find it difficult to stop.”
It was true; that was not lost on Friedrich. The second he killed as the minotaur, he wanted to kill more. With each subsequent kill, his rage only grew and it was more difficult to maintain his control over his own body…if it could even be called his body.
Once the spell wore off, Friedrich turned back into a human and his hand was as good as new. He flexed his fingers and smiled at the girls, wiggling his fingers in front of their faces.
“Who needs a healer, eh?” he joked.
With a roll of her eyes, Teleri led the way inside. The chamber was shockingly bare except for a single large brass orb that was held up by two thick poles; one to its left and one to its right. The huge sphere was taller than Friedrich and notably wider. The surface of the brass was not smooth, but patterned with runes and glyphs that not one of the three could read.
“This is…disappointing,” said Friedrich as he looked around to see if there was anything else worth taking nearby, but there was not.
As soon as Friedrich finished his sentence, the orb began to move on its poles. It separated in the middle of the brass casing, which appeared to be an outer shell. No, it wasn’t a shell. It was an eyelid. A large, green eye with a long black pupil stared at the party, all of whom were dumbfounded.