Tahir took the time to rest, restore his mana and aura, and observe the Redclouds and merchants that had gathered around the ruin. It still surprised him that so many of the merchants in particular were willing to set up shop, but he managed to get a good meal from a stall not unlike the ones he’d find in Nagyermend. The trust in the Redclouds to keep anything from escaping the ruin ran deep, and Tahir guessed that the merchants saw the profits of selling directly to the delving Redclouds, and buying any artifacts willing to be sold to them outweighed the potential dangers.
He met back up with the group at the entrance to the ruin, and with a nod to the guards, they began their descent down to the tenth floor. By this point, the first couple of floors had been thoroughly cleared, all of the delvers were likely between floors five and ten, and though they might slow down, there will likely be another rush once the tenth floor was cleared and the prospect of newer floors to delve into opened up. Tahir followed the others down, moving past the fifth floor where he’d previously traveled, and down into the lower floors. He thought they’d start moving cautiously once they reached the sixth floor, but they kept their brisk pace. He supposed he didn’t have much to worry about with Ester leading the way.
They walked near silently through the first couple of floors, before Naevys finally said something to Tahir. “So, I am somewhat curious,” They started, moving to walk next to him. “I’ve seen your divine spirit in action back in Isanthyr, but I am curious as to how you received your blessing.”
“Oh, its-” He started, then paused. He, Theo and Meti hadn’t exactly worked out who they wanted to tell when it wasn’t strictly necessary. “It’s not a story I’ve told to a lot of people.”
“If it helps, I’ll tell you mine if you tell me yours.” Naevys replied, and before Tahir could respond, they started up again. “I received my blessing after I helped to route a bandit raid on my hometown. Collapsed a watchtower on them while they’d gathered and split the forces that weren’t crushed in half, made for a real easy cleanup. The priests of Neharin told me it was a maneuver of tactical genius, but honestly I just happened to notice the fire the bandits had started had already made the tower’s foundation weak. It was already going down, I just happened to push it in the right direction.”
They looked his way expectantly, and Tahir sighed. Clement also added “I must admit, since the topic has come up, I am rather curious. Unlike the god of war, who likely saw potential in Naevys, here, the lord of the dead does not give his blessings to just anyone. You must have done something that affects the cycle of life and death itself.”
He supposed he could tell everyone here since they were all Redclouds, and all tied to the divine in some way at that. Much more than he was at the very least. He probably should have expected this after he acted so nosy a few hours before. “Okay, fine. A couple months ago at this point, my friends and I found a ruin while doing a Platinum scouting mission where we fought a void corrupted treant...” He paused for a moment. “It sounds so much crazier considering I was only silver at the time. Anyway, to make a long story much shorter, when we opened the ruin, an erinyes appeared, and I convinced her to let us follow her down. We helped - heavy emphasis on ‘helped’ - that erinyes slay a lich that lay at the bottom of it.”
“A lich, was it?” Clement said, breaking the pause that settled over the group after Tahir spoke. “I’ll admit, I do find that hard to believe, but your presence there must have been pivotal for you to receive the blessing.”
“I could somewhat see that if Theo was there, from what I remember of her abilities.” Raline said. “I have no real reference for yours, though, other than what I saw when you fought Ester. You do seem to have grown since then, the platinum ranking is a clear indicator of that, but do forgive me if this comes off as rude, but your abilities back then didn’t really compare.”
“You’re not wrong. I was mostly taking out weaker undead when we actually fought the lich. I think of the three of us, Theo was the only one that had magic that he actually made an effort to defend against back then. I just happened to get the erinyes out of a spell the lich cast to restrain her, and later on in the fight, the spirit I had summoned stopped the lich from taking my soul, which disrupted his magic and stunned him long enough for the erinyes to finish him off.” Recalling the feeling of nearly having his soul taken from him, Tahir put a hand on his chest. He wouldn’t soon forget that feeling, and even now he wondered if he could have resisted even as he was now.
“Felling a lich is a task I wager even Ester here would find difficult.” Clement noted. “Though it does put things into perspective. Not to imply that I thought you weren’t, but you are certainly deserved of that blessing.” Ester, despite being mentioned directly, didn’t turn her head to look back, or give any indication that she wanted to join the conversation. She had to be listening at least, since they weren’t exactly whispering between each other.
The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
“Thanks you for sharing, Tahir.” Naevys said. The conversation continued, though with lighter topics all throughout the rest of their trek down to the tenth floor. They had tread carefully here, since this floor wasn’t completely clear like the others. There very well may have been monsters roaming around or traps yet unsprung. They took a relatively straightforward path to the final chamber on the floor, but that carried the possibility of something from a side hall making its way toward them, since the hall was open and they were clearly visible in the blue light of ruin. Tahir doubted anything would present a serious danger with Ester around, but he didn’t want anything to weaken them when they went to clear out the chamber.
As their luck would have it, nothing stood in their way as they made their way to the chamber. The room just before the chamber, as Fenian had told Tahir, had inscriptions in a language that Tahir recognized, but couldn’t identify, making him think that it was one of the languages that his spirits spoke.
“Celestial.” Ester said, in response to Tahir looking around at the walls. The first time she’d spoken since they entered the ruin, in fact. So that was what told the people who first came to the chamber that those with divine magic were recommended to advance. Along with that, an ability like divine sense must have been used in order to detect the presence of undead in the chamber itself. “Prepare yourselves, then I’ll open the door.”
Raline drew a pair of daggers, and Naevys drew a sword and a wand. Clement held onto the staff he carried and looked at Tahir expectantly. With a nod, Tahir summoned the Winged Serpent at tier three, as well as the earth spirit. Even larger still than the other tiers, the Winged Serpent had grown large enough for Tahir to conceivably ride. The length of its body was a few times longer than Tahir, and even one of its wings was longer than his entire body. As he used both aura and mana to summon it, his eyes had changed to be more serpentine, and white scales sprang up on his body, running down the sides of his neck and along his arms.
Through some quick mental communication, Tahir got the Winged Serpent up to speed before he looked to Ester. “I’m ready letsss-” He started, and paused, finding that his tongue had changed to be forked and much longer than he remembered. “That’ll take ssome getting ussed to. Letss go.”
“It’s grown quite a bit from when I last saw.” Raline commented, and Naevys nodded in agreement.
Ester walked toward the door, so Tahir shrugged and followed after as she put her hands on the door and pushed. He felt a slight tremor, a rumbling as the heavy doors opened and swung inward. She didn’t care to open it fully, stepping through when she made enough space for the average person to move through without issues. As Tahir and the others stepped through, with the Winged Serpent following behind him.
The door let out into a staircase, wrapping around a wide and tall room, its ceiling reaching 40 feet high at the very least. Looking down to where the stairs led, the entire chamber looked to be full of bones. Tahir could barely see the ground from how covered they were, and none of them seemed to be the full skeleton of any individual creature, but a mix of the bones of several creatures all together. Tahir couldn’t help but think back to Zorhe’s ruin - and how one of its floors had a similar look with the bones animating into odd amalgamations.
He was about to bring that up, but something else in the room caught his attention. A hazy, black aura that emanated from the bones. It rose up to meet them at the top of the stairway, and it made Tahir nauseous. “Necrotic miasma.” Ester announced. “Make a divine shield for yourself if you can. The miasma will slowly kill you otherwise.”
Raline, Naevys, and Clement began to cast their spells, creating shields of divine magic around themselves. Tahir glanced at the Winged Serpent, and a similar shield sprang up around the two of them. Finally, Ester created one around herself, so all of them had a soft white glow around them as they started to make their way down the stairs.
“The bones are going to animate, I believe.” Tahir said, watching them warily while they descended. He drew his sword, and then pulled out his staff from his storage bag.
“I’m aware.” Ester said. The bones stayed immoble during their descent. Tahir searched through, not discounting the possibility of something responsible for gathering the bones hiding among them.
“I fought something similar in the lich’s ruin, which was also Vudraninan in origin. If I recall correctly, when they grouped together they were physically strong, they could also shoot their bones at you at high speeds. The miasma wasn’t present, though. At least, not enough to cause harm.” He explained.
“Then this will likely be a different experience from that fight.” Ester replied, just as they’d finally reached the bottom of the stairs. “Get ready.”
Without any further warning, she stepped out into the chamber proper, and almost immediately after, the bones within the chamber began to rattle and shake.