As the training hall door slammed behind him, Callan leaned against it, his breath coming in ragged gasps. He tensed, waiting for the golem to attack the door, but when several minutes passed without incident, he allowed himself to relax.
The golem’s programming should not allow it to leave the training hall, Xeph noted. Probably.
“What happened back there?”
It appears that some of the functions of this temple are not responding to my commands. Others are not automating the way they should. See that sconce there?
Callan glanced up to see another of the bowls attached to the wall that usually had gray flames burning inside of them. This one was dark.
Normally, those should light up automatically when they detect a nearby presence. I do not know what it means that they are not, but it bodes ill for our departure. There may be mechanisms standing between us and freedom that simply no longer function.
“That’s a problem, but not an immediate one at least,” Callan said. Wiping his brow, he straightened and glanced in either direction down the hallway. “I don’t suppose you know where a drinking fountain is? After all that fun in the training hall I’m kind of parched.”
Actually, I just might. Go up the tunnel a bit further and turn left.
Following the god’s directions, they soon found themselves in a large chamber, though nowhere near the size of the main hall. At its center was an ornately carved fountain, complete with a half-dozen fish statues around its edges pouring an endless stream of water within.
There. A fountain.
“Not exactly the kind of fountain I meant, but thanks.” Callan approached the edge and peered in. Crystal clear water showed a bottom of rough white marble. “Is it safe to drink?”
Xeph harumphed. I should hope so. My followers used this to gather water for their daily use. It connects to an aquifer buried beneath us where rainwater from the surface is funneled in and cleansed.
He paused, then added. At least it used to. I imagine the aquifer has been full for some time.
Callan reached down and cupped some of the water. Bringing it to his lips, he let the cool, clean taste of it wash down his throat.
Instead of making him feel better, the water just brought a rush of panic. The enormity of his situation was settling on him again. While he’d been able to mostly ignore it during the training, now that he had a moment to rest, it was returning in full force.
Last time, it had taken a shock from Xeph to help steady him. Since he wasn’t exactly eager to repeat that particular experience, he just needed to find something else to focus his attention on. Luckily, there was another matter that had been weighing on his mind.
“Where is everyone?”
Pardon?
“All of your followers. Or anybody else, for that matter.” Callan gestured to their surroundings. “This place is massive, and yet it looks like nobody has been here for centuries. Why? It made sense when I thought this place was nothing but a ruin, but look at this—fresh water, crates of food, furnished rooms... it’s like this whole cave was built to prepare for a siege, and then nobody ever bothered to show up.”
Xeph didn’t reply, and the silence yawned.
I—
“You don’t remember?”
Correct.
“But you’d tell me if you did, right? Because I’m not going to be any help to you if I don’t understand the situation. For better or worse, we’re kind of bound to each other now. I need you to heal me, and you need me to get you back out in the world. That sort of relationship requires a degree of trust.”
Of course I would tell you, Human! Do you think I like stumbling around here in my old home, grasping at pieces of memories? Do you think I enjoy being surrounded by shadows of my former glory, not remembering what I did to lose it?
“I suppose not.” Callan took another sip, then leaned back against the side of the fountain. “But still, you have to admit it’s strange. A whole world of people out there, and you had to pull me from my own to help you. Is there a reason you couldn’t simply do the same to someone already here?”
There were reasons, yes. Only...
“...You don’t know what they are.” He let out a sigh. “Just promise me, the second something comes back to you, you’ll tell me, okay? I don’t like being stuck in the dark.”
Just because a few of the lights are non-functional is no reason to be melodramatic. The majority of these tunnels appear to still be well lit.
Callan put his head in his hands. “I meant figuratively.”
Oh.
“Don’t worry about it.” Climbing to his feet, he took a look around. “We’d better get back to looking for the exit. Any preference in directions?”
When the god didn’t respond, Callan chuckled. “Onward it is.”
----------------------------------------
They only made it a short distance down the tunnel before Xeph called a halt. I... This area feels familiar.
“In what way?” Callan glanced about, but this section of tunnel looked the same as all the others. A few doorways, some even still containing doors, but most without. There was a definite feeling of deterioration this far from the main chamber.
Just a moment... Yes. Go that way!
Following the general tugging sensation in his brain, Callan turned down a side tunnel, which snaked downward and followed several sharp turns, a distinct contrast from the relatively straight passages they had been following until then. It ended abruptly in front of a steel door, like the kind you typically saw in bank vaults.
It even had an enormous wheel set into its center.
“Is this the exit?”
Xeph scoffed. What? Don’t be absurd. This is something even better. My former treasury.
Callan’s eyebrows rose. “I suppose that might be useful. All I’ve got on me is a stick of gum. Not that US currency was going to be of much value here, anyway.”
What are you babbling about?
“Nothing. So how do I open it? Just turn the wheel?”
Yes. If the mechanism still functions, it should sense my presence. Only myself or my high priest were allowed access to this chamber.
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“Right, because everything else is operating around here so consistently.” Despite his words, Callan grabbed hold of the wheel and gave it a turn. It spun easily, without even a hint of complaint from rusted gears. At least some things hadn’t deteriorated.
Prepare yourself to be amazed, mortal. Xeph sounded as if he were rubbing invisible hands together with glee. While I might not have been among the richest of deities, being the god of mountains does come with certain benefits. My followers were adept at retrieving precious stones and metals. The best of their finds were kept here for me to enjoy.
“Sweet, so that means I can take anything I want?”
Within limits. Just because we are rebuilding my empire is no reason to—
The god cut off with a strangled cry as the door swung open, and the two of them saw what lay beyond.
There were no racks of jewels, nor piles of gold waiting to be jumped on. Instead, a smell like rotting garbage hit Callan’s nose, the floor littered with broken pieces of stone that had been stained greenish brown by a thick layer of some putrid substance he couldn’t immediately identify. Larger chunks of stone also lay to either side, the walls pockmarked by the holes where it had broken out of.
Even the ceiling had an appearance more reminiscent of Swiss cheese, with a particularly large piece of stone hanging on by a single nub right near the doorway.
What is... I don’t understand... WHERE IS EVERYTHING? Callan’s head rumbled as the god let out a growl like a descending avalanche. There should be more jewels than one can count! Where are my emeralds? My spinels? My taaffeites? WHERE IS MY GOLD?
“Gone, by the looks of it.” Waving a hand to try and chase away some of the horrid smell, Callan glanced around. “Do you think bandits made it down here? Or maybe some of your followers helped themselves when they left.”
No... I should have recognized the signs earlier. This foul stench, the damage to the walls. This can only mean an infestation of velak.
“What?”
They are underground scavengers, Xeph explained. The bane of stone gods such as myself. This vault should have been warded against them, but it appears the protection failed. Now they’ve taken everything.
A low cry echoed through the chamber, and a creature lumbered out of the wreckage. To Callan, it looked vaguely similar to a yellowish slug—if slugs also grew to the size of a weasel and had slimy legs that they used to waddle across the lawn and into his mother’s tomato patch.
The creature turned its eyeless face towards them, let out another low cry, then lumbered behind a rock pile.
Callan lowered his fists, having not even realized he had raised them in the first place. “Are these things dangerous? Also, where do you think they stashed your gems?”
The creatures are harmless enough, they only become aggressive when protecting their territory. And the gems are long gone by now, the gold too. Velak are lithovores.
It took Callan a moment to puzzle out the meaning of the word. “They eat stone?”
Precious metals, mostly, though the substance coating their bodies can dissolve stone as well. It is how they burrow and search for their sustenance.
“I’m guessing Mountainform isn’t going to be particularly useful, then. Or Shape Stone.”
Unfortunately, no.
“Welp, time to retreat.” Callan started backing up.
Wait!
He froze, hand on the doorframe. From inside the vault, one of the velak let out a mournful cry.
There! Against the far wall, do you see it?
“Um...” Callan glanced inside and saw what appeared to be a wooden box sticking out from a pile of rubble. It was probably no bigger than about two feet in any given direction.
Something is coming back to me... Yes, I am certain. We need that box.
“You sure, Xeph? Wouldn’t the velak have just eaten whatever’s inside it by now?”
No, they would have left this particular box alone. Velak don’t care for wood, and the contents are neither metal nor stone.
Callan frowned at that. Some fancy pottery, maybe? What else would be worth keeping in a vault like this?
Well, whatever. If the god said they needed it, that was that.
You’ll be fine, mortal. Move quickly, and you can be in and out before the velak even know you’re there, Xeph said, with more confidence in his voice than Callan was currently feeling. Still, the one creature from before hadn’t seemed particularly fast. He’d probably be fine.
Stepping into the room, he paused a moment to decide his path. Around the pile of rubble there, then over the one there... Yeah, he could do this.
He started forward, only to jump back as one of the velak let out a hiss and lurched off a pile. It stared blindly in his direction but didn’t come any closer. Did it actually know he was there?
Pulling up his stat screen, he checked his apotheosis. Currently it was sitting at 9%. Enough for three good uses of Shape Stone if he was careful.
Carefully, he tried edging around the velak. It hissed again, and he froze. Calling on his orison, he squeezed his hands together, using it to form a stubby wall right in front of the creature. The hissing cut off. He waited, but when the velak didn’t try and clamber over it, took another tentative step forward.
“Oh, yeah, brilliant plan, Xeph, march right into the slug-weasel nest. No problem,” he grumbled as he made his way past the next pile of rubble. Luckily no more velak were in sight. “Figures the first monster I would encounter would be friggin stone eaters.”
Monsters are made-up creatures that mortals believe prey on them for their own amusement. Velak are just animals. No different from a pig, or a sheep, or a dvorak. All of them are products of their environment.
“Okay, got it, not a monster. Also, what’s a dvorak?” Callan held up before the god could respond. “Wait, let me guess: you don’t remember.”
Hmm. I recall that they are beasts of burden. Beyond that, however...
“Well, I suppose that’s something.” He gave a tug, but the chest was soundly buried and resisted his efforts to tug it free. He bent more effort into freeing it, but when nothing budged, cast another glance over his shoulder. No velak in sight.
“So no monsters in this world, huh?” Callan grunted and wiped a bead of sweat away. “Seems weird, given the whole video game interface.”
I don’t know what a video game is.
“It’s an. Earth. Thing. Can’t. Really. Explain!” With a dissatisfied grunt, Callan released the chest. It was stuck solid. If only he had a way to move the rubble—
Oh. Right.
Activating Shape Stone, he grasped the rocks to either side of the chest and flowed them away. While anything his power touched sort of melded together into a solid lump, he still managed to set off a small avalanche. Rocks clattered to the floor as Callan pulled the chest free.
Alert: 4.75% Apotheosis used.
Total Apotheosis is at 18.5%
“Hah! Take that you stupid...” Callan’s grin faded from his face as the clattering echo was replaced by a series of hisses. Velak began crawling out of the two nearby rock piles, featureless faces sniffing in his direction.
“Uh, Xeph?”
Move human!
Callan didn’t have to be told twice. He snatched up the chest and darted around the nearest pile. Several velak launched at him, and he swatted the nearest—only to pull his hand back with an angry curse. The velak slime bubbled as it ate away at his Mountainform, exposing the bare skin underneath.
“Dammit! That burns!” He kicked away another of the creatures, then let out a scream as the slime ate through his pants, leaving red blisters on his leg.
Two more velak skittered across the ground at him, and he just barely managed to knock them away using the chest. Xeph let out a cry of dismay, but Callan was past caring. Better to lose the chest than his life.
He stumbled his way towards the door, but a half-dozen of the creatures followed after him. The closest leapt onto his back, its slime like a burning brand against him. Even as it slid off, Callan lost his balance and crashed to the floor.
Rolling over, he saw the hissing velak slowly approaching him, like a pack of slime-encrusted hyenas circling their prey. He kicked out at the nearest, which hissed and skittered back a pace, only to start forward again.
Dammit, this is not how I saw today going. Glancing over his shoulder, he saw the door with its solid vault wheel was only about six feet away. If he abandoned the chest he might be able to scrabble his way to it and get it closed before the creatures reached him.
A hiss drew his attention. One of the velak reared onto its hind legs, and as it did so Callan noticed the pockmarked ceiling overhead. There had been a particularly delicate piece hanging near the entry. If he could just hook it with his powers...
Activating Shape Stone, he directed his focus to the ceiling more on intuition than knowledge. When he thought it was in the right place, he pulled in opposite directions.
Alert: 4.75% Apotheosis used.
Total Apotheosis is at 23.25%
There was an almighty crack above his head. Callan rolled over and half leapt, half-scrambled towards the door. He didn’t make it more than three steps before a chunk of stone as wide across as he was tall slammed into the floor behind him, shaking the ground under his feet.
When he turned back, the six velak were gone. A small pool of yellowish-green slime was oozing out from beneath the ceiling chunk. The chest lay beside the mess where he had abandoned it, unharmed.
The room had gone silent, but Callan suspected there were still more velak around. Darting forward, he snatched up the chest again and pelted for the door. Slamming it behind him, he spun the wheel, then collapsed to the floor. He lay there, panting, his lungs on fire.
Good work, human. Not the best, but... good work.
“Thanks.” He wanted to say more, but it was too much work to force the words out of his throat. Instead, he turned his head and stared at the unimposing little chest, the source of all this chaos.
Whatever is in there, it better be worth it.