Traversing the flora strewn tunnel back towards the room with the carved relief was heartbreaking for the small group, even Valkra seemed quieter than normal. Every step seemed to be a betrayal to the little girl they had left behind, even knowing it was to find a way to free her. While the trip took less time than it had in the first place, having cleared out the roots and vines that had blocked the passage already, it seemed like an eternity.
Slowly, however, the flora thinned out before eventually disappearing entirely, and then gradually the natural rock made way for worked stone and they found themselves back at the large chamber at the base of the staircase. There were still numerous hallways leading off from this room. They had already decided that the staircase up to the settlement would not be an option until Emily was with them.
Though still feeling harried by a need to hurry the lack of a distinct way forward allowed them to see more details not only of the relief but of the chamber itself. There was a total of seven archways leading out of the chamber including the one back up towards the surface. It gave the room more of a crossroads feeling with three passages on either side of the room and the relief at the opposite end of the staircase. The passage that had led to where the life ley line core and Emily was the second one on the right. Having heard Emily’s singing made it easy to choose a path and it was open however further inspection of the other tunnels revealed most ended in cave-ins, one archway housed a blank wall, and the final one went about twenty feet around a corner before it dead-ended as well.
At a loss for where to go Ella and Xavier moved to look closer at the carved relief. Xavier was struck once again by the intricate detail and how it was still pristine despite the passage of time.
Ella pointed to the two life runes represented on the intact half of the dragon. “Wait I have seen these.” She dashed over towards the tunnel they had just emerged from and shouted back to Xavier. “Look they are a part of the stonework here. Can barely make them out but they are here!”
Xavier moved quickly to her side and was able to find what she was looking at as well. Worn by time most of the detailed decoration on the archway had been lost however here and there were small patches still intact and as Ella had noticed they were indeed holding the same runes.
Xavier looked back to the relief his mind turning with ideas. The two quests he had received came back to mind. One, The Seed of Renewal, was clearly for purifying the room but Balance Restored… it meant there was more than just that room. “Balance,” he muttered out loud as he moved back towards the relief.
The carving plainly indicated a balance between life and death and how they fed each other. He pondered the symbolism as he knew it. Ouroboros had several meanings but mostly mirrored that of the infinity symbol of eternal endless balance. The mosaic above showed life and death opposite of each other which only further fueled the concept of equal and balanced. He paused and looked towards the passageway opposite where the life one was, it was one of the ones that had collapsed. He prayed it wasn’t that simple because there was no way to get through the tons of rock and rubble in any reasonably quick amount of time. His eyes shifted to the archway next to it though. It was the blank rock wall within the arch. Narrowing his eyes as he studied it he looked back at the relief. He walked towards the archway and studied it. It was almost perfectly smooth. Almost, the second pass he was carefully tracing his fingertips over the stone to feel anything his eyes might have missed when at the keystone he found it. The smooth stone had small barely noticeable indentations.
“Ella come here I think I have found something.” He called out.
She ran across the room, abandoning her search of the relief to join him. Together they were able to make out a small line of indentations too faint to see and only just able to identify by touch. This was something key, they were certain but didn’t know how to make sense of it. The damage of time was too complete. Sudden inspiration hit Xavier and his eyes widened before he pulled Vaeltheris from its sheath, remembering that the relief and some of the runes on it reacted to the blade. There was a soft shimmer from the stone face as the indentations reacted. After several agonizing moments they saw a series of symbols, not ones in any language Xavier knew but still… a new prompt appeared before his eyes.
Congratulations you have learned a new language. Ancient Sylmyrian.
The symbols cleared up in Xavier's vision and he could make out words from them. He slowly read them aloud, “Vytha’rin si’alenth, solah na’vylah, durna ven’valith, yn thar’nok vael ren’talah.” Then repeated them in common. “Life begins as the seed, rises to flourish, falls to decay, and from dust is born again.”
Beside him, Ella gasped and looked at him hard. “How did you know what that meant?” Her eyes were narrowed and mistrustful.
He shrugged slightly. “When I was able to see them clearly I received a prompt saying I had learned Ancient Sylmyrian, after that they just made sense. Can you read them?” He realized that along with him not knowing much about her, he had never told her about himself. “We need to make time to talk and get to know each other. I have some things to tell you.”
She evaded answering his question. Though the mistrust had left her gaze she still studied him. “What do you think it means? I do not see any seeds here and we do not have time to wait for one to grow and decay.”
He shook his head and looked back to the ouroboros relief on the wall. “Everything in this chamber keeps referencing balance and the cycle of life and death. There must be another ley line nearby, death to balance the life one where Emily is. It must be causing the rot as neither is awake or balanced.” He scratched his chin and felt the stubble of a beard starting to take form. “She was tethered to the pillar, maybe she is part of the problem.” He really didn’t want to think on that possibility and what it could mean but it had to be considered.
Walking back over to the relief he raised Vaeltheris to shed more light on it. As he did so he rested his other hand on the small ledge that ringed the room at roughly waist level. Moving to look closer at the dead side of the dragon his weight shifted on the ledge, and he felt something move. Jerking back fearing he had set off a trap he braced himself for whatever might happen. Nothing did. He moved back this time to look at the ledge. It was covered in centuries of dust but beneath where his hand had rested, he saw what had shifted. A small wheel of stone was embedded into the ledge. It had turned slightly under his weight.
Xavier began wiping away the layers of dust and grime and slowly revealed a series of little wheels, eight of them in total. Each one had small designs carved into them a tree, a seed, a sapling, a pattern of four lines crossing over a central point making it look like a small star, a withered tree, a skeletal tree barren of leaves, what looked like a small pile or mound, and finally a sprouting seed. Except for the one he had knocked out of place; they were all showing the sprouting seed.
“Well,” Ella commented dryly, “I think we have found what the rhyme refers to, now we just have to make sure they are in the right order.”
Xavier pursed his lips in thought, he scratched at his chin once more and scowled feeling the stubble. He was really going to need to shave when they got back to the surface. “Life begins as the seed, I think that means that the seed should be first.” He adjusted the wheel he had knocked askew back to having just the image of the seed upright. “So the spouting seed, then sapling and tree should be next?”
Ella considered that for a moment then adjusted the next couple of wheels to turn those images to the upright position as well. “All right that covers the growing part of the life cycle, rises to flourish, as the riddle states. This means the falls to decay should be the withered tree then the skeletal one.” She adjusted two more wheels following the logic.
“That leaves two more wheels,” Xavier pointed at the last two. “From dust is born again.” He shifted the second to the last wheel to show the small pile of dust. “So, the star is being born again?” Turning the final wheel, they stepped back.
They waited several moments, and nothing happened. They looked at each other in confusion before moving back closer to the wheels.
“Did we miss something?” Xavier asked.
There was a small click, barely audible and the wheels spun back to their original position. As the pair gasped a dark cloud roiled from the nostrils of the dragon engulfing both of them. Pain rocked through their bodies and in the corner of Xavier’s vision, he could see the green bar of his stamina plummeting rapidly.
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The attack only lasted a few moments but left the duo on their knees with a bone-numbing exhaustion. Xavier felt as if he had been running at a sprint for weeks without rest and Ella was slumped to her hands and knees gasping.
When the pain had cleared enough Xavier brought up the screen showing his combat log, he had minimized the notifications cause all the fights he had been in so far were fairly straightforward. It held the answer to what had just happened, however.
You have been struck by necrotic cloud (Death Magic). You will lose 20 points of stamina per second for the next 10 seconds.
You have been struck by necrotic cloud (Death Magic). You will temporarily lose one point of constitution for the next 24 hours.
Checking his attributes page he could indeed see that his constitution score had changed from the twelve points he had in it to a score of eleven with an asterisk and his overall stamina bar had shrunk. Kneeling there as he waited for it to refill and give him the energy to even stand up again he turned the puzzle over in his mind. The wheels were not in the correct order, that much was obvious.
As he climbed to his feet, he offered a hand to Ella to assist her as well. The pair moved back to the ledge and examined the wheels again, this time careful not to make any changes.
“We cannot make that mistake too many times,” Ella stated. “It nearly knocked me unconscious, and I have a feeling that is the last thing we want down here.”
“I can’t argue that. So, the question is what did we get wrong? I thought they all made sense in that order.” He traced the symbols in the dust next to where the wheels were. “I still don’t understand the star.” He knew something was missing, a key concept.
Muttering quietly, he began to break down the line. “Vytha’rin si’alenth, Life begins as the seed. Or maybe Vytha’rin is closer to life’s essence and si’alenth is seeds of beginning. I still think that means the seed is the first symbol. It all starts with the seed.” He drew that above the row of symbols in the dust. “Solah na’vylah, rises to flourish. That is pretty much a direct translation, so the tree grows from the seed. That still points to the way we had them.” He drew out the next three symbols, the sprouting seed, the sapling, and the grown tree. “Durna ven’valith, falls to decay. Durna means falls or descends and ven’valith means into decay. Again, those match.” He pointed to the images of the withered tree and the skeletal one. “The death half of the cycle.” He paused, “Wait, Yn thar’nok vael ren’talah. That is more than just and from dust is born again. Yn is and. Thar’nok means from the dust, but Vael that is spirit or essence.”
He slid Vaeltheris from its scabbard again, the name of the blade taking on a new meaning. “Vaeltheris,” He muttered again, “vael is spirit or essence, theris… harmony or balance.” Looking up to Ella he asked. “Your blade is Essence of Harmony or Soul of Balance?”
Ella stared back for a long time before she nodded fractionally. “Something like that.” She turned her gaze from him unable to meet his eyes. “I never really understood it and did not bother to check. I was just trying to survive.”
The change in the young woman’s demeanor threw Xavier for a moment. That cemented the fact that when they got safely out of the deeps with Emily, he and Ella were due for a long honest talk if she was going to continue traveling with him. She was hiding something, and he didn’t know if he could continue trusting her.
“Ok,” he said hesitantly, “So yn thar’nok vael ren’talah. Ren’talah means born again. And from the dust spirit is born again. That’s three concepts not two. Our order is off somewhere else, but we need another symbol at the end. The mound must be dust and I guess the star is spirit?” His tone was questioning as he pointed to the two symbols. “Born again… I don’t think it’s the seed, could there be extra symbols to confuse people?”
Ella shook her head, not knowing the answer to his question. “I think it is all of them just in the proper order. She pointed towards the first symbols. One of those should be the rebirth. I just do not know if it’s the seedling or the sprouting seed.”
Xavier sighed and turned to the wheels. Carefully he started to rotate them, seed, sapling, tree, withered tree, skeletal tree, ash, star, and then sprouting seed. Holding his breath he motioned for Ella to move well back just in case. A few moments later there was a soft click and the wheels sank slightly. A loud hum filled the room followed by what Xavier could only think was the roar of a dragon. He looked up just in time to see the runes on the ouroboros light up running along its body it gave the relief the appearance of movement almost seeming to rise from the wall where the runes were lit. The light moved slowly at first as they lit in sequence from its head tracing along its entire body and returning to its mouth where it held its tail. It repeated while they watched and each time it reached the mouth it sped up.
“Now what?” Xavier asked. The rest of the room remained the same giving no indication of any additional requirements.
Ella shrugged slightly and said, “Touch it?”
Xavier glared at her. That advice was the bane of gamers the world over. “When? Where? Why?”
Ella shrugged again at a loss for further advice.
Sighing Xavier turned back to the flashing runes and hesitantly he put his hand over the head of the dragon watching as the flashing runes drew closer. As soon as the ones on the head lit up, he pushed his hand to them.
The change was immediate, though the runes continued to move they remained lit and ended up lighting the full length of the dragon's body. With a soft hiss, the stone wall in the blank archway shimmered and slowly vanished revealing a dark stairway descending further behind. The air that was released into the chamber was a mix of dry musty air, though it was heavily tinged with a faint sickly sweet metallic tang. A soft deep whisper carried forth on the musty air. “The balance restored. Enter, seekers of eternity.”
You have updated a quest. “Balance Restored.” A corruption has violated the essence of the life ley line and its surrounding gardens. You have found a hidden passage. Signs indicate it is the way to the death ley line. Only by restoring balance can the life of Emily be saved. Beware your actions could tip the scales in one direction or the other instead of creating balance. Possible Rewards: Purification and revitalization of the Life Ley Line and possibly Death Ley Line. Rescue of the missing child Emily. Access to Life Magic and possibly Death Magic. +1000 Experience. Penalties for failure: Further corruption of the life ley line and corruption of the lands surrounding the Syr’Vailen amongst other unknown penalties. Death of Emily. Failure of Echoes of Innocence.
Ella and Xavier moved over towards the stairs. Valkra, however, hesitated and whined slightly not wanting to move any closer. Xavier knelt and scooped the little cub into his arms.
“Afraid to go deeper little one?” Xavier crooned to the nervous feline. He pulled out a small scrap of dried meat offering it to the cub. It devoured it rapidly before it looked him in the eyes. He could see the resolve solidify in its more than intelligent look and he sat her on the ground. She padded over to the top of the stairs before looking back at him. “All right let's go see what this brings,” Xavier responded and moved to take a newly lit torch from Ella.
The stone walls of the stairs held elegant carvings. Each stone in the stairway and walls were well-worked and placed. Time seemed to have forgotten this part of the deeps similar to how the relief had been untouched. It was a short stairway and at the base was another elegant archway. It was carved with intricate designs of life and death entwined, blooming flowers curling into skeletal hands, and vines transforming into bones decorated its surface. It opened into a vast, vaulted chamber lined with statues of guardians each depicted with a different set of armor all in similar stylistic motifs indicating they were of the same people just of different roles. Each held a set of dual symbols: a blooming flower in one hand and a withered branch in the other.
As they had traveled down the stairs the air had grown heavier and now it hung oppressively muting even the flickering sounds of the torch. Heavy and quiet though every so often it would sound like faint whispers or wails emanated from the shadows surrounding the room.
A low, reverberating hum, similar to what they had heard as they got closer to the chamber with the life ley line had subtly shifted now that they had entered what was clearly a crypt. Instead of just the deep monotonous tone, there was a throb to it and it was sometimes broken by faint whispers or the dry rattle of unseen movement.
Each time the throb hit the shadows flickered and the pristine stonework flickered to appear broken and destroyed, marble walls now cracked and blackened, with glowing ley lines pulsing with dark energy. The elegant statues shattered and strewn across the floor. Small stone slabs in the wall broke open, and the skeletal contents spilled and shattered on the uneven floor tiles. This lingered for several minutes only to have the next thrum return it to the perfect craftsmanship.
Ella shuddered beside Xavier who was also starting to feel his nerves fray in the face of the horrors the changes revealed. Taking a single hesitant step forward Xavier received a new prompt.
You have discovered a quest. “The Echoes of Eternity.” You have found one of the cores of the ley lines that make up the Syr’Vailen. This majestic crypt housed generations of Sylmyrian nobility, they were held in a gentle repose by the power of the death ley line. The sudden influx of life to its opposition has corrupted the balance. Find a way to cleanse the crypt and restore the death ley line. Possible Rewards: Purification and revitalization of the Death Ley Line. Access to Death Magic. +1000 Experience. Penalties for failure: Further corruption of the death ley line and corruption of the lands surrounding the Syr’Valien. Your presence in this room has automatically accepted this quest.
The dual quests that had appeared in the other chamber now made more sense to Xavier. They reflected the balance required between life and death. He had a feeling that restoration of one would require the other to be restored quickly or it would be overwhelmed and subsumed by the first. The balance would have to be maintained, or he would destroy his own settlement before it had a chance to bloom truly. Failing that balance would also likely kill Emily if not all of them. His heart heavy with the burden of safeguarding his people, he glanced back at Ella and then took another step.