Sera reached out and pulled the book from the leaves. Like the body she was keeping company, it bore heavy decay. She whispered an apology to the corpse across from her as many of the pages came apart as she opened it.

Sera drew a short breath as she read the first page.

27th Expeditionary Journal of Damien Dufort

Chief Reclaimer, College of Antiquity

Bastion

Sera looked up in sorrowful shock at the corpse which sat opposite of her. This was the man called Damien, who her father said brought her to him and her mother, seventeen years ago. Simon and Allison were her parents and she loved them as such, no one could ever stand in place of them. They raised her, they took care of her, but Sera couldn’t help but think of how this man, Damien Dufort had cared for her since she had been discovered in this place. She wondered if, had he lived to carry out his plans to return and bring her with him to Bastion, would he have raised her? How different would her life have been? She wondered if he had a wife or children. Was there anyone to mourn him?

Even so, she went on, turning the pages as delicately as she could. The majority of what they contained was lost to the rot in the parchment, but through the holes and stains of the pages which weren’t completely ruined, she could make out bits and pieces of what their author had written.

Damien had excellent penmanship, his words were all written neatly and uniformly. Not a single letter had been rushed, every sentence had been carefully and clearly structured. This man had been a true professional.

Sera slid down the wall to sit as she read what little she could make out, carefully turning the pages. Many of them disintegrated at their disturbance, most were stuck together, but Sera stopped to wipe tears from her eyes as she came upon the few legible words on a page about a quarter of the way through the book.

“July 5th, 1042 A.P.

....a curious discovery…..a baby girl, naked as the day she was born, no more than a year old. It wa…..illip and Martha who happened to…..her…..Been left to in my care…..tha says she seems to like me.”

Sera turned the page but couldn’t make out anything of substance. The majority had been eaten away by decay, only the top few lines could be read.

“July 8th, 1042 A.P.

It would be a lie to say that I have not taken to the child. Martha says I would make an excellent father, I disagree. A father is there when his child needs them. That is something which I cannot offer.

She reminds me of my young sister, in the days when she was but a baby herself, in the days when she still lived. In her memory, I have taken to calling the child after her; Sera.”

Sera struggled to choke down a sob as she read those words through teary eyes. She hadn’t expected to see her own name written out in the man’s journal. Sera, named for this noble man’s late sister.

She took a moment to steel herself before turning the pages. Throughout the ruined text, Sera read of his thoughts revolving around her as well as my entries relating to the expedition. She pieced together the various theories regarding a myriad of subjects regarding the ancients and what they would mean for the world today. She discerned through context, discoveries which either supported or disproved such theories if not spawning new theories altogether.

There was one discovery that Damien had written about which stood out to Sera. It had been accompanied by an expertly illustrated map of the ruins, showing the path to a particular place within the ancient city.

“.....successfully been removed from the path blocking the way into…..deep underground where…..ower of the Ancestor Gods still breathes with life…..exists a great chamber…..strangely empty save for the…..stone. I have seen such an artifact a few times in my…..appears at the chamber’s center when approached…..as of yet can only speculate as to its purpose.”

Looking over the map, she was able to find her location. She was currently in the place which had served as Damien’s ‘office’ as he described it a few pages earlier. It was on the north side of their camp, a place which they had called ‘the Plaza”. It wasn’t too far from her location. Perhaps she would find something meaningful to her in this ‘great chamber’ where the power of the gods was said to remain active. Perhaps there she would find answers to her burning questions.

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Sera considered it for a moment, but thumbing carefully through the last remaining pages, she carried on reading.

“July 22nd, 1042 A.P.

…..have posed the question as to the nature of the child’s being here…..I must say such a discovery is curious beyond measure, but we must not jump to outrageous conclusions without having exhausted all possible….haps a young couple, not yet ready for the hurdles of parenthood, may have abandoned her. Perhaps lost travelers taking refuge within the structure perished, leaving their child behind. Per…..”

Sera’s face bore a grim look. Her father was wrong, at least some of the reclaimers did find her existence here too curious to be counted as mere coincidence.

In the following entries, Damien wrote of the first Chimera which attacked the reclaimers. In dealing with the first five or six incursions, Damien and his people had suffered no casualties. That soon changed however, as three entries later, three people were listed as having died of injuries sustained while fending off an attack from the monsters.

Reading on, Sera froze as she read the entry’s date. It was her birthday.

“August 3rd, 1042 A.P.

It is done. I have taken the child to the adjacent town and have given her into the care of the locals. I must admit that I do miss her. I am dedicated to my calling, but I am finding that contrary to the belief of…..y subordinates, I am not made of stone. My heart does indeed feel a bit heavier without her laughter to lighten it, but I will see her again. It is just not safe here anymore.

Perhaps this was never the place for a child in the first place…..

…..of note: Before giving up the child, I sought out anyone who may have lost a child, or anyone who may have callously abandoned her. No one claimed her as their own. There are still yet more logical possibilities, but even I am beginning to wonder. When I return to collect the chi…..be taken to Bastion, the…..will determine the meaning of her…..if not, at least she will have a comfortable and meaningful life…..in the College.

…..has led me to ponder…..of caring for another. Perhaps I will take Martha up on her offer to join her for a meal when all of this is over.”

This was the day that she had been brought to the people who went on to become her parents. She thought about the life that they had given her, and the love that she had with them. Though adopted, she knew that they were her true parents, nothing could change that. Sill, reading Damien’s words made her feel a strange mix of gratitude and loss. She wished she could have known this man by ways beyond that of the tattered pages of a crumbling journal.

Sera made to turn the page, but it was stuck together with several other pages, the next page beyond the clump was blank, as was the next, and several more after that. She was beginning to conclude that there was no more to read when she turned one last page revealing one final entry dated roughly a week after her birthday.

“Sera,

I do not know if you even keep the name I left you with. It likely matters not, as the prospect of you reading this, at all is likely little more than the vain hopes of a dying man.

It is pride that drives me to write this one final entry. It is regret that drives me to address it to you. Even as my broken and bleeding body lies here, my life slipping away, I am compelled by pride to write, regardless, in hopes that the world will know of my contribution to the cause, but I have regret that such a cause was all I lived for, for there is more to life than ‘the mission’.

It was you that made me realize that. Perhaps if I could only convey that lesson to you, then my life will not have been wasted. Perhaps if you could take my words and apply them to your life, then my mistakes may still yet have purpose. Failure is not true failure unless nothing is learned from it.

I have made many discoveries and contributions towards the goals of The College, but despite this, it has been time, squandered. Though my work has been for the betterment of mankind, it has been to my work that I have given the entirety of my being, and I had forgotten the people for whom my work was meant to benefit.

Do not make the same mistakes that I have, Dear Sera. Take the time to appreciate the joys of life and care for the lives around you. If you fight, if you seek out the unknown, or simply even just live a common life, do so with care, do so with love. Allow your life to be filled with what I did not allow mine.

As for me, I go now to rest. Know that I do so, thinking of you.

Damien Dufort”

A tear ran down Sera’s cheek as she gently closed the book. She gazed across the room at the remains of the man who had written it. This was a man who cared so much for her, yet she never knew him.

A sound shook her from her thoughts.

Outside of the ruined building, the shuffling of leaves could be heard. Sera held her breath and listened. Muffled by the walls of the structure around her, she could hear voices out in the plaza. One was low in tone and though she could not understand what it was saying, it was undoubtedly male. The other had a higher pitch, the voice of a woman. They spoke to each other in slow, quiet tones. The muffled conversation didn't contain words that she recognized.

Sera left the room and cautiously went back the way she came, approaching the entryway which led back out into the plaza. As she stepped out to the exterior doorway, Sera froze. Standing in the plaza, only twenty paces away, they stood. Sera had guessed that there were two voices, male and female. She had guessed correctly, but they were not human.

Powerful muscles rippled beneath skin that was paler than pale. They stood a bit higher than the average man on double jointed legs like that of a ram, their feet ending in cloven hooves.

Thick horns grew from the bony plates crowning their heads which bore faces devoid of any features save for their small mouths filled with pointed, but otherwise human-like teeth. Around their heads and down their necks grew wild matted manes of black hair.

Aside from their difference in size and proportion, only the male’s diminutive genitals indicated the difference in gender. The female didn’t have breasts, instead both of these beasts bore broad chests which supported two pairs of thick, muscular tentacles. One pair existed where arms should have been, and their chests bore thick muscle which bulged up and over their shoulders before separating as a second pair of the muscular tendrils. They stood with a slightly hunched posture, their inhuman appendages extending to the ground supported their bestial stance.

Sera gasped as she stood trembling in the doorway. The Chimera turned their heads in her direction.