Chapter 7. Once in a Lifetime

The silence rang in Jeremiah’s ears. He could sense something ancient and powerful lurking on the other side of the door. Its very presence pressed against the stone slab like the sea against the belly of a ship, threatening to burst through.

They collectively screamed as a blow of stone on stone rattled the door, echoing thunder around them. Dust and pebbles fell from the ceiling, but the door held. 

The blow came again. 

Again. 

Again. 

As the door continued to hold, Jeremiah let out a sigh of relief. “I don’t think it’s getting through,” he said, between rolls of thunder.

“So we’re trapped?” asked Delilah. Her armor was misshapen and lopsided and she was cradling her hand.

“Might eventually leave,” said Allison.

“‘Might,’” emphasized Bruno. He glared at the edges of the door like it had betrayed him.

"Doesn't hurt to stay positive. Focus,” said Allison. “Delilah, your hand okay?"

Delilah gently touched each of her fingers to her thumb one after the other. She hissed in pain when she tried to move the middle one. "Dislocated finger, and I think something in my wrist is broken."

Bruno turned his attention from the door just in time to see Delilah yank her finger. There was a crunch as it popped back into place. The color drained from Bruno's face, but he kept steady. "S-so…bandages?" he asked.

"For now, yes," Delilah said. She bound her wrist with Allison's help, grunting as she pulled the dressing tight.

"This is not what I was expecting," said Jeremiah. With imminent death no longer looming and Delilah's arm tended to, he had finally looked around the space. Beyond the elaborate vault-like door, with its damnable trumpet fanfare, the hallway continued as a blank and monotonous corridor. It was larger than the previous areas, but was bereft of any sign of decorative elements.

Delilah lit their bullseye lantern and pointed it down the hall, illuminating smooth walls leading to a dead end. The beam revealed a huge stone plinth before the far wall.

"That some kind of altar?" asked Bruno.

"Get us closer and let's find out. I don’t like staying here," said Allison. The blows of stone golem’s fists kept a steady rhythm against the door.

Neither trap nor ornament stood between them and the mysterious object, though Bruno's investigations of every pebble and crack grew more fastidious and frustrated the closer they got. Finally, they found themselves before the great block of marble stone. It was polished to a mirror shine all around, with elaborate gargoyle heads sneering down from the corners.

Bruno orbited the object, inspecting a relief. It depicted a great funerary procession, a score of men carrying and leading a figure in repose, with crowds of mourners following behind. The features of every single person were carved with exquisite detail, down to the anguished faces of even the most obscured mourner. It was all the more astounding given the other three sides were completely blank.

"It's a tomb," Bruno finally concluded, singaling an all clear. “This must be Ol’ Mr Fidelious.”

There was a pop from close behind that made Jeremiah jump. He spun to see a burning white light coming from a small sack in Delilah’s hand. It cascaded white sparks in a fountain from the open drawstring top. She tossed it high up at a wall, where it stuck with a splat, casting soft light across the tomb.

"Sticky lamp, new invention," said Delilah. “Just trying it out.”

The sticky lamp revealed a vaunted ceiling above them, stretching high into darkness. Etched into the walls around the tomb were the rough outlines of steps ascending up into bare rock.

Allison gestured at their newly illuminated surroundings. “What’s with this place? Why is it so…half finished?"

"I think it looks half finished because it was half finished," said Delilah. "Whoever this was, I'm guessing he had construction start while he was still alive. He must have made the golem too. Then he died, and the momentum of his tyranny ran out pretty fast. His followers just quit once they realized he was gone."

"So our hopes of him being buried in a treasure vault with a king's ransom…?” asked Bruno. He gazed forlornly at the big empty room, like he could just imagine great piles of treasure that should be there.

Jeremiah slapped the tomb itself. "Well, he was buried in this, not in the room. Let's crack it open."

Bruno chuckled. "Not even a little shy about grave robbing huh?"

Jeremiah laughed, louder than he intended, but the idea was just so amusing. "Do you have any idea how many treasures and trinkets I've pulled off of corpses? I never heard a single complaint from any of them. Crack this thing open and I'll pop out his gold teeth with my bare hands."

"Ew," said Allison.

"That's just awful.” Bruno grinned. “I love it. Help me push."

With a great effort, they pushed the stone lid of the tomb inch by grinding inch. When it finally crashed to the floor, dust blew around the room in an angry roiling cloud.

Together, Jeremiah and his friends peered inside. Inside lay a skeleton, doubled over on itself, one foot resting against the side of the tomb. A pair of gold bracelets and anklets hung limp on its limbs, and a thick golden crown lay adjacent to the skull.

"Looks like they just heaved him in," said Delilah.

"Not with nothin though," said Bruno. He leaned in and pulled up a small chest, barely a footlocker, tucked in a corner at the foot of the tomb. “Jay, grab those bangles and crown, would you?"

Jeremiah climbed fully into the tomb and began wrestling the gold away from the skeleton. In the distance, the pounding on the door continued.

Bruno decided the chest was without traps and levered it open. A small hoard of golden coins greeted him, shimmering in the sparking white light.

"Thaaat's what we like to see!" Bruno picked up a handful and let them tumble back into the chest with a satisfying metallic clatter. He paused, picked up a single coin, and tossed in his hand a few times. “Ah shit. This is electrum.”

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Delilah and Allison groaned.

"What's that?" asked Jeremiah, as he carefully tucked the bangles into his bag.

"A silver-gold mix. It’s a pain in the ass ‘cause the ratio varies, so no one takes them as is. Old stuff, these were made a long time ago," said Bruno, letting the coin drop into the box with diminished glee.

"I can separate the gold," said Delilah, “it just takes a long while, and I need to get the end product certified and stamped. Eats into the profit."

“Now this is weird,” said Jeremiah, holding up the crown. From a glance, it appeared to be little more than a wide band of gold meant to rest atop the wearer’s head. The outside of the band itself was smooth and polished, but otherwise unadorned. The inside surface of the band, however, was studded with dark pink sapphires. 

Jeremiah handed the crown to Bruno. “Why have the gems on the inside?” asked Bruno, inspecting the crown. “No one can see them, and it’d be damn uncomfortable…oh wow! These are nice, these are really nice!”

“Let me see,” said Delilah. She swiped for the crown a few times before Bruno let her have it. “There’s a coat of arms stamped in the gold,” she said, fishing a curved lens from her robes, “it’s…double fess invected on a kite. That’s the Marquette family crest, actually. They’re still around, in some form or another.”

“Well, they haven’t been missing this stuff,” said Bruno, eyeing Delilah suspiciously.

“No, but…let’s just keep an open mind,” said Delilah. She stowed the crown in her robes, as opposed to the chest of coins.

Jeremiah was about to jump out of the tomb when he spotted something lumpy squashed beneath the skeleton. He shoved the bones aside to find a leather backpack, flat and cracked all over. It held the stiff form it had been in for untold years.

"Leather? That should have decayed a long time ago," said Allison.

"Might be magic," said Jeremiah, "an enchanted object is resistant to normal wear and tear. But I think the magic in this is long since spent." 

Allison took the bag from him and gingerly peeked inside. "Enchantments get spent? Like, run out?" Allison asked. She unconsciously ran a hand over armor.

Jeremiah climbed out of the tomb and dusted himself off. "Eventually, yeah. But it tends to take a very long time, depending on how often it’s used. Don’t worry, your armor will probably outlive you."

"Jay, I think the tomb lid is enchanted," said Delilah. She was studying the great stone slab. It had landed upside down, revealing an underside webbed with intricate lines and designs.

Jeremiah whistled. "Looks like. Or it was, anyways."

"Dangerous?" asked Allison. She put a hand on Delilah's shoulder and pulled her back a step, interposing herself between Delilah and the stone.

Jeremiah looked it over. The diagram was wildly complicated, and he wasn’t very good at reading complex enchantments yet. It was like looking at a pile of words and being asked what sentence they were supposed to make. There was a right answer, but a lot more not-quite-right answers. 

"I dont think it’s dangerous?" he finally decided. "Same situation as the bag, I think whatever magic was in here has long since run its course.”

“So what’s the point of it, then?” asked Bruno.

Jeremiah shrugged. “I can’t be sure, but if I had to guess, it may have been an attempt to reverse death? Clearly didn’t work, though.”

“That would explain the trumpets,” said Delilah. “It would announce to everyone that he’d returned to life to open his own tomb.”

“Arrogant bastard,” muttered Bruno. “Well, if that’s it, are we good to go, Jay?”

But Jeremiah had frozen. Amid the web of interconnecting runes and cinduits, there was one rune that looked wrong.

"Jay? Talk to me," said Allison. She raised her shield. Delilah and Bruno scampered behind the tomb, taking cover.

"I don't know this rune," said Jeremiah. He reached out and traced it with a fingertip, trying to jog his memory.

“Okay. Are we concerned, or is this just a professional curiosity?” asked Allison.

Jeremiah's hand began to shake. “No, you don't understand. I don't recognize this rune, not even a little. I cant say I know every rune, but this one…I've never seen anything like it,"

“The point, Jay. What does this mean?" Allison demanded. She glanced towards entrance that still rumbled from the golem's blows.

Jeremiah leaned close to the writing and blew on it, dislodging a poof of dust. "It means I need paper, good paper. And a way to trace this as accurately as possible. Delilah, do you have-"

"Here," said Delilah. She handed him a gossamer thin piece of paper and a black, needle thin shard of stone.

Jeremiah spread the paper over the rune. It was translucent, and even pressed against the stone he could just see the lines of the strange rune etched below. He worried the paper would tear, but it was surprisingly resilient. He closed his eyes and tried to center himself, taking deep breaths the way Thurok had taught him to prepare for exacting work. He imagined draining energy from his hand and arm to bring it to perfect stillness and control.

He let his perfectly calm arm glide over the paper. It almost felt alien, like it wasn't his arm. It was something he moved by will alone, free of the countless minute movements he had learned to ignore during every moment of any other day. It was a small rune, but it took him several minutes to capture each facet with certainty. He held up and inspected the paper.

"All good?" asked Allison. She stole another glance towards the door and its distant thunder.

“Not yet. I need another paper, several more. Delilah, how many of these do you have?" Jeremiah rolled the page up carefully and tucked it into the armored pocket of his armor where he kept Gus, who croaked at the intrusion.

"Another four. You’re error proofing the copy?" said Delilah.

"Exactly," said Jeremiah. Delilah handed Jeremiah all she had, and he transcribed each one as carefully as if it were his only chance. As he completed them, he handed one each to Delilah, Bruno, and Allison, he was dimly aware of Allison walking away with her page.

With a sigh of relief, Jeremiah finished the fifth copy. “Done. Okay, I’ll keep two.” To the others, he said, “Keep them as safe as possible. I can't promise anything, but this might be more valuable than anything else we've found...well, ever."

Bruno inspected his page. "What's it say? These are like, words of the gods or something, right?"

"Exactly that. When you hear me saying magical words? These are what I’m saying,” said Jeremiah, pointing to the different runes around the lid.

“So what’s this one say?” asked Bruno.

“No idea. It’s very rare that mages have both the pronunciation and the rune for any particular word. Like, I have no idea how I’d write the rune for any of my undead spells. And I have no idea how to say any of these runes out loud, pretty sure no one does,” said Jeremiah, indicating the tomb lid.

“I was really under the impression this was a thoroughly mastered craft,” said Delilah.

“Yeah, aren’t powerful mages supposed to be channeling arcane mysteries or something?” asked Bruno. He wiggled his fingers for emphasis.

Jeremiah scoffed. “I know we call it the language of the gods, but even the greatest mages are just babbling toddlers. Some of the babble is just barely intelligible enough to work. Same with enchanting.”

“So all we need is a dictionary,” said Bruno.

“That'll be all our troubles solved, guaranteed." Jeremiah’s second page joined the first. “Or, come to think of it, maybe it’d make all our troubles much worse.”

“Speaking of worse troubles," said Allison, returning to the group, "the door is failing."