Chapter 10 - Dabo Mainland’s Crystal Altar

The feast had just ended and everyone had gone back to their rooms, waiting to be called for the night's titling.

Nothing had been discussed further for what this titling was, as during Mishka’s announcement, something happened that made all of the Dabomens vacate the feast chamber.

Mill was too far to hear what the ruckus was about, but he heard something about a “scourge”, though he did not know what that was.

“Where were you a while ago, Mill?” Clarese asked as they walked down a hallway following a Dabomen towards the bathroom. “When I went outside you were gone.”

“Oh.” Mill considered for a second if he had to tell Clarese what happened. He decided not to. “I just took a little breath, then I got lost.”

“You sure you’re not sick?”

“Yeah, I’m fine.”

Clarese nodded.

They passed more passages without talking until they finally reached a doorless entryway, showing what looked like a bathing room inside.

They followed the Dabomen and entered it.

Inside was a wide space of room full of floating mist, with a huge pool almost taking up all the floor in the middle of the room.

There were people, both men and women, bathing in the pool and it took seconds for Mill to realize that they were all in various degrees of undress. He immediately strayed his gaze away from the pool and focused his gaze to the walls of the room and the arched doorless doorways hollowed in it where he saw people passing by and in it.

The guide picked a doorway from the east wall and entered it.

Mill and Clarese followed the guide and they entered a short passageway that led them to a room with two doorways in it.

Mill immediately guessed it was the bathrooms, seeing from the bathroom signs fastened or carved on top of the two doors.

But what was strange was that even before the guide told them where the female and male bathroom were between the two doors, Mill already knew.

Not because it was obvious from the signs, but because he could… read it.

What baffles him was the fact that those signs were written in symbols that he never saw before. But it was as if those symbols were trying to communicate with him, scratching a part of his brain. Then suddenly, when he tried to accept their ‘call’, two foreign words he had never heard before popped up in his head, accompanied by a direct translation in his own language.

He looked at the left door’s sign and his head read it as female. He looked to the right and it said male.

The guide then told them which door is which and it was the same with his. He did not know how he did it. He could only read and speak one writing system and language respectively.

He was sure those symbols were still foreign to him. He looked at it again and there was a split second where he could not understand it, but after a second the translation would pop up in his head.

The Dabomen guide left afterwards and told them he’d wait in the pool area.

Still weirded out, he stopped Clarese who was about to enter the female’s bathroom. “Clarese, wait a minute.”

Clarese looked at him, her face slightly contorted. “What?” Her voice sounded impatient. “I really need to…”

“Can you read the sign above?”

Clarese jitterly looked at the sign and shook her head. Without waiting for Mill, she quickly entered the bathroom and slammed the door closed.

Mill stood there for a minute, confused about why he could now read a writing system he never knew before. But after some wayless thoughts, he came to a conclusion that he had no idea. He sighed and decided to leave it as it was.

Without anything to do, Mill entered the male’s bathroom to check it.

He actually expected less from the bathroom facility the Dabomen had because it was located inside of a cave. He thought the plumbing system should be difficult to implement.

His mind imagined a pit or a chamber pot, anything but modern. What he did not expect was that the bathroom was as modern as it needed to be.

It was huge and spacious enough to fit ten stalls inside it. The whole room was cleaned, with ceramic tiles on the floor and white painted walls. There were sinks; faucets with running water; toilets that had automatic flushing; and even a huge mirror in the wall.

He went out after checking it for a bit, still impressed and glad about the facility.

Clarese was still not finished so he waited for her. But after some time, instead of Clarese, he heard some footsteps coming from the small passageway and two male Dabomens entered the waiting space.

They were wearing the same outfits Dabomen wore but they had made their robe into a cape, showing what they wore inside. They were wearing tough looking garments that had plates and leather covering the vital parts of the body. It had wears, scratches and tears all over but instead of making it old, it only made it look tough. He guessed it was what armor should look like. He also noticed a fancy looking belt pocket with them, bulging from their waist, full of rectangular objects.

They gave Mill a glance as they passed and Mill felt a slight pressure coming from them. They only glanced at him for a second and then they entered the male’s bathroom.

Mill released a breath after they closed the bathroom’s door.

“Altaworlders,” an angry voice said inside the male’s bathroom. “Look at them prancing around. The johaman was clearly making a mistake.”

“Be calm. Someone might have heard you.”

“Who cares?! The johaman had gone senile, he won’t even listen to us.”

“We had a plan, just be patient.”

“I know. It just angers me…”

Mill did not hear the next words as the door to the women’s bathroom opened and Clarese went out. “Let’s go,” she said.

Mill nodded and they went to the small passageway.

The conversation he had just heard confused him but he paid it no mind. Mostly because he did not know enough context to understand what they were talking about.

What he learned though, was that not everyone was happy with the altaworlders.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

***

Mill stood with the setting sun’s red glow washed on him in front of a cliff, well ten meters from it.

Just like the other altaworlders that were with him, he was also confused why the Dabomen called them and gathered them beside a cliff with a fall so high that any person that would fall in it would be a paste when they reached the ground.

They just went past a huge arched doorway with a meter thick metal doors, from walking the crazy cave structure that the Dabomen considered their homes, that had some resemblance with an ant hill.

After walking endless passageways and curving tubes that they called walkways, Mill thought they were finally going outside after seeing a giant doorway.

Mill was baffled when the Dabomen that escorted them even told them this was the main entrance to their cave. Unless these Dabomens had the ability to fly, it would not make sense why their entrance directly led to a cliff!

But… could they?

To everyone’s delight, there was still an ample huge space outside the giant gate, around hundred meters in size from both sides. It was paved with stones and the two walls from both sides were directly carved from the mountain they were in. If the cliff in front of them only had railings, it would be a perfect viewing deck to watch half of the island, the undulating mountain tops of hills and the wide sea beyond it.

Mill wondered if this was an execution era where they throw people out.

He chasticed himself from the thought. The Dabomen did not look barbarian to him. It could be caused by a landslide.

He smiled blandly. He did not believe that for a second! The walls, the cliff’s edge and the obvious straight cut to this side of the mountain felt like some giant cut it like a piece of cake with a big knife. If he could see it up in the air, it would look like a giant staircase with only one stair. He stopped. What if it was a stair for a giant?

He bit his thumb’s nail and shook his head.

He instead looked at the sea and enjoyed its view that was even wider from where he stood. It glittered in an orange light, with the sun sitting on top of it, giving off a bright orange light to the empty hills and bleak mountaintops the islands have.

There was still greenery in some areas from where he could see, but mostly they were empty. Nothing but a wide space of brown land.

He also saw some areas here and there with a few houses in it. It was too far though for him to see if someone was living in it.

It even made him more curious why they lived in a cave when they all have this wide space that they could build houses to. It could even fit a city if they want.

It was also too bare.

Remembering the feast given hours ago, he hardly saw any green foods in it. With all this land, they could build farms to produce food. But it looked so barren everywhere. The Dabomen did not look like they were uneducated about farming.

Was the land infertile for plants? But they had meat and it was enough for them to feed hundreds of people in one sitting.

Where did they acquire it? This was not a land where animals could thrive. Did they raise it inside the cave and with magic? Were the root crops raised inside the cave too? The sea was there, why were no fish served in the feast?

Mill's thoughts were disrupted when he heard some noises behind him. He looked back to the entranceway and saw Dabomens in their white robes coming out of it, followed by a group of black robed teenagers who sat behind him during the feast. They stopped just a few meters from the metal doors and did nothing.

They waited for a while till a man dressed in a white robe but with gold silver linings, went out of the entranceway and headed to the cliff’s direction.

Mill’s gaze immediately zoned out to the man’s direction as he felt a subtle pressure from him. He did not know why but his instinct was telling him the man was strong.

The man passed the altaworlders who parted a space for him to pass. He stopped when he was ten steps away from the cliff, faced them and gave them a kind smile.

“Good day to all of the altaworlders here and to my brethren. I am Tikon Gorodabo, the johaman of this mainland. Tonight we will proceed with your titling. Please follow me.”

The johaman turned around and walked towards the cliff. He was walking casually as if there was no cliff in front of him.

Mill questioned if the man was crazy. No one followed the man, but he still continued walking till he was only a step away from the edge.

The man took the last step towards the open air and just as Mill expected him to tumble out of the cliff, a huge wooden floor rose up from down below, just enough to catch the man’s feet. He then continued walking in it as if the floating wooden platform was completely normal.

The flying wooden platform lined up with the edges of the cliff and completely sealed up the remaining space. If Mill did not see it with his eyes, he would have thought the connected wooden floor was just another part of the ground.

The Dabomens then moved and crossed it without batting an eye.

“Come,” the johaman called again to the remaining altaworlders and after some hesitation, those in the front slowly moved to the wooded platform.

Mill, who was near the side, did not wait for those in front and immediately crossed the platform, the Sinilians following him.

He was not the only one who immediately crossed it.They probably have similar concerns like him. Despite how the platform was floating out of nothing, it was also just a piece of thick plain wood with no railings or barriers from all of its sides. Someone who values their life would not want to be left standing near the edge.

But Mill’s concern was for naught as the platform was big enough for everyone to stand in it. It still had enough space for thrice the number of the current occupants after it was filled.

When everyone had already entered the platform, without warning, the platform rose up so smoothly that Mill would not have known it moved if not for how his view kept elevating.

He marveled about the science of this wooden elevator. It floated and carried so many people with only just a piece of wood.

His jittery nerves were replaced by amazement as the platform gradually rose up beside the mountain. The mountain was even taller than Mill imagined as it still stretched up above the Dabomen’s cave entrance for miles. It gradually sloped up until Mill saw a straight cut above the mountain. It should be a flat area like a plateau but it was too straight to be natural. His fancy guess about a giant came back and he imagined that the same giant sliced it straight with a giant sword.

They finally reached the top of the mountain and he was correct that it was a plateau. They flew above it and he stood up amongst the altaworlders and Dabomens as the whole view of the island was gradually revealed to him.

It was a perfect circle.

The island spanned for at least ten kilometers across and each side of the island made a perfect curve. It looked like a giant cake made of land and the mountain they were in was the center of it. In fact it was the tallest mountain as far as he could see. It was such a beautiful and scary sight.

He was now convinced that he was really on an island.

As he looked at the 360 degrees view of the horizon, he noted the absence of any nearby island. Somehow that brought fear inside him.

There were no islands as far as he could see and the wide stretch of sea made it worse. He was as good as trapped on this island.

They gradually slowed down ascending ten meters from above the plateau, which was as big as a football field. The platform then moved horizontally towards the center of the plateau. They stopped halfway to the center and Mill saw something shining in what should be the center of the mountain, and with the island.

He kept blinking his eyes if he was seeing it right. But there, in the center of the plateau, was a giant crystal formation.

Cuboidal crystals, the size of a human being, formed into some kind of crystal formation jutting out from different directions. Mill estimated there were at least ten of them and they looked ethereal from afar. He did not know why, but even if the crystal was inert and not doing anything, his perception made him think that it was moving. He felt it was alive and pulsing with life.

The wooden platform smoothly landed on the ground and the Dabomen slowly trickled out from the platform while the altaworlders followed.

It was just starting to dusk but the Dabomens had already lighted up some lamps and torches around the vicinity of the crystal formation.

The Dabomens circled the crystal formation and they left a huge space for the altaworlders to fill. The altaworlders followed and filled it, anticipation and curiosity painted in their faces.

“We gathered here today to receive the gift from the Goddess of Crystals,” the johaman said in a loud voice. “Bow yourselves to the crystal altar and say your gratitudes.”

The Dabomen all kneeled in front of the crystal altar and the altaworlders were left standing, confused about what to do. A Dabomen signaled for them to kneel and one by one they all kneeled.

Then the Dabomen started singing.

It was faint at first, like murmurs of words hinting a little tune, then a lilting male voice led the song slowly, rising every moment till another cacophony of mellow voices accompanied it.

The tune slowly changed into a beating tone and despite the absence of musical instruments, Mill swore he heard accompaniments with the acapella performance.

The song abruptly stopped for a second then started again into an energizing tune. He could hear lyrics from the song but he refused to hear them and instead enjoyed the song as it was.

A group of Dabomen stood up and they danced.

There were no synchronous moves with their dance and they looked like they were randomly dancing to anything.

A lead dancer then went to the front and brandished a metal sword and he danced with it.

A Dabomen on the side stood up and made a grabbing motion from the ground and two clumps of earth came out from it. He floated it in the air and threw it at the sword dancer. The sword dancer swung his sword sideways and a blue light, shaped like the blade of the sword, came out and hit the clumps of earth. It cut through it like its made of paper, separating it into four, then another two swift slashes, and the four clumps of earth fell to the ground in crumbles.

It went into a fantasy exhibition after that.