22 | Buried Giants

For a time, Eli is concerned this will be another endless tunnel. He has filled their water skin, and they can survive on the little food they have certainly for a few days more, but he hates feeling helpless as they walk and walk down an endless tunnel.

With the stone bees gripped in his hand, there is little other light—none, perhaps—but Klia seems more and more eager as they go along. If the tired little child is managing this so well, Eli should not despair.

Instead, he finds himself dwelling on Thistle's words.

…he doesn’t want the Order to take us as well.

Lyra. If were slightly different a man, he could cry. Abner refused to speak to him about the death of his mother. Eli figured it consumed him more than he was letting on. Even after he fled the dying city, it is the main reason Eli kept up with his letters. He could not simply abandon the boy, even if he was too terrified of the changed magic and weighed with grief to stay. He didn’t want Abner to think he was abandoning him, and so he continued to write, sending too many letters, particularly with how Abner responded the few times he did. Such hatred in the few words he managed to write in return.

What was I supposed to do? He feared going back even when he was able, not only for the magic yanking away all the talent and skills he had ever known but for the anger that would greet him from his son if Abner even decided to speak to him at all.

I was a cowardly old man, even then, he tells himself. I will fix this. Somehow.

There is much of it that is not fixable, and not even Eli’s fault it is not fixable. But he shall do what he can. There must be a little trust remaining in his son for him to have sent his two children to Eli’s doorstep. This, he tells himself over and over and prays it is true.

Passing of time isn’t certain, but Eli believes it no more than a few hours, perhaps nearing the end of one of their short days. Finally, finally, he catches a glimpse of more light. Klia sees it a moment later, and Eli finds himself being yanked along by the arm as if she’s a little kid who’s spotted a store full of sweets.

Not knowing what she senses but hoping it will be Thistle at the end of this shorter walkway, Eli hastens his steps nearly into a trot, feeling it in all of his bones. They are greeted with another broad cavern, full of carved archways this time, as well as a buttressed ceiling of stone. Steps lead down into the center of what must have once been a vast throne room of sorts.

Eli finds not his grandson in this new cavern, but buried giants.

For a long second, Eli almost takes Klia by the arm and hauls her back out of this place.

Many many things has he seen in his lifetime, but was not entirely prepared for the old stories of this place to be true, and for ancient buildings to be so far underground. These things he can accept with relative ease—he has seen stranger, after all—but is ill-equipped to protect himself and a little girl from such creatures.

After a considerable moment of panic, he realizes they will not hurt them. At least, not at any time soon.

Klia makes a wiggly motion with her fingers, like tentacles. Well, it seems the girl has gotten the same idea Eli has.

I thought my mind was playing tricks on me.

Carefully, Eli descends the stairs, keeping a hold on Klia who doesn’t seem interested in the danger and wants to plow forward. Crystals encrust the floor in a variety of colors, reminding him of the little wings of the bees. His neck still itches a bit where one of them plowed into his exposed skin. There was no stinger, but it irritates him nonetheless.

The stones have grown over everything, coating the floors and crawling across the walls as living things, and Eli winces when he steps down onto the first ones coating the bottom of the stairs, thinking perhaps if those petrified bees were alive in some way, these will be as well. There is no discernible response, but it unnerves him nonetheless.

He wonders what these ancient monsters were before the Order changed them, or if they were changed at all, only entombed in translucent purple stones.

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Approaching the nearest, he cranes his sore neck to look all the way up at it, restraining himself from putting a hand on the shimmering surface. Touch may not be the wisest idea, no matter how his human mind wants him to poke at the new thing he has found that should not exist.

Klia tugs on his hand, looking at him with obvious questions in her eyes. She has reached out a hand to it, but Eli is holding her back.

“I don’t know what they are. Very old things. I do not know if they are still dangerous, do not touch.”

In some of the old books and scribblings Abner did on many of his papers when he was stuck on his equations and everything else his mind came up with that went far over Eli’s head—Eli recognizes these things. Tiny blobs of jelly which swim in the ocean with long, swaying tentacles and longer lives.

“Your obsessions are chasing me,” he mumbles as if Abner is standing right here alongside his daughter. Klia’s gaze he feels upon him, and does not look down. He does not have the words to explain it all to her, even if she were not such a little thing. Several of these gem-encrusted giants are littered across the floor of this massive, underground sanctuary…or palace, Eli knows not which.

As many times before, no matter how he concentrates, no words come to him to describe these creatures, nothing useful provided by the Order which altered them so. Eli is too exhausted to be properly irritated.

How did they get here? Was this place once filled with water, or were they indeed something else turned strange and otherworldly by the new magic? Eli doesn’t suppose he’ll find answers, and cannot let them dwell here too long, not unless there is some clue to find.

“Let us walk through carefully,” he murmurs to Klia, bending close to her so he must not speak too loud in this strange place. “Which way should we—”

Blinking, he catches sight of something he can only see now that he’s bent near the girl’s height. Releasing her hand, he crouches and steps through the giant gossamer tentacles frozen by time and stone, running his fingers across the indent he finds there.

A footprint is crushed into the shards of the ground, rendering it a perfect shape of shimmering dust, nearly identical in its edges to the Unknown’s strange, once-human feet. A small, tired laugh chokes out of Eli’s throat, and he tugs on his beard, nervous of the echoes that ripple across the vast space. Klia leans against his shoulder, looking over at what he’s found. On all the sharp rocks, he’s doubly glad he found her a proper set of shoes.

The crystals appear to give off a light of their own, enough Eli stuffs his handful of bees into his pocket. He wonders if it is their little crystal wings that are giving off their final light—he shall have to look closer when next they are coming to a resting place.

“Come,” he says, gently, taking Klia’s hand and following the sporadic footprints through the maze of crystal. Eventually, the bodies of the ancient monsters shield much of the rest of the throne room from sight, but they give no sign of waking, and Eli still keeps Klia’s little eager hands from touching them. Each of their footsteps echoes gently across the open space in little crunches of fragile stones. Eli winces at ruining them, attempting to step where the monsters have already crushed them.

Not knowing if the creatures are just around any corner, he keeps his hand held carefully around the hilt of his sickle. He will need to practice with this new blade, not only because it has been decades since he properly held a sword, but because this is a weapon entirely unfamiliar to him. There is little opportunity down here, but when they return to the surface, definitely. Perhaps he will find a reliable way of strengthening his magic on top of it.

Something echoes across the chamber, the distinct clink of rock tumbling from somewhere. Small, but in a place such as this, it likely means something has knocked it loose. Eli straightens and glances about. He cannot see the rock which fell but heard it somewhere off to his right. In the corner of his eyes, he catches a flicker, a ghost among the buried giants. Thistle, he thinks, but doesn’t immediately follow it. Still, he does not know if the first time was a trick. And in here, anything may be a trap with how strangely the magic works.

Scooping Klia off the ground with a grunt so he doesn’t have to worry about her being quiet, he steps carefully into the hidden protection of the nearest giant tentacles, watching the place where his mind told him he saw something. He is still not certain that part of this is not his own madness creeping up on him.

“Do you think your brother is in this room?” he whispers against Klia’s hair, and she shakes her head quick enough he believes she is certain. Over his shoulder, she points, not in the direction he saw a ghost.

Stepping carefully between the bodies of the giant frozen in a hundred twisting shapes, Eli follows the direction she is pointing, ignoring his desire to go chasing things his mind tells him he saw. Another flicker catches his eyes, and he glowers in its direction, following the path of ruined crystals. Even if he wished to chase after it, he cannot fight ghosts, and barely can he fight monsters even a little larger than him, let alone anything that may wake in this monstrous place.

If it is again Thistle's ghost, he hopes the boy will have the good sense to call out to him this time.

Besides, these footpaths lead out in a different direction.

In his hurry to reach the other end, to follow these footsteps out and get to Thistle as soon as possible, he stumbles. His pack and Klia are difficult to carry with his body already complaining, and the ground is unsteady as sharp sand beneath his boots, threatening to twist his ankles at any turn. His shoulder brushes against the nearest crystal-frozen giant, and the ground shivers. Eli freezes, hearing Klia’s sharp intake of breath. After a moment, the rumbling fades, and a sharp crack echoes through the cavern, a shatter of rocks careening down one another.

the Unknown

-

Lose your thoughts, your mind and soul, these watery depths will take their toll—

Eli sets Klia on the ground, takes her hand, and runs.