Two days she’d explored the ruins and had little to show for it. The dead city was huge, and she was desperate to find answers. The more time passed, the more she doubted. Had she made a mistake? Was there nothing to find here?

Still, if there were ruins, there had to be something else...

The original explorers had found things—though oddly enough had not documented where exactly the precious tablets had been found, or if they had left more behind.

One thing for certain, they had not stayed long. She hung on to that thought, hoping it was a good sign. Surely, in only two months, they couldn’t have pierced all of this place’s secrets.

Sarisa laughed.

She’d only been here two days. How could she expect to have found anything when she doubted two months had been enough for them? She was nervous, was all. Of course she’d find something. It was only a matter of time, and she had plenty of that.

The sound of her footsteps echoed through the empty streets. It was grating. Aside from her, there seemed to be no life left here. She had yet to spot a bug, let alone an animal.

It was a long trip back to the surface and to the ship, so she had taken camping material and set a tent up in one of the larger buildings she’d found. The tent produced its own air bubble, so she could strip and relax. This place was hot, she’d discovered—almost unbearably so—and it was a relief when she could take her clothes off.

She paused midway up a flight of stairs to catch her breath. This structure had a unique shape, somewhat pyramidal, that made it stand out. She suspected it might have been a temple. Either way, it was bound to hold some secrets. She’d found no mention of it in the explorers’ reports. Perhaps they had not come so far into the city.

Resuming her climb, her steps took her to an opening large enough for four humans to step through side by side. The height was similarly overblown, tall enough to accommodate a dozen persons standing on each other’s shoulders.

Many buildings had similar features, which made her suspect these creatures may have been much bigger than humans. But she wasn’t so sure anymore. Because this was far from systematic. She had also found regular-sized places, as well as some much smaller ones. Not to mention the stairs she had just gone up—if these beings were so big, the steps should have been impossible for a human to climb, yet each had been the expected height.

With a sigh, she stepped in and paused as the glowing globe floating before her slowly lit up the room inside.

The walls were covered with complex frescoes depicting various creatures in what seemed like ritualistic ceremonies. Some were small, with globulous eyes and antennae; others larger, with slanted eyes and horns. All were humanoid in shape, though fur covered their bodies. The furs were of all colors, regardless of size—red, blue, green, yellow... And there, in the back, she saw what the creatures worshipped. A gigantic, lizard-like creature with wings. A dragon, she thought. Like in the old legends. She wondered if those things had been capable of breathing fire and shuddered at the thought.

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She glanced back at the opening she had come through. Could those creatures have really existed? It would explain the size of this place—and of some others. And they wouldn’t have needed larger steps, since they could have flown away.

Bringing her attention back to the walls, she noticed something else. At the bottom were familiar symbols... similar to the ones on the slab she had bought from Axxarx.

Careful inspection revealed many more such inscriptions. She recorded it all with her wristpad, so she could study it later.

She filmed everything as she went deeper into the structure, finding more drawings and writings. They covered every wall. The ceiling, high above, was a jade dome. The floor resembled marble, though she suspected it was some other, unknown material. It was dark brown and reflected the glow’s light.

Aside from some massive pillars—made of the same material as the floor—she found nothing else: no statues, no jars, no furniture... Not even shards or broken tools. Only dust and silence.

Considering how old these ruins were, it was likely they had been looted many times, which could explain the lack of items and ornaments.

That night, going through the recordings, she started putting some pieces together. The writing told the history of these ancient creatures. Though much of it made little sense to her. They were very rigorous in tracking the passage of time, which she found useful—even if their calendar was a very alien one—, but it had internal consistency, which was something.

In the five thousandth year of what they called the Ascendancy, she noticed they began to mention the wind a lot. Which she found odd, because there had been no mention of it before.

The wind is relentless. It comes, it blows, it tears everything down.

Those words were etched in various spots throughout the Temple—as she had decided to call the large pyramidal building. These beings would frequently repeat text in this manner, as if fearing it may be forgotten or somehow destroyed.

The wind blows evermore.

She thought the mention of wind was peculiar. She had felt none on the surface, much less here. Likely this planet had been very different at the time this civilization had thrived.

Sarisa was glad the aliens had taken to writing on their walls, as any books they might have produced would have been taken by the looters, gone forever. It was also much more enduring material. Unless they had advanced technology that allowed things like wristpads or TriVid terminals, but she somehow doubted it.

Buried in all that text were names. Meaningless at first, though she soon was able to associate them with some of the figures, even if the relationship between the creatures remained unclear to her. The gh’enem’d were the smaller aliens who lived as slaves, dependent on the mercy of the valad’eth who ruled over a thousand worlds.

This made her pause.

A thousand worlds? This hinted at an advanced civilization, with technology capable of traveling through the stars. Then why did she not find any traces of such technology? This also meant there would be more ruins, out there, on other planets... Was this even the center of their civilization, or maybe just some outlying outpost? It could explain things, she thought. After all, the Imperium’s own rimworlds were often less advanced, some outright backward. Perhaps this city was something like that.

More importantly... could this civilization have survived?

Hopefully, she would find more answers in these ruins.