— Keira —

With the rapid fire exchange between Antheia and Iida filling the small room Keir closed her eyes and focused her mind inward. Soon enough the sound of voices faded into and was replaced by the steady sound of waves lapping against an unseen beach.

When Keir opened her eyes she found she was again standing on the strange triangular island of her soulscape facing the ocean of blood.

Almost immediately she noticed something about the view was different but it took her a few moments to identify it. There were very few landmarks on the black sand island to indicate the location she was standing was the same as the last time. At first glance she thought she was simply much closer to the shore.

It was when she noticed the tide pool was fully submerged and only the raised ridge of sand path allowed her access to the gate without walking through the bloody water.

Keir spent a moment watching the occasional small creature in the tide pool and water around it before looking up and noticing a massive shadow in the water near the horizon revealed in part by a wide swath of glowing water.

While it was entirely possible some aspects of the space she was in may have warped her perspective of distance or scale, if it wasn’t the creature would dwarf all but the largest bastion whales. It also seemed like it might be getting larger.

The reason for that was soon clear as the water swirled violently and the back of the creature breached the water.

The creature still slightly resembled a shadow in the water even at the surface. The front two thirds of the creature was covered in thick plates of black armor that transitioned into equally dark scales. The fins resembled incredibly primitive and basic whale fins. It was also obvious the source of the glow was a school of bioluminescent creatures as the whale-like creature drew in vast quantities of water and the creatures swimming within, into openings in its apparently jawless head.

After almost a full minute the water stilled, the glow greatly diminished, and a trio of columns of water were sprayed up along the beast’s back. Even as the first of the spray hit the surface of the water the beast submerged and soon vanished into the bloody depths.

With the show apparently over Keir descended down the steps, a little more cautiously after what she’d just watched.

Fortunately either the same glyphs lining the stairs that kept it clear of water also protected from creatures of the blood sea or they weren’t interested in her, and the long walk to the temple entrance was peaceful.

Even expecting to see the statue in the middle of the first room Keir found herself reflexively inhaling slightly, subconsciously expecting to be crushed by the suffocating presence of deity it depicted.

Nothing of the sort happened, however, so Keir made her way into the labyrinthine library. Almost immediately after stepping through the door she froze in place, listening for any sounds of movement.

When nothing stood out she moved quietly forward keeping a wary eye on her surroundings. Nothing stirred but it was hard to completely trust the apparent calm as she approached her sword that was leaning against the wall just below the first plaque she’d found.

Sword in hand, Keir scanned her surroundings for what must have been at least a few minutes. The area remained resolutely free of enemies, or any indication enemies had previously been present.

As she was obviously not getting anywhere standing in the entrance waiting for a threat that might not actually exist, Keir propped her blade against her shoulder and set off down the path she traveled the last two times she’d been in the library.

While she walked in addition to scanning for threats she scanned the shelves for anything of use or interest. As she scanned the titles she noticed one that caught her eye.

It was the book she’d attempted to read her first time in the library. Those strange flashes of information, sensations, and impressions she’d received when she tried to read it.

Curious how much her grasp of the strange language had improved after reading a second plaque she scanned the fractals stamped onto the glossy dark leather cover of the thick tome. “*n*ient Be*sts o* t*e *ro*en Dunes”

Not only could she read an entire word for the first time, the fragmented crystalline sands, frigid cold, and a vast gulf of time were more clear. For a fraction of a second she could almost feel the crunch of sand beneath her feet and the brush of freezing wind that carried the sound of a finger running along the rim of a crystal glass.

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Likewise, when she opened the book and attempted to read the dense fractal patterns that filled the pale gray pages the flashes of information and sensations were slightly more complete, though still all but entirely indecipherable.

Much like her earlier attempts to read the language, the fragmented contextless shards of information and experiences quickly caused her head to ache and it only got worse the more of the text she tried to interpret.

It didn’t take long for the discomfort trying to read the writing to surpass the limited and disjointed information she gained from the attempt. She allowed herself a small sigh of frustration as she returned the book to the shelf and continued walking.

She was definitely making some progress, but it was hard to focus on that with her head throbbing from opening a book. It didn’t help that she knew even if she didn’t need to surpass some challenge to acquire more of the language, the process of burning the knowledge into her mind would still be agonizing.

Her headache was also not helped by the need to keep her focus locked in to searching for threats or valuables. Every shadowed shelf and corner seemed to hide eyes and gemstones in equal measure until she looked again and found neither. Likewise the echo of her steps of the bare stone floor often sounded like the careful tread of another paper duplicate. Even the faint scrape of metal on metal when she shifted the sword resting on her shoulder was unnaturally loud and threatening in the silence left where her breath and the rush of her pulse should have been.

For the most part she followed the same path as the last time but where she’d turned left to reach the dead end area she’d fought her duplicate, she instead turned right. As she did she slowed her pace and examined the shelves with renewed focus.

Much like the rest of the bookshelves Keir had already examined the ones lining they were packed with a seemingly haphazard collection of books of all different sizes bound in materials that ranged from the mundane to the extremely esoteric. The sections not filled with books were mostly filled with scrolls, tablets, even what looked like specially treated leaves from plants Keir had never seen or heard of.

Without a more comprehensive understanding of the language the stack of blue gray leaves she was examining were no more useful to her than the stack of a half dozen hand sized books bound in black bone on their left or the thick tome bound in pale golden leather on their right. They were still interesting however as instead of the fractal patterns being carved and stained into the leaves as was more typical the veins of the fern like leaves were grown into the pattern of the writing.

She couldn’t help but occasionally try to interpret the writing but the flashes of eyes peering from the dark between dense foliage she couldn’t quite comprehend didn’t really give her much insight into the contents.

While not useful in of themselves they did draw her attention to the area and on the shelf below them Keir found a thin ivory box tucked in between a pair of simple leather bound journal looking books.

At a quick look the box, which was standing on its end, resembled one of the many books bound in bone or ivory. The protruding side even resembled the spine of a book, complete with superficially similar fractal patterns as the titles of the books on either side of it.

Upon trying to read the presumed title it was quickly apparent that more than Keir’s limited grasp of the language made the results fragmentary at best. There were no letters, only fragmented impressions to faint to even begin to understand. She felt like she was experiencing a scene through spiderweb thin cracks in a wall.

The reason became clear when she pulled the box free and found the visible fractals were not in fact a single pattern. Instead they were the outer edges of larger patterns that wrapped around the intricately carved box. With a fuller awareness the flashes of insight were more complete. She could almost smell the dust laden air. She could see glimpses of a thin hand covered in parchment dry skin holding a system crystal pen rapidly darting across an unseen page. Finally for just a moment before the pain spiking behind her eyes forced her to look away she could almost feel burning cold fluid form ever changing diagrams and equations across her skin.

A large part of Keir was tempted to simply tuck the box back into place and pretend she’d never seen it, or at least wait to deal with it when she had a better grasp of the situation.

She decided against doing so when she realized that while the box felt physically solid in her hand, there was some less tangible feeling of ethereal fragility about it. She couldn’t have even begun to explain why, but she was somehow certain she could walk down that path for eternity and she would never again find that small ivory box if she returned it to the shelf.

Stealing her will, she leaned her blade against the shelves in easy reach and slowly unlatched and opened the lid.

She tensed as the lip of the lid lifted a crack, half expecting something to burst out or a sudden spike of agony and awareness to follow. Instead she was still standing in a silent library holding an inert, but now slightly open, box.

That continued as she slowly opened it the rest of the way revealing a stack of thin paper or papyrus covered in complex diagrams and dense fractal writing written in dark blue ink flecked with system crystal.

As she stared down into the box a system chime rang through her mind almost unnoticed amid the barrage of synesthesia like flashes of awareness that flooded her mind like razors of ice and fire.

In that seemingly eternal moment she was a complex series of clockwork mechanisms. She saw with glass lenses and bronze mirrors. She heard as much as felt the vibrations flowing along thin springs and wires. The tased oil and blood and powdered bone mixing with flux and ozone. She was the machine, the room housing it, the product and the mad being that put the design to paper in an ancient room beneath a city whose name was lost to time and death before the first elf set foot on the islands she would one day call home.

As her mind split and split again and again Keir understood the danger almost too late to do anything. The smaller fragments of herself were becoming all but indistinguishable from the foreign feelings as the feelings of alien awareness faded into something almost natural.

With an effort of will that felt like the mental equivalent of willingly dunking her hand into boiling water Keir pulled her fragmenting awareness back together. Each piece of her awareness pulled back in felt like stuffing rough packing into a wound.

Suddenly without warning she was once again a single mind and awareness contained in an undead elven body clutching an empty ivory box with aching fingers.