‘What do you mean, Roya?’
Sofis looked at him, unable to understand the man’s rough, disoriented speech. When she had talked briefly with him before, he was at least relatively friendly. It wasn’t that she cared for him like she would with her close friends back at the Academia, but he was at least someone who she didn’t particularly mind being with in the long haul.
After all, she had bothered to remember and speak his name.
‘Hey, what’s going on?’ Gennai asked in concern, carefully examining his companion.
‘I swear he had stopped breathing for a while,’ a treasure hunter added. ‘Hey, Roya, you wanna explain—’
‘I saw it,’ Roya spoke, his posture frozen and seemingly isolated from everyone else, as if he was only talking to himself. ‘No, I can’t really say I “saw” it. No, it saw me. I don’t know how to describe it, but it was extremely bright. I thought I had died. Maybe I did… but then, why have I returned?’
He was going crazy. The initial shock over his death had rapidly subsided, and replacing it, a sense of dread and fear had fallen upon the entire band. They didn’t even have time to process his death, and here he was, alive and perhaps equally as shocked as they were.
There was really nothing for Sofis to do but to watch it unfold. Going a short distance away, she sat down upon a mossy rock and looked at the scene. If only there was something to document this peculiar event down. The first case of resurrection. Would make for a good story, at the very least, even if no one would probably believe her, not even herself.
‘What did you see?’ Gennai pressed.
‘I saw… a being,’ Roya continued. ‘It looked like a human, but it wasn't. It was swimming in an ocean of light, so I couldn’t really discern its shape. I can’t even describe it to you now. It was just so bright, my eyes couldn’t focus on anything. It just seemed so majestic, beautiful, beyond our wildest dreams. And it called to me, you know? It called to me.
‘It chose not to reveal its full glory to me, but it made known its identity: the Creator of this world. And that’s when it was revealed to me that this… this… “Temple” was once a site of worship for the Creator, the author of this world. I was actually mapping out a holy sanctuary, and to do it with my poor scribbles was practically a sacrilege to its true beauty! This entire time, this whole time the ruins have been undiscovered… The Creator was waiting to reveal it to the right people: us. We are fated to discover this place at the will of the Creator. Yes, it is fate itself, woven by the Creator that has guided us here.
‘Our thirst for treasure, our personalities, even the temporary addition of Sofis to our band… Everything has already been determined by the Creator in the skies above. It is no coincidence that we are here like this, to see my death and resurrection. This “Temple”, the ruins, the woods, the people, to every single thing in this world are all a part of its grand plan. And I am chosen to be its first messenger, to bring about this message to you all.’
His breaths were heavy, his smile wide with excitement as he expected some sort of response from everyone. He stretched out his arms like a bird, covering himself with sunlight as he arched his head towards the sky.
‘Oh, how great it is to finally be shown the truth of this world!’
But no one really understood what he was saying. It could’ve been only a dream, but the way he was so vividly recounting his experience as if he had truly seen such things didn’t make sense. No sane person would genuinely believe in their dreams.
‘Temple’? ‘Holy’ sanctuary? ‘Sacrilege’? These were words not even Sofis had come across before, and the word ‘temple’, she thought, was only a strange conjuring in her mind. Roya’s words seemed more like the superstitious ramblings of the crazed than cries of truth and happiness. And to come across a so-called ‘Creator’ who dictated the fates of their lives? This might as well be entirely fictional. Not once had she experienced such a feeling in her life, nor had she heard of similar incidents from anyone else or read accounts like it in her research. This claim wasn’t even believable in the slightest.
‘Roya… What are you even saying?’ Gennai worriedly asked. ‘Is this some kind of dream?’
‘The Creator is urging us to seek it. The statues we saw earlier are only the beginning of its magic. It can create and command dragons, angels, beasts of immense power beyond our wildest imagination. The sun, the moon, the stars in the sky and the earth below are all created by it. We are made from mud and clay with its hands, just as these structures of stone are built with ours to worship it. It revealed all of this to me, and I just… I just needed to share it with you all as well.’
‘He’s gone mad,’ the tomboyish woman stated. ‘I don’t know what happened to him, but he’s no longer Roya.’
‘Temia!’ Jorn scolded. ‘We should be happy that he’s alive, not… whatever this is…’
But it was clear even Jorn wasn’t sure in his words. He was glancing at the others, none of which added their support in defence of Roya.
‘Jorn, I get what you’re trying to do,’ the woman said. ‘But let’s be honest. You don’t even believe in your own words.’
‘No, I swear, I’m still who I am!’ Roya insisted. ‘I know it sounds crazy, but it’s all true! The deeper we go into the temple, the more we shall witness the Creator’s power. And at the centre of it all, in the chamber of the inner sanctuary, the Creator will be waiting for us. Do you not want to meet with it, the God of this world, the ruler and dictator of all our fates?’
Stolen story; please report.
‘Roya, calm down,’ Gennai said as he put his hand on Roya’s shoulder. ‘We’re all very happy you’re still alive and even more energetic than you were before, but you’re not being yourself right now.’
‘Gennai, listen to me,’ Roya pushed further. ‘We’re not just going to uncover any usual treasure here. The Creator is waiting. These ruins, this temple, everything in here… It’s not ancient. It just made them for us, specifically so it can reveal itself to us.’
‘Roya, snap out of it.’ Gennai suddenly changed his tone. ‘Just take a rest back at the base camp for a couple of days. I’ll have Ruri and Keller to accompany you. You deserve a rest.’
‘No, Gennai, listen—’
‘There’s no convincing him, Gennai,’ the woman chimed in again. ‘We already have a scholar who’s unwilling to even touch the slightest bit of dirt. Now, we have a man whose body is alive but his mind is dead. The exploration isn’t going to go anywhere at this rate.’
‘Temia…’ Jorn pleaded.
‘Shut up. You know how this band works. Our success isn’t built only on the relationship we have with each other, but sharing a common goal of making a living together. Anyone who gets in our way…’ She glanced briefly at Sofis. ‘... Should not be here.’
As Roya continued to ramble on while Gennai listened with increasing impatience, Sofis finally chose to turn her back again and to stare at the dark interior of the structure, or ‘Temple’, as she somehow named it. The halls were silent, the statue that chased them probably back to where it was.
Despite the frightening experience just a short while ago, she was already ready to return to those halls. Not because she believed in whatever Roya had been saying, but out of sheer curiosity at unravelling the truth of the structure itself. Stories, no matter how fake, had a certain allure to them. Roya’s fantastical story was no different. The abrupt change in his attitude and perhaps even character was only a part that fuelled her curiosity. The Creator, whether it truly existed or not, was a concept that seemed quite exciting for her. It seemed obvious that such powers were highly exaggerated, but to imagine some sort of ultimate being was, at the very least, an interesting thought to have.
Mentally isolating herself from the noise around her, she stared into the empty caverns of the structure, supposedly housing all those amazing things that Roya claimed. Even if his story was entirely a delusion, wasn’t the prospect of something entirely different from usual logic practically what she was searching for? ‘Magic’... Whatever that was, it would definitely open a new field of possibilities of research, catapulting her to the forefront of the Academia. If everything turned out to be fake and the structure was indeed ‘just’ some newly discovered ruins with its own artefacts, it would still be a breakthrough for her.
She dusted off some of the dirt on her clothes. With such prospects in sight, perhaps a little bit of dirtiness wouldn’t hurt. The greatest scholars were those who put their theories into practice, after all.
She couldn’t care less about this Roya person. She could easily imagine him as a man who somehow escaped death, but nothing beyond that. She wouldn’t associate the name with the man anymore, instead blending him along with the rest of the treasure hunters, obscure and unnecessary to know. They would play no part in her research. Why should she even bother to remember them?
‘... Roya, you will take a rest.’ Gennai’s firm voice brought Sofis back to reality. As she focused on the scene again, she found the other man practically kneeling before Gennai in desperation, begging the leader to at least do something. She couldn’t really bother to hear the exact words, but it was like watching a prisoner begging to not be included in certain experiments, at least that was the best analogy she could conjure of.
‘Ruri, Keller, bring Roya back to the base camp,’ Gennai ordered. ‘By that I mean the camp situated at the nearest village, not the one we left off from. We can’t delay ourselves too long. Most of our supplies are still inside the ruins. Without them, we can’t possibly go deeper.’
Two relatively big men grabbed Roya by the shoulders and lifted him, carrying him away from Gennai. The leader had finally lost his patience with his companion. The entire time, Gennai continued to scream and plead for pity, but alas, it was to no avail. A man that Sofis knew for a few moments soon disappeared from her sight. The other treasure hunters only looked, too afraid to say a word.
‘I’m sorry, Roya,’ he said.
‘Took you a while to act, boss,’ the woman said dryly. ‘He needed much help as soon as he supposedly rose from the dead. You delayed everyone by delaying your decision.’
‘By the way, scholar,’ Gennai said as he looked towards Sofis while ignoring the other woman. ‘Do you know if the Academia will offer any support beyond our supplies?’
‘I doubt it,’ she replied. ‘They have extra emergency supplies at the base camp, but that’ll be it.’
‘So in the end, the so-called support was just more supplies and an unnecessary member,’ the other woman said.
‘Temia, your comments have gone too far multiple times already,’ Gennai warned.
‘I’m just stating my opinions frankly.’
Sofis still didn’t really understand the enmity from the other woman. She definitely didn’t hold the same sort of dislike. Well, other than the fact that the woman had no manners, acted like a man and was very clearly uneducated based on her behaviour. But she wouldn’t really say those things out loud. It wasn’t proper.
‘Anyway, I guess we can attempt to enter the structure again,’ Gennai said, changing the topic once more. ‘We need to get our stuff. Whatever Roya said, let’s just leave it. I’m happy he’s still alive, just… nevermind. Let’s go.’
Sofis stood up with the others. She thought she could still imagine the man’s distant shouts echoing in the woods. Well, she couldn’t care less. The man was gone. There were still many things to explore and study, and she couldn’t possibly let a single incident derail her mindset. If anything, it would be better to imagine if the man’s words were indeed true, however fictional and fantastical they seemed.
The band of treasure hunters barely looked back as they stepped inside the structure once more. Only Jorn turned his head around every few moments, his eyes lingering with regret and sorrow. Gennai led the band as usual, this time holding a knife with one hand and a torch with the other. Sure, the air was a lot more tense this time around, the people holding their torches tighter than before. But that was a good thing. It meant their steps were slower, more cautious, and with it, more time for Sofis to truly examine the architecture itself. All in all, quite the positive outcome.
As the sun began to set, with the band having not even that long of a break, they reentered the structure, the words of Roya lingering in their minds despite whatever encouragement Gennai attempted.