The light in the corridor was getting brighter. His eyes were beginning to pick out more and more details from his strange surroundings. The feeling of peace was even stronger here and the atmosphere of a church or sacred temple was stronger than ever. He didn’t need to keep his hand on the wall any longer and he walked as softly as he could. Even with this added caution, his footsteps thundered and echoed intrusively all around him. He winced with every step he took.
He noticed that this crevasse, this corridor through the rock didn’t have any dust in it. With it being inside the rock of the earth he had supposed that there would be a healthy layer of dirt or sand. But this place was just as clean as his bedroom was. He didn’t see or hear any kind of rodent or animal either. The place was as still as any graveyard, but as immaculately clean and sterile as any hospital.
No, that wasn’t right. A hospital smelled of death and decay, covered over with a healthy layer of antiseptic. This place smelled like a church or the clean air of the forest. There was a warmth here and a soft smell of something, incense perhaps, anything but death. This place reminded him of his forest valley, of green vibrant life, this place was nothing like a hospital. He followed the violent turbulent curves of the crevasse. He began to notice that the walls were textured artificially with alcoves set deep within the natural groves of the walls themselves. He stopped in front of one and looked into the dark recess of the alcove.
He could see two figures. The white stone that they were carved from was almost luminescent compared to the dark stone that housed them. William could see that the white stone of the statues were painted in vibrant colors including reds and yellows. The colors seemed very out of place compared to everything he had seen in the city being just the black polished stone of the buildings. The figures were seated, and both were holding up their right hand in an oath giving posture. The figure on the left was male and in his other hand he was holding some sort of staff or rod. He couldn’t be sure in the gloom of the dim light, but he thought that these people had more than two arms. He shook his head. He had never seen anything like them before.
He studied the alcove to see if there was any clue as to what he was looking at. The alcove opening was plain with no carving or anything of interest except what was inside the recess. He looked down and saw that the landing of the raised space had two sets of letters or symbols carved on in it raised characters that reflected just enough of the surrounding light to allow him to read it. The carvings, if they were names of some sort, told him nothing at all. He took another look at the carved white stone of the two figures. He could see that they were smiling at him. The expressions on their faces were warm and welcoming. He felt peace and a sort of calm serenity as he stood in front of the strange figures. Not knowing for sure why he did it, he bowed to the pair of statues and walked away continuing to follow the waves of folded rock that formed this corridor.
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After a few steps he found himself in front of yet another alcove and inside the deep recess of the dark space was another white statue. But if the couple in the first alcove were a little unfamiliar to him this being was completely alien. He saw what appeared to be a fat man standing on one foot. His head was that of a great elephant and the massive trunk of the head swung down to dangle at an upturned J between his legs. As he looked at the strange fat man, he couldn’t help but wonder where in the Lunar Mother’s name had he wandered into?
He studied the inside of the recess. On the ground of the alcove, a little removed from the man’s legs, he saw what looked to be a statue of a mouse. He had to smile a little to himself at the irony of that paradox. Aren’t elephants supposed to be afraid of mice? Looking around the recess for any clue as to who this might be, his eyes traveled downward and found a landing with a slight step, very similar to the first recess and there, just like with the first alcove he saw raised carvings. These carvings told him nothing more than the first set of carvings did except that the carvings were very similar. They must be of the same language, and he surmised they were probably part of the same…religion, perhaps?
The thought itself struck him, why would he even think that?
He turned around to take in the twisting corridor around him. The whole of the space that enfolded in front and behind him was lit. The source of the light was diffuse and to him it seemed that the light was coming from everywhere at once. There was no dust in the air and the smell of the place was clean, but he thought that he could detect the slightest odor coming from somewhere. The odor was pleasant enough but aged, like old incense or perfume. Along the curvature of the stone, he could see that there were alcoves spaced up and down the corridor. The wall curved back along itself, but he couldn’t see five feet in front of where he was standing, so random was the curvature of the corridor he had no idea how far he had come or how far he had left till the end, if there was an end to this strange place.
He had never heard of anything like this existing much less being inside one. He was reminded of the Greek pantheon, and the Roman Parthenon, where those two ancient civilizations worshiped their gods. The ancient statues were gone from those buildings now. But historians had surmised that they had housed only one or a few massive statues in homage of one or maybe a few gods. From what he could tell from his brief foray into this strange crevasse there must be dozens if not hundreds of these alcoves. Can all of these statues in these recesses and alcoves represent different gods? Offhand he could only name a dozen or so gods from a handful of religions both ancient and modern. The collection here must span dozens of religions and more than a hundred gods, each with their own space and statue to represent them.