CHAPTER 1
Something about the ancient structure had been bothering Aika since they had entered it. Located in Deep Sky, seemingly forgotten since the beginning of time, the darkness and the stone walls seemed to emanate a secret was confined within.
But what kind of secret? This is what bothered Aika the most. Excited by her love of treasure and adventure, she was the first to cry out in favour of seeking this place out after a recent treasure discovery found writings of a time long ago, with this place being left as a relic full of treasures untold.
'Or so I had hoped,' she thought to herself, smirking. There wasn't any one word to describe this place, enveloped in the darkness of Deep Sky. Its old architecture suggested it might have been a temple, or a shrine, or a palace, by the great pillars that stood on the outside of it, and the grand staircase leading up to massive, double stone doors, implied that within rested an entity of great majesty.
That had been five minutes ago. It was quickly apparent that this place was not very large. The party of Vyse, Fina, and Aika, were making their way down a dark hallway, the only passageway leading out of the small foyer that welcomed them past the ancient double doors. There had been no other intersections since. The three walked on in silence, kept to their own thoughts, Vyse unconsciously in the lead as he brandished the torch ahead of them which lit their way.
Suddenly, the walls around them stopped, and the trio stepped into a chamber. It was large enough such that the warm orange glow of the torch held by Vyse couldn't quite reach all the way across the room. Instinctively, they looked up, and saw that they could not see the ceiling.
Cupil began to chirp softly. Fina brought her hands up to cover her heart, and lowered her head, listening. Aika continued to look around at the walls, her left hand casually resting on her hip as she leaned comfortably to one side. Vyse looked around as well, silently disappointed that their arrival had gone completely unchallenged.
Finally, Aika spoke up. She'd always been one to wear her heart on her sleeve, and her uneasiness couldn't be holed up inside of her any longer. "Do you guys get kind of a funny feeling about this place? There's something not quite right."
Vyse turned his head towards her and smiled. "You're right. We haven't met any kind of resistance in this place. Maybe it's haunted!"
Aika's eyes widened as she whirled around to face Vyse, her hands closing into fists as she leaned forwards towards him. "That's not funny!"
"It is, because you can't see your face when you react to a statement like that," he chuckled. "But really, what's bothering you?"
Aika turned back towards the wall she was looking at before. "I can't pinpoint it, for the most part…but Vyse, look at the wall."
"The wall?" Vyse raised his eyebrows in disbelief. He stepped over to where Aika was standing and followed her gaze.
"It's completely smooth."
Vyse blinked as he leaned forward slightly to make sure he was seeing things correctly. Aika was right. The wall was entirely devoid of mortar lines. His eyes widened. "How can that be...?"
Aika had resumed her previous posture. "Well, maybe this place was built with huge slabs of rock pulled right out of the ground."
Vyse looked back at the wall. "It's possible." He flashed a quick smile. "After all we've been through so far, that just may be it."
"I don't think so," came a soft voice from behind them. Vyse and Aika turned to look at Fina, her hands still clasped lightly above her heart. "Cupil senses…something. I don't know for certain, but I don't think this place was made by people…"
Silence gently draped over them. All three of them were now staring at the wall. Aika frowned. "But, then, if not people, then…?"
"The Eons," replied a gruff voice from the direction of the doorway that led back into the passageway. All three whipped around at the sound of the familiar voice.
"Gilder!" exclaimed Aika. She rushed over to fling her arms around his neck in greeting. Gilder smiled and set her back down onto the smooth stone floor. Fina was smiling and Vyse grinning, all being reunited with a good friend once again.
"What are you doing here?" Aika asked, as soon as the excitement had died down some.
Gilder flashed her a stunning smile, straightened and put a hand on his hip. "The same as you three, I'd imagine. I'm not sure if you know this, but the discovery of ancient writings that hints at new treasure to be found is huge news that travels fast within the pirate community."
"We were counting on that to further our popularity. Vyse has all but lonely old women hitting on him everywhere we go, now," Aika winked. Vyse chuckled nervously and raised his right arm up and behind his head.
"You said something about the Eons, Gilder…the word sounds familiar to me, somehow…" Fina trailed off, bringing the conversation back on topic.
The grin melted off of Gilder's face as his tone faded back into seriousness. "Something is about the extent of it. It seems that everything there is to know about the Eons was lost with the Old World, except some scant details. All I could find out for certain was that they were a group of god-like entities with enormous power. Power that could easily construct a place like this," he interrupted himself by raising his own torch up as high as he could reach. The light did not touch the ceiling. "Smooth, continuous rock walls, stretching up to a high ceiling, all still entirely intact after centuries of time passing by."
The four stood in awed silence for a moment. It was Fina who broke it.
"Maybe that's it…"
The other three looked at Fina and blinked. "Maybe 'what' is it, Fina?" Vyse replied.
Fina turned to look at him. "Cupil. Earlier, when he was chirping…maybe whoever built this place is still here, somewhere…"
Silence again. Gilder interrupted it, this time. "There's only one way to find out." He grinned again. "Let's go see what's at the other end of this room."
Aika hopped with glee. "I'm with you! Captain?"
Vyse glanced over at Fina, then addressed all three. "Let's go!"
It wasn't long until the four were facing the wall opposite from the door leading back to the hallway, and exit. Cupil began chirping again. Aika looked around in apprehension. "Some treasure hunt…a bare dead end!"
Vyse was waiting (or perhaps, shall we say, hoping?) for some kind of ancient guardian to reveal itself and present a challenge that would earn them a victory prize, like so many other of their adventures had done. Fina remained quiet. Only Gilder seemed to notice something. He was holding his torch up and looking at the wall.
"Hey, Fina? Does any of that look familiar to you?"
The other three turned to follow his gaze. The wall was not smooth like the others; this wall had various markings on it. To Aika, it looked like a bunch of random scratchings. Vyse thought he may be able to make little pictures out of the slashes in the rock. Fina's eyes widened.
"I can't read exactly all of it, but it very closely resembles the ancient language of the Silvites!"
Aika and Vyse gasped and turned to look at Fina, their jaws dropping. Her face remained pointed at the wall, her eyes set in determination.
"Abandoned…mother…um, shut…sleepening…to remain…er…no, sorry, to anticipate…words…spell broken…ah…" She trailed off, studying the wall for a moment. "I can't make out most of the rest of it. It says something like…'awake, be called Daydraea'."
Vyse cocked his head to one side, resting a fist on his hip. "Daydraea…"
Aika had once again resumed her most natural pose. "Sounds like a pretty girl's name."
Vyse shrugged. "It sounds ancient."
"It is ancient," Fina responded, her hands once again clasped to her chest. "It bears the signification that itself is a proper name, but the word 'daydraea' translates into 'earth child'."
"Earth child…" Vyse repeated. "Hn. I wonder if it means anything here…"
Gilder was still looking at the writings, his eyebrows furrowed. "I think I remember mention of an earth child in something I read, but nothing is coming to me." He shrugged. "To me, the last part sounds a bit like a counter-spell." Gilder's eyes twinkled. "Be shown to us, awaken, called Daydraea the earth child!" he announced in a voice that teasingly commanded majesty.
The ground began to shake. It was a low rumble at first, but the tremors began to intensify swiftly, causing all within the room to cry out in surprise and attempt to brace themselves. Out of the commotion, Vyse suddenly exclaimed "look!!"
The wall upon which they had just been staring started to break open. Split by a seam down the middle that was unnoticeable before, two slabs of rock slowly began to slide away from each other, opening into darkness beyond. The ancient structure, while still solid and standing, did not endure centuries of time without some weathering, and as the tremors reached a climax, the ancient ceiling rained dust and chips of rock onto the people below. Vyse quickly stepped over to cover Fina, holding his own head down and protecting it with the arm holding his torch, and Gilder did the same for Aika.
The tremors stopped. Dust began to settle around the four air pirates, and they straightened to peer into the new opening in the wall. From within the newly revealed chamber, a light began to glow steadily brighter.