Chapter Seven

Remember Now

Eralee recalled the first time she learned of the ruins with her brother. It hadn't been long after Thyrynn's father offered them sanctuary in his valley. Long before Thyrynn had been born.

They would often visit the homestead to have regular potluck celebrations. On one such late evening, gathered around a campfire in the upper meadow with a few jugs of wine, he told them the story.

"Once upon a many moons ago," he had said. Plenty of his stories opened with the same line. Eralee and Montral chuckled, pulling gulps from their wineskins. They settled back and got ready for another one of his outlandish stories.

"Now, mind ye," he said while leaning forward over the fires light. His full beard shook emphatically. "This is a tale of warning. If you are to survive and be of use to me, you will take heed."

The twins promptly sat up straight at attention, but quickly slouched back to stifled giggles. Heads swimming with wine, their composure didn't have a chance at lasting.

"I traveled to a high meadow out past your tower. Foolish and younger, I explored every part of this valley all alone," he pulled another gulp of wine.

"A mountain lion mauled me. Hurt me something fierce," he continued. "I barely remember how it went down, but I got away."

He looked at them grimly. "I dragged myself into that meadow, bleeding, guts poking out." Eralee winced, making Thyrynn's father chuckle.

"I came across some ruins in the heart of that meadow. Ancient things, older than the tower and in worse shape." That made them all consider, for a moment, how much work it would take to get the tower into livable condition.

"I found some carvings there," he squinted at his new friends. "I don't know much about writing, but there were plenty of picture looking carvings to give me a good idea of what went down in that place."

Eralee stopped squirming and leaned forward with a look of joyful interest. Montral even steadied a bit at the mention of ancient mystery.

"From what I can figure," Thyrynn's father surmised. "There were two different groups of little people. They mined into the mountain and created a society that spanned the valley. They had stuff all over the place."

"What kind of stuff," Montral asked.

"Don't interrupt," he commanded. "I'm telling the story." He scratched his beard, trying to regain his thoughts.

"There are strange and dangerous mechanisms of magic all over this valley. I've seen most of 'em." A distant look filled his eyes. "Enough of 'em to make me stop looking for more of 'em."

Montral looked out to the high valley walls, wondering what lay waiting for him to find. His mind reeled, already making plans of exploration.

"Now pay attention," Thyrynn's father said in a very fatherly way. "I know you are bound to go searching regardless of anything I do or don't tell ye. But this one thing, ye have to promise me."

Eralee and Montral nodded in reaction to his sudden seriousness.

"Do not go near the heart of the upper meadow. The magics there are beyond anything known by the two of you."

He rubbed his forehead with a wince of remembered pain. "I was dying there, some crumbling room in a ruin. Just staring up at all those carvings."

"I kept figuring on what they meant, trying to keep my mind from my dying. The mines went deeper and they used the riches to create a civilization. The heart of that meadow was the center of it all. The entrance to the mines were guarded by a mighty city."

Montral's mind felt a pull toward the ruins of such a society. He wondered at what secrets may be found in such a place.

"The mines broke through into a void, where some weird things lived at the bottom of the pit. A great battle went on for many moons. The little people struggled to protect their border against the things from the pit."

Thyrynn's father shook his head. "They lost more ground with every passing moon, until they were pushed back to the city at the mines entrance."

"When I thought I'd taken my last breath, I saw one of 'em." Thyrynn's father took another short and fast pull from his wineskin. "It was one of those things from the pit."

"It got into my mind," he continued. The campfire popped, sending embers glowing upward. "It burned my mind and searched my soul. I've never felt more violated."

"It told me I'd been found worthy. That I had a destiny that agreed with them," he said. It sounded like he was still trying to understand what that meant.

"She healed me," he resumed. "I'm not sure exactly how I knew it was a she, but that's how it sounded in my head. She took me back to the edge of that meadow in perfect health."

Eralee and Montral regarded the man in new way. Already impressed with his benevolence, they began to understand that even more lay beneath.

"She told me to go home, never to return to the high meadow. She said that any trespassers would meet the full fury of a force that crushed an entire civilization."

"Oh," Eralee drunkenly slapped her knee. "Where's the part about a prince and a maiden? All your stories have that in it somewhere."

"Remember what I've said. I forbid you to enter the heart of the high meadow. She would not like it at all." Thyrynn's father took a deep pull from a wineskin and fell backwards off his seat.

Eralee felt the invading presence in her own mind as she recalled the story. She understood that some invading presence had prompted the memory and listened to the recollection, experiencing it with her.