Note: 5:39 A.M... Yeah, I'm pretty well nocturnal now. I'll need to take care of that soon. Anyways! I'll be trying to finish this up in a few weeks, what with college and everything. Toodles!
"What is this place?" Kirielle murmured, walking around inside the tomb. Well, she had thought it was a tomb anyways, now she wasn't so sure. There was a raised platform in the middle of the room, with eight or so stairs leading up to it. On the platform, there seemed to be a coffin. She had, out of a horrible sort of curiosity, checked to see if it was empty. It was, luckily.
She looked around the rest of the area. The building was shaped vaguely like a cross, or so she guessed by the shape of the interior room. The building was stretched in equal proportions in four directions: North, East, South, and West. On each wall facing these directions was a strange sort of design that seemed vaguely familiar. Magic?
She shrugged to herself. Whatever magic that had lingered here had dispelled years ago, that much she knew for certain. She looked back at the strange coffin in the middle of the room, noting the water which poured out its sides and down the steps. The water collected in a small channels, one for each point of the building, and was taken away somewhere. She crossed her arms and frowned.
These designs, the water, the coffin, what was it all for? Had something of importance been left here? She began to call on the teachings she had learned as a child.
Water was commonly used to purify things, and the water was being drawn away... Or was it being drawn up towards the coffin? She growled lowly, trying to figure it out. Why was the coffin empty anyways? It was like whoever was in it had woken up, gotten up, and then just...
"...Walked away," she whispered, looking up at the coffin. Maybe, that was -exactly- what had happened. Could this place be where a Doll of Valen had been hidden? It would make sense then, all of these things. The water would be going up, into the coffin, to nourish the doll. But then were was the doll? Probably awakened, a long time ago by the looks of it.
'So, there are dolls here in the Elphesia ruins too. Why does it feel like the past is trying to catch us?' She wondered, turning away from the coffin and heading out. The sky was already darkening. It was time for her to be heading back, to start looking for her brothers. She cast a single, backwards glance at the tomb, shifted, and was gone.
"It's talking about a duck, right?" Narcius asked, craning his head to look at the book Karwyn was now reading. Kirielle looked up from the book she had had her nose buried in, and sighed. Sometimes he could be so childish...
"Narcius, back off for a while and maybe we'll be able to figure something out," Kirielle said, giving her younger sibling a slight glare. Narcius plopped himself down beside the fire and groaned with boredom. They had been reading and translating for almost an hour, and Narcius had nothing to do to pass the time other then try to figure out what that circlet thing was for. He still wasn't really sure what is was for, but he knew it was suppose to be used with something else.
"...No, it is not talking about a duck Narcius," He heard his Karwyn say after a few moments. He shut the book and looked Narcius. Narcius winced slightly at the look, at the subtle annoyance in his eyes. "You'd know that if you used the time you spent complaining, studying."
Narcius looked away and huffed. Kirielle giggled and looked over at Karwyn, who seemed satisfied with the sudden silence. He set the book aside and waited for Kirielle to finish reading. Fifteen minutes later, she was done. Narcius sat there and stared at them, his silence was unnatural for him but the look in his eyes was screaming every question he wanted to say. Kirielle waited a moment, enjoying the silent torture, and then began to speak.
"While I was out searching today, I found a tomb that may have contained a Doll of Valen. It looks like whatever doll was contained in the tomb woke up some times ago though," Kirielle said, looking into the fire. Both brother looked up, interest perked.
Kirielle continued, "I'm not sure, but there may be more tomb like that. Tombs with Dolls in them. I saw other area that looked similar to the tomb I had visited, anyway." Narcius tilted his head slightly to the side, like an inquisitive dog.
"How many do you think there are?" He asked, a look of curiosity on his face. Kirielle looked down at her hand and tried to recall. After a moment, she held up two fingers. Two more tombs.
"Also, the book that I translated was apparently some sort of work journal for whoever lived here. It's... kinda weird really. I don't know if I'm getting all the words right but it keeps talking about some kid that died. Whoever lived here seemed pretty set of bringing them back, but it failed from what I can gather," She said, patting the book in her hands. Now Karwyn began to speak.
"This book seemed to be full of designs, many of them for Dolls and Puppets. It seems he had been trying to make a Doll in the image of his lost child, but even after he managed to perfect the image of them and implanted the proper personality, the Doll changed and became someone separate from their child. He apparently deactivated the Doll after the change became too much for him to bear," Karwyn said. He picked up the circlet.
"This was something used to activate the Doll when it was first made, as far as I can tell. I don't think it will be useful to us though. After all this time, the Doll has probably been damaged. I'd be surprised if we even managed to find it," He said, setting the circlet down on top of the book. Karwyn and Kirielle now looked at Narcius expectantly. He started talking.
"In the same room I found those book I found a tapestry. It looked kinda like a girl, holding a book. She looked a lot like that weird guardian thing from the Ghost Temple. Well, she looked like one part of it anyways, not the creepy skull part or the weird red part. Anyway, it was kinda weird," Narcius said, scratching his temple slightly as he recalled the weird room. They all sat, trying to piece together the information they had just shared.
So far they knew nothing about a relic. Just a dead kid, a Doll, tombs, and Dolls of Valen. All of it was very interesting, but it wasn't the information they needed. Narcius finally broke the silence.
"What do we do if we find a Doll of Valen? I mean, don't get me wrong, Rue and Ruecian were great guys, but I'm kinda burnt out on the whole 'Wake up Valen so he can purify the world' crap," Narcius said, making Kirielle crack up with laughter and Karwyn smile a little.
"We'll leave them alone. I suspect that's why Rue came with Mint in the first place, to awaken the Dolls and convince them to leave their duty behind. It only makes sense," Karwyn said, going through their bag. It was his turn to cook for that night, since everyone, even Narcius, agreed that Narcius shouldn't be allowed to touch a pan unless he wanted to use it to hit something.
"What should we do if we run into one of the princesses, or Rue?" Kirielle asked, her near discovery weighing heavily on her mind. Narcius listened closely, hoping that they'd be allowed to grease'em if they got in the way. Karwyn's answer, however, surprised them both.
"Don't hurt them, don't bother them. If they attack you, defend yourselves, but that's it. We don't want to give them anymore reasons to hate us," He said, removing some vegetables from the bag. Narcius opened his mouth to argue, and was abruptly cut off.
"I know it goes against what we know, but right now we don't have a choice. We're already traitors, and if they add attempted assassination of the princesses to our posters we'll never get a moments rest," Karwyn stated, taking the knife and slowly cutting up the vegetables. Narcius opened his mouth to argue, and found there was no argument there. He sighed and flopped down on the ground, glaring darkly at the sky.
After a few Kirielle began getting out blankets and setting them out to make beds. Narcius, after a few seconds of glaring, stood and began gathering more wood for the fire. An hour later they had eaten and gone to sleep.
Day two of searching felt a lot like day one, except there was a sense of desperation now. Narcius combed the streets and buildings with vigor. Kirielle found herself transforming into smaller, and smaller animals to reach tiny nooks and crannies if rooms. Karwyn began examining everything, including the wandering consciousness that seemed to drift about, with a new intensity.
Every once in a while, one of them would spot one of the princesses or Rue searching the area with them. Each time they saw them, they carefully avoided them, as though playing a strange new game of hide and go seek. It was a careful process, the hiding and sneaking around taking more time then the actual searching. They finished that day of searching without finding anything new, to their great displeasure.
They set camp somewhere near the middle of the ruins, and slept for the night.
"Hey! Hey! Look at that!" Kirielle's voice pierced the early morning air and woke Narcius up instantly. He sat up, covering his ears and glaring at his sister. Karwyn stopped clearing out the campfire they had used the night before and looked up. Kirielle stood on one of the remaining walls of a building, one hand shielding her eyes and the other one pointing wildly to the North. Narcius finally stood and climbed up to where his sister was.
"What are you yelling about at this ungodly- Whoa!" Narcius looked across the tops of many broken walls and roofs and saw it. The atelier. That had to be it. What else could it be? Narcius craned his head to see more of the building and nearly fell down.
"What is it?" Karwyn called up to them, patiently waiting for them to climb down and eat their breakfast. Kirielle managed to get down first, with Narcius still trying to find his balance on the wall.
"The atelier! We're so close to it, we could walk there now!" She said, running up and grabbing Karwyn's arm. After a few seconds she realized that she had passed the invisible line and let go. Karwyn pretended not to notice.
"How do you know it's the atelier?" He asked, walking back to where they had slept that night. He began gathering up his blankets and folding them. Narcius jumped/fell from the wall and stumbled over.
"It's probably the only place around here that's still standing. Atelier's are normally pretty sound places, even after a thousand years of Mother Nature pulling every dirty trick she has," He said, plopping down on the mess of blankets that had been his bed before nightfall last night. Karwyn handed him a bowl and Narcius began eating without hesitation.
"Should we head there today? It looks pretty big, so we could probably split up and search the place," Kirielle said, taking her own bowl and proceeding to eat. Karwyn nodded quietly, sitting down and keeping himself alert to the things around them. Narcius made a low sound of frustration and fixed Karwyn with a glare.
"...What?" Karwyn finally asked, looking up at his younger brother. Narcius set his empty bowl down and continued to give Karwyn a hard look.
"Dude, we just found the atelier and the atelier probably contains the relic! You could at least try to get excited about it," Narcius said, sounding slightly exasperated. Karwyn wasn't sure what to do for a moment, and Kirielle shook her head at Narcius.
"If your going to ask for a miracle, Narcius, try for one that will actually happen," she said, finishing her meal and setting down her bowl. Narcius sighed and relented, much to Karwyn's relief. Kirielle took the bowls away to wash, and the two boys began to pack up what little belongings they had. Narcius fumed silently the whole time, still not really understanding why his brother didn't just act normal. Well, at least normal for his age.
He was still simmering when Kirielle came back, though the feelings had slowly begun to lessen. His brother had always acted that way after all, even when they were kids. He had been the one to make them come inside and study on sunny days, and the one to chase them back inside when it rained. He had always been there to make sure they did everything they should do, but didn't want to do and he had really hated him for it for a while. He guessed that's what older brothers were for though.
The campsite had been completely taken apart and the campfire had been buried. Karwyn looked in the direction of the atelier and began walking. "Let's go."