Chapter Seventy-nine

Guardians

There was a glow within the doors as they opened. Melima cast a spell and disappeared. Sephra cast lights all around us. Within the room was a huge statue, or suit of armor, kneeling on a platform in the center of four stone columns. The entire rest of the room was metal. Where the armor's right hand should have been was a gigantic sword, which was plunged straight into the ground.

Around the room were small alcoves with statues of gnomes. Most of them were empty-handed, but a couple held books. There were large circular grates spread evenly throughout the room.

I glanced behind us to check the hallway. There was now a wall of stone behind us. I reached out to touch it— it was solid stone. We had no escape route, we had to finish our task inside the room. The three skeletons in front of the armor were not reassuring, but I knew we'd be fine. We'd been chosen for this task for a reason. I whispered to my friends, "we can't go back, it's blocked."

Jörgen moved his arms to cast a spell, but nothing happened. "I knew I felt funny! I can't cast conjuration spells!"

I didn't feel any different. Maybe I still could? Maybe it was better that I hadn't put any magic into the door.

The doors started to close. We all rushed into the room— getting stuck outside would not do us any good. The room was shaped the same way as the hallways, arched at the top, square at the bottom. Ari'yasa darted to the right and I flew above and in front of her.

The doors shut behind us, and the eyes of the armor—the guardian—lit up with an arcane light. It stood up, pulling its sword-arm out of the ground but keeping it pointed down. It seemed to be waiting for something.

I noticed that there were rectangular openings in the sides of the pillars, facing the guardian. What were we supposed to do? Where was the crypt that the Stone was supposed to be in? I cast my mark on the guardian and felt it take hold. That was a divination spell! I could still use those schools of magic!

"I am Melima Moonfeather," she said from somewhere to my left, "princess of the High Elven kingdom, and I request your assistance. Please stand down."

The guardian pulled his shoulders back and pulled its sword in front of it, pointed straight up. "I see that you are guarding something precious," Melima continued, "and we need help."

"I understand that you are guarding something precious," Ari'yasa said. "We are not here to abuse it." She took her Stone out of her locket, showing the guardian. It was glowing blue, something I'd never seen it do before.

The guardian swung his arm, pointing the sword at Ari'yasa. It was nearly an arm's length away from me. This guardian had some range. Ari'yasa came around to my right, the guardian's sword following her.

"We understand how precious what you guard is," I said. "The world is in danger from dark forces, and we seek to stop it." The guardian stood still, focused on Ari'yasa.

Jörgen walked around the wall to my right examining a statue, but the guardian ignored him. "Looking at these," Jörgen said, "it looks like they can move."

The guardian put his blade back into the ground, into a slit into the floor, then twisted it. Streams of light scattered through the floor to the walls. Four of the statues stepped out from their alcoves at each corner of the room, their hands in fists to their sides. A word lit up on the sword, but again, I couldn't read it.

A bolt of fire came from the ceiling towards a statue at my left, then another. Both of them landed near the statue, but didn't hit it. Sephra moved to the left, throwing fire at a statue behind me. The flames exploded around it.

Ari'yasa pointed her staff at the guardian and a huge wall of thorns grew around it, growing all the way to the ceiling. I was pretty sure that was from a school of magic that had been used to open the door, but evidently the staff wasn't affected either. That gave my friends more options.

Flames burst out of some of the grates in the floor, catching a part of the thorny wall aflame. Ari'yasa and Sephra got caught in the flames, but I was just able to pull away from them as they ignited in front of me.

The thorns burned through so I could see the guardian again. Its sword was now at a different angle. It must have caused the fire. The room was almost as much of a threat as the guardian promised to be.

The statues converged on both Jörgen and Sephra, only one of them managing to hit the squishy wizard. I fired an arrow at that one. It flew true, but bounced right off the shoulder. I groaned. "Normal weapons aren't going to do anything against these."

An ethereal hand appeared in front of Jörgen, though a slightly different color than the one I was used to seeing. The hand swung at the other statue next to Jörgen but swung wide. Suddenly, I was glad Jörgen had never used this hand on any of us.

The guardian shifted its sword to another side in the slot. Gears ground around the room. Lightning came up out of more grates, striking Jörgen. Why did he always have to get himself in trouble?

The statue Jörgen had been focusing on was obliterated by the lightning. Out of the corner of my eye, I caught another glow. The hole in the pillar to my left also lit up blue as the lightning went off. I also realized that the grates were different between the grates that had fire come out and the ones that had lightning come out. The fire grates had large slits, while the lightning ones were more like plates with holes.

There were other patterned grates as well, some were cross-hatched bars, and others were made of expanding rings. The cross-hatched ones had scorch marks around them. That was concerning. "Try to stay away from the grates with scorch marks!"

A couple of icy blasts came from the corner of the ceiling to my left. Melima must have found some way up there. How had she managed that?

Sephra threw bursts of lightning at the statues around her, but they all dodged out of the way. How nimble could a statue be? She ran to the corner where Melima was hiding, one of the statues nearly hitting her, but hitting an invisible barrier instead.

Ari'yasa pulled out her waterskin and poured it into the slot in the column next to her. Maybe that would keep one of the effects from working? The runes on the sword lit up again. "Everyone pick a pillar!" Ari'yasa said, running to the right one at the back of the room.

The guardian moved its sword again, moving it straight, then down. Four more statues came out from the middle of the left and right walls. The one next to Jörgen swung at him, but he dodged out of the way. The ones that had been around Sephra followed her, but stumbled as they swung at her.

I called down radiant fire on the one swinging at Jörgen, causing it to explode. They weren't very hardy, that was a relief. I flew over to the left pillar and started pulling out my waterskin.

Gears churned in the room again. A foul odor filled my nose and gurgling came from behind me. Acid came out of the thorns, covering me and burning my skin. A geyser of acid came out of another grate, covering another statue and melting it before seeping back into the grate.

The hole in the pillar Ari'yasa poured water into glowed. Water may not have been the right thing to pour into it. I looked into the one I was at, there was nothing to pour anything into. Had she just poured onto stone? That wouldn't make sense.

A thud and grunt sounded next to me. Melima must have jumped. Of course, lightning. She'd be more use at the pillar I'd run to than I would be.

Sephra's eerie hound appeared next to a statue, and she reached out in front of her. A happy shout and crumbling stone told me that she'd destroyed another statue.

A bright light came from behind the thorns, spilling out from where the fire had burned through. The light shone on the pillar just right so that I could see faint writing above and below the slot I was at. Dwarvish script, but still nonsensical to me. Jörgen shouted, "this one says 'cold' on top and 'water' at the bottom!" He paused. "The one she's at says 'acid' on top and 'earth' on bottom."

The thorny vines behind me withered, letting the light fully spill into the room. Jörgen was at the pillar diagonally across from me, while Ari'yasa was at the right one again. Statues advanced on them and punched them.

A statue came around the pillar I was at and hit me while I was looking the other way. It was more annoying than anything else, especially compared to the sting from the worm.

I caught a glimpse of the guardian's feet— it didn't have any. If it did, they were built into the ground. It wasn't leaving us alone because it wanted to, it couldn't move.

I glanced at the other pillar, the one no one had gone to. "Jörgen, what does that one say?"

I cast a spell next to Jörgen while he read the other pillar, calling a healing spirit from another plane. A golden squirrel appeared next to him then climbed onto his foot. I called down radiant fire on the statue next to Jörgen as well, causing it to crumble.

"It says 'fire' on both top and bottom!" Jörgen replied. I glanced at the slot in front of me. The words didn't look the same. Would lightning work? I flew up on my broom, avoiding another swing from the statue next to me.

Sephra's hound decapitated the statue next to it, howling and disappearing. As far as I could tell, we only had two statues left animated in the room. That made me feel better.

Jörgen poured some water into the slot next to him, causing the slot to glow blue. That was a good sign. Maybe we didn't have to take out all the statues to prove ourselves. He walked back to the acid pillar by Ari'yasa and another statue that his ethereal hand had grabbed by the throat. Why? Crazy wizard.

A pillar of water came out of the ringed grates, falling on Ari'yasa and freezing to ice. She fell to the ground in a heap. The statue beneath me also crumbled into icy stone.

Light emanated again from the slot below me, then it lit light blue. A ball of fire flew towards the fire slot, but missed the small box. I was thankful that Melima could still use most of her spells.

Sephra walked past Melima, throwing a bolt of fire into the fire slot and up the pillar. The slot continued to glow an orangish-red. We had one more slot to go. The guardian pulled the sword back to the center, then pushed it down. More statues stepped into the room at the corners, and the one next to Jörgen swung wide at him. Good thing too, the wizard wasn't looking great.

I flew over to Ari'yasa and cast a healing spell on her, reviving her. I also mentally commanded my squirrel to run back over to Jörgen. He held out his hands and looked to the sky. I was happy to see him doing better.

The ethereal hand squeezed the statue next to Jörgen, nearly breaking it. The wizard ran towards the door, throwing a bag into the acid slot while dodging the statue. The slot started glowing, but it soon dissipated.

The guardian shifted its blade once more and fire burst out of the slotted grates again, nearly singeing my eyebrows. Ari'yasa got scorched on her back, but she remained conscious this time.

A ball of acid flew into the last slot, causing it to glow green. The statues around the room put their hands down and relaxed. The guardian stood up and pulled its sword out, holding it straight up. The writing on it glowed again. "It says 'prove,'" Jörgen said.

It seemed there was still something we had to do, there was still no crypt. Sephra looked at the guardian's back. "There's some kind of rune on its back!"

Jörgen walked around to look. "It looks like a healing rune. Tawariell!"

I sighed and walked back to see what it looked like, sending my squirrel to Ari'yasa. It did have a healing rune on it. "I'm guessing that means it can heal itself."

"What if we need to heal it?" Jörgen asked.

"Maybe that's what we need to do to heal our magic!" Sephra said.

I grimaced and told my squirrel to climb onto the guardian. The squirrel ran up the side, and the rune began to glow. The guardian put its sword back in the ground and knelt in the same position it was in when we arrived. The platform it was on began to sink, and the guardian disappeared. The remaining statues climbed back into their alcoves.

A few seconds later, a stone sarcophagus came up on another platform, a metal plate on top. A burst of energy pulsed through the room as it locked in place. We all went up to read the plaque. Jörgen had to read it for us.

Banished and bound

To quell her rival

She gave her heart

For our survival.

This guardian created

To hold so dear

The unending love

Of this mortal sphere.

Take great care

And use it wisely

Return it one day

And be not untimely.

The time you take,

It will take from you,

Far greater a price

Than it may imbue.

Melima lifted the lid off of the crypt, a hinge keeping it attached at the top. Inside was a highly adorned gnome, holding an ornately carved staff. The body was dressed in fine silks that were feminine in style, and a nearly deteriorated woven headband wrapped around locks of curly hair around the head. The body was incredibly well preserved for how old it was thought to be.

The end of the staff was a bit gnarled and held a stone, glowing green. It appeared to be a malachite. This Stone was roughly hewn, not polished at all like Ari'yasa's was. The staff was laying across the body's shoulder in a resting position.

Melima offered to take it out, noting her toughness. I shook my head. "Let me take it out. Based on the inscription— I don't know if it will affect all of us, but if it only affects one person, and it's the person that takes it... Effectively, I'm the youngest."

"I don't know," Jörgen said, "I could carry it until I die."

"Yeah," I said, "but we don't know how long that's going to be. No offense."

"Alright, Tawariell," Melima said. "I trust you." It wasn't an easy decision, allowing something to cut my life shorter than it otherwise would be, but I had the most life left to live. By hundreds of years.

I pulled the staff out, thanking the corpse as I did. I felt slightly different somehow. I wasn't sure if it was what the plaque warned about, or something the stone was doing. I could definitely feel a power coming from the stone.

Realization washed over me about the significance of what I'd done. I'd just accepted the role of a guardian of an Astral Stone, an irreplaceable artifact. Guardian, and champion of Bahamut.