Chapter Eighty

Gift to Give

Melima closed the lid of the sarcophagus. Gears turned, and it sounded like air was being sucked out of it. The lid clamped down as if sealed. More gears around us started turning and we stepped away from the sarcophagus. It descended a storey and a half into the ground, then slid to the side. The guardian slid into its place and rose back into the room, still in its kneeling position.

Jörgen pointed out a faint glow coming from the books held by four of the statues. They were covered in runes, but each had a different symbol that stood out. One each for the different elements— fire, water, earth, and air. The glowing began to dim ever so slightly. We probably had a limited amount of time to get out.

We turned our attention to the door, which was still shut. It had four recessed panels, each with a star protruding out of the center of it. Each star had a different amount of points to it— five, eight, four, and six.

There were four smaller panels beneath the larger panels. Melima touched one of them, and it opened, the panel coming out and raising up towards us, revealing a hidden compartment with four plates inside. They each had Gnomish writing on them, so Jörgen took several minutes to cast his spell allowing him to understand languages again.

He looked up at the door. "There's an unfinished teleportation circle on the door. The recessed panels are where the coordinates would be."

We opened the other panels, each containing four plates. They had different patterns on the corners, but they matched the other plates that they had been stored with. I took out a piece of parchment and wrote down the translations Jörgen gave us, then placed them on the corresponding plates.

Each plate had two lines with two or three words each. We translated the plates in the first compartment:

"we will require

our needy"

"the better

that you"

"to anywhere

provide you"

"magic is

magic is"

They didn't make sense on their own at all, nor did trying to put them together. We translated the plates in the second compartment:

"the chance

will live"

"or a way

now you"

"not free

a gift"

"be not

be not"

They seemed both hopeful and warning, while some didn't seem friendly at all. We continued to the third compartment:

"of thyself

you a lift"

"or more

to fill"

"the gift

can give"

"a quick way

we can"

It was becoming more promising. We got to the last compartment:

"to the surface

must decide"

"so give

we will give"

"cheap &

greedy"

"the greater

that you"

With them all translated, we started to try to piece the phrases together. I pointed out one I saw while we were translating. "I think 'or a way to the surface' and 'now you must decide' make sense, reading the top lines together, and the bottom."

I put two more together, "the greater the gift" and "that you can give." They even made sense together.

I started getting excited, putting more together. "Be not cheap & be not greedy," then "magic is not free magic is a gift."

I looked over more of them, changing my mind on a couple and pulling four plates together. "Maybe it goes like this, 'the better the gift that you can give the greater the chance that you will live.'"

Ari'yasa laughed. "That's funny, I just saw the same thing, but in this order, 'the greater the gift that you can give, the better the chance that you will live.'"

She had a point, and it made the center into a four-pointed star. I also started to notice that they rhymed. "'Greedy' is going to go with 'our needy,' and 'you a lift' will go with 'a gift.'"

Melima pulled four together, reading, "magic is not free magic is a gift so give of thyself we will give you a lift."

I nodded, I'd seen three of the four and had been looking for the last one. The center lined up to become a five-pointed star. Melima pointed out that all of the plates were a different shape, so we'd need a plate from each compartment to fill a panel.

Ari'yasa pulled four more together, "a quick way to anywhere we can provide," and "be not cheap & be not greedy."

It made sense, but not as much sense as another combination I saw, "be not cheap & be not greedy or more we will require to fill our needy." Ari'yasa agreed, and it made a six-pointed star. Melima noted again that a plate from each compartment was being used.

The last one was driving me nuts, there weren't any more rhymes. I pulled together a sentence that made sense though, "a quick way to anywhere we can provide you or a way to the surface now you must decide."

Jörgen chuckled. "The translation process can mess with rhymes."

The phrase created an eight-pointed star in the center. Ari'yasa was worried we'd made a mistake, thinking the last two had the same star in the center. We pointed out the subtle difference.

Jörgen read them all in order from the way the stars were on the door, "magic is not free, magic is a gift. So give of thyself, we will give you a lift. Be not cheap & be not greedy, or more we will require to fill our needy. The greater the gift that you can give, the better the chance that you will live. A quick way to anywhere we can provide you, or a way to the surface. Now you must decide."

"Should we put them on the door, see what it does?" I asked.

"Yeah!" Jörgen said. "Let's go to my grandma's!"

"We... We were going to go to the Water Ashari."

"Maybe instead of saying the Water Ashari, we should have it take us to the next Stone," Jörgen suggested.

"That... could be dangerous, depending on where it is."

"That could be, but we'd be there!"

"But if it's underwater... How are we going to drink a potion while underwater?"

"Then let's do the other one. Where is the other one?"

"That, they said would be even more dangerous."

I looked at the door. There wasn't anywhere to put a gift. "Let's put the plates up and see what happens."

"Where are we going?" Jörgen asked.

"What gift are we giving?" Melima asked.

"Yeah, that's one concern I have," I said.

The crazy wizard got a smile on his face. "Blood sacrifice!"

I shuddered as a chill ran up my spine. The last time a blood sacrifice had been needed, things hadn't gone well for me. Melima continued, "it says the greater chance we'll live."

"Right, but where do we even put it right now? What type of gift is it asking for?"

Jörgen agreed that we needed to put the plates into the door. On the back of the plates was more of the teleportation circle. Jörgen said there still were a few runes missing, even with the added pieces. He started putting plates into the bottom left panel, each one fitting in snugly. The edges started glowing slightly.

Melima got mad, asking if we were ready and how we would put the last runes in. Plus the fact that we didn't know the coordinates for where we wanted to go. We looked in Jörgen's spellbook for teleportation circles he had access to that he might be able to finish the runes for— the palace library in Felspring, Vasselheim, the council chambers in Emildan, Allura's tower in Emildan, the Gnomish capital of Gadgetzan, and another place he'd crossed the name off of.

Sephra asked if her dad might know more, and if we could ask. We knew that the Water Ashari were off the coast of the continent of Grenmar, but that was about it. Jörgen pointed out that the door said we could go anywhere, and we should just keep putting plates in.

We put the plates around the six-pointed star. There was the faintest sound of gears, though I couldn't quite tell where they were. They sounded like they were in the door, but also maybe below us. Would the floor open up beneath us? The edges of that panel started glowing once the last plate was in.

I helped Jörgen with the five-pointed star, and Melima knelt on the ground, praying to the Archheart for guidance in figuring out how to work the door. She clutched to the last plates, refusing to let us have them until we prayed with her.

The writing on all of the plates on the left door started glowing once Jörgen slid the last plate into the panel there, and more gears turned. What would happen when we put the last ones in place? "Maybe we should figure out what we have for a gift," I said, "because I have a feeling it's not going to be spells like last time."

"I know Melima has a lot of money," Jörgen said.

Melima glared at him. "That we use, to go on our adventures."

"We could give the door a lot of money."

"I had that thought," Melima admitted. "I don't think the door needs money."

"We could all think of the most important thing we know and give it the gift of knowledge," Jörgen suggested. "Or, we could give it the most important thing to ourselves."

"Jörgen. We'll give it Jörgen," Melima said with a laugh.

Jörgen tried to take the plates from Melima, but she held to them tighter. "No. I'm praying, and you should be praying too. I'm waiting for Divinity to answer."

"Divinity doesn't answer. Give me the tablets," Jörgen said.

The gears stopped moving. "We've got to put them in!" Jörgen said.

"Does everyone have their items ready?" Melima asked. "Does everyone know where they're going?"

"Put them in. Put them in," Jörgen started chanting.

"I feel like I have to mother this group! You're like a herd of chickens!"

"Why not play with them?" Jörgen asked.

"Because we could all die! We could be transported in three stinkin' directions! I'd rather not die, Jörgen! I'm not as close to death as you are!"

"Tawariell," Jörgen said, "could you talk some sense into Melima?"

"Actually, right now I agree with Melima." The two continued arguing for a moment, but I realized something in the room had changed. One of the statues next to the door that had been holding a book had closed the book and was now extending a hand with the palm up. The one to the right still stood with the book open.

I looked around the room. The other two statues with books had also closed them and had their hands out, as if waiting to be given something. I motioned to the statue next to us. "Yeah, guys, I have a feeling it's going to need a physical item. At least one item."

Melima relented and put the plates in the door. The writing on that door lit up, gears sounded, and the last statue started to move. It closed the book—which was apparently not stone, as I'd thought it was—and extended its hand.

"So, are we putting things in these hands?" Ari'yasa asked.

"Probably," I replied. The gears stopped turning, and the room was still. I thought of all the magic items I had, and my stomach dropped. One of the most powerful things I had was the scroll of resurrection. If the door needed a great gift for us all to survive, that was probably the item to do it. It was worth a great amount of gold, was extremely powerful magic, and personally had great value to me as reassurance I could bring back my friends if they died. No matter how value was measured, it was of great worth.

I took a deep breath before speaking. "Guys, I have a resurrection scroll, and I'm having a hard time deciding whether or not to give it up. I'm the only one who can cast it, and the magic is so difficult that it would be hard for me to cast it anyway."

The room went silent. Jörgen offered to copy it first, but remembered that would destroy the original and take a long time. Melima didn't love the idea either, but agreed it would be in our best interest.

She suggested a vote— not only on my scroll, but on any item we might give up. "I propose all of us agree and vote on the items we individually are putting in this teleportation circle, because it affects all of us. So, I am voting 'yes' on the scroll that Tawariell wants to put in this teleportation circle."

"Because we're sacrificing something that we have, right?" Ari'yasa asked. "And it has to be an actual thing, not a spell that we cast?"

"As far as we know, yes," Melima said. "The statues have closed their books and are reaching their hand out."

"I don't have very many valuable things, but I can part with something."

"Well, it's either one or four," Jörgen said.

"What do you mean?" Ari'yasa asked.

"We either have to put an item in one hand," I said, "or all four. We don't know which."

"Oh," Ari'yasa said. "Well, let's try one hand first. That makes more sense."

Jörgen pointed me towards one of the statues. "Yeah, let's try it, Tawariell."

"She's still deciding!" Melima said. "Are you ready, Tawariell?"

I took a deep breath and nodded. "I'm willing to part with it." I walked to the right statue, lifting up the scroll to place in the outstretched hand which—while low on the statue—was at my eye level. I set it down and a light flashed in my eyes.

I was in the same room, but everything had a faint, ethereal glow to it. I was also by myself. Where the doors had been was now a swirling portal. My heart sank, the scroll had only brought me through, not the rest of my friends. I waited a few minutes to see if anyone else would come through, but no one did. Either they weren't being able to make it through, or we all came to different spots.

I sighed. Guess I'd have to go through the portal by myself as well. I focused on the idea of the Air— no, the Water Ashari, as I stepped up to the portal.

"Where do you want to go?" I felt like I was asked, though I heard no words.

I thought back, the Water Ashari. The portal continued to swirl, maybe a little bit faster, and I stepped into it.

I felt like the front of me was being stretched out through the portal. My head throbbed, like something was pressing on my brain. The stretching feeling continued, like it was about to add to the pain that was already in my head. A sudden force hit my chest, as if somebody had stepped in my way while I was running.

My feet touched ground as another flash blinded me, making my head hurt even more. Everything went dark, then my sight began to come back to me. I blinked several times. I was surrounded by ferny trees, mud, and mucky swamp. It was overcast and felt gloomy. The trees seemed both dead and alive. They had leaves on them, but they were all black. Something just felt wrong about the area.

Melima was standing close by, but no one else was. We gave each other a worried look. Had anyone else even made it? Had they died? Had I given up my scroll for nothing?

I started to sink into the mud, so I pulled out my broom. Melima put on her water walking ring. At least we wouldn't get stuck while walking through the swamp.

The sun was starting to set in the west. There was a village in that direction, about a mile away. The stone in my staff was still glowing. I tried to set it in my quiver, but it was too big to put in stone-first. I gave it to Melima to put in her bag until I could carve something to put over top of it.