Chapter 5
"Commander!" Hands propped Ravus up as he groaned. Something cool broke over his head and he suddenly realized what had happened.
"Shit!" Ravus jerked upright, almost hitting Selena on his way up. "That Ifrit-damned missile!" He twisted to look at what should have been a hole overlooking the ocean.
There was only a pile of broken rocks to greet him.
"You were lucky." Selena said as she extended a hand to him. "The blast dropped you straight down and out of the way of the rock slide." Ravus hung his head for a moment before he took her hand and got up.
There was no point trying to dig a way out just for Ravus. With another sigh, Ravus turned towards the group. Nyx grinned widely, "Guess that means you're along for the ride."
"So it would appear. Lead on."
Nyx shrugged and, after a look around, headed towards the Trial of Kaitiaki. The rest followed one by one with Ravus the last one in the line. The tunnels looked identical in the limited light they had but Nyx and Libertus weren't hesitating at each junction.
After a while of walking, Selena asked. "How long until we get to the deathless maze part?"
"Do you have to call it that?" Nyx scowled as he shot his sister an annoyed look.
Selena rolled her eyes. "Do you have a better name?" Silence. Selena smirked, "So… When are we getting to the deathless maze?"
Nyx groaned but Ravus recognized the exasperated yet amused undertone of an older brother. "Soon-ish. We passed where the dead body was a bit earlier so it shouldn't be long."
Selena looked all-too-pleased at the news as did Crowe. Ravus frowned and wondered just what the two ladies were planning. He knew it wouldn't be anything dangerous to the others but that didn't mean it was either sane or safe.
"Don't worry. Crowe just wants to see if she can figure out the spells used when someone is 'killed' and brought back." Pelna dropped back to walk beside Ravus. "Selena offered to be the guinea pig in return for some recipes Crowe hoards like a dragon." He clasped Ravus' shoulder with a reassuring smile.
The scream from Nyx a second later destroyed any hope Ravus had about convincing them not to go through with their plan. He helped Nyx get back to his feet and watched as Selena gleefully threw herself into the spiky wall of death while Crowe watched with magic gleaming from her hands.
"Really?" Nyx groaned as he rubbed his now-whole stomach. His glare said a lot more about his opinion of his sister's experiment.
Ravus shrugged. "It's not like they'll stop just because I ask them to." Selena cackled as she reappeared, eyes shining as she looked at Crowe, who nodded, before throwing herself back into the trap.
It took a while before Crowe finally gave an exasperated sigh. "That's enough, 'Lena."
Selena took a step back from the trap with a pout. "Already?" Then she grinned, "Did you figure it out?"
The question got everyone's attention away from their card game as Crowe shook her head and crossed her arms. "No." She frowned. "There's a least 15 overlaid spells with a dozen others creating some kind of looping spell but they're so similar in style that I can't tell where one ends and the other begins."
Nyx rose to his feet. "In other words, I just saw Selena die a couple hundred times for nothing?"
Crowe and Selena both winced. "Right... I should've asked Pelna or Libs rather than 'Lena, uh?"
"That would have been better." Nyx dodged Libs' elbow and ignored the outraged cry from Pelna.
Selena hugged Nyx, "Sorry."
Nyx sighed and returned the hug. "Just... Try not to get yourself killed? In here or anywhere else." Selena nodded.
"Well that won't be hard anymore." Crowe said. She paused then explained when she noticed the stares. "I can't figure out how to replicate the spells but I know how they feel so I'll be able to tell you where the traps are."
"So it wasn't a waste of time after all!" Pelna sighed as he finished packing the cards away. "Guess that makes you point for now."
Nyx grumbled, "Still shouldn't have been my Selena..." But didn't complain as Crowe took the lead beside him.
They continued on their way with no further mock casualties as Crowe pointed out the traps as they came across them. After a few hours, the group stopped to eat then continued on for a while longer before stopping again for the night.
Three days passed for them, though none could tell how long it had been outside of the Trial of Kaitiaki. Three days of rather boring tunnels, rations and repetitive games. More than once, Ravus wondered why Kaitiaki would have made the first Trial such a repetitive one. What was the point? He didn't figure it out before they found themselves at the entrance of a huge cavern.
"This could fit Lestallum and still have plenty of space." Pelna whistled at the sight. Light from an unseen source reflected off the crystals that emerged from the walls and floor. The sound of running water echoed through the great empty space, hiding its source from sight.
"Wait. Over there!" Ravus pointed to their right. "Are those...buildings?" Nyx frowned, extended a hand and shot a bolt of lightning right above the deeper shadows Ravus was pointing at.
"Nyx!"
Nyx shrugged, "What? It worked and I didn't hit anything." Libertus facepalmed. Nyx glared at him.
Ravus sighed, "Are we the only ones that aren't crazy?"
"Probably." Pelna shrugged. "Let's leave the crazy ones behind and head over." Ravus laughed as four distinct voices called out in protest from behind them.
Ignoring them, Pelna and Ravus walked towards the ruins. Crumbled walls marked the location of homes while broken objects hinted at what kind of place this had been. Clay tablets held records in a language Ravus couldn't recognize but that made Pelna's eyes light up excitedly.
"That's Galadhian Runic!" He gushed, dropping down to examine a tablet closer. "...That's… I found something!" He called out moments later. The rest of their group gathered around quickly.
"What's up, Pel?"
Pelna waved the tablet in the air, "The records on here tell of past Trials. Listen to this: On the fifth crescent moon, the Candidates entered the Haurio. 3 arrived to the Temple to offer their Prayers. The rest is broken."
"A Temple?" Selena frowned as she looked around. "Are we supposed to find it and offer a prayer?"
Pelna looked through several more broken tablets before he answered. "Likely but I'm not sure if a prayer is the thing to offer. The rune they used indicates an offering of some kind but either the precise offering was common knowledge back then or it was marked somewhere else and might have been destroyed."
Ravus tapped his fingers against his crossed arms. Offerings were common in rituals and ceremonies, though the exact nature of the offerings was dependent upon each receiver. He closed his eyes and thought of all the rituals and ceremonies he'd seen or had taken part in. Of all the offerings involved.
He snapped his fingers suddenly, "That's it!"
"What, Ignis?" Crowe growled, then blushed. "Sorry, Commander."
Ravus chuckled, "No harm done. As I was about to say, I believe I may know what the offering should be."
Nyx raised a brow. "What will it be?"
Ravus smiled, "Snow and ice, both of which are rare in Galahd, correct?" Nyx nodded. "Offerings are often complementary to the deity worshipped. For example, the flowers of Altissia are an offering to Leviathan."
"Make sense, I guess," Pelna said as he rose. He looked around, "Now that we know that, let us find the temple."
They split up to search for any hints of this temple. Selena and Nyx headed towards the highest ruins, hoping that it was the temple or that they would be able to see it from the highest point. Pelna and Ravus headed towards the middle of the ruins, thinking that such an important location would serve as a meeting place for anyone living around there. Libertus grabbed a stick, let it go then went in the direction it was pointing towards with Crowe.
Half an hour passed without anyone finding any traces of a place of worship and Ravus had started wondering if they had missed something. Leaving Pelna to continue on the search, he headed back towards the entrance of the ruins with deliberate slowness. He searched through the sides of the path carefully until he found what he was looking for.
A broken post lay buried under dirt and rocks. On one end was the remains of a sign; the runes on it unreadable to Ravus. He was too far away to simply shout his discovery to Pelna so he broke the rotten wood under the sign and retraced his steps back to his companion.
"Hey Pelna, can you translate what this says?" Ravus asked as soon as he came into view. Pelna nodded and reached out to start translating. After a few moments, Pelna turned to Ravus with an exasperated expression. Ravus grinned as he shrugged. "Come on. Let's grab the others and get to this temple already."
It didn't take long for them to round up the others and retrace their steps to where Ravus had found the sign. Selena quickly found the mostly invisible remains of what used to be a road as the others followed her carefully. Even with the light conjured up by Ravus and Crowe, the cavern was dark and foreboding.
The path wound between stalactites of enormous dimension, upon which they found other traces of the inhabitants of the underground town. Some of the inscriptions were silly things that Ravus expected had been written by teenagers – who else would write that they were there and who banged who? - and others drew their attention.
"What do you think this means? 'Light will bring it to life but Darkness will kill it'," Pelna said as he got up after reading the barely-there carving at the base of the stairs.
"Sounds like a passage from the Cosmogony." Ravus remarked. "Such confusing passages often refer to something ordinary that the author simply wanted to make more extraordinary."
"Like the Prophecy?" Nyx waited by the doors, large and made of some kind of white material that he suspected was bone, though he had no idea what might have bones large enough to make the doors in the first place.
Ravus nodded grimly. "Like the Prophecy."
Selena shrugged, "Should we try to figure what it might mean before we go in?"
"Nah," Nyx swung an arm around her. "It's not very prominent so it shouldn't be important to the Trials."
Ravus, Pelna, Libertus and Crowe shared disbelieving looks but they weren't able to say anything before Nyx pushed the door open with one hand.
A/N: Any guesses on what the riddle means? XD