Song is, "Flower Maiden" by Artur Dzivia.
https/youtu.be/83reId9C_aI
Chapter 11: The Vault
Play music here
Arthur and Cyan had a stare down, his blueish green eyes glaring into Cyan's. People were silent as they watched the men remain immobile. Arthur felt his finger squeeze the trigger slightly, itching to kill this man if he made any sudden movements. Snow flakes started to fall from the sky in small clumps, some of them settling gently on Arthur's jacket and hat. Suddenly Cyan laughed and shook his head.
"Put the gun down, I'm not trying to start a fight," he said.
Arthur grunted before putting the hammer in place and holstering his gun. "Miss Maxine, are you the archeologist?" Arthur asked.
"Yes?" Maxine replied.
"Do you know what's in the vault?"
"No, but..." she suddenly looked at Lugh, Sir Jack, O'Callaghan and Lilly, gasping. "Holy shit!"
"What?" Arthur asked, looking at the woman as she fumbled with her black strapped bag.
"One moment," she said, digging into her bag before pulling out a book and opening it, browsing quickly through the pages before stopping. Her eyes widened like saucers as she read, her mouth moving slowly. "By four they will come the day of the Griffin God, riding upon Death and War. They shall smite the evil and wicked with their blessed weapons, and they shall bring prosperity and salvation to the innocent and righteous." Arthur blinked a few times in shock as the woman kept reading. "They wear false faces but I name them Courage, Justice, Redemption and Honor, and they are my Four Horsemen."
Arthur gulped as O'Callaghan, Sir Jack and Lugh came running up, looking at the book. "We're actually part of a prophecy? Ha!" Lugh barked with laughter. "I'll be damned!"
O'Callaghan pointed at the page. "Look, there's Lilly and Holly," she said. "And the riders are us. But...we're supposed to have two more mounts according to this."
As the rest of the group fussed over the book, Cyan joining them, Arthur looked at the vault door with determination. "Who is your creator?" he asked the eye.
"The Goddess of Evolution," the voice replied.
Arthur frowned. "Oh."
"Who's the Goddess of Evolution?" Lugh asked. When the eye didn't respond, Lugh came up to it. "Hey, I asked ya a question!"
"It may only respond to Lord Morgan and...it's creator," Darrach said uncomfortably.
"Oh. Huh. So it's an actual vault. How did Lilly learn tah make one?" Lugh asked.
Arthur cleared his throat. "Aren't vaults machines?"
Lugh shook his head. "Uh, no, actually. They are personal rooms sealed by incantations spoken by the one who owns the vault." He pointed at the big eye. "This is...very advanced technology." Lugh paused suddenly before glancing at Maxine. "How old did ya say this ruin was, Miss Maxine?"
"I didn't say exactly how old it was, but my research says this particular ruin is...pfft, at least three hundred years old."
Lugh gulped. "Oh dear." He glanced at the eye again, then his eyes slowly went wide before he looked at Arthur suspiciously. "Care tah tell me how Lilly managed tah acquire the skills tah build a feckin' Atlantean machine?"
Jack perked his head up, staring at Lugh. "Lugh, that is not a question ya want answered," he explained in a low whisper.
"But-"
Arthur held up a finger to his own mouth, looking at Lugh and shaking his head. "I will explain later in private, alright?" Arthur promised.
Lugh looked at Arthur with a hurt expression before sighing and nodding. "Yeah, alright, keep yer fecking secrets," he grumbled before brushing past Arthur towards the archeologist.
Arthur frowned before rubbing his eyes. Lugh was a good friend and he didn't like keeping secrets from his friends, but Darrach assured him it was for the best that very few people should know what Lilly and the kids really were. At least for now. Arthur looked into the hole in the hill and jerked his head before walking in. Scotty followed closely, examining the room as Arthur entered. It was dark but he could see silhouettes of things. The drone shined its light on what looked like hundreds of statues of people surrounding a much larger statue.
"It's just a room full of statues," Arthur said as Scotty moved around.
"Not statues. Shrines," Darrach corrected.
Arthur swallowed hard as the eye came up to his side. "Shall I turn on the lights, Griffin God?" it asked.
"Uh, sure," Arthur replied while chuckling, rubbing the back of his neck. "You can just call me Arthur, you know."
"Very well," the eye stated before lights in the ceiling flashed on, illuminating the room entirely.
Arthur's looked on in amazement as shrine upon shrine was revealed, and then one big one of a griffin in the middle, its wings spread apart. "Holy shit," he uttered. He walked up to the outer rim of the circle of shrines, examining each one. He started pointing at the familiar faces. "That's Lugh...a-and that one's Cernunnos. And Karen and John and Vu and...wow, the whole Van der Linde Clan is here."
"These are the shrines of all the people my creator considered her heroes," the eye said. "And your touch will unlock the prayers she left behind for them all."
Arthur pointed at himself. "Wha-me? Seriously?" he laughed.
The eye nodded. "She was very specific that it had to be you or any of your descendents to open the vault."
Arthur felt baffled. Lilly went through all this trouble to build a sanctuary in her Hell. A tribute to all the people she cared for and looked up to. He was honored to be among the masses. Arthur carefully maneuvered himself around the shrines until he got to his own, holding a palm to the surface of its chest. "So I just do this?"
"And you must say the words."
"What words?" Arthur asked.
"Your oath."
Arthur smirked with a nod. "Very well," he said, clearing his throat. "I swear by the sun, moon, and stars to protect you, to always have your back, to never cause unforgiveable dishonor to you, and to never leave you again. I swear by the gods my people swear by. I swear by the land, sea, and sky. If I break my oath, may the land open to swallow me, the sea rise to drown me, and the sky fall upon me."
Blue, shimmering light appeared around the griffin and the other shrines, the room shaking as the roof began to open. Arthur could hear the whispers of his wife Lilly near all the shrines, her voice echoing and reverberating off the walls. As the roof completely opened, the shimmering magic all flowed into the griffin, it now screeching like an eagle and pointing its head to the sky. The whispers and the light gently floated upwards, creating a blanket of blue over the roof. Arthur shut his eyes as he felt another prayer come through. He saw Lilly in the vault, working diligently to build her shrines. She had a look of concentration on her face, wearing warm clothes so only her face, hair and hands were visible. Arthur walked over to her slowly, reaching out for her. His hand went through her, unfortunately.
How much he wished he could touch her.
Arthur gazed at her with watchful eyes as she hummed a tune to herself, recognizing it as "Still Loving You", the song he played when asking her to marry him again. Lilly took a sort of tool and began scraping at the shrines face, Arthur recognizing it as Aoífe. As Lilly carefully traced the features, truly making a piece of art by hand, he smiled. When had she learn to do that?
"Arthur, ya need tah see this!" Sir Jack said into the com.
Arthur opened his eyes and rushed outside, looking up at the now blue magical sky full of sparkles and shimmers. His jaw dropped as the colors of green and purple were added, colorful lights falling onto the snow below. Flowers and grass of all kinds and colors started to grow through the snow as it melted, and soon they were all standing in a lushful field of flora. Scotty the drone immediately went to work with collecting samples.
"This place is truly remarkable," Darrach said. People stared in awe at the transformation that had occurred. "And we've got prayers coming in to everyone."
Arthur smiled more as he looked around, his eyes locking in Lilly who had come up to greet him with a lick to his face. He hung her tightly, breathing in her scent of apples. "Thank you, honey," he said. A low grumble was heard in the wolf's chest and Arthur chortled. "Are you talkin'?"
Lilly nuzzled his face with her snout, sniffing him excitedly as her tail wagged. Lugh, Sir Jack, O'Callaghan and others were huddled around Maxine as she went through the book. Arthur slowly made his way over to the group with Lilly close behind him, standing on his tippy toes to see what was in the book. He saw a picture of Lugh, O'Callaghan, Sir Jack and himself riding atop Lilly, Holly and two other horses. He recognized them immediately.
"Doc and Tessa, huh?" he chuckled. "How'd she bring them back to life? She didn't kill 'em."
Maxine turned the page. "I bringeth life to the two steeds left behind. I name them not Pestilence and Famine, but Blessing and Prosperity. They will come to the Griffin God and his disciples when the time is right."
Sir Jack arched a brow. "I'm sorry," he said before pointing at Arthur. "His disciples?"
"Yes," Maxine replied.
"Arthur, there are other things in the vault," the eye said.
Arthur held up a hand. "Sorry, they wanted me to see what happened out here," he said, walking back towards the vault.
Once he was back inside with the eye machine, it hovered near a white trunk. "Place your hand on the trunk."
Arthur ambled over before taking off a black leather glove, placing his palm in the hand imprint on the trunk lid. "DNA identification processing," a voice said as green laser lights scanned his hand.
"Woa," he said in awe.
"DNA identification complete. DNA confirmed." The trunk unlocked with a click and Arthur opened it, white fog spilling out of it.
He reached in and grasped onto something hard and thin. He got his fingers around it and pulled it out, looking at the rather strange object with an arched brow. It was a key made out of bones. It had a skull at the top with a little lily flower on the crest of the skull. Arthur then slowly turned his head, looking at the eye.
"What is this?" he asked.
"A skeleton key," the voice replied.
Arthur cackled with laughter as he looked at it. "I love her sense of humor."
"There are other items in the trunk," the eye said.
Arthur peeked his head in and his eyes sparkled with delight at what he saw. "Jesus!"
As O'Callaghan and the rest of the group discussed the book, Arthur came running out with an arm load of guns. "Look!" he said excitedly, dropping some of them as he came running. "Look look look! Guns! Look at all the guns!"
O'Callaghan, Lugh and Sir Jack went and collected the ones Arthur had dropped. The white lady held an interesting handgun of some kind, one with a dagger attachment at the top. It had a short barrel but no visible place where the bullets went, however it had a red tank attached to it. "What kind of gun is this?" she asked curiously, holding it in her hand and pointing at the sky. She pulled the trigger and screamed when flames shot out of the barrel. "Oh wow!" she giggled, examining the gun. "Ha! This one's called Spitfire!"
Lugh had grabbed a sort of white and gray camo colored rifle, looking at the magazine that held the bullets. "This one is called, "AK-47", apparently," he commented.
Sir Jack was studying a rather large gun that held a rather large bullet. "This one is Fat Man," he laughed.
While Arthur was having a joyful meltdown over all the guns Lilly made for him, acting very much like a kid in a candy shop, O'Callaghan pointed at him and laughed. "I don't think I've ever seen you so excited!"
"There's more in there!" he shouted, dropping the weapons on the ground and racing back into the vault. "That woman fuckin' loves me! Woohoo!"
O'Callaghan cackled loudly at Arthur's extremely uncharacteristic behavior. He came back out with a white trunk, clearly having a hard time carrying it. "She's got more! It's one of her magic trunks! There's a whole fuckin' armory in here!" he wheezed, putting the trunk on the ground. People raced over to peek in and they gasped as Arthur put his foot in, then slithered inside and clung to the edge. "There's more trunks in the vault but look!" he said before descending down.
O'Callaghan looked in and covered her mouth in shock at the amount of guns on the walls and in display cases that seemed to go on forever. "Oh yeah, this is definitely an armory," she breathed.
Arthur popped back up with a golden gun. "Gold plated .45 calibre revolver. It's called The Golden Gun," he giggled. "Oh my Jesus, I'm so happy right now!" he breathed hysterically. "What do we do with them all?"
"Obviously we should carry the ones we want and the rest stays in the vault fer safe keeping," Sir Jack said, snatching a pistol out of a miner's hands. "This is not yers!" he snapped.
"But there's so many down here! I can't decide which ones to take!"
Jack made the bystanders back away from the trunk. "We'll go down there two at a time, pick some. Lugh and I will stand guard, we'll take turns grabbing what we want."
"Sounds like a plan," Arthur said before going back down into the trunk.
O'Callaghan followed Arthur down the ladder of the trunk and stared in shock and awe at the amount and different types of weapons inside. "By the gods!" she exclaimed as she ran over to different bows and arrows. "Did you see all these recurve bows?!"
"Yeah! That one looks like it's for you!" he said, aiming a finger at a white crossbow. "I don't even know what kind of bow it is!"
O'Callaghan looked at the inscripted gold plaque beneath the white crossbow. "The Holy Acorn," she said, taking it off the shelf with a grin. "She named all of the weapons?!"
"I reckon so!" Arthur laughed as he grabbed a dark blue scale colored handgun. "This one is called, "What A Glock"."
They both laughed as they kept looking around, seeing grenades, dynamite, ammo of all kinds, and other assortments of anything weapon related. There were knives, daggers, machetes...anything you could possibly want in a personal armory suited for any sort of domestic homeland situation, Lilly had put it all in the trunk. O'Callaghan lifted the crossbow off the wall and inserted an arrow into the mechanism, then she pulled the trigger and smiled brightly as the arrow shot and imbedded its head into wall.
"Oh, I love this!" she yelled before putting it down and jumping into Arthur's arms, kissing him madly. Arthur held her close, running his hand through her elf hair as they made out. "Do we have time for a quick...you know..." she giggled.
"Dunna even think about shagging down there, we have a job tah do," Jack scolded into the ear com.
Arthur could hear Lugh, Darrach and others laughing. "As much as I'd love to, O'Callaghan, we don't," he said with a regretful frown.
The throbbing in his groin said otherwise, of course, but he'd have to deal with it. At least for now. He hadn't even thought of having sex inside Lilly's head.
Arthur wondered what that would feel like.
He kissed O'Callaghan softly on the lips before pecking down her jaw and neck. "If I have to wait until we get out of here, I'll be very upset," O'Callaghan pouted.
Arthur smirked as he nibbled her flesh. "We'll figure it out," he chortled.
End music here
Cyan watched the visitors with a careful eye. To him, the legend of The Griffin God was just a fantasy. A tale told to children in their beds that salvation would come in the form of a griffin. He was unfamiliar with the Four Horsemen prophecy, but the story of the griffin had been his favorite when he was still new to this world.
Over time, of course, he outgrew the bedtime story.
But now? After all his years of existing, he was having to come to terms with some things. Like the fact that they called Morgan, "Lilly". He separated himself from the group and pulled out his D-Call device, clipping it to his earlobe. He needed to get a hold of Violet.
Violet was driving in her Camaro, the sun shining down on her when her D-Call device began to roar. She groaned and picked it up off the passenger seat, putting it in her earlobe.
"Yo, sup?" she asked into the microphone.
"Violet, um...there are some people here...and they called Morgan a different name," she heard Cyan say.
"Hello to you too, brother," Violet sighed, the wind flapping at her pink scarf. "What name did they call her?"
"Lilly."
Violet slammed on the brakes, the car skidding along the road as she swerved. The tires kicked up dust even after the car settled to a stop. "What?"
"Yeah, I thought it was strange, too. And apparently there's a prophecy involving these guys, too. The Four Horsemen."
Violet swallowed hard as she took deep, heavy breaths. "Cyan, I need you to listen very, very carefully to what I'm about to tell you."
