The tunnel narrowed in on itself as it dropped lower and lower into the earth below, the chamber they were seeking was some kind of extended basement, hardly visited by anyone not consisting of the Baskar priesthood. Both of Gallows's shoulders chafed against the walls of the corridor uncomfortable, he tried to tuck them in as much as possible and felt his fingers slide on the neatly chiseled cold stone surrounding him. The priest hadn't been down here for a very long while and he distinctly remembered that this place used to be a lot larger. Gallows followed the path the flaming torch in his hand created, guessing that they were nearly there. The truth was, the last time he had come here, he had been a lot smaller. It wasn't that he hated the place, it was just incredibly boring and brought nothing but bad memories to his mind.
Shane was still damp from his unscheduled shower, making a small trail with his wet shoes on the stairs. He did feel a little self-conscious at bringing non-Baskars into this place, because he came here to pray often when he felt lonely or sad. Filgaia was saved from the clutches of the dream-demon, but Shane was still forbidden to leave his village and explore the world, at least until he turned eighteen. He wanted to see the Filgaia in all it's entirety, and someday, he would, travelling just like his older brother did. But now, he would help his friends as much as possible.
The younger Baskar abruptly halted and held his hand out backwards so Gallows could pass him the torch. Abrasive wood was pressed into his palm and he swept the instrument a small space ahead, the stairs had stopped and only an inky void lay in front of them. "Here we are." Shane announced, revealing a tightly-sealed door with the firelight, made of tough heart-of-pine with solid metal hinges and handle, it did not look of Baskar design and must have only been installed in recent years. Shane grasped the handle and pulled, straining a little because the door was heavy.
His hand was brushed aside and Gallows stepped in front of him, squeezing himself ahead. "Let me, I'm stronger." he advised, wrenching the obstacle open with ease. Light flooded into the corridor from within the chamber, a dozen or so lit torches scattered within the shrine giving off a never-ending luminosity. Gallows faced the three drifters shielding their eyes from the sudden light, grinning in his usual fashion. "Welcome, welcome. Come in on." He beckoned for them follow him inside, waiting a second for Shane to go on ahead.
As her eyes adjusted to the firelight, Virginia noticed the stuffiness in the room and guessed that they were in a deep underground chamber without proper ventilation, smelling faintly of mothballs. It was more like a very large hallway than a room, twin aisles of many animal idols framing a long walkway extending all the way to the back of the room. Shane and Gallows dripped water onto a dried grass mat, a crisscrossing design giving the room a strangely earthen and natural feeling to it. This place must be very old, it felt ancient. "Is this the totem room?" The female drifter asked the Baskars, staring at all the many idols around her. They did not look appear to be of any Guardians she was familiar with.
"Yep." Gallows answered, silently aquatinting himself with the shrine once more. It felt like he was saying 'hello' to an old friend again. Everything was as he remembered it, right down to the eerie intelligence the eyes of each idol seemed to show. His mother used to take him down here to pray, before Shane was born, but those memories were so distant and lifeless, as if they had never happened. No, Gallows shook his head, this was not the time to get lost down memory lane.
Shane turned to face the drifting team and bowed with extreme reverence, the effect was lessened somewhat because of his dampness, but it still got the result he desired. All eyes were focussed on him now. "This area of our culture is hardly mentioned when regarding our religious rites, because it has barely any reference to the Guardians within it." He explained with a humble smile, waving to several idols with the flick of a few fingers. "However, it influences our day-to-day lives immensely and is invaluable to our Baskar society as a whole. Please, look around you, what do you see?"
Jet let his eyes flick around the chamber, absently noting all the stuff that occupied the room, the torches, the long mat, and even the weird and spooky statues. "I see a bunch of animal figures." He said, observing an intricately carved likeness of a cougar close by, the creature made to look in a mid pounce, sharp teeth bared and capable of ripping a man to tiny shreds. The eyes of the animal glittered in the firelight, and Jet realized that they eyes of the creature were miniscule gems, too small to be worth anything substantial, but enough to augment the beauty of the statue.
"Exactly." Shane replied, happy that they had understood. Gallows moved to the corner of the chamber and yawned, he had heard this sermon plenty of times and knew it off by heart, the purpose of this shrine. He could not explain it but Shane could, so he left his younger brother to the work. "We Baskars do not only worship the Guardians, there is so much more than that, like our mutual devotion to the spirit animals that serve the Guardians themselves. For every Guardian, there will always be several species of animal that are it's vassals, like a natural medium to the powers that sustain the world, without the use of any artificial mediums. This is the shrine in which they are worshipped, a closer and more submissive method of Guardian contact."
Virginia held a hand to her chin, trying to absorb the confusing information. "I don't understand. Can you explain it a little simpler, please?" Maybe it was just the stuffy room playing with her reasoning, but to her, Shane wasn't making any sense. She looked at Catherine and Jet, the woman's eyes were staring at the ground, hands in the pockets of her dress. She might not have understood the information too, but it was hard to see at the moment. Jet's face was, as always, totally unreadable.
Gallows raised his hands. "I volunteer to be translator!" He proclaimed responsibly, the bangles around his wrists clanking as he did so. "What my little bro means," He simplified, "Is that we have big gods, the Guardians, and we also have littler gods, more like spirit guides, named after lots of species of animals. Get it?" The Baskar glanced at his brother, grinning. "I'm right, right?"
"Wow, you remembered, I'm impressed." Shane smiled, nodding. "I might be explaining things too intricately, I'm sorry. Here, look at it this way. Has anyone present here ever heard of the Zodiac before?" He looked around for a reaction, making up on the spot a good way to familiarize the method he was talking about. Virginia raised her hand, jumping up and down like a small student who knew the answer to a complicated question.
"Oh, yes! I had a book about it at home, about the star signs and how they influence how your day turns out. Is that part of the Baskar religion?" She wondered openly, recalling the information. She originally thought that the stuff in that book was just nonsense, but if a priest-in-training like Shane brought it up, maybe stuff like that actually was true.
"No, nothing like that." Shane replied, shaking his head. "What I meant to say was, the system of spirit guides works in a very similar manner. For example, in the zodiac you are assigned an animal depending on what month you were born, and that animal would decide your future in collaboration to the location of the planets in the sky. In our faith, you are assigned an animal guide through your personality and the experiences you have undertaken in your life. That animal shall stick with you in spirit until your dying day, invisible, but most definitely there."
"Hold on a sec!" Jet interrupted, "Are you tryin' to say that some guys have invisible animals following 'em around and helpin' out? Heh, sorry, but I just can't believe that." The whole concept was ludicrous, did they actually expect him to swallow that tripe? Jet closed his eyes and sniffed, showing his skeptical nature.
"Jet!" Virginia scolded, hitting him lightly in the shoulder, "Nobody asked for your opinion, so be quiet. Shane was being nice enough to lend us a hand, don't be so difficult!" She softened and turned back to Shane, amused at the telling off Jet was getting. If he didn't know any better, he would have thought of the two of them as a couple, because of the way they always bickered.
Catherine finally spoke up, voicing her opinion. "I have heard of elemental animal sprites existing in Filgaia, does that have any correlation to the information you are explaining here?" As children, Ravendor used to own a pet wind raven, recent events had conjured up that vague and distant memory, catching her intrigue. If that was correct, did that mean that non-Baskars could also be part of such a practice, even without them knowing it?
Shane nodded. "Yes. Just as we serve the Guardians, so do the sprites, a manifestation of the spirits in the physical world. Generally, they attach themselves to people who need their guidance in the most vital way, lost and saddened souls. You are not new to this concept, are you, Ma'am?" The young priest laid a hand on the nearby cougar statue and looked upon the animal with amicable fondness. "I myself have a spirit guide to guide me through life, and here she is." He stroked the head of the idol, cold and oddly warm and the same time.
"The statue?" Catherine asked, regarding the idol with awe.
"My spirit guide is the Cougar, otherwise known as the dream hunter, servant of the lesser Guardian, Ione Paua, long since vanished into obscurity." The animal's jeweled eyes almost seemed to glow as Shane touched the idol, the low toned sound of a wildcat growl coursing through the three ark scepters and the minds of the chosen drifters. "Just as the cougar hunts the craggy wilderness of our Filgaia, so does it wander through the dream world seeking the memories of mankind, and I myself am bound to that aspect of the spirit." He smiled and lowered his hand, the red glowing eyes going dull. "Actually, I would not be surprised if every human on this planet were not bound in some way or another to a certain spirit guide, whether they are aware of it or not."
"Really?" Virginia said with amazement, "Maybe even us too?" She scanned the many different sculptures and wondered which animals belonged to who. "Shane, can you tell us a little about each animal, please?"
Shane blushed slightly, "Well, I only know about a few, because I'm only a candidate for a priest, but I'll tell you about all the ones I do know. Come, follow me down the aisle." The young Baskar skipped the first few statues, giving them looks of acknowledgement, as if they were alive to observe him. He paused at a burly cattle-like animal sculpture and pointed to it, gathering the attentions of the drifters. "This is, I think, my big brother's spirit guide, right?" He looked to Gallows who was bringing up the rear.
"Uh-huh. That one's mine, Schturdark's servant." Gallows put his hands behind his head and sighed, he didn't really like to think that he had an intangible entity with him at all times determining his fate. It was far too unreliable, and a blow to his personal privacy. But, he knew he was being a little hypocritical because he often used the Guardian mediums for help and he shouldn't belittle their faithful servants. "My guide is the Buffalo, the… heh, It'll sound cliché if I say it, so I won't." He laughed, trying to smooth out his puffed-out hair.
"Then I'll say it for you." Shane volunteered, smirking as he saw his brother choke. "He earned his guide years back, Buffalo, the seeker of freedom. The great beasts that run across the plain with only the sun and the flatlands to guide their wayward souls," He chuckled for a few seconds, "Grandmother does say that the image is befitting of you, a big hulking thing rushing around for no apparent reason."
Gallows pointed a finger into the air, going slightly red. "We all know what 'ol Granny thinks!" He declared, smirking. "But what we really need to see is-"
A quiet voice interrupted them both. Catherine had wandered off and was observing a statue in the far back of the room, one hand cradling her elbow and the other on her chin, like she was an art critic inspecting a controversial piece of artwork. "What is this one?" She asked, impressed by the perfect way the lifelike feathers were carved out of a pure rock that bore all the qualities of polished obsidian. It was a large black bird, wings spread wide with a small head looking downwards at the floor, as if it perched on high and watched a spectacle from far away.
"That is the Raven." Shane explained, catching up to where Catherine stood. "The servant of the lost Guardian, Solus Emsu, lord of the Heavens. Why do you want to know?" He wished that Catherine had not brought up the subject of that particular idol, it wasn't that he did not know anything about it, but it was not a pleasing topic.
"Oh, no reason," She lied, gazing into the jeweled eyes of the animal, "I am just curious, that is all."
Mentally, Shane shrugged. Usually, when a person was called to a certain idol, it meant that they were under it's universal protection, but this nice woman could not have been part of the raven's brood, she was far too kind for that. "The raven is the spirit guide of inescapable destiny, known as the lonesome trickster, and the watcher of far away. Many Baskars would call it one of the cursed idols, for hardly any goodwill can come from their protection. The raven is the harbinger of death and ill-fortune, and I pity all who are guided by that spirit."
Catherine turned sharply to Shane. "Are you saying that the raven spirit is a spirit of evil?" She tried not to sound involved with the subject, but the tone of her voice could not hide it's hidden intent. True, Ravendor had matured into a heartless and vile villain, but before that, he had been one of the sweetest little boys she had ever known…
Shane raised an eyebrow and then shook his head slowly. "I'm sorry, I painted a blacker scene than what I meant to do. I can tell you this; though a person's soul may be good on the inside, the spirit of the raven will give them incredible power and wisdom, whether they want it or not, and as a result, they shall be forever distanced and isolated from their fellow man, misfortune hardening and cracking their unwilling hearts. That is why some call it a cursed protection. From such despair, they usually become like the raven itself who travels the wasteland, a fowl that plays tricks on it's fellow animals, if only to hide the pain and loneliness experienced on the inside."
Gallows added his input. "Yeah, that's a nasty one. It's a good thing that there aren't many raven spirits left in the world, but I feel sorry for anyone who's cursed with one." He clapped his hands together, not noticing Catherine lower her head and look sadly at the floor. "So," He continued, "Can you show us the wolf idol? That's what we came to see, you know."
Their leader understood the reason why Gallows wanted them to come down here. She patted Gallows on the shoulder in appreciation. "Gallows! You actually thought of something! Did you remember what you were going to say in Claiborne?"
"Um, nope, but all that talk about wolves made me think about this one thing in here. It's a long shot, but maybe Clive has made a connection to the wolf spirit guide? I'm just guessin' here, but it's worth a shot." He answered her, proud of his wit.
"What, this one?" Jet murmured, turning to the statue right next to the raven idol. It was the likeness of a great wolf in mid-howl at a non-existent moon. The sculptor who made the image did not leave anything undone, even each individual piece of fur looked perfect on the animal's flank. Though no-one noticed it at the time, it was truly ironic how both idols stood right next to each other, for they were eternally ancient rivals according to the Baskar mythologies.
"The wolf is one of the four great idols of power, instrumental in the shaping of this world." Shane said with reverence, "The servant of Luceid, the great she-wolf. The others were the dragons of Zephyr, the lions of Justine, and the angels of Raftina. You have their mediums, don't you?" Almost in sync, the three drifters removed their golden mediums and looked at their radiant shine. It seemed that being in this room made the mediums happy, for some reason.
"In the beginning," He continued, "The four Guardian lords created this planet of Filgaia with their own powers, complimenting and reinforcing their own strengths and weaknesses. Justine shaped the physical appearance of the planet, the rocks and the earth, while Raftina breathed life into the planet and manufactured the first plant and single celled life forms. Zephyr helped that life through it's evolution and gave it the semblance of individuality, the formation of a mind and soul." Shane paused to take another breath, the creation story was one he had learnt off by heart. "Despite this, they were capable of intelligent thought, but lacked the wisdom to put their talents to good use. Life was still as a lump of clay waiting to be molded into a useful form. This was when Luceid, Guardian of desire, descended to Filgaia and gave wisdom and direction to it's fledgling children. Luceid is the giver of wisdom, but it was both a blessing and a curse, for a Pandora's box was opened that could never be closed again. We knew love, courage and hope, but at the same time, also lust, doubt, jealously, and even hate. With the wisdom given, we could now see the difference between right and wrong."
"From what I've learnt at the Ark of Destiny, didn't our forefathers arrive on Filgaia using a ship from another planet?" Virginia cut in, "So, this stuff wouldn't apply to us, you're talking about the neo-sapiens that came before us, right?"
Shane smiled. "When we came to this planet, we were immediately tied down to it's rules and customs. We were unable to adapt to this new environment, so Luceid returned and showed us the way. She is, in truth, a teacher of humanity, showing us both light and darkness. I suppose one could call her a force of chaos, creating for us many different paths and urging us to choose the one we believe is right. Many people believe desire to be absolute…"
"What does this have to do with Clive?" Jet whispered impatiently to Virginia.
"Just hush up and listen." She answered, leaning over a little to reply.
Their guide crossed his arms and closed his eyes, recalling even more information. "We of Baskar give high esteem to those who are under the protection of a Guardian lord spirit guide. In the case of the wolf, that individual is the embodiment of wisdom and experience, a teacher to others and a guardian in his own right. He will always protect the ones he cares about and bears a great paternal instinct over family and friends. He shall protect them without reservation, most often at the cost of his own life. The wolf is the great teacher, the great parent, and…" He added, "The great martyr."
Virginia sighed, slumping her shoulders. "That does sound familiar…" Shane had just described Clive perfectly, and it filled her full of anxious dread. What did that mean? A martyr? The female drifter instantly regretted letting Clive go off on his own, they could not protect him anymore, what if he did something foolish and wound up dead? Virginia knew that she should put more faith in his abilities, but she could not help but feel cold on the inside.
Another hand took hers gently and she tensed from the contact, yet feeling a little of the coldness go away as her hand was lightly squeezed. Jet didn't outwardly show what he was thinking, still looking like everything in the world bothered him and they should all just go to Hell, but he would not let Virginia's hand leave his.
"Does this information help?" Shane questioned everyone, absent-mindedly wringing more water out of his hair. He honestly didn't know what kind of benefit they could glean from what he had told them, but hoped that he had at least done his part well.
"Yeah, I think we've been able to confirm some things." Gallows replied, patting his little brother on the shoulder. "Thanks for the help." Shane grinned proudly and wiped away a feather stuck to his face from the water. It felt nice to be able to help.
"Well, well, well! The prodigal son returns!" Said a new voice in the area, aged yet losing none of it's spite. Wood repeatedly thumped on the ground as another figure hobbled into the chamber, back bent after years of living and gaining wisdom. Halle squinted almost accusingly at Gallows, an evil grin on her wrinkled face.
Startled, Gallows did something stupid. He jumped like someone had shoved a taser into his back and fell over, landing with his arms spread wide. Virginia giggled and nudged him with her foot. "I- er, came back for a reason!" He shouted to the roof, the only thing he could see right now.
Cheekiness sparkled in her clear and wise eyes, not hindered by her old age. She tried to look angry, if only for the discomfort she was giving her grandchild. "What happened? Run out of gella already and came to beg some off Shane?" She winked, "Or did you actually come down here to pray?"
"Well, um, I- ah… erm… I forgot." He stuttered, scratching his head.
Everybody sweatdropped, groaning.