Chapter 7 - Cursed gifts
When she had thought of work, she had meant paper work. Kind of like in her last life. Sitting in a climate controlled (or at least moderately warm) room behind a desk and managing orders, requests and the like. Well, what she was doing right now wasn't too bad either, but after her awful childhood thus far she had hoped to finally not get her fingers dirty on filth for a while. How had it come to this?
At first she had barely left the room that Bondrewd had given her. Why would she? After he had gifted her a few of the more popular works about the Abyss and its many oddities, Tanya´s days (and nights) had been occupied with absorbing as much knowledge as possible. If he though it would be necessary to permanently equip her with specialist literature then that must mean her demonstrated understanding had proven quite lacking, right? For this reason she made sure to study extra hard to not further disappoint him.
It had been exhausting, but nonetheless satisfying to feel how her knowledge grew with each passing day, but this blissful time of study came to an end when Bondrewd approached her with new instructions. An untouched and promising dig-site had been discovered not too far from Ido Front. Apparently a shallow pit of water had recently dried up and exposed the remains of another delver party that had found its end on the shores of the Sea of Corpses.
The biggest finds had already been recovered, but a lot of the smaller stuff had been buried in the ground and needed to be carefully extracted. Bondrewd wanted her to help with that even though she had been here for barely a week. Sure, he framed it like a voluntary event, but she knew better than to refuse her superior. Rejection would have made her seem ungrateful and she didn't want that.
He explained that it would serve her well to practically apply her understanding of the Abyss. Collecting experience through her own discovery would deepen her skills more than any theoretical treatise ever could. And the worst part was that she couldn't even disagree with his reasoning. It was a good idea. It was the whole reason why internships existed in the first place.
She was nonetheless not eager to sit in wet sand all day and simultaneously expose herself to cold winds, natural predators or whatever else decided to ruin her day out there. Still, it needed to be done. And if she had to play archaeologist for a few days then she would do her best possible job at doing so.
So here she was, sifting through mud and sand and systematically digging small holes in a checkerboard pattern. It was as monotonous and unfulfilling as one would imagine, considering that most of what was unearthed barely classified as a relic.
Broken, crystalline shards or unnaturally smooth, red pyramids were among the most common findings in the mud, but from time to time she also uncovered weirder looking ones. For example a big piece of shimmering, black silk that did not get dirty or wet now matter what she tried. She immediately thought about how well this material could be used to make the perfect jacket. (Though considering her size a full on coat would probably use the cloth better.)
Any dry clothing would be welcome. The Sea of Corpses was a cold and damp place. From time to time bone-chilling winds brought thick clouds of fog with them that could disorient any inexperienced wanderers caught in their wake. The moisture in the air would moreover make anything wet and if one was not careful then they would soon catch a terrible cold. At least light was provided by the purple beacon of Ido Front a few kilometres away. Without it one would be barely able to see anything at all, because the tiny scraps of light that got reflected from the surface down here were seemingly absorbed by the black waves of the abyssal sea.
The macabre beauty of this deathly silent world complemented Tanya´s next findings well. Underneath a rotten piece of linen lay a small pile of grey bones. They looked humanoid enough to come from a child. Carefully she lifted the remains of the ancient delver up and into the wooden cart that would transport them back to the laboratory. When she looked down again her eyes caught the glint of something shiny in the mud below the burial site.
She examined it closely before dutifully making a note on her self-made clipboard about it. Nobody had directly commented on her invention, but she would swear that she could feel the questioning looks of bewilderment from behind their masks as she introduced her clipboard to the other Umbra Hands.
Wasn´t it obvious that cataloguing relics when they were first found was the best way to avoid confusion later or even prevent artefacts from getting lost along the way back home? It was unbelievable that not every delver used one. She had awaited more professionalism from black-whistles.
The object she was currently classifying was approximately palm-sized and felt cool to the touch. It was a colourful, intricately designed disk with an organic swirling pattern twisting around its centre. A section that looked like a cross stuck out to the side. An odd sensation overcame her when she looked at it. Like it belonged to her. A holy, pure part of her that was somehow cut up from the rest and trapped inside that amulet. It even glowed a little bit if she held it tight, as if it wanted to be close to her.
Unblinking and unthinking Tanya´s hand rose to her face until she was directly staring into the swirling depths of the relic. It was so beautiful! Her mind felt like it had been cleansed of all imperfections and negative thoughts. She wanted – no, she needed it to be closer. And closer. And closer. Until she was clutching it with both her hands above heart.
Had she been lucid enough, she would have noticed the intensifying glow of the artefact. Bright golden rays of light were shining through her fingers and the air around her appeared to charge up with electricity.
But none of that would have mattered to her anyway as she suddenly felt a sharp pain at her sternum and she cried out in agony. Searing, scorching pain flooded her body and left her unable to think. She fell on her back and wailed and convulsed in anguish. Never before had she felt this helpless and wrong as every cell in her body seemed to burn in hellfire at the same time.
And then everything went black.
