They made it past a sealed door, using three ancient seals - the Guardian, the Builder, and the Scribe, and Cera found the first title extremely funny because they'd fought their way through countless creatures and things that wanted to kill them, so, not a good job on his part, which got them all laughing to after a minute - and got to what they think is the seventh floor.
Pallegina remarks that there must be another entrance the monsters are using, as that particular door was sealed tight for who-knows-how-long - she's got to be right, but they've got no idea where this door would be. It may well be the main staircase they've been using to get back and forth between the Endless Paths and the Keep.
When they get to the seventh floor, they find it absolutely full of blights of all four elements. By the time they killed all the water blights, everyone can feel Cera's unease growing massively.
Aloth takes her aside and asks "Cera, what's wrong?"
She casts a quick glance at Kana, then connects her mind with his - sending a flood of worry and ideas about the blights, the machines, and why they were still active into his mind with the rather scared-sounding whisper of You remember when Kana said Gabrannos had unparalleled control over the elements? How he was supposedly this amazingly powerful wizard who had mastered magic and controlling all four elements at his will?
Yes, of course I remember. He wouldn't stop talking about the ancient Engwithan Wizard for two and a half hours. Why?
All these machines surely couldn't have kept running for all this time on their own, right? And who turned them on? Who would have known how to turn them on and start them generating blights in the first place?
A series of images suddenly passes from her to him, all the skeletons they've fought in here and the horror that was Heritage Hill mainly, but its more than enough to see exactly why she's worrying so much. What she's worried about and exactly what kind of horror is possibly waiting for them - an ancient Engwithan Wizard, armed with many lifetimes of experience and furthering his mastery over the elements, and quite possibly a blight army. Disturbing and unsettling in the least, and enough for a full-blown panic at worst.
Cera, we'll stop him if he's still alive. Calm down, alright? You're working yourself up here. With a good reason, if the part of the blight army is really waiting for us, but we'll stop it.
They're thoroughly interrupted when Eder and Kana start calling Cera's name, and head over to see them holding a small pyramid covered in Engwithan runes. Kana says "Cera, you'd know what this says, care to translate?"
She takes it from their hands, and then her eyes go wide when she looks at the symbols on each side. "It's for the machines…they can be used to imprison the blights! And this…this activates that function!" She stares at it for another few moments, then says "Someone removed the prism, made it so the forges would continuously make blights. There're four of these, scattered throughout the place. One's in the room that was making Earth Blights. One is in a room past the Fire Blight chamber, and this one was placed here afterwards…meaning the last one could be anywhere. And this…" She examines it more closely, and says "It's for the Fire Blight Chamber. There's a fourth chamber down there, making Wind Blights. I'm pretty sure it's on the other side of this wall, actually."
She then darts off to find the Fire Blight chamber, and they get in just as she inserts the Prism. The machine is suddenly filled with a massive amount of fire, and Kana says "Imprison the blights indeed! Quite impressive! Come, we must find the others!"
They get out of the Chamber, and Cera says "There's one in either direction. One in the Earth Blight Chamber, and one in the room right over there." She points to a massive door, barely visible in the light of a nearly-guttered-out torch. When they get close though, she freezes and goes still, her face a mask of pure horror.
Kana looks over when there's one less set of footsteps, and sees she's staring at the door in a mix of horror, pity, and pure revulsion - and increasing pain. "Cera? What's wrong?"
"Voices in there. Shades. Kana, I don't want to crush your spirits, but I don't think Gabrannos was that great. Because…because they're saying…" She suddenly faints, and Aloth catches her before she can hit the ground.
"Cera! Not again, Cera, c'mon, wake up!" This isn't the first time something like this has happened, such as in the temple back in Gilded Vale or the Sanitarium in Defiance Bay, but this is definitely the most extreme case.
Aloth shakes her shoulder, trying to wake her, and Pallegina says "She won't wake like that, Amico."
There's no way any of them want Pallegina to slap Cera, and Kana says "Perhaps getting rid of whatever she's currently seeing or hearing would suffice?"
Aloth quickly nods, and says "I'll stay out here with her, make sure nothing gets to her."
They all nod, Pallegina actually rolling her eyes and mumbling some Vailian saying, and then Kana opens the door and they walk inside. Aloth pulls Cera closer so her head is resting on his legs, and she actually whimpers and curls up closer to him, mumbling something in Engwithan. He starts stroking her hair, wondering how it's so soft despite the fact that she's been traveling for what must be a year at least. He's no psychic, entirely unable to connect to her mind on his own, so he starts talking to her, uncaring if the others hear him and wonder why he's suddenly babbling randomly.
He eases her up and supports her by the shoulders, wrapping one arm around them so she's leaning into his arm - because she seems terrified by now, living a memory that doesn't belong to either this life or her previous one. When he starts into how he found the hut deep in the Corpsefruit Grove in the beginning of his first year at the academy, she seems to have calmed down a little - it was the smell that drew him to it, and its firmly etched into his memory no matter what either he nor Iselmyr have done to try and forget it. Awful, smelled like rotting bodies, and every year the newest students would go investigate the smell only to turn away upon realizing it wasn't something that could be dealt with or removed. He, however, got curious and went to see what was in the grove, pinching his nose the whole way, and discovered a small hut that looked abandoned for years at least. Though he never had need of it until Iselmyr was Awakened, and when she periodically showed herself when he was stressed. He'd go to the Corpsefruit Grove, hide himself away in the hut where nobody could hear him, and then Iselmyr could emerge safely and without the risk of the both of them being exposed.
He looks down when he feels Cera shift slightly, and sees her eyes are cracked open and there's a small smile on her face. She whispers "Your good at telling stories, you know that? Don't let me interrupt."
Instead of resuming his storytelling, he crushes her in a hug. "You had me scared halfway to the Wheel, you know that?"
"Planning on…taking me…with you?"
He immediately loosens up his hold enough that she can take in some air - a lot of air, oops - and says "Don't…don't go quite that far next time, Cera. Hear all the voices you want, but by the gods, please don't suddenly faint like that again."
She casts a glance at the doorway, a wary, worried, and more-than-a-little-afraid glance, and says "I'm still working on that shielding technique - and those voices were…loud, very, very loud."
"What were they saying?" He turns her face back to his, studying the way her face tenses up and she gets faint creases from remembered pain and fear.
After a tense minute, she quietly says "That room back there…Gabrannos tortured people in there. Chained them to these posts. He never personally helped with anything, just stood there and watched, took notes, occasionally requested a slight change or different method. I don't think Kana knew who he was looking for."
Aloth shakes his head, there's no way Kana had any idea that the writer and scholar he was looking for was so demented. She suddenly hugs him once again, taking him by surprise - and shocking him all over again when he feels her trembling, likely from an adrenaline crash as whatever she was seeing wears off further. He's not complaining though, and wraps his arms around her frame protectively.
And right then is when it hits him, holding Cera close and breathing in her scent - he wants to kiss her, wants it almost desperately. He quickly shoves that urge to the back of his mind, hoping Cera didn't pick up on it - nope, she seems too lost in her own thoughts and what she saw before to pick up on his thoughts at the moment. He's almost torn between wanting her to pick up on it and hoping she doesn't - because, after all his secrets for so long, he doesn't want to lose the friendship of the woman that accepts him for who he is, Iselmyr and all.
Five minutes later, Kana and the others walk back out with the third Prism to find Aloth and Cera waiting for them with the one from the Earth Blight chamber. Cera recovered and then decided they should probably save some time and just get the prism - Aloth wasn't going to let her out of his sight after she just fainted.
It took the others a few minutes to get out after fighting the shades because they had to find the prism and quietly agreed to never tell Cera exactly what they found here - they figured out that she's still pretty young for an elf, the human equivalent of her early twenties maybe. Because Sagani's 'mother-voice' works on her, and she seems far too compassionate and excited by certain things to be very old. Like her puppy, for instance. And the way she tries to lighten the mood whenever she wakes up from a nightmare. And the way she's grinning from ear to ear now and holding another prism in her hands.
"You guys got it! This one's for the Wind Forge, and that one…the Rain Forge."
And the way she can dart off quickly, forcing people to either try to keep up or follow at their own pace.
Kana, however, spots a doorway with some symbols carved into it - and Gabrannos' name. They call Cera back, and Kana looks incredibly excited to finally find the resting place of the old wizard. They all finally agree that three of them should go inside and three should go about imprisoning the Blights - Sagani, Aloth, and Cera go for the Forges, and Kana, Eder, and Pallegina go inside the chamber.
When Cera, Aloth, and Sagani get back to the chamber, they find the other three unharmed - and Kana's spirits in ruins like the keep was when they first found it. He's sitting at a stone table, glumly staring at a tablet that's been shattered - it must be the Tanvii Ora Toha, the thing he left his home for a year ago to find. Heck, the two of them might have even crossed paths at one point! Most likely in Ixamitl, which was his stop before the Dyrwood as well - Cera stayed for a while and then crossed back into the Dyrwood.
Turns out Gabrannos was alive in a way all this time - he's currently a pile of broken bones on the floor - and the tablet is useless. Cera consoles him, saying they learned stuff and that perhaps the Engwithans can be a warning to not follow in their path.
Kana frowns, considering what she said, then says "There were already large differences in the chant…and much of it was added on as it was passed down…your right, Cera. Better that we go our own way, than following theirs." He gestures to Gabrannos' remains, then sighs and says "Let's get out of here, I think I need some air."
Nobody could agree more, some fresh air and sunlight would be more than welcome after this place.
AN: Yeah, ending to Kana's quest! all the shades in that one room couldn't have just come from nowhere, you know. At any rate, Cera and Aloth are getting pretty close! Yeah, I know I'm stringing them out for a while, but they'll get together before long! Enjoy! Also, thinking of doing a fic for Deadfire as well, but probably going to use a different character. But, seeing as I like the Cipher class...going to be another Cipher if I do. Anyway, enjoy! More chapters coming out soon! Review if you've got suggestions or questions!