Chapter 4

The semicircular tomb in which Gereint had discovered the pilots looked completely different when it was properly lit. The walls were covered in a detailed frieze in which two winged armies met over a dark and ominous forest in the centre of which was a golden city. A huge serpentine lizard coiled over the golden dome in the centre of the city, and a figure in white, guarded by a figure in black armour, was surrounded by hazes on the edges of the forest. From five black towers a demon hunter stood in the shadow of a figure in a thick red robe holding a silver circle over his head. Gereint sat sketching the frieze over many pages in a leather bound journal with a stick, Cedric was sat beside him describing what it showed in a quick scratchy hand. Like that the knight and his errant looked like the archaeologists they described themselves as.
He had told the pilots that they could come and go as they pleased but to stick to the paths that were marked with threads because they had been mapped. It was clear that they weren't prisoners but were a long way from freedom.
At the end of each bier was a wooden chest, Duo was the first to open his as the others sat behind him warily as if waiting for it to explode. He bit his lip then licked it, and placed the ring that he wore around his neck into his mouth and started sucking on it. It was something that he did with his cross when he was nervous. His cross, however, was missing.
The scales carved into the ring were rough against his tongue but it was reassuring and the black ribbon was soft against his chin.
He had hoped the chest was empty. It wasn't.
Inside was a thin black wool cloak with sleeves and a hood. There was an oroborous brooch to hold it shut. There was a wooden wand that was fascinated to a short sword sheathe with two leather straps, burned into the leather was the word Deathscythe. There was also several books and two changes of clothes as well as a leather knapsack to store them in.
Under the knapsack was a small silk lined box and when he opened it the ring fell from his mouth in horror. It was a set of hematite jewellery, a choker, bracelet, anklet, crown and long earrings. He had seen these jewels once before, Minako had shown them to him. Like the white robe he wore they were part of the official dress of the lady of Meirin. There was also a padded hairbrush and a second length of the black ribbon to bind back his hair.
Heero put his hand on Duo's shoulder even though there was no way he could have known what the jewellery was, but he recognised the distress he was suffering.
Heero's chest revealed a similar set of items, the black wool cloak and oroborous brooch were identical, as was the knapsack, but in lieu of the books he had an extra set of clothes and a wrapped bundle which revealed a second katana, a wakizashi or short sword, and a tanto, a full bladed dagger. It was the complete set that any warrior needed. They all bore the symbol Tasuki, or wing. There were other weapons in the box as well, some Heero had no idea how to use, and a small box of poisons.
The robe which was black for Heero and Duo turned out to be a deep rich red for Quatre, a colour only a shade lighter than blood, and hemmed in rich fur, which the others weren't and lined in velvet. Although the cut was the same this cloak was much heavier, and there was a matching jacket which was heavily embroidered with cherries. There was a pair of shotel, and rather strangely, a round copper mirror with a deep red cord threaded around it.
Wufei's chest revealed a heavy silk and velvet robe embroidered with golden dragons and a matching cap. Like Quatre he had no brooch to fasten the robe, instead there were several gold beads to use as buttons. There was no weapon but instead was a set of heavy golden bangles that went up the length of both forearms, and a pair of his ankles.
Trowa's chest revealed a rather impressive arsenal of weapons, throwing stars, knives, two swords, a buckler emblazoned with a red cross, and pride of place, nestled on the forest green cloak was a heavy cross bow, carved into it's side was the word Heavyarms. There was a bag of money but none of the jewels that Quatre or Duo had found.
"Anything interesting in there?" Gereint asked.
"Enough weapons to take on an army." Duo said sitting back, "and some sketch books for me, oh and a mirror for Quat." Eluneth had said that the angels were only nominally Seraphim that they owed their allegiance only to knowledge and thus he could be trusted.
"Hmmm," Gereint mused. "That matches the frieze." He was still diligently copying the image. "I just wonder if this is a prophecy or a history."
Wufei started at that, "pardon." He said.
"Well, if it's a history it's telling of the great Paraiko war." Cedric said, "and if it's a prophecy…" he left it open.
"It is not like the prophecies in the chapel of many colours." Heero protested. "The winged creatures in those prophecies only bore a single wing, these figures are in many colours and have two."
"If it's a prophecy," Gereint said, "then I can't help you, I am a historian not a student of the prophecies."
"I thought prophecies were spoken." Quatre said, "like and lo on the fourth day and all that." He looked confused.
Gereint could answer that question. "The prophets, or draimae, had visions, they didn't come out in words they came out in images, and when they wrote them down they became corrupted so they drew them."
"Every child knows that." Cedric said rather dismissively. "And the prophecies of the Draima Rei are the most accurate. They are listed in the book of Erik, but they don't have winged people in them."
"The A'setra prophecies," Duo mumbled, "the A'setra prophecies," he was running them over in his mind, the images that he had seen in the Aegis before he woke up in Peacemillion. "What if this is one of the A'setra prophecies?"
"The Lord of Death prophecies?" Gereint said looking interested at last. "They're a myth. He's supposed to come from the empire with this amazing power and wings, which I'm sure we'd notice, and to him death will be no barrier and he will make flesh swim like water before he saves or damns the world." His tone was dry. "That's the kind of rubbish the Seraphim Devoted spout to promote their world order, like the draima. There hasn't been a draima in so long no one even remembers the last one, the A'setra is a myth, nothing more." He took a deep sigh, "you'll be telling me next that you believe in the Perseverance, the ghost ship that marks his coming."
"But you said it might be a prophecy." Trowa answered, turning the knight's own words against him.
"It might, any one can paint a picture like this and say it will come true, that makes it a prophecy, there are hundreds of these all over Aatoria, you should see the ones in Aviemore if you think this one is impressive." Gereint's answer was cold and crisp.
"Then tell us, what does it mean?" Duo asked. He thought Gereint was wrong but didn't want to say anything until they had found their way out of the tunnels just in case it ended in violence. Although he had no doubts that they would be able to overpower him and his errant it didn't mean they could make their way to the surface on their own.
"The winged people are obviously the Paraiko," Gereint said dryly, " the forest is the Termigent, and the golden city and dome is the Atelerio within Atalantis, a city swallowed by the forest. The five towers there," he pointed his charcoal, "is Sidi, where we are, and look they've painted two of you there. For all we know this painting is simply decoration that's why I'm recording it for the prophecy scholae in Dathyl they'll look at it and will be able to tell us more. It's interesting not because of the winged people, but the dragon." He pointed at the flying serpent in the picture, "there hasn't been a dragon recorded since the Akheniad."
"Menelaus." Heero said suddenly. "Menelaus killed the dragon, it is in the library window at Halcyon."
"Exactly, it's the only dragon I've ever run across. It could be a reference to a cognomen, some lord or other might be referred to the dragon, it could be an honest dragon, it might be a constellation. The fact is that I don't know nearly enough to even guess what the picture is saying."
"Then why are you so sure the winged figures are Paraiko?" Wufei pressed, he wanted to understand this but it made no sense to him.
"Because the Paraiko have wings." Cedric answered, bluntly, "not that any have been seen in centuries, the Devoted maintain that Lord Selestin the Paraiko Lord is alive and well and living in the Forest but no one will go in to search for him."
"Why?" Quatre asked.
"It is haunted." Heero answered, he thought for a moment of the ominous black shadows of the Ningyo that he had seen in the Forest outside Samrath where Mina had fallen. "The Forest is dangerous, it drives those who enter it mad, and if the monsters do not destroy the intruder then the forest itself does."
"How do you know this stuff?" Wufei asked, horrified, even as Quatre ran his fingertips over the mirror that he had been given.
"They've been here before." Trowa answered. "Haven't you?"
Both Duo and Heero nodded agreement. "We were in Halcyon, in Dathyl, and then we went to the capital Dramathen and then east to Meirin." Duo said, "we were only here about a month or so, but enough to know how it works here."
"And?" Quatre pressed.
"Dathyl is wedged between two other countries that vie for more power, the Seraphim pick fights with everyone else, the empire to the north is dangerous, Halcyon is a mausoleum and Sidi belongs to the Garvem."
"Impressive." Gereint said. "You learnt that in a month, you must have had a good teacher."
"The best." Heero grunted.
"We had guardians." Duo added, "if you need someone to vouch for us then speak to Tobin D'Cevni." At the name Heero growled again, "he promised to be our sponsor, either he or Josian will back up our story."
"Again," Gereint said, "they are at Halcyon, at the moment I'm considering you daemons being as you woke up in the tomb I'm excavating and I really couldn't care what you do or do not know."
"I'm the Lord of Meirin." Duo answered sadly. "I know all sorts of things I shouldn't."
"Is it true?" Cedric asked. "Can you see the dead?"
To Quatre's complete horror Duo nodded.
"Then, Duo," Wufei asked, "tell me about my wife."
"Long MeiLan?" Duo answered with a light laugh, "she's a proper little spitfire." He smiled to himself, "you don't eat well enough, and you spend too much time reading, as a warrior you don't need to read so much, that's the reason that Treize beat you apparently, because you spent too much time reading Miyamoto and Sun Tzu and not enough time practising."
Wufei looked a little hurt as Duo continued. "Either you can speak to her or you've spent months studying her on colony footage."
Duo looked amused, "you have a birthmark of a..." Wufei's eyes wide before he cut Duo off.
"Impressive." He said.
"This could be staged." Gereint said, "you could have arranged this before you broke into the tomb."
"No," Quatre said adamantly, "Duo doesn't lie."
"He can't." Heero corrected, "it is a part of what he is."
"Then let me tell you about Ekeade." Duo said and Gereint looked at him shocked, trying to school his emotions not to let it show. "You are in love with a woman whose husband you killed, the sister of the emperor." He laughed, "man, you've got it bad and she just wants to kill you."
"How in the hell?" Gereint asked, "you couldn't…" he found the words lacking.
"I'm the Lord of Meirin," Duo sounded smug this time, "I know all sorts of things that I shouldn't."