Chapter Five- Working Together Separately
The sun was up over Nasr, joining the Red Moon as it's temporary twin and casting incredible light and heat across the lands. Nasrad was no exception, and the outside temperatures were beginning to climb. Buildings that had been using heaters for the chilled desert nights of the city began to switch to air conditioning, both technologies the people of the sparse continent had achieved quickly in order to have a chance to survive.
Aika and Fina had awoken, packed their equipment up, paid off their tab with the innkeeper, dressed in their original unique dresses that had been repaired, and set out for the docks. They arrived, quickly locating the modest Nasrian sloop that they owned, the ship named the Aventura. Climbing aboard the deck, the redhead looked over to Fina. "Sleep well yesterday?"
The Silvite blushed a little, but nodded. "Um.. we certainly had enough activity to tire us out. I slept as a rock." She pulled out the faded shard of Daccat's Map they had received from Gonzales, eager to change the subject. It showed the unique profile of the eastern coast of Valua's main continental mass, but anything further east had been lost along with that part of the map. Small scribbled writing sat on the bottom of the parchment, and she began to narrate while Aika started the engines of the ship. "'The dead will always watch over my treasure. it is located'..."
"Is it located..." Aika echoed, egging her on while she drew up the anchor and prepared the Aventura for it's first flight with it's new pirate owners.
"That's all it says," Fina said, shaking her head. "The rest has been ripped off. How troublesome." Upon examination of Valua, she noticed some sort of icon resting on the farthest-up peninsula of the land. "Hm... it's a skull! Aika, the map has a skull on the coast of Valua. Maybe it's a clue."
"Let's hug the Valuan shore, then," Aika shrugged, turning the wheel and powering up the pectoral fins. They flapped, sending the ship into the air. "Keep your eyes peeled while I pilot the ship. Make sure to look hard, the gloomy clouds are going to make seeing anything pretty difficult."
"Aren't there... Valuans in Valua?" The timid mage asked.
"Well yeah, but they're mostly in the south and center of their continent. The Valuans don't even send out patrols, so there's no one to depopulate the monsters to the north of here. They feel smug enough to leave their coast completely unguarded." The Aventura smoothly flowed over the city, climbing over the rocky desert mountain that dwarfed Nasrad and emerging into the open sky. Turning, she watched the dark cluster of clouds in the distance soon draw near. "Wow... if you think about it, it's really weird. Nasr and Valua hate each other, but they're not twenty kilometers apart at their closest point."
They passed several merchant ships, mostly those with distinct designs of the Red Moon's people. However, it's status as a trade hub meant that foreign designs also appeared in it's airspace. A Grenadier-class Naval ship hovered past them. The massive gunship was about five times larger than their ship, and bristling with enormous cannons. It made them feel a little safer, seeing such powerful ships that didn't belong to the Empire.
They were indeed able to get ridiculously close to the coastline of the other continent, flying parallel to it, not not once did they encounter a single ship in the clear blue skies to one side or the stormy torrent in the other. Fina and Cupil diligently kept up the inspection, watching uneventful leagues flow by the bow of the ship. They finally gained some respect for the sheer size of their chief enemy's continent when they had passed more land than Nasr had. The Yellow Continent was enormous.
An hour and large spans of land passed before anything happened. Fina was not paying much attention by now, having been throughly bored and annoyed, which was for her quite a rare event. A glint in the side of her vision caught her full attention, and she spotted a metallic skull over thirty meters long. After being alerted to this very odd sighting, Aika turned the Aventura and headed in, getting close to the large object.
It stuck out obviously from the ground, and upon inspection the recent touch of shovels was discovered in the soil around it. The skull was pointing out into the sky to the north and slightly northeast. Fina blinked. "This must be a part of the clue."
"So, what do we do now?" Aika asked. "I doubt that Daccat buried his loot in Valua. Being buried there would dishonor the riches."
Her mind suddenly put together all the pieces. She turned around, looking at the redhead. "Aika, I think I have it. 'The dead will always watch over my treasure'... look. the skull is pointing outwards, just like the bird and the golden man back in Ixa'taka." Her delicate hand followed the facing of the object just for emphasis.
"If it were that obvious, then the treasure would have been looted hundreds of years ago," The Blue Rogue shook her head. "I mean, this thing is sticking right out of the ground. Come to think of it, why haven't the Valuans found this? I'm sure some of them come out here once in a while."
"I don't think we have any other options besides fly around randomly," Fina replied, bowing her head as if ashamed that she was right.
Aika smiled. "Yeah. Don't worry about it, maybe we're just really lucky." Or maybe someone else was here recently. Either way, we'd better get a move on. "Let's align our course for the dead lookout over there and get going." They got back to their ship and turned around, heading straight into the sky. The air around them lightened as they drew away from Valua, the all-encompassing darkness retreating onto the horizon behind them eventually.
The frontier, as the northern skies above Nasr and Valua were called, were for the majority uncharted and completely devoid of civilization. Monsters floated around in schools just like skyfish did elsewhere, and when a group took an interest in the Aventura they boldly swooped onto the deck, forcing them to abandon the helm for several minutes in order to join battle with the creatures.
They did what they could, using magic or special skills whenever possible, as neither of them were truly front line combatants. I feel the loss of the guys, Aika thought, blocking another attack from the odd, ghost-like yellow creatures that were called Gravers.
The Gravers floated mysteriously, and when they found a prey, attacked with their bodies in a tackling motion, and they even had some base Yellow Magic skills. Luckily, Aika had been practicing her Delta Shield occasionally during their shipwrecked days in civilization. She had gotten more stamina with it, and now nearly none of the electrical attacks even made it to them. Cupil counterattacked, morphing into a rotating four-pointed star and ripping through enemies like a power-saw. They eliminated the latest swarm of monsters, and took a moment for a breather.
Specks appeared in the distance- at such a range it was impossible to tell what they were, but it was definitely in their course, so they increased their speed to check out the objects. They turned out to be small islands, ranging from a kilometer to fifteen in length and floating at variable distances between the two blankets of clouds above and below the air.
"Abandoned island atolls," Aika noted, leaning out to inspect them a little closer. "One of these might be Daccat's Island! Let me think... the legend says that the island looks like..." She found one in the distance. "That one!" Aiming the ship for what she suspected to be the fabled island, she kicked the engines into full blast, and Fina retreated onto the pilothouse to escape the rippling winds.
Aventura soon drew near the landmass, and an opening in the front of it's coast looked very inviting. Slowing down, they moved in, passing into a small harbor protected by outcroppings that was a tight fit, even for the narrow sloop. Anchoring the ship down and landing it on the edge of the harbor, they turned off the engines, locked the controls, and hurried to debark.
"We found it, we found it," Aika chanted victoriously. "When we get all that treasure, we're going to be the most famous pirates ever! When we find Vyse he's gonna be so impressed by all the shit that we bought him!" Fina followed, giggling quietly. However, Cupil had caught on to the hyperactivity and followed, bouncing around into the sky until he was recalled, timidly withdrawing to his perch off his master's shoulder.
They passed into the shadow of the enormous cliffs around them, but found light tree cover across the island. Prominent right in front of their eyes was an enormous, intricately carved stone bulkhead that covered the entrance, standing as if irrefutable proof that something important sat behind it's massive frame. "This thing is enormous," Aika said, blinking and looking up at it. It's red stone glowed slightly, and was likely not only solid enough to withstand physical attack, but was also enchanted. She could feel it, as a magically adept girl.
Fina pointed to the large stone slab that sat raised above the ground in front of the door. "It looks like that might be the key to opening it..." Gingerly putting a white shoe up to it's worn surface, she placed some of her small weight onto the stone. It exhibited no result. Urged on by this, she stepped up, and Aika leapt up to follow.
Nothing happened for several seconds, and Aika crossed her arms. "Hrmph. This might be tough. Say, why's Daccat being so stingy? Not like you can take the gold with you when you move on..." The ground suddenly shivered around them, and dust flew into the air as the stone fell down to the level of the surrounding ground. "Woah! What was that!" They looked around for a source, but nothing was visible besides what was there before.
"I-I don't know," Fina replied, putting a hand to her mouth. "Um... the door is opening..." The stone tablet lifted itself up, moving it's bulk out of the way to reveal a long, lit and braced tunnel that led off into the interior of the island. "It opened on it's own."
0-0
Gilder and Vyse had not been engaged in the same sort of education that Fina and Aika had, and so had set out about daybreak the previous day. Vyse looked into the dusk sky, sighing as they stood onto the Nasrad docks and felt the air become a slightly more moderate temperature, although he knew this was just a herald to the coming chill. "I'm a pirate without a ship," He said to Gilder, then looked over to him. "Hey, if we do find the treasure, I'm going to use my share to buy a ship, alright?" He was still serious and sober, out of his usual jovial character.
Skiff Three floated gently besides them, it's sails retracted into it's redwood masts. The older and more seasoned whimsical air pirate turned to look at the teenager and smiled. "Heh. That's why I like you, Vyse, you don't give up. Hell, you can use my boat, we can look for em together until my boys get back with the Claudia. Knowing Clara it could be days."
Abruptly changing the subject, Gilder recited the faded writing on Gonzales's part of Daccat's Map. "'... to the north of the City of Sands. When the two pieces become whole, the way to the treasure will be known.'... I think the City of Sands refers to the capital city of Nasr in the Old World. It was called Oasis and sat right here, where they built over the rubble after the Rains of Destruction. So all we gotta do is head north. No problem for my skiff, it's made by the same guys who did the Claudia. A work of art."
"Alright, let's get moving," Vyse said, leaping aboard and making a soft thump as his weight landed on the elegant rust-red deck of the airship. Gilder followed, and together they unfurled the long black sails. He licked his finger and held it up. "Perfect, we got a wind coming in from the south," The teenager nodded. "Let's use it while we can, and conserve our fuel." That was the purpose of sails, after all. A ship under full moonstone power wouldn't last more than a day or two, as evidenced by Little Jack's tumultuous journey through the small but rough South Ocean a while ago.
Pulling away from the harbor on it's own power, the small lifeboat turned to the north and they got underway, taking turns every once in a while over who would fight the monsters and who would say to man the helm. Gilder volunteered for the first shift, stepping out into the deck as three Loopers appeared, floating towards him quickly. "Ugh," He groaned. "I hate these things."
He pulled out his weapons while Vyse half-watched the ship and half-watched the fighting. To the teenager's surprise, he wielded twin pistols that were not all that different from the one his father used. He clicked back the hammers on the six-shooters enchanted with explosive red magic, and aimed them for the general area of the enemy. "Come on," He taunted, "Dance for me."
Normal bullets did considerable damage to a target, but the Red moonstone enchantment actually made them into small explosions which slightly scored the deck and annihilated all opposition very quickly. Nothing could stand, nor endure long enough to exploit his reloading needs. Vyse watched admiringly, and said, "Wow, Gilder, you're pretty tough for a ladies man."
"Sometimes the husbands get jealous," He replied over the sounds of explosions and the cries of the hapless monsters, grinning mischievously. Their journey went like so, Vyse slicing and Gilder shooting any creatures that were foolish enough to board their craft.
Their course had drifted slightly, and they found themselves seeing the darkened clouds of Valua's coastline to their left. Even in a night as black as pitch, they could easily tell it was Valuan skies. Their air was an entirely different magnitude of dark and hopeless. Gilder said, "Let's get a little closer, Vyse. The Valuans don't patrol this far north at all, but the land will help us keep our bearings in the night." Following this tip, they began to hug the coastline, still proceeding north and still catching plenty of wind in their wildly flapping and expanding sails.
Now they contended with frontier species as well as any monsters that wandered the coasts of Valua, and so Gilder switched to Silver magic for his firearms, which worked well on every type of enemy, as the Silver Moon regulated life and death. Vyse's cutlasses couldn't be changed so easily, and still maintained the dull sheen of their red enchantment as he sliced into floods of creatures.
Vyse was finally able to kill a Looper, scoring a nick on it's ring, which apparently was what kept it magically afloat, for without it it flopped onto the deck helplessly, and he had no remorse in violently gutting it. The Looper, and it's offshoot species, inhabited a majority of Arcadia, and were possibly the most annoying yet potentially deadly obstacles to any air voyage. They breathed fire and depending on their species employed different colors of magic, and were nearly impossible to hit. Legend said that even Daccat had to use an artillery barrage from his flagship to get a school of them out of his island.
A glint caught his eye to the side, reflected off the inner glass of his skyglass, and he wheeled about to peer at the mountains of the Valuan shore, ready to spot the Gunboat's searchlight passing over them or the flash of cannons. He found instead a small glow reflecting the distant strokes of lightning, and it looked metal in nature, buried in the yellowish sickly soil of the Yellow Continent. He squinted, magnifying it. "Hey, Gilder, hold up for a second."
"What's up?" Gilder asked, leaning out the pilothouse.
"There's something on the shore," Vyse replied. "Something... metal, and kinda buried. Look. Every time the lightning in the distance flashes... there! See it?! Bring us about and let's get a closer look at it. Might be a Discovery, or something else."
"Alright." The Pirate Skiff was now under it's own power, traversing around the wind and coming to a hover several meters above the ground. Vyse leapt off, landing easily and walking over to the tarnished metal surface. "What is it?" He called from the boat.
The teenager examined it, and said, "I don't know! It looks buried! Toss me a shovel!" Every ship had basic equipment like that, especially lifeboats, in order to help stranded sailors construct shelter, or, if the horrid need had arisen, bury those who did not survive the crash. A small spade came over the side, landing with a dull thump next to Vyse.
He picked it up and got to work, moving the dirt around the object, and uncovering more it. It was enormous, and after a while he had only unearthed a small part of it. "Hey! Come down and help me!"
"Hey, Vyse, I have a strict no-work-unless-necessary policy. Unless there's a hot woman or some gold in that thing, you're going to have a hard time convincing..." Vyse took a pile of dirt in his shovel and threw it up, the cluster of yellow soil flying into the cabin. "Agh! Ow! My coat! Alright, alright! I surrender! Let me get the other spade..." Gilder, still complaining, landed the ship and got out to help.
They made a hurried job of it, but it still took them quite some time. When all was said and done, they had dug nearly twenty meters of dirt off of the truly enormous iron structure, which was obviously fashioned in the likeness of an enormous old pirate skull. It was rusted in some places, and bore many signs of extreme age. "So..." Gilder spoke up, staring at the behemoth that they had managed to mostly dig up. "... What the hell is this thing, anyway? It's just a skull..."
Vyse frowned, memory of his time in Ixa'taka floating to the surface of his mind. "Maybe it's a clue. Pirates like us associate with skulls, right? So Daccat probably did too. Maybe this is an entry to something... or a guide..."
"If it was something even remotely obvious," Gilder pointed out, "Then someone else over the span of history would've probably found the treasure by now. It's probably something so painfully obscure we're going to break our brains just trying to figure it out..."
"What I can't figure out is, this thing must have been buried for ages... why didn't anyone spot it like we did? Lightning is frequent enough out here..." Vyse folded his arms.
"It might have been partially unearthed by the Mes De Tormentas..." When Gilder saw the confused look Vyse gave him, he elaborated. "It's Nasrian. Literally, the Month of Storms. It's a weather phenomenon that happens every seventy-five years in this region. You see, normally, the rain-shadow of the Valuan mountains prevents much precipitation from reaching this way, or towards Nasr. Hence it's fiery desert status. Now, during the Mes De Tormentas, a whole lot of storms run through this entire area. It's been a big deal with the locals, and it's the thing that replenishes their desert oasis towns."
"I did find it odd that Crescent Island got so much rain under the domain of the Red Moon," Vyse nodded. "Well, it looks like we're in some incredible luck. Now, back to the original problem... what do you think we should do with this thing?"
"Let's follow it's gaze," Gilder replied automatically.
"Huh? But that's fairly obvious," Vyse said, looking out into the night sky the direction the enormous iron discovery was facing. "I don't see anything out there. Plus, didn't you say that it wouldn't be something so obvious?"
"Daccat was a clever bastard," The older pirate replied, smiling. "He'd probably play some mind games. He wanted us to think it has to be more complex, you see. I bet he wants us to over think his puzzle. It's one of the most common mistakes you can make, Vyse, and yet it can prove to be fatal. Daccat's Razor, the theory of life formed by the man himself, says 'The most obvious solution is most likely the correct one'."
"I'm familiar with Daccat's Razor," Vyse said with a tinge of irritation. My old man didn't raise me to be a stupid Blue Rogue. "Alright, I've got nothing else, we might as well give it a shot. Let's get back underway." Gilder gladly joined him in returning to the lifeboat and backing away from the continent, turning the prow and getting back to sailing. The winds had begun to turn against them, so they struck the sails and used their fins to maneuver, slowing them slightly and beginning to burn up their fuel supply.
Soon they began to pass chains of abandoned islands. "I'll take the con," Gilder said. "You keep a lookout for Daccat's Island." He didn't remind him what it was rumored to look like- every pirate worth a single gold coin or more knew that part of the fable. The winds whipped about on deck and the chilled night air made Vyse shiver, but he diligently kept up his watch and repelled the less-frequent monster raids on their boat.
They had been out for a number of hours, and had burnt away most of the night in their voyage and working to dig out the huge skull structure on the Valuan coast. By the time Vyse yelled out that he had spotted Daccat's Island on the far horizon, it was nearly time for the sun to rise, and as they drew nearer the first golden rays peeked above the clouds, illuminating the sky.
Gilder allowed himself a yawn. "I haven't slept since that nap I took on the bridge yesterday," He said to Vyse. "I'm going to find a sheltered place in the island, drop anchor, and drop dead for about ten hours. I suggest you do the same- we'll rest up, have something to eat, and get fully prepared before we go for it."
The teenager nodded. "Good idea. I assume you brought sleeping bags?" The air pirates together got the two rolled up sheets out of the skiff's small storage area and rolled them out on the deck. Their sails had already been pulled up, so they attached grappling lines to the side of a steep cliff below the island, and kept the ship floating. This way, they got shelter from monsters, and the engines took a minimal strain to simply keep them afloat.
Vyse laid back and stared up at the shadowed top of the rock above them and sighed. His thoughts returned to Aika and Fina, who were still missing. I hope they're doing ok. I worry every day for their safety... Despite his concern, he was quick to drift into sleep, as he had been through a very long day.
In their protected slumber, they never noticed the small Nasrian ship glide into a harbor almost directly above them, lay anchor, and produce two beautiful girls. The Aventura's passengers did not see Gilder's boat, either, and so the two remained completely ignorant that they were only separated by a forest canopy and 50 vertical meters.
Both of the men woke up at about the same time, making a small camp on the land next to their anchored boat and striking up a fire to cook their breakfast. The spicy Nasrian cuisine seemed to invigorate both of them and empower them with more energy than usual, and they suspected a Red mage had sprinkled a tiny Increm spell into the oven for extra kick.
When they had feasted, and were replenished and ready to go, they grabbed their weapons and headed inland. It didn't take them long to find the cavernous entrance into the interior of Daccat's Island, nor the impenetrable stone slab that defended it. Noonday sunlight filtered through the leaves on the ancient trees, casting illumination over the stone square that sat on the front in front of the sealed door. "Wow," Vyse remarked, awed and a little intimidated. "That looks like quite a barrier... can we blast it down?"
"Nah, probably got magics and stuff for protection," Gilder replied, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Probably got something to do with that big stone thing. Either that, or it's a trap that's going to drag us down to a horrible death somewhere in the darkness of the island's catacombs. Well, let's go to it." Before Vyse could say anything, the veteran stepped up onto the stone. Nothing happened for several moments. "Well? Get up here," Gilder said, folding his arms.
Vyse didn't see how this could possibly help, but decided to humor him and put a foot up, easily climbing the few inches up and standing next to Gilder, in front of the stone block. Another second passed, and he was about to fire off a witty note about how useful that turned out to be, when the ground shivered. Dust clouds appeared around them as the ancient block descended to join the grassy ground around it, and at the same time the door in front of them slid back into the cliff, allowing them passage into the lit and braced tunnel beyond.
"What happened?!" Vyse demanded. "What did we do?"
"I don't know," Gilder replied. "Maybe I was right. What a shocker, huh? Well, anyway, the door is literally being held open for us. Let's go get those riches." Reading his pistols, he advanced into the tunnel, and Vyse followed him. They passed down a long hallway, which branched off into another tunnel, and also kept going, where another impassable stone block sat. "Take the side-route?" He asked, and Vyse nodded. "Alright."
Moving down the other tunnel, they soon came across a treasure-chest that was partially open. A shadowed man in brown full-body uniform and wielding a Nasrian saber was working to completely open the ancient container, but when he sensed them he stood up and turned around, sword drawn. Wordlessly, he pulled out a grenade and tossed it for the two Blue Rogues.
"Zivilyn Bane!" Vyse cried out, and braced himself for the fiery blast. Gilder pulled out his pistol and opened fire. By pure chance, the silver-enchanted bullet nicked the side of the grenade, detonating it in mid-air and shaking the expansive tunnel they were in. The force of the explosion threw all three men backwards, but the Bane and Vyse landed on his feet. Gilder stood up a moment later, watching the two charge for each other.
The air sparked as their blades met. Vyse's secondary cutlass came up, but the criminal assassin who was unmistakably part of the lamented Zivilyn Bane rolled backwards, crouching next to the old chest.
Gilder saw the man reach into his pocket, and frowned. Drawing on his willpower, he used the silver enchantment on his pistols to cast a special shield around them. "Aura of Denial!" He cried out, as white light sparkled in the air around them. "Your pretty little tricks won't work on us!" The Noxi Crystal that flew at them a moment later evaporated in thin air, it's magical charge wrecked by the Aura and unable to activate it's poisonous spell.
"Wow," Vyse said, smiling. "Nice work, Gilder. My turn now." Turning his blades sideways, he ran forward, but skidded to a halt and put every iota of force he could muster into swinging the blades. Two wedges of accelerated air shot out towards the Bane, who only barely managed to duck the wind strikes. The attacks hit the far wall, harmlessly kicking up some dust several meters away.
The assassin leapt up into the air, bringing his Nasr sword down at Vyse, who blocked and knelt into the ground, springing up again to counter-attack and beginning to duel with him. Neither combatant noticed anything else as they immersed themselves in the fight. Gilder watched tersely, his hand stayed for fear of hitting Vyse in the confusion. The men were moving quicker now and desperately trying to expose the tiniest weakness in their opponent's guard and strike them down.
Feeling a slight opening, Vyse moved in. It was a feint, and the Bane was able to knock away one of his sabers and continued the furious attacks, not giving his opponent one moment to adjust. Having to completely change his fighting style proved too much, and the young Blue Rogue laid bleeding on the floor, multiple gashes sending fire through his nervous system as his tunic began soaked purple as the blue fabric combined with his blood.
For the first time, the man spoke. "Idiot kid. Die." He prepared his sword for the killing blow, but was stopped by the sound of a report, and then two more. Gilder's line of fire was now clear, and he furiously pumped the twenty shots into the enemy, hitting him with almost all of them. The silver magic coursed through the Zivilyn Bane's body, and he shuddered, falling down next to Vyse. The only difference was that he was actually dead. Gilder holstered his weapons, running over to Vyse and closing his eyes. "Moons, Give Me Strength!" He casted a Sacres spell, watching the medium-strength Green Magic heal the wounds over the teenager's body. The blood evaporated, and new blood appeared to fill his veins. Only faint scars remained of the slice-marks, and Gilder offered him a hand to stand up.
"He was just too fast," Vyse said vacantly, standing up and getting his bearings, retrieving both of his swords. "I mean... I couldn't adapt with only one blade, I'm so used to having two... if you hadn't been there to shoot him..."
"It happens to the best of us," Gilder said soberly. "Don't worry about it. Blue Rogues never leave a man behind." Once he was sure Vyse was alright, he walked over to the treasure chest. "Now to see what the Banes consider worth the trouble of finding Daccat's Island for." Opening the lid, he found a small crystal. It was obviously the Soul Crystal, one of Nasr's lost national treasures that had been sought as long as Daccat's Treasure had. "Woah! This qualifies. We'll fetch a purse returning this to His Royal Overconfidentness."
"Good to hear it was worth it," The younger air pirate replied, then paused, looking down the opposite hallway in the T-junction tunnel. "Hey, Gilder, look at that. It's a switch." Before Gilder could warn him, he ran over, curiously pulling it down. Despite it's age, it easily yielded to him, and hit the bottom metal box that braced it.
Moments passed.
Nothing happened.
"... what, not even a trap?" Vyse frowned. "Well, that sucked." He turned around, joining Gilder in the middle. "Well, looks like this door is going to be just as solid as the last one..." Having no other options and no ways to advance, they waited at the stone slab.
A short time later, the ground began to shake, and both Blue Rogues stood up again, watching as their next obstruction was helpfully pulled back up into the wall, providing them with a route to proceed further into the tunnels. Gilder folded his arms. "Something's really weird here. What's setting off these doors? What did that switch do?" Nothing we do helps ourselves... but maybe there's someone else here... the map did mention two pieces becoming whole or something like that.
"Who knows," Vyse simply replied, walking ahead. "C'mon. At least we can keep going now." The next tunnel had three branches that went off in different directions- one twisted and turned twice before emerging in a dead-end with another chest that contained a large pile of gold coins. They gladly pocketed the money before continuing, and backtracked to the main hallway. The second path yielded a cache of Curia crystals, which were always useful.
They came upon another switch. "I bet this one does nothing, as well," Gilder said, reaching out and shoving it down. "... yep. Nothing. Come on, let's get to the next door." A long stretch of empty tunnel put them in a slightly bigger room, with a door at the end.
Vyse frowned, sitting down again. "Wow. This is certainly not a boring and tedious chore."
"Ah, relax," Gilder counseled Vyse. "All we need to do is wait..." The ground began to shake again. "See? Am I good or what?" This time, the way ahead was not another segment of tunnel- rather, the path continued into a very large cavern, and on the other side of an enormous chasm sat a prominent solid-gold treasure chest that looked pristine and shone in the light of the eternally burning torch brackets to either side. "We finally found the treasure!"
"Yeah," A female voice replied to Gilder, echoing out into the great void of space and bouncing back to them. "... wait... what?"
Vyse stepped into the room, drawing his weapons and getting ready for a trap. Gilder frowned. So, there are other people here. I wonder who they are... he pulled out his pistols, looking over to the other open doorway, with two shadowed figures standing at the threshold. "Who's there?" He demanded calmly.
"Who's there yourself?" The woman retorted, stepping forward and wielding a giant curved weapon, that almost resembled a boomerang. She emerged into the light of the room, and found herself staring face-to-face with Vyse. They blinked, silent for several seconds as disbelief and recognition flooded their brains. A second girl walked up, putting her hands to her mouth and gasping when she caught sight of the scarred pirate boy. Finally getting her voice, the beautiful redhead said, "... Vyse? Vyse!"
"Vyse!" Fina helpfully added.
"Aika! Fina! You're both ok!" Vyse's open mouth finally closed, and turned upwards into his characteristic confident smile.
"Vyse!" Aika yelled, running forward and putting her arms around Vyse in an exuberant hug, swinging around so he was behind him. She happily snuggled into her lost friend. "You're alive! I knew it! We raised enough money, and we bought a ship, and we were gonna get Daccat's Treasure, get a better ship, and come find you! We were so frickin' worried!"
Fina walked up slower, but she was obviously quite relieved as well. Cupil told the tale, as the telekinetic bond with her was making him leap barrel rolls into the air in pure joy. Everyone looked up at Cupil and Fina blushed slightly, turning away. "I'm sorry," She said. "It's just... I'm a little emotional right now..." She wiped a stray tear from her large and inquisitive eyes quietly.
"That's quite alright," Vyse replied, smiling. "I'm so glad to see both of you. I was going to buy a ship as well with the treasure to go look for you."
Gilder crossed his arms. "Wait a moment. You never told me your lost friends were pretty maidens... especially not the pretty maidens I saw working at the Sunmeade."
Vyse chuckled. "Sorry. It didn't seem important to tell you much about them. Gilder, Aika and Fina... Aika and Fina... this is Gilder, the Blue Rogue. He rescued me off of an abandoned island and helped me to get over here." Fina bowed politely to him while Aika nodded. Gilder winked, and Fina turned a little red again.
"Vyse, while we were separated, I learned many new things about Arcadia from Aika," Fina happily told him. Aika's mind sounded a thousand different alarm bells, but it was far too late to interject. "She even showed me how to have sex!"
Both of the men began to blink, and did nothing else while their minds processed this new information. Vyse put his hand up to his nose to plug the minor bleeding that had mysteriously started there, and turned to Aika. "There are about a million different things I could say right now, Aika, including many jokes about Nasrian carpets. Because you've just given me the best dream fodder imaginable, I'll spare you however, and merely say I'm incredibly jealous."
Fina took a step forward and smiled. "Oh, Vyse! It's just wonderful! I'll have to show you some time when we're back in town!" The blood flow began again in earnest, and was not helped at all by her next statement. "We could even get Aika to help... Vyse? Oh, my, you're all bloody! Are you ok?!"
"I'm fine," Vyse replied, pulling off his red scarf and dabbing at the blood while Aika giggled, Gilder chuckled, and Fina stood there looking confused. "... Let's just get the damn treasure and get out of here. This place is too creepy for my tastes."
"Here, here," Gilder agreed, turning to look at the vast and dark hole separating them from the obvious treasure chest. "Um... I can't fly, so looks like we're in trouble." He noticed four small stone squares sitting on the edge of the rocks, and frowned. "Hm. Look over there." He pointed, and they walked over to the squares. Each one was big enough for one of them to climb on, and they all stood on the switches. Fina was last, and as she set her feet down upon it, the ground began to shake.
Something began to rise out of the depths. It was a simple square metal platform with an orange and dark-green box pattern, about twenty square meters big. A moment later, four large iron beams slid up, out of the sides of the box. Two of them formed sturdy walkways to the treasure's side of the cavern, while the other two lined up with the floor in front of them.
"That's convenient," Aika chuckled. "Let's go! Treasure... treasure... treasure!" I got Fina in bed, we got Vyse back and a new ally, and we're about to be the richest people in all of Arcadia! I count this as a good day! Nearly skipping, she led the group across, arriving first onto the central platform. "I can't wait! I bet it's jewels. At least partially jewels. Rare jewels, with Blue or Purple moonstones with em... and gold... gold... gold..."
They were about to cross over to the other side when they found the walkways falling back, pivoting back into the central square. Vyse blinked, looking around. There was no visible source, but they were now trapped on the platform.
Before anyone had a chance to complain about it, they noticed two huge disc-shaped shadows, one on each side of their group, expanding. Looking up, they saw an odd and intimidating sight- two massive stone heads were descending on their own power towards them, their features strongly resembling a mix between Nasrian and Ixa'takan carvings. Their eyes glowed a sinister red color that grew five times more intense as they turned their gaze in unison towards the small humans. One of them had a large glowing purple crystal as it's 'chin', while the other possessed an equally large red stone for a 'forehead'. Both of them opened their mouths wide in a silent roar of aggression, floating above them.
"Am I gonna be the one to say it?" Gilder asked, mostly rhetorically as he drew his pistols. "I guess so. Ah, crap..."