Amor Vincit Omnia
(Love Conquers All)
Part Two: The Fragile Heart
"When I look back upon my life
It's always with a sense of shame
I've always been the one to blame
For everything I ever do
No matter when or where or who
Has one thing in common, too
It's a, it's a, it's a … it's a sin."
- Pet Shop Boys
"It's a Sin"
Yes, I know. It's been a criminally long time since the last update. I'm sincerely sorry about that! I sprained my wrist earlier this month, which prevented me from any serious writing for about a week. Anyway, I'm back now! :)
I know I say this about every chapter, but I'd really love some feedback on this one in particular. I was concerned when writing it that it was kind of all over the map, and covers a lot of ground in relatively few words, so I'd like to know if there were any parts that felt unsatisfactory or 'glossed over'. Just let me know what you think!
Chapter Twelve: The Dahlgur Oasis
Several hours later, ten people sat in a circle around a mellow fire in the Hidden Camp. Asheara, looking very ill at ease. Baal beside her with his legs stretched out, mixing up some more explosive powder for his bombs. Saiya perched as close to him as possible without actually sitting on his lap. Kormac, with his leg bound up and a bottle of wine in hand. Ghor and Eirena sat together, having apparently gotten well acquainted. Caesar, sullen and withdrawn now that the action was over, occupied a spot in the shadows and kept glancing nervously at Tyrael. Leah's gaze was fixed unwaveringly on her mother, who was currently the center of everyone's attention.
"Leah has explained the whole situation to me," she was saying. "I beg that you will allow me to help you in your quest. Defeating Belial and the other Great Evils has been my life's work. I have sacrificed everything for it."
"Forgive me," said Baal coldly, "if I find that difficult to believe of a woman who used to be Maghda's … friend."
Adria turned white with rage, her lips pressing tightly together and her eyes flashing. The thought burst like a bomb into Saiya's mind that this woman was dangerous. But the witch controlled herself with a visible effort, and the moment passed.
"I do not owe you any explanation of my actions, demon hunter," she said, her tone equally chilly. "I have already told Leah all she wanted to know. But if it will satisfy your vulgar curiosity, I did love Maghda once, when we were young together. I admired her power and her independence, but we didn't see eye to eye on certain matters. Eventually we parted ways, and I have had no contact with her since then."
Baal said nothing, but he looked unimpressed.
"Mother knows a way to destroy Belial once and for all," Leah interjected. "She was telling me about a magical object known as the Black Soulstone. I've heard of it before; Deckard spoke of it sometimes, but he never mentioned its true importance."
"What is it?" Eirena asked curiously. She out of all of them seemed the least bothered by Adria's presence.
"The Soulstone is the only vessel capable of containing the essence of a Great Evil," Adria explained. "It was forged centuries ago at the behest of the Horadrim by a mage called Zoltun Kulle."
Saiya shivered, though the night was warm. Adria's tone was one of banal instruction, but the name itself seemed to rouse feelings of distaste and unease in her heart.
"That name is familiar to me," said Kormac. "It was part of my education as a Templar on the evils of blood magic. Kulle's thirst for power drove him to commit increasingly heinous acts, and eventually his own people were forced to execute him."
"I have heard a different tale," said Caesar, speaking for the first time since the meeting had begun. "Our scholars say that Kulle's motivation was the betterment of humanity, so that we could cast off the chains of subservience to both Heaven and Hell. The Horadrim, who have always been servants to their founder, Tyrael, feared that he would accomplish this goal, and so they destroyed him."
At the mention of Tyrael, all heads turned towards the angel, as if appealing to him for the truth. But it was Adria who spoke.
"It is foolish to argue over ancient history. The fact remains that to slay Belial we must have the Black Soulstone, and only Zoltun Kulle knows where it lies now."
"You're talking as if he's still alive," said Baal.
"The legends have it that before his death, Kulle learned the secrets of immortality," replied the witch in a hushed voice. "If the various pieces of his body are gathered together, his soul can be brought back from wherever it lingers."
There was a moment of silence, and then Kormac shot to his feet. "Bring him back?" he croaked. "You can't be serious."
"Do you have a better idea?" Adria inquired, raising an elegant eyebrow.
"Surely any idea is better than that one!" protested the Templar. "We could gather our forces … mount an attack on the palace …"
"I don't think you understand," said Adria. "There is no other way. Even if by some chance you were able to get past the Imperial Guard with vastly inferior numbers, find Belial's human host, and defeat the demon in battle, it would be nothing more than a temporary solution. Throughout the ages, many heroes have cast down individual Lords of Hell, yet each time they have risen anew. Only by trapping all seven within the Black Soulstone and then shattering it will our world finally be rid of their influence. Now, through extensive research I believe I have discovered the resting place of Zoltun Kulle's head. I'm depending on all of you to retrieve it so that I may cast the reanimation spell."
"Where is this head?" asked Baal. Saiya glanced at him in surprise; she had not expected him to agree so readily, especially given his earlier suspicion of the witch's motivation for helping them.
"The Horadrim placed it deep in a hidden cave in the Dahlgur Oasis," answered Adria. "Unfortunately, the only route of access is through the Imperial Palace. Some careful planning will be required in order to-"
"I know of another way," Asheara said suddenly. "In the sewers, there's a maintenance gate that opens directly into the Oasis Floodway. Meet me in the marketplace tomorrow morning; I'll give you the keys."
"Thank you, Asheara," said Baal. "We really appreciate your support."
The Commander grunted.
"I'm not going this time," Kormac announced. "I will have nothing to do with such an ill-advised venture."
"I will stay as well," said Tyrael, "and keep an eye on matters here. If Baal will consent to it, we can use his raven to carry messages between the two groups."
"Well, I will go," drawled a voice from outside the flickering circle of light. Glancing up sharply, Saiya saw Lyndon, clad only in breeches with his abdomen wrapped in a bandage and leaning on a crutch. She wondered how long he'd been listening.
"No one invited you," Caesar snapped, giving the rogue a nasty glare. Lyndon smiled sardonically in response.
"My dear boy, can you really afford to be exclusive at a time like this? I'm an extra body in the field, an extra hand holding a crossbow – an extra target for the demons, if you will."
"But Lyndon, you're seriously wounded," Saiya protested. "You could get yourself killed!"
"A risk I'm prepared to take. What do you say? Will you have me?"
Baal narrowed his eyes. "What's in it for you?"
"You wound me," said Lyndon. "How do you know I'm not offering my assistance out of the goodness of my heart?"
"That's about as likely as Diablo himself materializing out of thin air to apologize for his evil deeds," snorted Baal. "So what's the deal? Are you trying to use us as an excuse to skip town before your debts catch up to you, like you did in Antham?"
"I can't deny that it would be very fortuitous for me to be somewhere else right now," Lyndon replied, shrugging. "The fact that the Dahlgur Oasis is rumored to be chock-full of buried treasure doesn't hurt either. But you'll just have to take me at my word when I say that I truly do support your cause, and that I'd like to be able to claim I did my part. The tavern lasses simply love demon-slaying heroes." He winked at Eirena, earning a giggle from her and a murderous glower from Kormac.
Caesar and Ghor opted to set forth on the new adventure, as did Baal and Saiya, while Leah said that she would remain at the camp with her mother and Tyrael. Eirena also decided to go, despite Kormac's best effort to persuade her otherwise.
By this time it was very late; the moon was high in the sky and the rest of the camp slumbered, aside from the night watch, who kept their distance while never taking their eyes off the group by the fire. Saiya fell asleep as soon as she laid down, but her dreams were haunted by a shadowy terror with neither face nor name, and she woke shortly after dawn feeling ill-tempered and bleary. The wind had somehow blown sand into her boots during the night, she managed both to stub her toe on a loose rock and burn her tongue on the first bite of breakfast porridge, and, as if fate was determined to ensure the worst possible start to the day, Kormac and Lyndon had into a vicious argument that nearly came to blows when the Templar accused the other man of stealing the small rosary that he carried with him at all times. Saiya was forced to intervene before blood was shed, and a subsequent thorough search of Lyndon's belongings revealed no rosary. Kormac was not placated in the least, however, and stormed away muttering irately in his native tongue.
In light of this, not to mention his stern declaration of the previous night, Saiya was much surprised to see the big westerner among the party that gathered by the head of the path that would take them down to Caldeum.
"I changed my mind," he muttered when she quirked an inquisitive eyebrow in his direction. A quick sideways glance at Eirena, chatting innocently to Ghor several feet away, betrayed the reason why.
As they slithered in single file down the steep cliffside path, Saiya felt a bubble of nervous energy building in her chest, the events of the previous day still fresh in her mind. She half-expected a squad of Imperial soldiers to be waiting at the gate to arrest them, but the regular guards had been replaced with two Iron Wolves who waved them by without a second glance.
True to her word, Asheara was waiting for them in the marketplace, with Asiya by her side. The healer was clad for travel.
"I'm tagging along," she said. "The Oasis is a dangerous place – you might need someone with a decent knowledge of medicine. Plus, Auntie wants an official delegate of the Wolves along to supervise the mission."
"Of course you're welcome to join us!" Saiya said warmly.
"We needed another woman to balance out our number anyway," added Lyndon.
"Have you discovered the identity of the prisoner yet?" Baal asked the Commander, meaning the man who the Imperial Guards had tried to trade in Fahkri's place. The Wolves had taken him into custody the previous night, with intentions of extracting information from him.
Asheara shook her head. "I regret to say that he died in the wee hours of the morning, despite our best efforts to save him. He would not have been able to talk anyway; his tongue had been removed. But from the tattoos on his back, coupled with his general appearance, I would say that he is most likely a convict of some sort."
"That doesn't excuse their treatment of him," said Baal grimly.
"I didn't say it did," replied Asheara. "Now then, if you all are ready, there's a ladder over here that will take you down to the sewers. Asiya has the keys to the Floodway."
"I never thought I'd be coming down here again so soon," Eirena grumbled as they descended in single file into the gloomy depths. "Ugh! It reeks of fish!"
"Watch out for electric eels, mage," Baal muttered to Caesar.
Thankfully, this part of the sewer was much cleaner than the section under the palace, and they had the benefit of a guide who apparently knew where she was going. In relatively little time, they had reached the branch that led off towards the Oasis. Asiya unlocked the heavy iron gate and swung it open on creaking hinges.
Saiya felt the apparition's presence before she actually saw it, and grabbed Baal's arm in warning. Moments later a small form, rather blurry around the edges and warped as though viewed through a concave mirror, appearing in the middle of the tunnel. The water on the floor ran through its feet without resistance; indeed, the figure seemed to have no effect whatsoever on the environment except to give off a faint blue light, barely enough to see by.
"Your majesty!" gasped Asiya, dropping to one knee despite the foul sludge covering the cobbled floor.
"Careful," warned Baal. "This could be a trick." To the figure, he said, "Siz, heqiqeten, Imperator edirsiniz?"
"Beli," replied the boy in his high, clear voice.
"Bu sübut edir," said the Hunter, harshly.
"I thank you, sir, for the gift which you and your entourage gave to me yesterday at court," said Hakan. His Khanduran was heavily accented and excruciatingly slow and precise, as though he was trying hard not to make any mistakes. He continued, "I do not hold you responsible for the trouble that ensued. I understand that it was only to help your friends."
"You did nothing to stop it," Baal growled. Saiya placed a restraining hand on his shoulder, which he shrugged off.
"I am under constant surveillance by the Belial's minions," the Emperor explained. "I must keep pretending to support them, or they will kill me."
"You know of Belial?" exclaimed Caesar.
Hakan nodded. "He has taken the guise of my Grand Advisor. I did not realize until it was too late, and his influence was already too profound. Most of my courtiers are in his sway, and he has replaced my loyal Wolves with his own soldiers, under command of his Captain, Layth Luqman."
"Do not lose hope, your Majesty," pleaded Asiya. "We're doing everything we can to aid you."
"How are you able to appear before us like this?" Eirena inquired curiously. "The magic is unfamiliar to me."
"I borrowed an interesting amulet from a visiting dignitary," replied the boy with a trace of smugness in his tone. "I can only use it when I am on my own, however, lest my secret should be discovered. I do not have much longer now, but I will try to contact you later."
"Before you go," said Caesar, "you said that Belial has taken the form of the Grand Advisor. You meant Marwan Abbud, didn't you?"
Hakan's red-lined eyes widened, making him look younger and more vulnerable than ever. "I am surprised you did not guess," he said, "since he accompanied you to court. Of course I am talking about the Grand Advisor of the Left, Gamil Fahkri."
There was a stunned silence as the adventurers absorbed the shocking information. Saiya felt slightly sick, as though she had been punched in the stomach. To think that she had eaten at his table – slept in his house! In retrospect his kind fatherly act seemed like an obvious deception, his eyes repellently serpentine, his soft footsteps sinister.
"It can't be!" Asiya cried. "Auntie trusted him completely!"
"Are you sure, your Majesty?" asked Kormac.
The Emperor nodded. "Absolutely. I am sorry if this is upsetting to you."
"It's strange." Baal shook his head. "I didn't detect any hint of a demonic presence from him. Did you, Ghor?"
"No," the sangoma admitted. "But he is the Lord of Lies. I would not expect to see through his guise so easily."
Hakan's projection suddenly wavered, and the boy glanced over his shoulder as though something had startled him. "I must go," he whispered. "Take care!" A moment later, he disappeared.
"Fahkri," muttered Kormac. "Who would have thought?"
"We must warn my aunt," Asiya said.
Baal replied, "I'll send Gawahir with a letter to her as soon as we get out of the sewers. Shall we keep going?"
The floodway was very dark, necessitating the lighting of several lanterns before they went any further. Aside from a few rats they saw no living creatures, which did not disappoint Saiya in the slightest.
They had been walking for little more than an hour when the tunnel came to an abrupt end at a veritable wall of debris. Beyond it they could see glimmers of sunlight and hear the songs of birds. The smell of fresh air after so long in the dank sewers was tantalizing, but the trash heap was piled higher than their heads and looked extremely unstable.
"It's going to take us ages to move all this shit," Lyndon groaned, kicking at a broken plank that jutted out of the foul mound.
"What about the bell, Saiya?" said Baal.
The young monk nodded slowly. "I think it would be safe to use, especially if I kept the power level low. Stand back, everyone." Spreading her feet apart and bending her knees, she placed her hand, palm open and fingers wide, in such a way as to channel and direct the bell's energy into a narrow, concentrated beam. The sonorous tones came as soon as she called for them, rolling forth in silvery waves, plowing through the center of the pile, scattering wreckage in all directions. Saiya stood up and dusted off her hands, blushing as her companions showered her with praise.
"Fuck the Gods!" said Lyndon, who had yet to see Saiya in action. "Have you always been able to do that?"
"Can you teach me?" asked Asiya.
"No and no," Saiya replied. To her crestfallen friend, she added, "I'd love to show you, really, but I'm not entirely sure how or why I can do it myself. I learned it from my master after he had already passed on to the other side, and ever since I've just kind of been able to do it … most of the time."
The tunnel emptied directly into a large stone reservoir, which was currently dry, though the streaks of algae on the walls marked the high-water line. There was a ladder leading out, which they climbed, descending a rickety stair on the other side. They had reached the Oasis.
Saiya stared around her in complete awe. She had never seen a place so … alive. Palm trees created a shady atmosphere, filtering the light through their leaves so that the air had almost an emerald tint. Ferns and flowers clustered everywhere, streams ran trickling through the undergrowth and pooled in little mossy hollows. The sand was snow white and soft as powder underfoot.
"It's so beautiful," Eirena whispered reverently.
"Keep you wits about you," Baal cautioned everyone. "Don't get lulled into a false sense of security by how peaceful this place seems. There are plenty of snakes and spiders that are very good at blending in with the foliage, and even the plants themselves can kill you if you're not careful."
"What exactly are we looking for in here?" asked Kormac.
The Hunter and Asiya began to answer at the same time, and he gestured for her to continue. She said, "There are some old Horadrim ruins located somewhere around here. Auntie says that's the mostly likely place where you'll find this guy's head. Is it really true that this witch of yours can bring him back to life just from that?"
"I sure hope so," Caesar muttered, "or this is a major waste of time."
"I believe Adria can do it," said Eirena. "She is very powerful."
"That's what worries me," Baal said.
The enchantress tilted her head. "You don't trust her?"
"Not a bit."
"May I suggest," Saiya broke in, raising her hand to catch their attention, "that we find a spot to set up base camp, have some lunch, and then search around? It seems to me that we could be looking for a while in a jungle as dense as this, especially if we're not sure of the exact location of these ruins. And I for one am getting quite hungry."
No one disputed the excellence of this idea. In search of a good spot, they followed the traces of an ancient road just visible through the sand, bypassing several possible locations and eventually deciding on a stretch of grassy ground beside a shallow pond fed by a waterfall. It was protected on three sides by jagged rocks and thick brush, with only a narrow opening leading out onto the path.
Saiya volunteered to cook, with Asiya helping her, while the others laid out their bedrolls. Eirena announced that she was going for a swim, to 'wash off that filthy sewer smell', stripped down to her undergarments, and waded into the pool. Out of the corner of her eye, Saiya observed Kormac gazing at the petite blonde with a dazed look on his face.
"The water is wonderful!" cried Eirena, now up to her chin.
"That settles it," said Lyndon. "I'm going in." He shrugged off his longcoat and began unlacing his boots. Saiya glanced at Baal, suddenly paranoid that he too might decide to bathe. It was ridiculous, she knew, but she couldn't help feeling a stab of discomfort at the thought of any of their female companions seeing him undressed. Thankfully he had settled down at the base of a palm tree and was diligently writing reports to both Asheara and Tyrael.
Saiya turned back to the skillet, which was beginning to sizzle, and dropped in the chunks of eggplant and zucchini that she had prepared, adding some onions for flavor. Asiya was boiling water for the long-grained rice that was popular in this land. Ghor had joined Eirena in the pool, her long dark hair billowing out around her head as she floated on her back staring serenely up at the sky. Lyndon was sitting on a rock, splashing his feet and legs. Clearly he didn't want to get his bandages wet.
"Come join us, Kormac," Eirena urged. "It's so refreshing."
The Templar flushed bright red and rubbed the back of his neck. "Ah … I'm not sure I should …"
"Oh, don't be shy. Come on, you'll love it!"
With the air of a doomed man, he began to disrobe. Saiya tried not to openly watch, not wanting him to feel self-conscious. His chest was relatively normal: muscular, slightly paler than his face and arms, with a generous patch of thick, dark, curly hair between his pectorals and stretching down towards his navel, and the scars that marked him as a warrior who had seen combat.
But then he turned around to enter the water, and she could not repress the little gasp of horror that rose in her throat, for his back told a terrible story. The skin there was a patchwork of whip lashes, new laid over old in numbers beyond counting. There were little white pockmarks as well where the stars at the end of the lash had cut deeply into his flesh, and larger twisted patches where a hot iron had been placed.
"Oh gods, Kormac," she murmured. "Who did this to you?"
If the look of bafflement on the Templar's face was anything to go by, he had no idea what she was talking about. She pointed, and his face cleared.
"Oh, that? Schwesterchen, believe me, that is nothing. A mark of my faith. When I joined the Templar Order, my body was cleansed of evil."
"Evil?" she repeated incredulously. "What are you talking about? And what do you mean, 'cleansed'? Do you mean that they tortured you?"
"It was not torture," Kormac explained with an air of great patience. "It was a ritual designed to purify my body and spirit of the crimes that I had committed, everything that had brought me tainted joy. My reward for enduring the pain was that my memories of sin were erased, never to trouble me again. I was remade a new man."
Saiya's mouth was opening and shutting like a fish's as responses came to mind and were instantly discounted. Eirena looked stunned and a little disconcerted. But Ghor surprised them all by coming up out of the water, her ebony skin glistening in the sunlight, and putting a hand on either side of Kormac's face. The large man stood frozen, obviously unsure of her intent and uncomfortable with the intimate contact.
"You say that you have no memory of your supposed crimes?" the sangoma asked after a long moment.
"No," said Kormac, "but the Elders told me that I relived each and every one of them during my cleansing."
"That is curious, because the spirits tell me that you are a good man, and that you always have been. They say that there are no evil deeds in your past."
He gaped at her. "What are you trying to say? Do you expect me to believe that the Elders intentionally lied to me? That the men who saved me from my own wickedness are just using me for their own ends? That's preposterous!"
"I do not expect you to believe anything," replied Ghor. "I am merely passing on to you what the spirits have said: that you are innocent and have nothing to be ashamed of."
Kormac grasped her wrists and pushed her away – not roughly, but firmly. "I will not hear any more about this," he said. "Whatever your 'spirits' have said to you, they are wrong. I was a sinner, but I renounced my ways and found redemption. Neither you nor anyone else can take that away from me." Without another word he turned and strode into the water. Ghor watched him go, shaking her head slowly.
Saiya was distracted by the smell of her vegetables starting to burn, and hurriedly stirred in the curry seasoning, her mind still on Kormac's horrific scars. She knew little of the Templar Order, save that they were an offshoot of the Church of Zakarum, and that they took the concept of a "Brotherhood" very literally – women were forbidden from joining their ranks. She knew from her conversations with Kormac that he believed whole-heartedly in the Order's doctrine, but she herself had grave doubts about any organization that would brutalize someone so thoroughly that they developed amnesia. And regardless of what Kormac said, she could not see him as a wicked man.
There was little conversation while they ate, but afterwards the group debated how they should split up and whether anyone should stay at camp to guard their belongings. Eventually it was decided that they should divide into pairs, three of which would explore while one remained behind. Caesar, whose ankle was still bothering him, asked to stay, and Ghor (with a nod to Saiya) said that she would keep him company. Baal and Saiya elected to head north, and Kormac managed to team up with Eirena to take the path to the east, leaving Lyndon and Asiya to head west. They had entered the Oasis from the south and so could be relatively certain that they had missed nothing in that direction.
"Alone at last," said Baal, once they were out of sight of the camp. "Don't get me wrong – I value our allies, but I must admit I have missed your companionship lately."
"I've missed you too," Saiya replied, blushing a little as she contemplated one possible meaning of 'companionship'. "Um, Baal … do you mind if I ask you a question?"
"Anything, nuur il'-en."
"Feel free to tell me if you'd rather not talk about it."
He raised an eyebrow. "Should I be worried?"
"Oh, no. No, I've just been thinking about what you said yesterday in the cell, when they came to take you away."
"What? That it was going to be alright? I was correct, by the way."
Saiya shook her head. "I meant the other thing. The Kehjistani word. Ahebbouka." She had committed the precious syllables to memory.
Baal was silent, apparently waiting for her to continue.
"Asheara translated it for me," she said. "Did you really mean it, Baal?"
"Do you have to ask?" replied the Hunter, his voice coming out choked.
"Well, it's just … you've never said it before."
"I know," he mumbled. "I'm sorry, Saiya. You deserve-"
"Not that again," she interrupted before he could go any further with his self-recriminations. "We've talked about this already. You don't deserve me, I deserve better than you … saying it a hundred times doesn't make it true."
"What about the hundred and first time?" Baal said, with a touch of his usual humor. Before she could even smile in response, his face grew somber again and he said, "The ugly truth is that I'm a coward. The only thing that attachment and affection have brought me in my life is pain, and I didn't think I could stand to have it happen one more time. I was afraid of falling in love with you. But I did anyway – I couldn't help myself – and now I'm terrified that you're going to leave me, or that one of us will die, and I'll lose the only thing that really makes my life worth living." He stopped fully and turned to face her, bringing his hand up to caress her cheek. "Until I met you, Saiya, I was just kind of limping along in the world, stealing brief moments of pleasure where I could find them and subsisting entirely on my hatred and my desire for revenge. Being with you makes me happy. I love you. Please, never forget that, no matter what happens to us."
Saiya was stunned. She had suspected all along that some deep-seated fear of abandonment lay behind his reluctance to commit to a relationship with her, but to hear him vocalize it … the loneliness and isolation in his voice caused her heart to tremble. She threw her arms around him and pulled him close, trying to convey in the tightness of her embrace how much he truly meant to her.
A flash of movement in the corner of her vision put her on the alert, but it was nothing more sinister than a fern with large seed pods which quivered as though they were trying to break away from their parent plant. They looked so comical that Saiya chuckled aloud.
"What?" said Baal. He sounded vaguely offended.
"Sorry," she said. "I'm not laughing at what you said. It's just that plant over there is moving, and it struck me as funny."
"Moving?" he demanded sharply. "How?"
"The seeds. They're wiggling around. Ah!" She yelped as Baal suddenly shoved her away with enough force to send her flying into a clump of foliage several feet away. He dove after her. Fortunately the thick undergrowth provided a relatively soft landing. About to ask what his problem was, she stared in amazement as the pods flew open with a soft popping sound, expelling a cloud of fine green powder into the space where they had just been standing.
"Sorry about that. You okay?" Baal asked, climbing to his feet and leaning down to help her up as well.
She nodded. "What happened?"
"Those plants," he said. "We call them zeheratici … 'poison spitters'. See that pollen it put out? You don't want to breathe that stuff in. Just a little bit will cause fever, vomiting, and nasty hallucinations. Too much will kill you. There's a reason that no one has been able to successfully settle in this valley."
"Thanks for the warning."
"You'll be alright as long as you don't get too close to them. They have some sort of tendril that senses movement and triggers the release mechanism."
Saiya kept a sharp eye open as they proceeded along their northerly path. She identified several more zeheratici, making sure to give them a wide berth, but she also began to see remnants of an ancient civilization hidden within the jungle's infrastructure. A set of rough stone stairs carved into the side of a cliff, a few broken shards of pottery half-buried at the base of a tree, the bones of a rope-and-pulley system, long-decayed, that was designed to draw water from a fresh spring: all these traces hinted at a way of life, painting a portrait of the people who once inhabited this land. One in particular – a spire of iron at least twelve feet in height, capped with a huge crystal – she pointed out to Baal, inquiring curiously about its original purpose. He informed her that it was one of the shrines that the Horadrim had erected throughout the land, where pilgrims could pray for enlightenment or good fortune.
"If your prayer is successful, the shrine reportedly lights up," the Hunter said. "It's an ancient magic, but like the waypoints, they have fallen into disrepair. I doubt that this one works any longer."
They had been walking for about two hours and were just on the verge of turning back when the trees up ahead thinned out and a shady clearing hove into view. There were a number of strangely-shaped rocks completely covered grown over with grass and lichen; they were about a foot wide and varied between one and four feet in height, and they formed patterns on the ground. Saiya scraped away the verdant covering on one and found that it was actually made of many smaller slabs of stone cobbled together to form a solid wall.
"I think we found the ruins we were looking for," she said.
"I'm inclined to agree with you," said Baal. "We must be missing something, though. These are too small and exposed. The Horadrim would never hide something like Zoltun Kulle's head here, where anyone might happen across it. Look around for a trapdoor or a hidden passageway."
They split up, searching systematically over the area. No more than twenty minutes had passed when a voice hailed them from the trees, and Lyndon and Asiya emerged into the clearing.
"How did you guys end up here?" Saiya asked. "I thought you were supposed to be going west."
"We did," replied Asiya. "What are you doing here?"
"What are you talking about? We walked due north from the camp. There's no way we went off course."
"We can't have either," said Lyndon, showing her the compass in his hand.
"Well, however you got here, we could use your help," Baal interrupted. "We're looking for some way to access the rest of the ruins."
The situation only got more baffling when Kormac and Eirena showed up shortly thereafter, claiming that they had steadfastly followed the eastern path by the simplest and most reliable guide possible: the sun. Everyone was pleased to see them, however, no matter how much their presence added to the confusion – especially Eirena, as by now they had all begun to suspect that some concealing enchantment had been laid over the ruins. The young woman set to work while the others continued scouring the clearing.
The minutes passed slowly. Baal claimed that he'd discovered something, then changed his mind. Asiya found a key on a human skeleton, but there was no sign of any lock that it might open. Eirena declared that there was no discernible illusion in place.
Then, just as they were beginning to talk about heading back, Lyndon tripped on something hidden in the grass, which proved to be a lever. The mechanism was rusted with age and it took all three men working together to successfully crank it.
There was no immediate effect, and everyone sighed with frustration.
"Maybe we're looking in the wrong place," Kormac suggested. "There might be other ruins, after all. As far as I can tell, there's nothing here."
Saiya, meanwhile, was on her knees, examining a curious phenomenon she had just noticed. She had been standing on a round patch of sand when she felt the grains disappearing beneath her feet. Recalling the last time sand had done that to her, when the Dune Thresher had attacked her just outside Baal's hometown, she was about to scramble backwards onto solid ground when the earth suddenly collapsed inwards, sending her tumbling head-first down into the darkness below.
* Baal asked Hakan, "Are you really the Emperor?" - to which he replied, "Yes." Baal then said, "Prove it."