A/N Thank you for still following this little fan writing project I have. As usual, your comment is much appreciated.
27
Remorhaz had some very strong teeth. It was a common known fact to almost everyone in this world. These teeth were used not only in battle, but also in other areas as well. In order to make it easier to move about underground, the ice worm dug many tunnels. All of them connected to its massive lairs. It was only reasonable some of these tunnels got through certain man-made structures.
The one Boyle found appeared to be one of those. Instead of frozen solid dirt and rock, they had neatly layered stone walls. Parts of the wall had been gnawed through, no doubt by the creature they just slayed. Some of the bricks were so badly damaged, they actually crumbled and fell out. Nhilva approached the structure and inspected the hollows more closely. She discovered it was empty behind the wall.
She looked at the others. "Can you remove the rest of these stones to make the hole bigger? There seems to be another room behind."
Greg did not quite believe in what the drow had said. He nudged her aside and had a look himself. Moments later, he came to the same conclusion. "Hey, there was a room there!"
Viessa, at the back, rolled her eyes.
They removed a couple of the large boulder-sized bricks to make the hole large enough for them to pass through. When even the half-orc finally wedged through, they found themselves in a rather large chamber.
"Are we in some kind or ruin?" Viessa also looked about with disbelief.
"Not quite," Bastian pointed at the gaping hole above. It seemed the ceiling had collapsed over the years, making this room connected to the surface. Icicles and some ground crawlies draped over the edge. From where they were, they could see the ruin was above the ground, too.
"What kind of ruin are we looking at?" asked Nhilva, inspecting the pillar nearest to her. The dimness of this area was no trouble to her. Drow could see pretty well in the dark. "Dwarven?"
"How do you know it's not drow?" asked Greg.
"First, we don't usually like this close to the surface. There are several layers, plus Mindflayers and all kinds of Underdark residents, between us and here. Second, the carving isn't right." Replied the female with a frown.
They continued to explore the chamber. There were a few large statues, a few crumbled shelves, some large braziers and a stone table at one end. There were also some earthen jars and pots with goodness knows what contents inside scattered about. Some of them were destroyed. Some of them were still intact. They were one or two tomes, too, preserved by magic. After casting Comprehend Languages, Viessa found out one of them was draconic.
"This is weird." The Matua Maker tilted her head at the other book. "My spell has no effect on the other. This is the first time it happened."
"Maybe your spell is not powerful enough," joked Greg playfully. He was rewarded with a heavy smack at the back of his head.
"Comprehend Languages is a pretty decent spell. One doesn't need to be powerful to identify languages." Nhilva was also curious why the spell failed to recognise the writing on this particular book. She approached Viessa and took a glance at the cover.
Then she froze.
It was in English.
There were many languages in this realm. For the verbal ones, there was one that was a lot similar to English, a language that was widely used in another world Nhilva was from. In this realm, it was called Common. However, in written form, none of the ones people used here were the same as one her old world used. Therefore she was quite shocked to see an old tome was printed in the squiggle she absolutely understood.
In disbelief, she reached out and snatched the book from Viessa. The sorcesses protested, but she did not hear her. The leather-bound volume was worn and dusty. The gold foil embossed letters on the cover had peeled off long ago. All that was left was the black print underneath. Yes, she could read these words, every single one of them. They were like small hidden gems in her eyes.
Gems only she could identify.
"Black holes and-" she read them out loud, chuckling in amusement. "This is interesting."
"What interesting?" Greg asked from behind her left shoulder. They were all gathering around her right now, trying to read what was on the cover.
"This is a book about wormholes," said Nhilva.
"A what hole?"
"A wormhole. It's a..." The drow paused and thought of better words to explain this. She wasn't even sure if any of them heard of this theory. Have they? Was there such a theory in this realm? She knew there were portals and dimension doors. But they were magical. They were conjured by magic. Were people trying to think about the whole concept behind them, aside from the word "magic"? Honestly, she wasn't so sure about that. But eyes were looking at her, all of them were clearly oblivious of what she had just uttered. She supposed she would have to assume they had no idea.
"It's a book about portals," she finished her sentences.
"So it's a magical book?" Viessa frowned.
"No, it's a book trying to explain the magical phenomenon with logic," said the drow, now opening and turning a few pages. "And science."
"Now that's another word I don't understand," Greg huffed: "What the-"
"Is that really important?" Bastian sighed. "The real question is, why is it here and why you can identify this language?"
"Without magic," added Viessa.
"This is written in English," explained Nhilva. "It's technically from...ah...another... let's call it Plane."
"Is that like an Astral Plane?" asked the Matua Maker again. "So this place... did it used to be inhabited by a... deity of sorts?"
"That I do not know." The drow female closed the book. She was never a fan of complex scientific theory. Staring at those texts for five seconds would give her a headache. "All I know is there are a lot of things in this ruin that shouldn't be here. This is all very strange."
At the end, they decided that since it was only Nhilva who could read this book and identify that metal box, she would keep them. Boyle managed to find another chest under the desk. This time the contents were more normal. Fifty Platinums, two white bear furs, one pearl necklace, and a pouch of dry potion ingredients that the drow recognised was Barrel Stalk.
Nhilva couldn't help but grin. She got the final item she needed to heal Bishop.
