A Task Completed

_______________________

The Wellspring – The Deep Lake

Eidos leaps down onto the landing, crushing the damp vegetation beneath her weight. The innocent flora is not without recourse, however, for the destructive pressure wrings all moisture from the plants, propelling Eidos’ feet in random directions. The result, naturally, is an intimate encounter with the rocky ground.

Owww… Fallen, she sits, pain crawling up her tender rump through her spine and showering out across her entire body in intense sparks of agony. Whatever the consequences of her descent, she has the last laugh as she rises, injured but unbroken, triumphant in arriving at her desired destination. She leaves the question as to whether or not it was worth it for later consideration.

Eidos then surveys the surroundings. She now stands a story or two above the edge of a great underground lake. Out on the dark water, she hears the sounds of an invisible oar furtively paddling—though the darkness has consumed any visual vestige of its operator. Probably some other guardian that’ll try to kill me if it finds me… Best stay as far away from it as possible.

Straight ahead, a massive dam rises from the lake, barring passage to the water that impatiently laps up against it. At the rightmost extreme of the dam, a warm amber glow hints at a crystal.That looks like it houses one of those Arclights. To the left, a path extends downward, hugging the cliff face as it leads to a great archway near the opposite end of the bridge. And that looks like a good candidate for a throne room. Let’s head over there, body.

And thus, she moves toward the archway and into the chamber beyond it.

_______________________

The Wellspring – The Throne Room

Eidos enters a pitch darkness. As she proceeds, the echoes from her footfalls clicking on the tiled floor betray the immensity of the chamber. Ten paces in, all shadows are exiled to the realm of memory as countless lights in the floor and ceiling spring to life. The reflective black dome above her, the walls of dark granite, the intricately carved designs in a lattice of forbidden geometries, all of these reveal themselves to her light-shocked eyes. Dammit! My eyes!

Rubbing the tears away, Eidos tries to take it all in. But she is somewhat overwhelmed by the grandeur of the place. For a moment, she even feels at a loss, as though she could lose her very Self just from being here…

But before long, the spell is broken and she regains her bearings.

Examining the dome, she focuses on the large panes of black glass filling in the spaces between the stonework, all trimmed and gilded in a silvery metal. They share a strong resemblance to the ones she encountered in the Sanctuary. I wonder if I’ll be seeing the wolf or Luin creeping around in one of those…

At the opposite end of the chamber, an enormous and robust door forbids passage with its overlapping metallic scales. The dominant feature of the chamber, however, is the high-backed, silver throne that appears to grow right out of the floor's center. Yep, this is the place.

She approaches the chair. It’s like an unmelted version of the one upstairs. Dragging a finger across the grooves in the armrest, she begins to circle the throne. It has a beauty both flamboyant and austere; just as a silver ingot may shine and sparkle, yet is still simply a hunk of metal, so too does this throne walk the line between simplicity and extravagance.

After she completes her round, Eidos sits in the chair. All about her, the dark glass panels spring to life, displaying myriad scattered images, flowing one from the next. However, the panel directly in front of her remains fixed on a single image, frozen in time. This panel shows the body of water she witnessed on her way here.

Suddenly, a small but familiar stone column rises from the floor to her right. The column is lined and laced with strands of liquid silver, gently rippling on the surface. Then, the emanation of a thought pulses out from the contraption. A sense of expectation fills Eidos' mind and a choir of a thousand voices rings out.

“onVadhomdheishohWellspringvatohzha. onWulfiaskuArchonohreckish.”

So I caught ‘Wellspring’ and ‘Wulfias’, but the rest is just gibberish…

“onmordhohspirishshuiohrrai,” continues the voice, crescendoing throughout the chamber. “onvadohulgrrifbozWulfiasuiCorroeohlaikish. ultomaluishtorra'spirohgulgaish. onfuogulgaohboznashdormish. onitamohtomaluish.”

Again, ‘Wulfias’ something… uh, oh, I know! Typically, I just have to think about what I want to do, these things’ll just do it for me… unlike my body, where it’s hit or miss with that strategy.

“ondheseohArchonvareckish. Ibshuiohcorroevafangish.” Abruptly, the choir ceases its chant, but its echoes persist like a fading memory.

Did it work?

The one frozen image from the dark panel before her revives as a great rumble from outside threatens to stir her innards into mush. Thereupon, the dam lowers, finally releasing the water it had so dutifully kept at bay. The sound of rushing water echoes from outside and into the Throne Room, confirming that the underground lake now rages forward into the aqueduct. Let’s go take a look, body! We wanna make sure this damn water remains unobstructed—so we can avoid making a second trip.

However, soon a different sound from above draws her gaze. From the ceiling, a descending cloudstone reveals a passage skyward. As of instinct she moves toward the cloudstone. Hold up! Look, body, we can come back in and step on the cloudstone after we make sure the water drains, but we might not be able to come back down. She hesitates. You know I’m right, body! She moves toward the archway to first observe the fruits of her labors before leaving to report to Khaa. I do have some questions for that rat bastard, that’s if you decide to cooperate when the time comes, body… No pressure, or anything…

Reaching the archway, the roar of rushing water grows deafening.

___________________

The Wellspring – The Dam

Eidos exits through the archway, her path dimly lit by a band of faintly twinkling stars in a distant, forgotten sky. Water now violently courses through the opened dam, its bulk no longer repressed by the schemes of man.

Eidos cautiously nears the edge to get a better look, but the alliance of splashing water and the mossy hordes has made the path treacherously slippery. Son of a…! She falls for Nature's trap, slipping down and slamming into the baleful rapids. Aaaahhhh!

___________________

The Wellspring – The Aqueduct

In and out of consciousness, Eidos feels her body being jostled around violently through a dark and narrow passageway. Only a short time seems to elapse before she finally emerges into the light of day.

Squinting her eyes against the sun, she looks up at the sky through a pane of carefully polished glass. She quickly surmises she is now atop an aqueduct and is likely headed for the parched Dawn Fortress—whose water she now delivers personally. Hopefully I get a heroine’s welcome after all the bullshit I just went through! ...No, wait: am still going through!

After only a few moments, she realizes this structure is clearly not meant for human transport—just as her head collides with the stony sides of the tube. The impact brings with it an unwanted bout of dreamless sleep…