MELODY

“The common language. Its official name is Sraanski, referring to an older language with the meaning ‘common people’. Some people question this name, but the reasoning is simple. Sraanski is the origin of where our universal language came from. In histories past there have been many great kingdoms and many noble races all with their own distinctive language and culture. But when the great collapse happened all that were left were the common people. A damaged, struggling people who lacked the idleness to divide themselves based on fragile conceptions. In such a time another friend may mean another day alive. And so communication found its way. The interpretation of language started to change little by little until the survivors of this dark period all spoke the same language. Sraanski. It is a common language. But one to be proud of.”

A Historical Guide : Chapter 4.3

Melody didn’t expect the situation she came to face after entering the tunnel. Aei and her quickly reached the end of the tunnel and came out into a small, square room. The room is covered in ice, or as close to the concept as Melody can imagine. The chill exuding from the structure pervasively seeps into Melody, causing her body’s warmth to flicker in and out like a candle amidst wind. The room is empty. What surprises Melody is that it extends outward into three other rooms. North, east, west. A short tunnel extended like a straight arrow toward each further room, separated by a shut frozen door. To Melody’s eyes it appears a bit like a puzzle. A question of which side to pick when all of the options offer no information.

As Melody evaluates the room Aei near her side suddenly exclaims something strongly in his own language, before quickly switching over. “A murder maze.”

“A…what?” Melody answers, a puzzled frown appearing on her face.

“It is hard to translate.” Aei pauses for a moment as he gathers his words. “You know of our race. The Al’mardi. We are eternal stone-seekers.”

“I know a little.” Melody answers. “But much is lost about your kind over the years.”

“I see.” Aei answers. He turns to look at her, his serious gaze making Melody focus. “People may misinterpret our mission. In truth, I am not a creature born.” He brings up his hand in front of Melody, showing off its symmetrical chiseled form. “My Queen crafts us from the stone itself. It is only after we are formed that she breathes life into us. We exist because my Queen wills it so.”

“That’s crazy,” Melody breathes, her mind frozen at the shocking revelation. “Absolutely crazy.” Such a thing is a realm beyond her knowledge. To create life? Suddenly Melody’s eyes light up as she realises what he’s leading toward. “Then you are saying the stronger the stone she carves, the stronger you are.”

“Yes.” Aei nods his head. He raises his sword and slams it against his arm, but no damage occurs. “My Queen made me from Blessed Marble. It is a rare and powerful substance made from the intertwining of earth magic with stone. That is why our race has always pursued stone. It is our strength and our joy.”

“How is it possible for her to do that?” Melody brushes past his words, still stuck on his previous revelation. “Create life?”

“It is a great secret of our people,” Aei answers. “I cannot tell you. But it is not truly creating life. Just as the Krateran don’t truly experience rebirth. We are recipients of great power rather than the commanders of it.”

“O…kay.” Melody felt she understood, but at the same time she didn’t. “Putting that to the side. What relation does that have with this place?”

“It is a long and short story.” Aei says with a drawn out sigh. No. Just get to the point. Melody felt he’s a bit long-winded, contrary to his looks. “We have always sought greater and greater stone. As time passed and our culture developed, we struck further into the earth. What we found is that the further down we dig, the greater the stone we discover. It’s a natural conclusion from there. If we keep digging down, and one day reach the earth’s core, what sought of grand sight would we discover?” A deep longing can be seen in Aei’s eyes as he conjures the image in his head. But after a few moments the yearning look cools down and he returns his sight to Melody.

“However our mission to dig further had us come across something entirely unexpected.” Aei says. “We discovered another civilisation. No…it’s better to call it an ancient civilisation. One that fell too long ago to even be recorded in history.” His eyes full of reminiscence and admiration stare into Melody’s own ones filled with curiosity and wonder. “Even after its destruction, the remnants were powerful enough to overwhelm us. We failed to discover enemies. But we dealt with defenses and traps beyond our wildest imagination.”

“Traps?” Melody questions.

“Yes. Traps.” Aei answers. “It could even be said that the defenses and the traps were one and the same. They drew on incomprehensible concepts. I still remember the nightmare. A single activation slaughtered dozens of us. It’s only because of how old it is, because it decayed the moment is was used, that my entire tribe was not wiped out.” Melody could see Aei shiver as he spoke, his emotions turning dark as the remnants of that memory return to haunt him. Breaking himself away from the image, Aei turns and gestures towards the three doors. “This…this is a nightmare that did slaughter a tribe. Their Queen told us what she could before she committed herself to her death.”

Aei swallows loudly as he stares at the doors, unable to stop the fear gripping him. “Think of this place as a huge cube cut into small compartments. Every single room has a deadly trap of some nature. The rooms will constantly rotate to fill any gaps and force you into passing through them. The defense is simple. You either survive all of the rooms and reach the exit, or die trying. There is no alternative.”

“How is that possible?” Melody spits out in disbelief. “No escape? Can’t I just make an exit?” To prove her point Melody conjures some water and strengthens it with convergence. Then she slams it into the wall, boring through it with her strength. Soon enough she reaches the walls end and breaks through to a new surface, but not one Melody could have ever expected. “What…” Her eyes widen at the sight. Pure blackness. As she looked at the sight it felt as if her vision had left her, as if anything that enters that space…ceases to exist. Melody refuses to believe it. She sends her water to strike forward. But as it passes into the black space her mind is forcefully disconnected from it, causing her to reel back in pain as the water simply disappears.

Melody’s face twists as she feels her helplessness. Unable to accept it she conjures more water, striking again and again into that void. Each time it disappears and each time Melody experiences a cutting pain from her reckless actions. “I told you.” Aei says as he walks up beside her, staring into the void. He watches the wall starts to reform itself as new ice forms and freezes in place. “The things that civilisation has made possible…our existences are too far apart. If you want to live, there is only one choice.” His eyes are cast to the box in front of him, still telling him the details about the location. “It’d be different if we were facing a damaged structure. But this cursed system…it has restored this place to pristine condition. We have no alternative.”

Melody collapses onto the ground blankly, staring at the recovered wall in front of her. Aei simply watches her. “…I’m so small.” It was a soft whisper like the tiny buzz of a bee. As if to support the notion Melody had garnered. Her pride as a genius had been crushed when she realised her twenty years of hard work amounted to a couple of weeks. Still, she had felt strong. Because of what she had faced. Because of what she can do. But at this moment, as Melody gazes at the place around her and realises she can’t fathom the beginning of its existence, let alone understand its intricacies, it crushes Melody even more.

She isn’t knowledgeable. She isn’t strong. It felt, to Melody, like she isn’t much of anything. If she took away her useless pride, what did she really amount to? A speck. As the thought passes through her, it attempts to snuff out Melody’s light. She can feel a great despair at the thought of her own insignificance, one that threatens to overwhelm her. But her heart refuses. Melody’s dulled eyes burst with a new fire. One that isn’t built on the praise that she had been given, but on her inner strength. “I’m weak.” It wasn’t a comment filled with loss. There was conviction there, much to Aei’s confusion. Melody didn’t seek to clarify her words. Her heart was unsure. But there was a burning desire there.

She is strong because she has been praised as such. She has pride because it has been given to her. Melody knows. Nothing she has came from herself. Instead of these useless things, her conviction changes. She only wishes to pursue one thing. A strength that comes from her very existence. Melody’s presence itself will be her strength. It is a feeling Melody can’t quite grasp. But that goal, the yearning to make it reality, fills her. “If I was strong, this place would be nothing.” Those quiet words fill her and intensify that yearning.

As if it could hear her conviction, the water that always joyfully danced around her pauses for a moment. Neither Melody nor Aei notices it. A ripple passes through it as her conviction, and her heart, reaches it. And then the water resumes its joyful dance as if nothing happened.

“Are you okay?” Aei asks. His face carries a little concern as he watches her. Her emotions had shifted a lot in a short time and he realised her confidence must have been dealt a blow. “There is no shame in failing to escape this place. This is something beyond anyone’s knowledge.”

“I’m fine.” Melody had cooled down. Her eyes turn to his. As his gaze catches on hers, he shivers slightly. In the short moment that had passed her eyes had become like deep pools of water, drawing him into their depths. “Were you able to discover anything about this race?”

“Yes.” Aei shakes himself away from the feeling. When he looks at her again he sees no changes making him question whether he was seeing things. “We at least discovered the race’s name. Talvarni.” The admiration returns as he thinks on what they had found. “They are a race that sought to use magic for the common people. Their goal was to have it so that no-one ever needed to work. No-one would ever need to worry about food, or a home or necessities. The traps we face are simply byproducts of their genius, a culmination of combining their magic with the tools of common people. It was an idealistic goal. But we do not know how they fell and disappeared into history.”

“Time is merciless.” Melody mutters those words as she settles her heart, firming her mind. “There are no shortcuts here. So we will simply do what it wants. We will fight, and we will survive.”

“Yes.” Aei nods his head. “Which door will you take? We have to go separately. The rooms don’t allow multiple people, and the shifting nature of this place will cause us to be placed apart anyway.”

“Left.” Melody answers. She turns to look at Aei as they gaze at each other for a moment. Her thoughts drift to Raze as she does, wondering if he’ll be okay. Either way. Her eyes firm. I will face things head on and return. “Good luck.” Aei simply nods as the two move separately, Melody going left and Aei going right, his stone sword trailing across the ground as he walks. After taking a moment to gather herself Melody’s own feet move and she quickly reaches the door on the left.

Right in its middle rests a circular piece separated from the rest of the door. Melody’s hand reaches up and pushes at it, causing it to sink in. At the same time the door starts to glow slightly and the ice flows away, melding into the walls as the new room is revealed to her. The room is plain, the same as the one behind her. Slightly shivering from the cold, Melody stares forward as the room starts to shift. Suddenly inside of it appears intersecting lines of red light, criss-crossing across the room. Although the lines are numerous there are enough gaps in-between to allow a human to pass through them.

Melody stares at the situation cautiously. The answer is an immediate one. Pass through the gaps and reach the door on the other side. But the more obvious the answer appears, the less trusting Melody feels of it. The whole room gives off a dangerous vibe. Melody conjures some water and has it enter the room through one of the gaps. Her theory is confirmed straight away as the water is cut off as it attempts to pass through the gap. No, a better way to describe it would be the water being shaved as it touched the surface. Melody imagines for a moment her body going through that and shivers at the thought.

Melody tries again except this time she passes the water through the lines themselves. The effect is immediate as the water travels through it safely. However the second it leaves the line it again is shaved away, dissipating. Confirming her theory Melody cautiously approaches and touches the barest point of her finger against one of the red lines. Thankfully it remains safe and as her hand passes into it Melody is sure this is the correct path. It doesn’t take long for her entire body to enter the room, the intersecting lines traveling intangibly through her body.

Melody advances one step at a time as she watches the red lines carefully. They had yet to move but Melody knew that the words spoken by Aei couldn’t lead to such a simple trap. Sure enough partway across the room the lines suddenly move, rapidly shifting into different areas. Melody moves at the same time, her body shifting as fast as it can to match the sudden movement. Suddenly as she’s moving across the room the lines split, the intersections dissecting as they each move away from each other.

Melody’s face tenses as she picks one of the lines traveling to the other side and sticks to it, her body matching its speed as it trails itself back to the wall the light came from. Her eyes coudl see the hole in it and knew that the light would disappear entirely in a moment. Casting her eyes around she rapidly gathers a plan together and as the light disappears into the whole Melody’s hand has snapped out and touched another light crossing across the room.

At the same time Melody conjures water along her back and uses it to push against her, causing Melody to move along with her arm toward the direction the line is heading toward. Melody continues to do this, the lights appearing and disappearing as Melody slowly moves across the room to the door on the other side. She makes it two thirds of the way across when another change occurs. Some of the red lines enter their holes and then still, moments passing before new lines emerge. Only these ones are black.

As one of them neared her Melody’s perception skill kicked in and a strong sense of danger filled her. More green lines started to appear as the diverging lines started to join back together and mesh until its original criss-cross pattern. Melody starts to move rapidly as she ducks and waves, moving like an incredible acrobat with all of the strength she can muster as she utilises the many converging lines to avoid the green ones while passing through the red lines.

Nearing the exit melody finds herself caught as two different groupings of green lines merge toward her. Melody’s mind cools as she processes everything in front of her and then moves forward. It appears like a strange dance. Her body weaves in and out as she barely misses the green lines while her body travels across the red ones. Then as she nearly becomes overwhelmed Melody dips her hands down onto the ground and pushes her weight onto them, twisting her body around and up as she does a great flip.

Melody sails across the air as her body passes over the green lines and sticks to the red ones. In the air Melody spots the lines starting to diverge away from her, the many red lines across the exit thinning. As Melody falls back down toward the ground her body rights herself and she gathers a large amount of water behind her. Compressing and then expanding it Melody uses it like a cannon, sending her rocketing the short distance toward the exit. Her body appears to light up as the many different red lines flicker across her body as it speeds through the air.

Then she slams into the ground, her body dispiritedly collapsing in the short tunnel. Thankfully she is safe. Melody lies there for a moment as she gathers her breath, her gaze staring at the door that bars the next room. She felt sore, and emotionally mixed. The trap never gave her a moment to think. It felt exactly like the previous one she had faced in that stone tunnel. It’s a scary concept. If Melody makes a single mistake…shaking her thoughts away Melody picks herself up and moves toward the wall, resting against it. As she peers back into the previous room she notices the lines of light receding, all disappearing back into the walls until the room once again looks empty.

“A little scary,” Melody breathes out as she stares at the now quiet room. She felt an inkling of something from the experiences. A sense of the way her heart should go. Inner strength. The idea is still a little foreign to her. But perhaps she can figure out what it means to her. Then she’ll have grown in a direction she can be content with, if only a little.