It had gotten rather cold as of late, not that Euan was one to complain. As someone who was native to Aria, he was used to the near freezing temperatures that heralded the coming of the solstice of night. Even if it was a touch colder as he was in Duroria, the country directly north. Though the trees that roughly shared his heritage fared far worse. Branches that had been stripped clean of leaves clawed up at the grey sky, begging for a reprieve that would not come soon. A plus to the chill was the fact that the ground remained solid despite the infrequent precipitation, meaning that the car he was driving over the frozen sod never struggled. Though the man who had hired him didn’t seem to agree. The ever-present scowl on his face deepening as he realised he hired a specialised mechanic for nothing. A smarter man might point out that it was for the safety, rather than the certainty. A smarter man still would keep his mouth shut. It was quite fortunate that Euan fell into the latter category.

He also didn’t mention the strangeness of the situation. Part of the requirements for the hiring was the fact that he had a level of discretion regarding the ordeal. It didn’t stop his curiosity.

The official job description was being a driver for an heir to some land, so that the heir may subsequently survey the land and check its quality. The true job was to drive a hooded woman, one who had yet to speak to him, through the barrows of Duroria so that she may do some legally questionable activities. Again, he was hired to be discrete. So, he did not judge. His numerous questions multiplied by tenfold when he finally reached the site and noticed some men already there. The hooded woman behind him swore in a thick accent that he couldn’t discern and climbed out the back. His boss grunted and left as well. Euan decided to stay in the car as this didn’t really concern him. Though in the end, curiosity killed the cat, and his certainly got the better of him. He cracked the roll up window open a slight amount and listened.

“I hadn’t realised I would have an audience, Florian.”

“Neither had I Liselotte. Otherwise I would have brought men who weren’t archaeologists.” The woman talked to an aging man who had stood off to one side. A small looking teenager accompanied him, he looked rather timid, though he didn’t cower when Liselotte and his boss approached them.

“Pity. I might have enjoyed that. Though if you’re not going to entertain me, the very least you could do is not annoy me. Leave.”

“What are your intentions here Liselotte? I can’t imagine you’d trouble yourself with somewhere so backwoods if there wasn’t a very good reason for it.”

“My intentions are most likely the same as yours.”

“How did you hear of it then? Do we have a leak on our hands?” Liselotte barked a laugh.

“I’m feeling rather generous as tonight is a rather momentous occasion. So I’ll give you a little hint, who do you think set it up?” It apparently took a moment for the aged man to gather his courage, so his response took some time.

“I would rather you replied with an answer rather than a question. I know how you supernatural folk like to play your games.”

“Ha! Despite my current situation I can assure you that I’m still human, still very capable of telling those little lies.”

“Further reason to not trust your words. Tell me, how long will you have to spend next to those leaks in places such as Mictepeh, the Whispering Pit or the Forests of Junein- or should I say Cernia- before you mutate beyond humanity.”

“Hm. Perhaps the time it takes for you to get to your point. This back and forth will inevitably end the same way, no matter what morsels of information you may extract from it. Though I do have to admit, your stance on that conflict is predictable at best. Alas, I do not have all the time in the world and I have told you to leave, so do so, and take your young ward with you.” The man paused, contemplating it perhaps, or maybe he wasn’t so used to being talked to as such. Liselotte took a step forward which seemed to spur his decision-making capabilities forward.

“Very well. Let us leave.” He called out to the men who were working on the tomb and with only minor procrastination they followed his command. Then he turned to the child at his side and spoke in a softer tone, “come Nikolaus. The lesson you take from this is to recognise when you are outclassed.” Nikolaus nodded in response and followed his mentor and the stream of academics leaving the site. Once they had gone Liselotte turned back and faced Euan.

“You may come with us, if you wish.”

“Lise!”

“He has already heard enough. We may as well satiate his curiosity, as a show of goodwill if nothing else.” His boss grumbled lowly but acquiesced. “Besides, this may get out anyway through that young ward of Florian’s. If they keep taking them on that young, it will only be a matter of time before a true leak occurs.”

“Yes, I understand. Let’s not draw this out any longer then.” That was how Euan found himself exiting the car and making his way up to the stone door of the barrow. He didn’t say anything though, he still wasn’t quite sure what his standing was amongst these two. Liselotte looked in his direction, which may have been her attempt to smile at him, but he couldn’t see anything beside the encompassing shadows of her hood.

“Well, the first order of business is removing the stone door. You may be wondering how we would go about doing that, but the answer is simple enough.” She took a couple of steps forward and rested her forehead on the slab, then she began to mutter something. For a time it was the only sound in the air, and Euan was struck with the realisation that there had been no birdsong. He could perhaps forgive it due to the cooler weather, but everything had a certain unnatural stillness to it. Then the stone cracked, or rather it made a cracking sound. Its appearance remained remarkably bland, but the bulk of rock itself shifted slightly. Liselotte reached a hand forward and the door fell into the barrow. She pulled a torch from the depths of her cloak and lit up the inside.

His boss grunted and followed suit which left Euan outside. He decided that he didn’t like that turn of events and stepped into the tomb as well. Surprisingly though, the inside didn’t even contain a trace of a body. There was a platform in the centre on which a wooden statue sat upon, which he found to be the most eye catching, though the miscellaneous daggers and engraved stones scattered around the edges weren’t forgettable. Especially the large pot pushed far to one edge. The wooden statue was blackened with age, it left him rather shocked that it was still standing, but what he also found surprising was what it was decorated with. It was adorned with the skulls of various animals, large and small. He spotted the skull of a deer, one of a cat, a snake and a rat. There were a couple others that he couldn’t recognise, and a few insect drawings on stones at the bottom, such as a spider or butterfly. The statue itself resembled a man that held a sword forth in his hands. Its metal had patterns in it that reminded Euan of oil on water and it had runes engraved on its broad side. Despite the amount of time it had obviously spent inside the barrow, it was in much better shape then the statue. Almost pristine. Even the handle showed very few signs of age.

Although he found the state the sword was in intriguing, he found the runes even more so. While he would hesitate to call himself an expert on ancient languages, he knew quite a bit of the one that was sporadically decorating the room. It was Galdeorn, hailing from the far north, more than himself and these barrows. He had never seen those characters before though. In spite of that, it seemed like he had a resident expert with him. Gathering himself he turned to Liselotte.

“What does it say on the sword?”

“It’s an old ritual, one that calls upon the forces of nature, the Laedere. With the only exception being here,” she points to a rune close to the hilt, partially covered by dirt. Liselotte gently wiped it away to reveal something he did recognise.

“Birth.”

“Close, but not quite. See these lines here?” She gestured to another section of the rune, before realising that the dirt hadn’t been fully wiped away. After rectifying it she continued, “as you can see, this is the symbol for origin.”

“Ah, yes. Clearly. How does that tie into the other runes then? And why put it on a sword?”

“The Galdeorn believed that the Laedere were spirits of nature, that they existed passively in this world as aspects of the environment and animals. By putting these symbols on the sword, they are honoured in a way, and therefore the warrior who wields it reaps the benefits of the blessings. Typically though, each warrior would only honour one as it was a common fear that honouring multiple would invoke their wrath. This addition was an attempt to negate that assumed consequence, to link them all under the same umbrella. A declaration that as they are all spirits of nature, they should have no issues being called together.” Euan eyed the sword a second time, he trusted Liselotte’s information as she appeared to be the expert on it and it matched with what he knew before. Though it was purely symbolic, it certainly gave the sword a certain edge about it, aside from the obvious one.

“Was this a common ritual?”

“No- or at least not enough evidence of the ritual had been found to make the assumption that it was. The parent one, however, was wildly used. It’s how you can make such a concrete analysis about this.” She gestured down the length of the blade. Euan pondered this for a time, and in that time Liselotte stood up and began inspecting the statue itself. He took this as a sign that they have moved on from the relic, so instead of trying for more information that he knew he would not get, he turned his attention to the other trinkets around the room.

“We should hurry it up Lise, I don’t feel like upsetting whatever is in here.”

“Calm yourself Mr. Gallagher, I know that we won’t. I would like to continue with the ritual however, so if you could take that pot by the corner? It looks rather awkward to carry for one person.”

“Right, yes. Thank you for the opportunity to look at these things. Come on Euan, let’s do our job.” He walked over to the pot in far end of the barrow and took one side of the pot, while the other side was taken by Euan. They passed Liselotte who was still investigating the statue in the middle of the room and place the pot in the back of the car. He had to take a covering out of the back of the truck though, as the rain had started up again. “Euan, come over here for a little bit.”

“Why?” Mr. Gallagher didn’t answer, all he did was walk into the forest a little. Euan did as he was told, but that didn’t stop him from raising an eyebrow in the direction of his boss. The man clocked this and once they had put a bit of distance between the barrow and themselves, he answered.

“I am a little bit of an archaeologist myself. Lise hired me as I had helped her with gathering some things in the past, but this was more of a customary hire. That and I know where to find drivers and mechanics who know how to keep their mouths shut.”

“I have gotten the hint, Mr. Gallagher. You need not worry.”

“Good. If this remains true into the future then this may not be our only job together.”

“If those future jobs are half as interesting as this one, then I shall look forward to them.” Gallagher nodded in response. “How long are we going to wait here?”

“How long it takes for Lise to finish up.”

“And when shall we know when she’s done?”

“You’ll know.” Euan deigned himself to wait, to see if he would know. In fact, he didn’t have to wait long, as he listened to the rainfall and the ambient sounds of the skeletal trees shifting he noticed that the volume dimmed. It continued to do so until he felt like he was listening to his surrounding through a bubble. Then everything was quiet. Euan never had claustrophobia, he probably wouldn’t have tried to get into this archaeology job if he had, but the way the trees seemed to tower over them made him rethink that stance. Even Gallagher went still, eyes still fixed on the entrance to the barrow.

He heard it then. A shaking guttural sound that seemed to resound in his mind. Unaffected by the blanket muffling the rest of the world. It gave him pause. It gave everything pause.

Minutes had passed before he began to even register the rain again. He only knew it was minutes and not hours was because of his watch, but by now he was looking very much to leave. So was the other man with him. His nerves only stilled when he felt wind brush his face. Drifting past his back and towards the barrow. Which didn’t make sense as the swaying of the grass and gnarled branches of the trees all around them showed that it was the same for all directions. As if the barrow had just taken in a deep breath.

That may have not been the right analogy though, as soon after he felt the wind again. Heard nature. As whatever oppressive atmosphere had come over them had passed and the world was alive again. Liselotte walked out then, the sword sheathed at her side and her bag visibly bulging from the various items she had in it. Euan’s eyes weren’t on the bag on her side though, they were on her face. Her hood was pulled down, revealing a face full of runes. The marks traced her cheek bones, her forehead, her jawline and trailed down into her coat. It almost distracted him from her unnaturally vibrant green eyes.

She crossed the grass and threw her bag into the back where it rested alongside the partially filled pot. When she moved to put the bag in the back of the truck, her coat shifted allowing for a better viewing of the sheath. The sheath looked ancient and rotting but what surprised him was what shape the sword handle was in. It had rotted from what it was minutes ago and was falling from the metal that made the core. After fastening the tarp to cover the relics she climbed into the back.

“What about the statue?”

“It’s rotted away. Now climb into the car, I want to leave before the rain makes the trip back unfeasible.” Euan and Gallagher shared a look before following, with Euan clambering back into the driver’s seat and Gallagher in the passenger’s. He checked his mirrors to see whether any wildlife had snuck up on him, but what he saw was not part of the natural ecosystem.

Coming out of the barrow next was a long spindly figure. He would have thought it a shadow if he knew what would make such a thing. The resounding boom of the door being shut behind it resonated through the woods, and it seemed to leave with it instantly. Like he had blinked the image from his eyes.

“W-what?” Euan looked to Liselotte who stared back. Eyes glowing emerald in the dark.

“Drive Euan.” He knew why his boss hired him; he knew that keeping quiet was a necessity. He pushed his questions aside and started the engine, pulling out from the front of the barrow and tracing the path there.

“They won’t be able to trace this back to us, will they?” His boss said in the quiet.

“I’ll sort it.”