Into the Vault

We descended into depths which had never seen the light of an Everburn until our arrival. Fungi grew on the walls, and they shriveled and burned when our lanterns’ light illuminated them. Rodent-like creatures scurried into tiny, rusted holes in the walls.

Behind me, Piers and Private Leynthall finally reached the bottom of the stairs and set Eon down with pained groans.

Leading the way, with Elora following me the most closely, I walked down a long hall. At first, the walls were barren and undecorated, except by the melting fungus. But soon I saw statues lining the walls. Holding my lantern closer to them, I saw that they were statues of odd creatures with the faces of falcons, their beaks gaping open, the bodies of wolves, and feathered wings splayed out behind them.

I heard a floor tile click under someone’s feet and the statues turned in place, their open beaks aimed at us.

“Get down!” I cried just before dropping to the ground.

Blue flames spewed forth from the mouths of every statue in the room. Even flat on the ground I felt the intense heat singing the fibers of my shirt and the hairs on the back of my neck.

The roaring of the fires faded and when I looked up, Eon Maganti sat with his hand outstretched and rings glowing. A thick layer of ice covered each of the statues’ mouths.

Steam rose from the ice, and blocks dripped.

“Move!” Eon shouted. “That won’t hold forever!”

Piers was the first to run past me, followed by two more Tagrosi soldiers. Jeseka yanked me up to my feet, and we all rushed to the area beyond the statues, to a point where the hallway curved. Eon rolled behind us, the magic of his rings moving him along at our pace.

Just around the curve, I heard another tile click.

Elora shouted, “No!”

But before any of us could act, one of the Tagrosi soldiers disappeared from sight. A second later, we heard a sickening crack from below, and all of us rushed to see what had happened.

A hole lay open in the floor, and when our lanterns shone into the pit the Tagrosi soldier lay at the bottom, with steel spikes jutting up through his body. We had only a moment to behold the gruesome sight before the tile he’d stepped on slid back into place, completely indistinguishable from those around it.

“How can we possibly survive this?” Piers asked. “There are no markings on these tiles… no patterns… how can we distinguish the good ones from the bad?”

“Walk softly,” I said. “Test each tile before you shift your weight onto it. If it starts to give step off of it immediately. All of us need to go single-file.”

Eon chuckled. “Oh, Ahv… so brave and yet so simple-minded. I have a much better solution.” He waved his hand at the path in front of us and a layer of ice coated on top of the tiles. “Just try not to slip and all should be fine.”

“Well that’s… another way to do it, I suppose,” I said.

Marching single-file, we crossed the path in front of us, careful with each step so we would not slip on the ice. At the end of the hall another curve waited for us, and the ground made a slight decline downward. Once we were all across Eon’s field of ice, I said, “Let me go down first.”

The floor there was not tiled, but rather one solid piece of polished steel. The slight decline made it easy to slip, especially after walking on ice just a moment ago. Not wishing to fall upon my sword, I sheathed the silver-edge and held out my hand to feel along the wall for balance.

My fingertips brushed over a small, perfectly round hole in the wall.

Oh… that’s never a good sign…

I brought my lantern closer to the wall and saw that there were countless holes there, all of them shaped the same and lined up in neat rows.

“Hold!” I called out when I heard Elora’s footsteps behind me. “I think we have poison darts here.”

“Why haven’t they fired yet?” Elora asked.

I shrugged. “Because someone up there still likes me? I don’t know, I didn’t build the place.”

“If you lie down low, can you crawl under them?” she asked.

“Good question.” Attempting her experiment, I laid down on my belly and looked over at the wall. The lowest holes were just above me. “Yes, if I crawl I can make it through safely.”

“This is a waste of time!” Eon shouted from the back. “Just seal it up!” He waved his hand and a layer of ice coated the walls on either side of the downward ramp.

But the moment he did so, I heard a deep rumbling behind the walls.

The ice burst as streams of water sprayed out from every gap. When the water poured down the ramp, I tried to stand so I wouldn’t drown, but the flow swept me away before I could rise.

Rushing water tumbled me head over heels, carrying me downward into the darkness. The Everburn lantern was torn from my fingers. My shoulder smacked into a wall as the water carried me around a curve, and into a spiral moving ever downward.

Then, even the ground beneath me disappeared, and I fell through open air.

Smack!

For a fraction of a second I thought I’d struck the ground.

Until I broke through and sunk into a deep pool of water.

It was cold as ice, and my chest throbbed from the sudden shock.

My arms flailed and thrashed around as I struggled to return to the surface.

Something long and scaly swam past me, its body rubbing against my leg.

Then there was another.

And another.

Panicked, I finally reached the surface and breathed in the sweet air. My lungs stung from the rush.

Around me I could hear the others flailing about in the waters, some of them crying out in terror. But the room was pitch black.

“Something touched me!” one of the Tagrosi soldiers cried out.

“Oh, gods!” cried out another, followed by the sound of his body being sucked under the water.

“Find land!” I cried and started swimming straight ahead, hoping to reach a place where I’d be safe.

“Agh!” cried out another Tagrosi soldier, the splash of his body pulled under immediately following.

“Damn beasts!” Jeseka cried as she beat the water around her.

“It’s no use! Just swim!” I cried.

Something behind me burst out from under the turbulent waves, and golden light emanated from it like a sun. When I glanced back over my shoulder, I saw that it was Eon Maganti hovering in the air, his medallion glowing brightly.

Peering around at my surroundings, I spotted a flat, steel island in the pool, far ahead of me. “There’s land! Swim for it!”

Still floating in the air, Eon aimed his palms at the waters and beams fired from his hands. The ice-cold liquid turned warmer with every strike, and the long, scaly corpses of water serpents floated to the surface.

Two rows of needle-like teeth sunk into my calf, and the water serpent yanked me under the water with one hard tug. The surface fled from me, and I could breathe no more.

I turned to see the creature attacking me, flashes of golden light revealing the scene of carnage under the water. The bodies of several Tagrosi soldiers sank into dark, their blood turning the water pink. Hundreds of water snakes swam about, weaving to evade Eon’s constant attacks. The one that had a hold of me wriggled its body to pull me ever downward, to the infinite darkness below.

I bent my body at the waist and wrapped my fingers around the water snake’s throat, squeezing with all my might. I felt its vertebrae shift in my grip and heard something crack, but its teeth sunk deeper into my leg. My scream came out as a stream of bubbles.

My head started to feel light, and my grip on the snake’s throat loosened. The world around me was growing dark, and I looked up to the surface of the water, where Eon still shone like the sun.

A forearm bigger than my neck reached past me and seized the serpent’s neck. I heard a loud crunching noise, and its teeth released my leg. Benji’s hand roughly grabbed me by the back of my shirt, and he swam upward. With a great force, he threw me from the water onto the steel platform in the middle of the pool. Once more, I gasped for air, grateful to receive it.

Benji pulled himself up onto the steel island as well. All of us who’d gathered there were coughing and sputtering to get the liquid out of our throats and lungs.

Eon floated over to us and sat down on the island. The glow from his medallion dimmed and he leaned back on his hands.

I did a quick head-count. We still had Benji, Jeseka, Elora, Piers, and Eon, all the people I knew, plus two others. I exhaled my relief, until I realized that seven Tagrosi soldiers had died in that pool and I counted it a victory simply because I didn’t know any of them.

The darklings had claimed seven human lives and I couldn’t weep for a single one.

“One of you needs to carry me,” Eon said.

Jeseka rose to her feet and spat. “You can crawl, can’t you?”

Eon chuckled. “My dear lady, I’m glad you think so highly of my abilities, but it would be impractical to crawl through the rest of this vault.”

“A moment ago, you were flying,” said Jeseka.

“How right you are,” said Eon, “But that takes far too much energy to maintain. If I were to fly through this vault my relics would run out of power far too fast, and I’d have none left to fight off the darklings. Considering most of you lost your weapons when we landed in that pool, I’d say you need me.”

“Or we could just take your relics and leave you here to die,” Jeseka said.

Benji walked over to Eon, crouched, and lifted the Consul up onto his shoulders. “We’re not leaving Mr. Maganti to die, Jeseka. Maybe you didn’t notice, but he saved our lives.” Benji turned to me. “That water snake bit ya real good. Can you walk?”

“A darkling dug its claws into your shoulders and you lift Eon with no problem? Yeah, I think I have no excuse not to be able to walk.” I tried to stand, but pain shot through my leg and I dropped to my knees again.

Benji turned to Jeseka. “Help him walk, would you please?”

Jeseka’s hateful face softened and she rushed to my side and helped me to my feet again. She slung one of my arms over her shoulder and supported me as I limped along.

“We have no more Everburn lanterns,” said Elora, peering into the waters behind us. “I think they sank into the depths.”

“So, nothing more to ward away the darklings?” Eon said. “Guess we’ll have to fight our way through if we see any more. Who’s still armed?”

I reached for the silver-edge on my back and discovered that it was still there.

Piers drew his iron-edge from its sheath and ignited it.

Elora raised her hand and the lac stones woven into her glove glowed.

“So, most of us,” said Eon. “That’s good.”

“Can I use that?” Jeseka asked, holding her hand out to my silver-edge. “You’re not really in a fit state to fight.”

“I can fight just fine,” I said, giving the sword a little flourish in front of us. “I still have use of my arms.”

Jeseka held my cheek in her hand and forced me to look at her. “You’re cute, you know that?” My face burned at her compliment. “You don’t have to prove yourself. I certainly don’t doubt that you’re a tough, masculine man. But, please, let me handle this.” Her fingers left my face and slipped over my hand to grasp the hilt of the sword. The light touch of her hand tickled me a little, and I surrendered the weapon to her.

“Thank you,” I said.

She kissed my cheek and turned to continue our trek, lighting the way with the light from the silver-edge.

Ahead of us stood a doorway, and beyond it many unknown terrors hidden in the darkness.