Unlike the obelisk on Aldim that conferred a permanent elemental buff, this one was configured differently. Instead of empowering the user, it stripped something away from the environment.

  Thomas was trying to discern the triggering sigil by the time Mel had already figured it out. She reached out and pressed a squiggly sigil that reminded her of a snake.

  Would you like to unlock the Ophidian Vessel?

  Or

  Would you like to be transported to the entrance?

  Mel looked around. This was the one room that didn’t appear to be crumbling at the moment. Already the altar room was half filled with rubble. The pillars supporting the tall ceiling had tumbled down, bringing half of the ceiling with them.

  The darkness all around them was dimly lit by a thin barrier of faint light that stretched around the peninsula of stone they were on. Mel couldn’t shake the impression that they were just scratching the surface here.

  Gwen coughed wetly, green poison bubbling on her lips. “Unlock,” she whispered by way of vote. The subtle glowing fur of [Primal Mantle] flickered in and out, then held steady. Suggesting she nearly lost consciousness.

  It was obvious that if they fled, they would never get a chance to go deeper. And yet, Gwen didn’t look good.

  Really wish I had stolen those antidote pills from Heath, Mel thought sourly.

  Thomas and Mel locked eyes. She could see his concern for Gwen trumped any loot, real or imagined.

  “Do either of you have a means of dealing with poison?” Mel asked, hopeful. They didn’t have long to decide. The tremors were growing more intense. Parts of the stone platform fell away into the barrier and burst into motes of light.

  I don’t think any of us are surviving that.

  “Not directly, no,” he answered. “She needs somewhere stable.”

  “What’s your vote?” Mel asked.

  Mel could tell from Thomas’ golden gaze that he understood what she was doing. She was trying to make sure if her vote would even matter.

  If Thomas chose to go deeper, then whatever Mel wanted would be immaterial.

  If he didn’t…

  Thomas looked down at Gwen, the tenderness and care obvious on his face. “My vote is to leave. There is no telling what awaits us. The best she can do is weather the poison until it fades. That is not good enough for me.”

  It was up to Mel to decide whether to risk all their lives or not.

  One vote to go, one vote to leave. Could she damn another soul because of her greed?

  Mel caught a glimmer of light reflected in Gwen’s eyes that changed her decision. This wasn’t the same as Sabrina and the others.

  While they were willing, they were uninformed. They had no idea how bad things could get.

  Gwen and Thomas were different. They understood the risks. They were made of sterner stuff. Any choices they made were informed by the full weight of Brookmoors’ teachings and the terrors they had conquered over their lifetime as students.

  More importantly, Thomas only wanted to leave to tend to Gwen. He wasn’t opposed to going for any other reason that Mel could tell.

  “Not all choices you make will be good, but you have to stand beside them all the same,” Hal had once told her.

  She reached out and confirmed her choice to unlock the Ophidian Vessel.

  The barrier of faint light winked out. The obelisk turned into a thin, stretched string of light. When it vanished, so too did the platform they were standing on.

  They fell into the darkness, clinging to each other as the wind whipped across their sightless faces.

  Mel blinked, and from one moment to the next, everything changed. She felt a tug just behind her navel and suddenly she was sitting on top of a stained sacrificial altar.

  Gwen and Thomas were each laid out on their own altars, fast asleep by the look of it. Gwen’s mantle was snuffed out.

  Mel slipped off the stone and rushed over to Gwen’s side. Green veins spread out from the visibly poisoned wounds she had suffered, but otherwise she looked stable.

  Then Mel noticed she wasn’t breathing.

  She reached out and was immediately thrown back as a flash of light reacted to her intrusion, triggering magical protections. Mel slammed into the opposite wall, banging her head hard against the stone.

  The stars took a few moments to fade from her sight. She looked from one altar to the other, noticing the faint shimmer of magic this time, like the rainbow pattern on a raven’s feather.

  “Well, shit.” She put her hands on her hips and took stock.

  The room was small, with only three altars. Mel’s hadn’t held her captive like Thomas’ or Gwen’s.

  Must be because I was the one who made the choice.

  That meant their salvation was also in her hands.

  A single stone door led out of the room. There was no hole in the ceiling, suggesting they had been either carried here or otherwise magically transported.

  Gonna go with magic.

  Kneeling beside Thomas’ altar, she examined every inch of the stone until she came upon a series of sigils with one missing. If she was a betting woman, she guessed it would be the same squiggly symbol she had touched on the obelisk.

  Just to be sure, she examined Gwen’s and came to the same conclusion.

  Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

  I need two keys. One for each of them. Just when I was having fun too.

  She looked at each of their sleeping bodies, then up to the ceiling. Mel couldn’t shake the feeling that she was being watched. “You know, I really didn’t miss being on my own. Thanks for that.”

  There was no answer, because of course there wouldn’t be.

  The only way out is through, Mel told herself. She stepped up to the door and pushed it open. The thick stone door swung open on perfectly balanced hinges without a whisper of sound.

  Quest Update: The Impaler’s Tomb

  Objective: Discover the source of unrest in the Impaler’s Tomb (1/1).

  Reward: [Cinder Ampoule]

  Additional Objective: Defeat the Naga guarding the secret of the Impaler (1/1).

  Reward: [Soothing Pearl]

  Additional Objective: Delve into the Heart of the Serpent and survive the Altar of Askara (0/1).

  Reward: [Star Ember]

  Unlike the tomb above, this place was more like a shrine or temple than a resting place for the dead. There were serpent motifs everywhere she looked. Pillars coiled with stone snakes. Hooded vipers rearing up, their hoods holding decorative holsters for green-burning torches.

  Mel got a sense of deep age about the place, as if the previous tomb above had been built on top of this one.

  Seems disrespectful, Mel thought as she let her eyes fall into [Gaze of the Serpent]. Maybe that naga had been a thief?

  The place had been drab and simple to her eyes before, but under [Gaze of the Serpent], the temple was a rich tapestry of color.

  Intricately detailed paintings depicting a god–no, goddess–of serpents adorned nearly every flat surface. Mel closed her eyes and let them drop back into the visual spectrum.

  The temple looked spooky and green, lit by the verdant torches. Other than that, it didn’t seem that different from any other temple Mel had been in before.

  In fact, it reminded her a lot of one temple in Dalmanii after the adventurer’s guild was once more in control of the surrounding ruins and dungeons.

  There had been a particularly dangerous dungeon dedicated to some ancient god of serpents, though there was one major difference. Unlike in Dalmanii, there was a notable lack of sand or assassins and nobles trying to kill her and Hal.

  Plus, Hal isn’t with me.

  Mel smiled at the memory. Things hadn’t turned out the way anybody had thought they would from the moment they entered Dalmanii.

  Switching back to infravision, Mel was astounded by the art and beauty all around her. She had no idea how they had managed it, but every single surface was covered in heat designs. Clearly, this was a place of great significance. She struggled to picture serpents possessing some kind of culture.

  Nothing was out of place. Even her footsteps were added to the vivid tapestry, creating small prints that outlined her path clearly.

  It didn’t take long for Mel to notice the traps. They were painfully obvious, with clear markings warning her about them. She easily sidestepped around them, tensed and ready to leap aside if the warnings were a clever ruse.

  They weren’t.

  This place was sacred. Mel could feel it in her bones, though she didn’t understand how.

  Several obvious paths were devoid of color. A left-hand path went into a room that was dark and drab, filled with cold stone.

  Each chance she got, Mel chose beauty over the drab. Each time, she was met with greater beauty than before.

  As Mel followed the hidden guides, moving from winding passages to sloping chambers, she lost track of time.

  It quickly became obvious that this whole complex was a maze. It slowly spiraled downward like a coiled serpent. She gently touched the intricate murals depicting the snake goddess that watched over her children from above.

  Looking at the goddess’ face, Mel struggled to discern any emotion from those features. Nothing human at any rate. And yet she couldn’t help but feel maternal love and affection from the depiction.

  As the paintings continued, Mel watched as the great winged serpent goddess went from protecting a small tribe of snakes to an entire village, a nation, and eventually an entire Shard.

  When Mel had lost track of how long she’d been walking, the path ended in a door. Unadorned and plain, Mel couldn’t understand why this was different.

  She backtracked until she found another path, this one going down deeper than the other. The door she stood before this time was richly decorated with colors that nearly made her weep.

  They were unlike anything she could have described from the visible spectrum. It was a sort of bluish-yellow-violet, but no words she knew could adequately express the color.

  No human eyes will ever see this beauty , she realized. Dark vision truly has nothing on infravision.

  The only oddity among all the beauty was a single mark, like that of a handprint, cold and dark, almost colorless, right in the middle.

  Overtaken by curiosity, Mel reached out to the mark and pressed her hand to it.

  The heat from her hand warmed the surrounding colors slightly, sending swirls of pigment through the door’s surface. Several bolts slid free, and the door swung open. As Mel walked past, she saw the handprint glowing red-orange from her body’s heat.

  All around her, a greater mural took up the entire curved wall of the circular room. The first thing she noticed was that there was no ceiling. All her infravision could see was a starscape that spread from edge to edge. An infinity of twinkling blue-white stars.

  Mel frowned. Shouldn’t they be a different color?

  Situated at the center of the room was a circular pedestal in the shape of a massive sleeping snake. Stepping gingerly up to it, Mel found the interior to be a wide bowl filled with water reflecting the starry night sky above.

  She pulled back when she realized that she couldn’t see her own reflection. More to assuage her own fears, Mel checked her status to make sure her race didn’t state vampyr.

  It still said human. Just like it should.

  Traveling with a werewolf has me on edge. Why would I ever think I was a vampyr? Maybe I hit my head harder than I thought.

  Turning a slow circuit, Mel saw more of the snake goddess’ ascension. Her rise from the goddess of a Shard became something more. Over and over, a triple ringed design was represented in the mural.

  The body of the snake goddess slowly faded as Mel read the mural until eventually only the glowing rune was left.

  Well, that’s a depressing story. Great serpentess becomes leader, advances to godhood, joins the multiverse and…what, becomes an abstract series of swooping lines?

  Mel shook her head, looking up at the stars.

  As she did, her eyes immediately picked out the triple-ring design of the serpent goddess. A word slithered its way into her mind, and Mel found herself uttering a name that had not been heard in this holy place for thousands upon thousands of years.

  “Askara.”

  The moment the words were out of her lips, Mel understood the enormity of what she had just done.

  Her Magi instincts warned her of great magic being worked, but she resisted the urge to flee back the way she had come. If a serpent goddess wanted to meet her, she wasn’t going to shy away from it.

  The stars fell like rain all around her, blotting out her sight.