Chapter 29 - Beneath the Ruins

  Elric frowned as he traced his fingers over the faded engravings along the chamber walls. The symbols, though unfamiliar, carried a sense of purpose – structured, deliberate, unlike the scattered carvings outside. He had seen many ruins in his years of study, but something about this place unsettled him. Perhaps it was the sheer stillness of the air, or the way the dust seemed to hover, waiting for movement to stir it back to life.

  Behind him, Kaelin moved toward the centre of the room, while Aria kept around the outside of the room the other side of him. He kept checking the mysterious letter, runes. Noting them down, hoping to be able to learn something new about the olden mages.

  He heard Kaelin shout out to him. “Professor Elric… I think I’ve found what they were looking for.”

  Those people, they’d gotten here before them. “I’ll be over in a second. Just finishing some notes.”

  He heard Aria move over to Kaelin, they were chatting about something.

  Suddenly a low rumble shook the ground beneath them.

  Elric's eyes widened as a loud scraping noise came from behind him. He spun on his toes, hoping to catch what might be happening, but nothing.

  In an instant, they were gone.

  The pedestal stood with 4 books on top of it in the centre. The room fell silent.

  Elric's stomach dropped as he rushed forward, falling to his knees where they had stood just moments ago. His fingers skimmed the smooth stone, now showing no sign of the trap that had claimed them. He pressed his palm flat against the surface, searching for a seam, a lever – anything.

  Nothing.

  He exhaled sharply, forcing himself to think. Panic would do nothing. He had to assume they were still alive. If the ruins had been designed to kill intruders, they would have been crushed instantly. This had to be something else… But what?

  Straightening, he scanned the chamber for clues, heart pounding. There had to be another way to get down.

  Kaelin

  Aria walked over, admiring the sigil on the top of the pedestal.

  “What are these books? Have you checked them out yet?” Aria asked.

  “Nah, they might be trapped, didn’t want to trigger something.”

  “Good point, better not touch them. What’s this sigil though, think it might mean something?” Aria asked, moving her hands over it in curiosity. But she pressed too hard.

  The sigil collapsed inwards, it was some sort of button, a trigger. They heard a loud grinding beneath them, then suddenly they were falling. There had been a platform beneath where they were standing, and it spun on an axis, no evidence it was ever even there.

  Kaelin hit the ground hard, the impact jarring through her limbs. Dust filled her mouth as she coughed, pushing herself up onto her elbows. Dim, flickering light illuminated the cavernous space around her, casting jagged shadows along the walls. The air was thick with the scent of damp stone and something metallic, rust maybe. Or blood?

  A groan sounded beside her. “That – “Aria’s voice was strained. “Arghh… That was unpleasant.”

  Kaelin twisted toward her, relieved to see Aria mostly intact, though covered in dust. She was still lying down, clutching her side and rubbing her shoulder where she must have landed. The two of them had fallen through some kind of hidden mechanism, but the question was – where exactly had they ended up?

  “Here, let me.” Kaelin said.

  Aria didn’t reply, so Kaelin put her hands to Aria’s side and used her time magic to reverse time on the wound, in hopes of repairing it.

  If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it's taken without the author's consent. Report it.

  “Thanks, feels a lot better.”

  Kaelin scanned their surroundings. They were in a vast underground chamber, larger than the one above. The walls were lined with more of the same engravings, though these pulsed faintly, as if responding to their presence. Stone pillars stretched toward a ceiling lost in shadow, their bases cracked and weathered. The floor was uneven, broken in places to reveal yawning crevices that led even deeper into the earth.

  A shiver ran down her spine. “Well, this is ominous.”

  Aria pushed herself to her feet, dusting off her clothes. “You think Elric even knows where we are?”

  Kaelin sighed. “I doubt it. That trap was designed to keep people out – or in.”

  She moved toward one of the walls, running her fingers along the engravings. Up close, she could see they weren’t just decorative. They had depth to them, intricate patterns winding together like threads in a tapestry. She recognized some elements from her own studies – magic, symbols meant to represent different threads of power. But there were two she didn’t recognise. They were different.

  They had the rune for mind, followed by a brain. Nature, with a picture of a leaf. Essence, and a picture of an ankh. Then the rune for Time, with an hourglass by its side.

  The last two, however, Kaelin couldn’t decipher. Next to the runes were first, a five-pointed star. Second was a snake, placed in a circle, eating its own tail.

  Aria crossed her arms. “Please don’t tell me you’re about to start pressing things again.”

  Kaelin gave her an innocent look. “I would never. Just let me write these down quickly. This is stuff no one’s ever seen… probably.”

  Aria groaned. “Just… just help me figure out how we get out of here before Elric has an aneurysm up there.”

  Kaelin smirked but nodded. Their best bet was finding another mechanism, something to reverse whatever had triggered the floor. Either that, or they would have to find their own way out.

  Her fingers brushed over a particular engraving – a thread with scissors seemingly ready to cut it. For some reason, it seemed almost familiar. When she touched it, nothing happened.

  “Kaelin, try not to keep touching things.”

  “Ehh, nothing happened. If feeling around got us down here, maybe it’ll get us out?”

  Aria huffed. “Or maybe it’ll drop us even further.”

  Kaelin smirked but didn’t press anything… yet. She was just as eager to get out of here as Aria, but there was something about these symbols, about this place which called to her. The five-pointed star, the snake, were they being worshipped? It seemed too perfect being placed so close to the other elements. Were there other elements we didn’t know about?

  She pulled her notebook from her satchel and started sketching. The patterns were intricate, looping in ways that seemed almost alive. The familiar symbols of the known Threads of power – Mind, Nature, Essence, and Time were all accounted for, but those last two…

  She tapped the page with her quill. “They’ve got to mean something.”

  “That’s great and all,” Aria said, crossing her arms. “But you can decipher it when we’re not buried underground.”

  Kaelin chuckled. “Fine, fine. Let’s find a way out before Elric loses it.”

  The two began moving deeper into the passage, their footsteps echoing off the ancient stone. The air was thick, carrying the scent of dust and timeworn decay. Unlike the chamber above, this space felt untouched by the outside world. No signs of prior exploration. No footprints in the dirt.

  The passage sloped downward, uneven stone making their footing tricky. They moved cautiously, relying on the faint glow of the bioluminescent moss which lined the wall, illuminating their way.

  Then, the tunnel widened into a larger chamber.

  Kaelin’s breath hitched. “Look at that.”

  In the centre of the room stood three towering statues, all weathered with age but still imposing. All three depicted humanoid figures, with no defining features.

  The two smaller ones were stood side by side in front of the third, symbols as if on a plaque, sat below. The one on the left had a snake, its tail sitting gracefully in its own mouth to create a perfect circle – the same snake symbol she had just sketched. The other ‘plaque’ was carved with a five-pointed star at its centre.

  Below the symbols were more runic lettering, different to what had spelled out the elements where they had first fallen.

  How interesting. Its like the runes are a language using pictures. A single symbol for each of the elements but here… there’s a sentence.

  Aria took a wary step forward. “Alright, I’m officially unsettled.”

  Kaelin approached the final statue, her eyes scanning it for something. Anything.

  This, unlike the others, had no symbol at the bottom. A single sentence was strung out. Despite still being unable to read it, Kaelin copied it as closely as she could. The runes were faded, difficult to make out, but there was enough to complete the picture.

  “This isn’t just decoration,” Kaelin said softly. “These must have been the figureheads of some religion.”

  Aria crouched down beside the statue of the humanoid figure. “So, what? Some ancient civilization worshipped these symbols?”

  “Or feared them,” Kaelin murmured.

  She stepped closer to the final statue’s plaque and felt the stone. It was rough, like someone had sanded it down to remove an engraving or image.

  “Someone tried to erase this,” she realized aloud. “But why?”

  Aria straightened. “Maybe because whatever this was meant to represent wasn’t exactly friendly. You never know, maybe they were leading some kind of fascist movement and they’re simply getting rid of its logo.”

  Kaelin couldn’t argue with that. The statues felt significant, but there was no telling whether they supported a good cause. The atmosphere of the chamber was heavy, like the weight of history pressing down on them.

  Suddenly, a distant sound rumbled through the walls – a low groan of shifting stone. Aria tensed. “Uh… that’s not good.”