Hercynian Temple (1)

We make it to the center of the forest proper the next day. With no communication between us, we all realize the danger in the air. I can’t ignore the hairs on my arms standing on end.

The ruins before us stand in a dull, golden glory, with serpentine vines growing over majestic lion-looking statues, poised at the ready. Even the trees seem to arch, growing around the temple but never touching it. Rows of trees line a pathway to the temple, giving the impression of a royal road.

"We need to travel around to get back on the path to the capital," Dom tells us.

"Eh?” I don’t fully understand. “You're not even going to acknowledge this place? What is it?"

"Keep your mind on our objective, Eve," he scolds.

“She has a point,” Rose chimes. “The pull from here is amazing. You can feel it too, can't you?"

She runs her fingers down the muzzle of one of the lion-looking statues. Dom moves to stop her, but it is too late.

"Fool!" he shouts as the ground begins to rumble.

Through the center of the temple shines a thin, vertical ray of light down the middle of its doors. With a thunderous sound and quaking earth, the door parts open.

Only Dom shows genuine fear.

"Gods' be damned," Abi mutters.

The temple emits an eerie sound and Rose, Abi, and I move into the temple to investigate, our curiosity piqued. We’re only a few paces into the temple when I hear Dom’s weak steps behind us.

“Have you ever been here, old man?” Abi asks.

His silence gives no answer, but his face is full of fear.

The temple is pitch black inside, despite the show of light we’d seen only moments ago.

We quickly reach the end of the corridor to find a plaque on the wall that seems to glow all on its own.

“It’s written in an incredibly old language,” Rose announces.

My eyes widen at the mystery it holds. “Can you read it?”

She shakes her head. Though the details of the story it shows escape us, the overall meaning is fairly clear – asteroids of some sort landed on this planet, releasing what look like monsters.

Rose and Abi don’t seem all that perturbed about what seems to be a story telling of the origin of the Beta. Dom is studying them intently with despair across his face. It is so unlike him to show such raw emotion.

According to the images on the wall, the Beta appear to cause havoc before appearing in front of a man. A number of following frames are blurred out due to damage and corrosion; though if I were a betting girl, I would say it was intentionally done. I steal another glance at Dom. He’s backing up now, seemingly done with the story before us.

I drag my eyes to the last few frames and they show the story of a girl coming to take control of the Beta. In the final frame stands a girl with long hair, sharp eyes, and a sword as black as night – she has vanquished the Beta.

No matter how rudimentary the drawings are, I know the girl in that picture is Rei.

My Rei, how I miss the pressure of you inside my mind!

All the same, I miss where she stood before me.

If the story is to be believed, or my own experiences for that matter, then Rei has somehow existed twice between two dimensions, and possibly thousands of years. I can’t understand how. The Rei in my world clearly never met me.

She was Rei, but not Rei. She was a Rei, but not the Rei I knew.

There is one last frame, a small one, after the end of the story. Scribed within it is a simple phrase spelled differently than all the characters before it, as if it was added at a later date by people unrelated to the original authors. It says only three words: “A lonely ember.”

My pulse quickens and I feel the contents of my stomach threatening to rise. Determined not to reveal anything to the others, I fight to maintain my composure as I exit the temple.

“Crazy shit, our ancestors,” Abi declares.

“You’ve seen this before, haven’t you, Master Domnis?” Rose asks.

“Perhaps… a long time ago.”

She narrows her beautiful blue eyes at Dom who says nothing more as a rumbling catches us off guard once more. This time, however, it is not the ground per se, but the feeling of something above causing the rattle below. At once a flash passes by me and drives itself into Rose’s thigh. Scarlet flies out of her, blood coating the air. Instinct kicks in and Abi slices down, severing what looks like a tree branch.

Rose falls to her knees, a portion of the branch sticking out of her lower thigh. She hisses in pain as she grabs the wood.

“Don’t!” Dom cries out, slamming his staff on the ground. A beautiful, almost translucent shield forms around us as hundreds, if not thousands, of tree branches slams into it.

“The hell is going on?” I scream over the sound of them being fended off.

“Here,” Dom reaches down to Rose, uttering a spell, and sliding the branch out of her leg. Her pain is tangible in her screams and makes my heart hurt.

“Rose…” I place my hand upon her cheek, forcing her to look at me.

An anger coats my reflection, in her eyes, hidden behind the pain.

“The pain, I can do nothing for. The bleeding has stopped, but a wound is a wound. It will be hard for her to run like this,” he says over the horrific sound of tree branches slamming into the shield.

“Is this forest fucking alive?” I ask Dom.

“Cursed,” Rose explains.

“The magiks here are strong, always have been.”

“Then why the fuck didn’t you warn us about this?!” I grab Dom by the collar but immediately release him when the shield begins to fade.

“I knew not of the form it would take, only that there would be danger. The forest resists trespassers and I would think desecrating a temple with our presence made matters even worse. However, that isn’t important right now,” he waves his hands, swiping the subject away. “The shield is weakening. I didn’t have time to make a proper one.”

Abi whistles in amazement. “To make one this strong, and this is what you consider weak? I really gotta take you to town old man, once we get out of this.”

I roll my eyes at Abi as Rose tries to stand up and winces so much she falls over again.

“Time is of the essence. I defer to your decision Eve, however, the girl will not make it as she is and I can do nothing for the pain her brain still registers. Magik is not omnipotent. Just because the flesh can mend does not mean the brain has the same qualities. The pain could take hours to dissipate.”

“Then leave without me. I’ll buy you time,” Rose suggests.

“I refuse.” I kneel and offer my back, but she doesn’t understand.

“Get on! I’ll carry you.”

If I still had the power of the Zeroth, it would be nothing to carry her. Since that day against the Beta, and the avalanche that almost killed me, I haven’t felt any magik in me. I’m forced to concede no miracle happened. I must have had residual magiks in me and since depleted the power. Rose tries her best to protest against me, telling me to leave her, to get out and finish our mission for the sake of “Zero.”

“We have to go, now!” Abi holds her sword at the ready, the shield breaking as it reaches its final limits.

“You get on now! I don’t give a shit about what this mission means to Zero. My duty isn’t to something, or someone so nebulous. My duty is to the people I love. The wheels can turn however they damn please, but I am no cog and I will do this my way!”

Her shock concerns me, and so I ignore it.

“Eve! We have to go, now!” Abi screams.

“She has the right of it, Eve. It is now or never,” Dom urges.

“Look, Rose. You don’t know me. Hell, maybe I don’t even know you. Plenty of people do, even those outside of the Zeroth Knight. The other girls would miss you all the same, if not more. The scent of lavender you bring would be an eternal reminder to all of us of your loss. Voltin would surely be destroyed. I will carry you. For the rest, you will put your faith in the hands of those at our side. They will save us, or we will perish together.”

“Eeeeevvvveeee!” Abi screams.