Orthavos: The Stone Awakening

"The river ran backwards on the day the Queen vanished," A soft melodious voice spoke quietly, as the sound of footsteps and water dripping echoed around the darkness in which the group was walking. The sting of ocean salt had stung their eyes as they went deeper into the cavern that they had taken a small boat to, off the coastal cliffs to the kingdom of Arataur.
"Backwards?" A more gruff voice sharply cut into the quiet, his surprise echoing around them in harsh repetition. Several voices hushed him, and the Half-foot grumbled, his cheeks burning in the dark.
The first one who had spoken was a tall splendid sun-elf with ebony black hair and tan skin. Her eyes reflected in the dark cavern like a nocturnal predator as she turned the golden orbs to her companions. Ander, the Half-foot that traveled with them was usually the stealthiest of her and their two human friends.
"That's what the legends say about this place we're looking for. The lost city of Orthavros was a thriving port city, long ago. It was in its own right, the capital of one of the old kingdoms that ruled in this nation. The Queen of Orthavros was said to be a powerful mage. The river that runs straight off the earth into the chasm that leads into the ocean once actually ran through the middle of Orthavros. There was a huge market port that once stood sentinel over this side of the sea. The river ran backward on the day, flooding ocean water into the mainland for miles before it violently ripped back through the land. It ripped the city apart and the ocean claimed it for its own. The day the chasm was created was the day that Orthavros, its people, and its Queen disappeared. Don't you remember what the King told us?"
"Nah, Ander wasn't listening. He was too busy scarfing down meat pies," The human female that spoke wore plated armor and in her hand a glowing mace. The sides of her brown hair were shaved so that she had a thick mohawk that was braided down the back of her neck.
Illenia could see that Ander was scowling guiltily as he glared up at the attractive warrior beside him.
"Shut up Luna," He huffed, and the human male that walked behind them all shook his head, with a small smile tugging at the corners of his mouth. Fidelis didn't have too much to say, but he was always fondly listening to his companion's chaos.
Illenia turned back ahead of her as they rounded a corner of the cavern. The smell of ocean water was leaving her nose, and the air around them was beginning to take on a more subterranean aroma. The musk of moss and mildew, and clean dirt. They had been walking for the better part of the day, going deeper and further away from precious open air.
It wasn't the first time their party had taken a job going underground for days at a time, but she didn't have to like it any more than she did the first time.
"I hate walking. How far do we have to go?" Ander complained, struggling with his pack.
"We have about two days before get to unchartered territory within these caverns. Orthavros disappeared nearly four thousand years ago. I suspect we will be walking for at least a ten-day."
"Are you fucking serious? Why are we doing this? I'm so hungry!" The Half-foot complained loudly, leaning his head back mournfully.
"Quite bitching. We're getting paid a lot of money for this job. It's a LOST city. It means we have to find it first, Idiot." Luna was always blunt and forceful with her words. Illenia smiled a bit however as Luna spoke directly to Ander. Though the Elven woman looked around the same age as Luna, she had helped raise her from a toddler, and Illenia knew that the extra bite in Luna's words towards Ander was not because of dislike, but rather, the opposite.
Ander and Luna often found themselves at odds. Luna was raised on the docks of the city, with Illenia watching her at the Temple of Knowledge while her parents worked. Luna grew up with a strong sense of justice, working hard to protect the weak and destroy predatory creatures wherever they adventured. Meanwhile, Ander had slithered through society's underbelly for many years before the women borderline kidnapped him from right under the King's Guard in response to one of Illenia's visions. Despite their differences, Luna and Ander usually ended up coming to a compromise their differences, and everyone but the subjects in question could see their polarity and attraction.
But now was not the time for their pre-relationship dominance-establishment bickering. They needed to be quiet. There was a small draft coming from ahead of them, and the faint stench of decay and rot made Illenia's eyes narrow as she held her hand up to halt them.
Ander. Why don't you scout ahead? My nose tells me there may be something for you to stab up ahead.
When she spoke to the group this time, she used the telepathic link that Fidelis was able to set up for them each day. Though it comes to her naturally, she wouldn't have needed to be able to see in the dark to catch the murderous grin that spread on her friend's face. In an instant Ander disappeared, melting into the shadows as if he were born in them.
Fidelis and Luna approached Illenia, and the three waited for a few moments. Luna dimmed her glowing mace, and for a few heavy moments, only the soft sounds of breathing echoed around them.
Hey guys. You might want to come see this.
Ander's voice picked up through the telepathic link, and the three began to move further into the darkness deeper into the cavern. Around the corner, the cave tunnel opened up into a large circular cavern. The stone floor in the middle of the cavern opened up into a big, open, yawning hole where the wind softly whistled upward.
Luna lit her mace up again as the party walked toward Ander, who was standing near the edge of the hole, peering down.
"Nia, you lied. You said I could stab something,"
"I smelled death. I thought there was, my friend." The sun-elf looked at the Half-foot with a tolerant smile, amusement in her eyes. It was rare in their world to find an Elf who allowed others into her world so casually, but Illenia was special. She had been found covered in someone else's blood and unconscious on the side of the road when she was only 10 years old. For 190 years, Illenia studied and lived with scholars in the Temple of Knowledge, before being pulled by fate onto the open road with Luna, Ander, and later Fidelis.
"Nia, is this place on the map the King provided us?" Fidelis' silky rarely-heard voice piped up and Illenia pulled the map out and looked.
"Yes. The room is here, but there's no hole indicated on the map."
"Maybe it wasn't here last time someone came through?" Luna suggested and Nia nodded in agreement.
It was then that sound ripped through the cavern, shrill and shrieking all around them. Loud and piercing, each member of the party found themselves covering their ears over their hands. Illenia could feel the forceful vibrations of the sound ripping through her body.
She looked up and she could see a large creature above them. Twice the size of Luna or Fidelis, with large leathery wings flapping furiously as it glared down at them with piercing red eyes, maw open and spewing the shrill shriek angrily down at them. She could feel the vibration of the stone floor under her feet, and when it began to crack. Illenia's vision almost went black as the floor gave way and gravity wrapped itself around her like a heavy anchor, dragging her downwards violently.
She could faintly hear the dim screams of Luna and Ander, their panic and fear cutting into her soul. Fidelis was calling her name, as he grappled with his staff outstretched before him. It had almost slipped from his grasp. The sound of wind whistling past her drowned out everything after.
She reached down and grabbed her holy sigil, the mark of her God, the Master of Knowledge. Illenia could feel warm blood beginning to trickle from her ears as she reached for her faith in the All-Knowing Father, and the magic she had studiously taught herself in the shelves of the expansive Temple that served as a library. Her mouth was moving, she was chanting, her eyes and sigil glowing, and the creature with leathery wings silenced itself as its quarry began to descend into the depths below, growing smaller with every second.
It took only seconds for her spell to flit from her in gentle sparks of glowing light, encasing her and her friends. The screaming of the wind stopped as their fall halted, almost violently for a moment. They all wheezed as their lungs and stomachs tried to escape them with the force of the violent fall coming to a halt.
And then they were floating downwards again, slow and drifting instead of careening and hurtling. They could not see the bottom of the pitch-black chasm that they were drifting down into, and the slow downward travel brought the smell of the underbelly of the earth to them, as well as the faint scent of carrion and fungus.
"Everyone okay?" Illenia asked after a few seconds of downward floating when her stomach had finally settled back into her body.
"NO! What the actual FUCK was that THING! I didn't even get to murder it! My ears are bleeding!" Came Ander's shrieking angry response, while Luna sounded relieved.
"Just peachy. Thanks for the save!"
"Nia, I'm going to make myself and the kids fly. You okay?" Fidelis answered, and Illenia nodded.
"I'll wait until I don't have to worry about you guys." She said, looking down into the pitch-black below them. "I'm going to bring out the light orb. Even with my dark vision, I can't see anything."
The bag she carried with her was magical. Bigger on the inside, it was able to hold copious amounts of goodies that Illenia kept on her person at all times. One of these was a small black globe that she pulled out as Fidelis flourished his arms, chanting in an ancient language she didn't understand.
Instantly, Luna and Ander stopped falling, and they began to swoop with Fidelis downward of their own volition, while Illenia whispered to the orb in her hand while she drifted down slowly, like a feather on the wind.
"Post tenebras lux," she whispered softly and the globe in her hand lit up brightly against the darkness. She reached out with it and let it go in the air, where it hovered on its own, and stayed close to her. With that, she reached for her sigil again and cast her own spell that took the weight from her body, and gave her mobility in the air.
They flew downwards into the darkness and a world came to light slowly under them as they descended, the glowing and drifting orb illuminating a broken and torn city in the depths below. They were descending straight toward a palace that the roof had been torn off. The throne room was exposed and there were shadows cast on the streets in the palace as they drew closer.
"Antelucanum!" Illenia called to the orb and it began to glow bright as they hovered over the throneroom of the palace. She made sure it was high above their heads as she cast the order, and within seconds the group blinked against the bright sunlight that filled the cavern from the orb, shining light all around them.
Illenia gasped as she flew down and landed in the palace, her golden eyes taking in the scene around her. Guards dressed in gold and silver regalia and armor were scattered in the throne room. Crossbows and swords were drawn and they were all facing the same way.
In the center of them a woman stood, her curved and feminine body framed by layers of red and orange fabric. A bright veil covered the bottom half of her face and she was posed as if she were about to fight, an ornate scimitar in her hands. On her head a golden tiara shimmered, frosted with rubies and emeralds. Her dark eyes were lined with black khoal.
"What is this place?" Luna's voice whispered.
"Uh, one guess. Next question. What the hell happened here? Why are they statues?" Ander responded.
Fidelis came came over to Illenia, and silently, his hands cupped her face as he looked at her ears, his eyebrows furrowed in concern. Illenia pulled her face from him, her hands grasping his as she pulled him to the elegant woman in the middle.
"Do you think this is her? The Queen?" She asked him softly as she reached her slender fingers toward the still form of the woman.
"Nia... wait, be care-"
As Illenia's fingers touched the cheeks of the statue, she gasped and pulled back, her eyes widening in horror as Fidelis backed away defensively.
"What? What is it?"
"She's....warm!" Illenia answered, moving over and reaching out to touch one of the guards that was positioned as if in battle. He was also warm to the touch. She put her fingers to the neck of the guard, and then her golden eyes went back to the woman, before turning to her companions.
"You guys... I think...I think they are alive

Chapter's End
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