Chapter 10: Cathedral of Stone

Markus and I pushed the stone doors open. They weren’t nearly as heavy as they looked and the hinges were silent. Inside was a square room with a tall ceiling, benches along the side walls, and a pair of large humanoid constructs standing in alcoves. They must have been twice as tall as me, at least.

Another set of closed double doors could be seen at the rear of the room. The constructs were fascinating; like statues with articulated joints of metal. I was surprised to see blank faces with the starburst symbol on them. Tails and unusual legs were the only clue their inspiration was anything other than human.

The room was completely dark, but after Salvador entered, braziers lit up along the walls. Their fire was the same crimson color as my own and a pit of dread formed in my stomach. Then the doors slammed behind us. At the same time, the two constructs began to move. Each held a polearm of some kind and quickly, far too quickly, brought them to bear in a battle stance.

“Shit,” Seyari muttered.

Lorelei’s eyes went wide. “Working ancient automatons! Fascinating! This place must be—”

She cut herself off to dodge a lightning-fast sweep from one of the pair. Markus shouted something and the group before me took formation with him at the center. The room was by no means small, so Salvador and Seyari pulled out blades as well.

My hand went to my dagger, but I doubted it’d do anything with how little I knew. I took a battle stance of my own, far more feral than the others, but I supposed my only experience in fighting matched it. I couldn’t use much except my magic in this fight, however.

The constructs moved to either side of Markus when the other three backed off. He took up his shield and blocked one thrust while narrowly deflecting another. The clash of metal rang out loud and his barely recovered arm nearly faltered from the strength of the blow. Lorelei moved to an opposite corner from me while Seyari and Salvador carefully danced around the flanks.

I channeled my mana as strongly as I dared and the familiar wash of anger rose up to meet me. With practiced ease, I directed it into the heat of my flames and formed twin orbs of crimson fire above my palms. The damping effect of my glamour was an annoying itch I couldn’t scratch right now.

Salvador and Seyari had moved in to nip at the leg joints, but their probing strikes did little. A beam of holy light from Lorelei struck one in the center of its torso leaving a scorch mark and making it stumble.

I tossed my two fire orbs at the joints of the same construct, but unused to casting in my human glamour one shot was off and struck the stone of its thigh instead. Where the fire caught the joint, it lit up the metal. The automaton took another step and the knee warped, putting it off balance.

What happened next surprised everyone. The pair of automatons took a step back from Markus, who charged the gap and shield bashed the warped leg of one. That one dropped to a knee, tail out for balance as it nearly fell over.

The other construct, however, turned to me. It seemed to regard me for a moment as if whatever magic it ran on was confused. Seyari and Salvador took the opportunity to attack it, Seyari’s wind-tipped blade striking a clean cut through part of its hip left open by Salvador’s strike. Another bolt from Lorelei struck the downed one in the head and it reeled.

The one which had seemed confused turned back to Markus and brought the polearm down in a vicious piercing strike. Markus angled his shield and deflected the blow, but not without forcing him back. From its hip injury, the damaged construct stumbled a step as it closed the distance. The two flankers were on it again immediately.

I stood in the back momentarily frozen, dumbfounded. I don’t think the others saw, but I couldn’t mistake what happened. Before it had been attacked again, it had lowered its head toward me in a show of deference and had nearly moved to bow.

I hesitated. The expedition members were uninjured and gaining the upper hand anyway. I didn’t want to fight something that seemed to see me as an ally. I wondered why it would do that. My magic? It was similar to the torches plus I shared my symbol with them, so perhaps I really was meant to find this place and never did.

What would be different if I had come here alone?

“Don’t just stand there Renna! Take out another joint!” Lorelei shouted at me from across the room.

Turning back, Markus had taken a bruising hit and one of Salvador’s arms hung limp at his side. Now I wanted to fight. I’m not sure what these people were to me, but they were more than ancient automatons powered by the magic of some long-gone entity, that’s for sure.

I conjured and tossed another pair of small fireballs at a leg joint of the one that was still up and fighting. This time both hit and the joint nearly melted. The others collapsed on the wounded construct and it soon joined its twin in an unmoving heap on the ground. Despite everything, I couldn’t help but feel a pang of regret this fight even happened. I shook my head to clear those thoughts.

“Not bad, Renna.” Seyari stood next to me only slightly out of breath.

Behind her, the others were picking themselves up. Lorelei tended to Salvador’s arm.

Soon we were back to inspecting the room. Lorelei’s eyes glowed and she looked over the fallen statues and around the room. Her face scrunched in a complex expression I couldn’t quite judge and her eyes’ glow faded.

“Hey Renna? Could you summon those fire orbs of yours again?” Lorelei looked at me, although her eyes flicked up to the magically lit torches for a moment.

I considered lying and saying I was out of mana, but I clearly wasn’t. I glanced briefly at the exit, still shut but probably unsealed. No one interjected to bail me out this time.

“Sure thing,” I did my best to keep my voice level.

I drew on my mana in as thin a stream as I could. The conjured balls of flame above my hands matched the lights in the chamber.

“Fascinating! Your magic is such a similar color to the lingering effects!” Lorelei’s eyes glowed as she studied me. “I wonder if the island has had some influence on your flames. The color is much more noticeable down here compared to the flares you first signaled us with.”

“R-really?” I could scarcely believe my luck that she seemed to draw a conclusion in my favor.

“Yes! What I can read of your magic and aura seems mostly normal. If only I could stay here and study you!” She leaned her face close to mine with a smile. Her eyes, however, held an entirely different emotion. They were cold.

“I’m not staying here longer than we have to,” Seyari said from behind me. She said something else in Cavenish to Markus and Salvador who seemed to agree.

“Oh of course! I have plenty to report! After all, I’d hate to keep our employer waiting.” Lorelei bounced back from my face and turned toward the inner doors. “Shall we?”

I nodded. Markus and I opened the set of inner doors. Much like the outer doors, they pushed in easily. Inside was the main chamber of the cathedral. The light from the lantern failed to reach the other side of the massive chamber. That didn’t matter for long as braziers flashed to life along the walls from the front to the rear, illuminating the space in a flickering crimson glow.

It was beautiful. Where windows would be, immense murals filled the space. The ceiling above was a crimson night sky studded with twinkling stars so real that for a moment I wondered if we’d been transported back to the surface. I froze when I saw the massive statue at the back of the room.

In front of it was a raised platform and the massive stone likeness stood solemnly posed in a large alcove.

The statue looked like me.

A male version of my true demonic form, horns and all, stood before me. Crimson skinned arms stuck out from black robes and equally dark hair flowed down past the shoulders. His face, however, was different from mine and the eyes were a different color; a striking orange like molten rock.

Proudly adorning the center of the robes was a crimson version of a, by now, very familiar starburst and vortex symbol.

I forced myself to look away from the statue. This place was definitely related to me. Wait, no. Related to my demonic body. I’m still me and I have no idea what any of this is about. I wasn’t the only one gawking. Lorelei had a notebook out and was scribbling furiously, flitting about the room like an overexcited moth. Markus seemed to be working on drawing something. I didn’t get close enough to look, but it looked like he was drawing the statue. I hadn’t taken him for the artistic type.

Salvador was opposite me, looking at the murals while Seyari was standing in the middle of the room staring at the statue like it held some great wisdom. I wished that was true. And I wished it’d tell me, too.

The mural on the wall next to me depicted a scene of an island and a small group of humanoids on the shore. It took me a moment to recognize Korzon Island. My rock’s distinct shape was detached from the main landmass and the mountain was lower with a different shape to its peak, but it was the same place.

The next mural showed a village of the humanoids on the island and a crimson figure at the top of the mountain. I walked the progression of the murals. The inhabitants of the island seemed to be reptilian humanoids of green and blue coloration. Their build was similar to the constructs out front, with relatively flat faces and thick tails. I couldn’t tell if they were amphibious or just aquatically-inclined. Fishing boats littered the bay and structures built partway into the surf sprang up along the shore. Further out, great oar-driven ships ventured to the edges of the picture.

Under the figure on the volcano, the society on the island flourished. More structures, larger complex buildings of wood and stone grew alongside a veritable city in the bay flowing back into the jungle above.

A cathedral to the crimson figure, now clearly the statue demon, was built in a shallow cave in a deep ridge part-way up the mountain, close to its heart.  But the scene wasn’t entirely peaceful. Volcanic eruptions gave both life and death. An unfamiliar type of octopus creature, partially humanoid, ascended from the deep and warred with the island.

Contact was made with what looked to be the elves. They appeared at the edges; two disparate ships and their people meeting. Trade was established and the island’s population and infrastructure boomed. Buildings with foreign influence and a greater variety of people drawn in great detail along with increasingly diverse ships in the harbor. Other species I recognized and many I didn’t came to visit the island. Even some of the octopus people, for their depiction on this latest panel was much more humanoid.

Churches, temples, and symbols were splashed angrily across the scene. The foreigners had decried the island’s god. And what else could the figure be? Perhaps his statue was a representation of a deity rather than a powerful being. If that was the case, it didn’t make sense to me that depictions of their volcano god would differ from their own forms.

The last panel showed an island divided. Much of the population and some of the myriad other peoples stood with the crimson figure, their standard bearing their familiar symbol. Foreigners and some of the island’s citizens stood arrayed against them. These figures were backed by an indistinct glow and on their standard was a symbol that looked distantly familiar.

Beyond this image, space for more existed but was just blank stone. It wasn’t hard to figure out who won between the two forces. What I wondered was how this cathedral escaped intact. Despite its location, it didn’t seem like a secret. I also wondered about the foreigners’ symbol.

I turned my attention back to the others. Seyari sat on the raised platform polishing a dagger while Markus still worked on his drawing near her. At the mural next to me were Lorelei and Salvador.

Salvador looked to be deep in thought. Lorelei was still scribbling quickly in her book, glancing up and then back down rapidly. Before I could think of how to interrupt her, she, apparently finished with that panel, looked up at me and walked over.

“Fascinating, isn’t it?” Lorelei stared at the last piece of the story. “To have a pagan society leave such a beautiful account of their history, but disappear without a trace.”

“Do you know about that symbol?” I pointed to the foreigner’s standard. “It seems familiar but I can’t place it.”

Lorelei thought for a moment. “Yes. It’s a symbol used by the Church of Dhias ages ago, before the modern one.”

“Why change it?”

“That, I don’t know,” Lorelei sighed dramatically. “But! This place has been a treasure trove of knowledge. We still have the rooms to the rear that might contain literal treasure! Prayer rooms perhaps? We’ll check them after I finish here.”

Her frantic sketching resumed.

I wandered over to the statue of not-me. “Who were you?” I whispered under my breath.

“A greater demon.” Seyari’s quiet reply startled me. “One of the ones who has a whole enough piece of a single soul in their being to find sanity.”

“What do you mean by that?” I asked.

“What I said,” Seyari brushed off responding and stood up.

I hesitated on pressing her or letting it drop.

Lorelei made the decision for me. “Okay everyone! We’re going to look in the prayer rooms. Be careful what you touch. We know this place has lingering magic and something could be cursed.” She repeated something similar Cavenish.

“Why don’t you use your aura sight then?” Seyari asked her.

“Hmph! If you knew more about aura sight you’d know why,” Lorelei huffed.

“And that’s because…” Seyari motioned with her hand.

“Cursed items are adept at masking their auras of course. I’ll consider the idea at my discretion.” Lorelei’s eyebrow twitched.

“Of course, expedition leader.” Seyari’s tone toed a sarcastic line.

Lorelei frowned and spun on a heel toward one of the doors at the rear. Three of us followed immediately while Seyari stopped next to the last mural. Markus glared back at her and she smiled and shrugged. Salvador shook his head.

The back room was indeed a small chamber. There was a smaller statue on a pedestal, perhaps thirty centimeters tall, of the same figure. Behind it was a low table and in front of it were several platforms that looked to be for kneeling. The entire inside was painted an orangish-crimson.

On the low table at the rear was a small banded chest latched shut, several statuettes of varying depictions, the dust of something organic, and several other objects I couldn’t identify or discern.

Lorelei, with Markus in tow, made a beeline for the back table. Salvador looked around with a hint of apprehension and stayed by the door. I found myself drawn to a small crimson gem in the statue’s chest.

I stared at it, transfixed. Glowing a faint crimson as it was, I couldn’t understand why the others wouldn’t notice it. I found myself kneeling on the front platform. I didn’t know why, but I didn’t feel like I was kneeling in supplication. I certainly wasn’t going to pray to this ancient demon.

I raised my head and looked at the gem. It was close enough to touch. My hand reached up and I extended a finger toward it. Before I touched it, I stopped myself. What was I doing?

I tried to look at the glow with a more critical eye. Warm. It felt warm, and it felt like something was missing from me the more I looked at it. The mark above my sternum seemed to faintly ache.

I made my decision. My finger touched the hot stone. A spark like static electricity jumped from it to my finger. A crimson flash lit up the room briefly. The mark at my chest burned in agony for a moment and I choked back a scream. A word seared itself into my mind. It felt heavy, as though it was of great importance:

Zerix’Arranthariel

Not my name, but my Name. I knew this instinctually.

“Renna! What did you do?” Lorelei’s voice sounded angry and worried.

“I—“ I exhaled and took a deep breath. “I just touched the statue. I’m alright I think.”

Lorelei looked at me and her eyes lit up. “Your aura seems normal. If you feel anything off, anything, tell me immediately. If you start to behave oddly, I will take action myself.”

Lorelei inspected the statue. Markus, hand on the hilt of his sword, kept a partially relaxed pose, but stared at me intently.

I stood up shakily and looked around the room. Everything was the same as before. The chest was open on the table and some of the items had been taken. Behind me, Salvador looked at me with a searching gaze.

I met his dark eyes. We stared for a moment before I got nervous and broke eye contact. He turned his head toward the floor but his posture remained the same.

“It’s just a statue. Whatever magic happened won’t happen again, by design or otherwise.” Lorelei picked up the statue. “When we check the other rooms, don’t touch any idols until I’ve vetted them. I’d hoped this would have been obvious.” She gave me a pointed look.

I saw the statue when she picked it up. The gem I had seen was gone entirely and there seemed to be no evidence of any groove or socket which may have held it.

We left the room and rejoined Seyari who was told to stick to the group. She seemed to sense the mood and looked my way. I looked down at my feet.

Something happened for sure. The symbol on my chest felt warm, but not uncomfortable. I felt great, all things considered. I couldn’t place anything that seemed different. Perhaps my ability to sense anger? I’d been intentionally avoiding doing so in case it was noticeable, but it felt easier than before to feel for that particular emotion.

I could tell without focusing that Lorelei and Markus were at least somewhat angry, although I got no such emotion from Salvador. I decided against pushing my luck. It’s a wonder my glamour held at all, and I’m not too blind to miss how suspicious I’ve been recently. Now that I thought about it, the drain on my mana from the glamour seemed less than before. Maybe I would have a better time on the ship than I’d hoped. Wearing the damn thing still sucked though.

We searched the remaining rooms, including dormitories and storage, without issue. By the end, Lorelei and the others had amassed two full packs of items. Looting the cathedral like that didn’t sit particularly well with me, but I supposed the people who built this were dead, gone and forgotten after all. At least their story would still be there.

On the walk back, I thought about my Name. Zerix’Arranthariel. The word felt powerful, and that scared me. I thought to keep it a secret, but not knowing why I felt the way I did or what happened for me to suddenly gain or learn of it made me anxious.

We spent one more night at my cabin and had a veritable feast of shellfish and other seafood we caught with the remaining daylight. For the expedition, the mood was celebratory. It seemed like the treasures found buried their suspicions toward me. Or so I hoped. In the morning, I made a last scratch mark on the wall, closed up my cabin as best I could, and left my dwelling of three years on the first leg of my journey home.