Esilym: Lost 2
A sliver of light pierced the veil of darkness that had shrouded the interior of the ruin for thousands of years. Dust escaped into the open air as if the ruin was at last exhaling after holding its breath for millennia. Ankniv took one last look upwards to the sky and saw the Sojolosr still parked in the air where they had left it. No doubt Lihuvi and the rest were watching them from the scrying machines.
Sadavi directed his lamp across the room they were in; the traditional trappings of a temple were illuminated by the amber light, all covered in thick cobwebs and dust. Things like ancient musical instruments, tools, wooden weapons and bone jewelry caught the light. Still, the assorted items offered no explanation as to the origin of this inverted temple. Sadavi huffed through his nose solemnly and began delicately prodding at the cobwebs covering the place to peel them away, the pendant spiders scattering from their webs to the dusty corners of the room.
"This temple is large. We'll study the relics here later, but first I want to make sure we don't miss anything. Look for ancient Myodak writing on the walls, maybe the ancients left a message for us here," Ankniv directed Sadavi.
Minutes later, after fruitlessly searching through the mundane items and taking careful note of them for future study, from across the echoing stone walls Ankniv heard Sadavi's voice call him over. "Ankniv, over here."
Ankniv directed his lamp in Sadavi's direction and followed him to a wall with a mural painted in rotting paints, some sort of drawn history annotated by cuneiform Myodak.
"This is different," Ankniv said. "This mural looks like a Pre-Ascension relic and yet also modern piece. Either this temple is an imitation of the old ways or it's a missing link in our history, possibly all of Chalakdoluv history..." Ankniv could have been talking to himself by the way he softly spoke.
"Do you think this one place alone will be able to tell us what happened? How our people got here?" Sadavi asked without taking his eyes off the ornate wall.
Ankniv unconsciously brushed at his chin scruff as he pondered this. "There's only one way to find out if this can tell us anything. We'll need to translate this carefully. Go and let the clan know about what we found. I'm sure they'll give us more time now."
Sadavi nodded and handed Ankniv his glassy spear.
"Take care, Ankniv. I'll be back."
"I'm almost tempted to leave his sorry tail there. How dare he disrespect me like that in front of everyone..." The clan-matron was occupying her wasted time keeping record of their travels and their find at the shady mountain.
"Lihuvi! I have news for you!"
She was so focused on the task at hand that Sadavi had appeared next to her without her noticing his approach. She turned to him swiftly, trying to pass off the slight flutter of wings that showed her surprise. "Yes. Are you two done digging around in the dirt down there? I have our next course set for exploration."
Sadavi shook his head, making his large ears wiggle a little. "No, wait! We might have found something big!"
Lihuvi sighed "If it's more gold then leave it. It's been losing its value quickly. All it does is weigh down our Sojolosr."
"Not this time. At least we haven't seen any of that yet, but there's a wall..."
She rolled her eyes with a hint of annoyance at his vagueness. "A wall?"
"I mean it looks like a new prophecy wall! Not only that but it's written in a hybrid of ancient and modern Myodak language."
Lihuvi stood quietly, studying Sadavi's eyes for a moment to see if his pupils were dilating oddly from some sort of poison he might have been affected with from his journey down there
"...Are you certain? You're not feeling dizzy, are you?"
"No Lihuvi! We're both fine, there's no predators down there at all. Come to think of it, there wasn't a single creature near it."
The clan-matron smiled and rubbed her palms together. "Hm...All right, you'll get more time but we still have a schedule to keep. If it really is what you say it is, then we'll waste more precious time and stay till nightfall so we can extract your supposed historical artifacts."
"Thank you, clan-matron! I'll get word back to him and you on this!"
Sadavi saluted quickly and dove headfirst back into the jungle below them.
Ankniv was sitting cross legged surrounded by various scrolls and other various items in the dim orange glow of his sunstone lamp as he contemplated the meaning of that which he studied before him. He felt a breeze behind him and knew Sadavi had returned
"This is unbelievable... " Ankniv breathed
Sadavi smiled to him and planted his lamp next to Ankniv's. "Indeed, there will be much to celebrate!"
"I'm not sure about that right now..." Ankniv pointed to the center of the mural to a large white bat figure with tears running down the sides of closed eyes. "According to the lore this is an ancient patron deity called Deshidra who was somehow connected to our people at one point. The writings here...They speak of him as if he is of great importance to Chalak, but not how. I cannot tell whether this was an entity of malevolence or benevolence. There's too much contradicting information here."
"Calm yourself Ankniv, and think. It is too early to make any conjectures. Perhaps if we look around more, the answers will come to you in time?" Sadavi nudged Ankniv with his wing and picked up his sunstone lamp.
Ankniv nodded in defeat and got up. "Very well, but let's get some more light in here. Our lanterns are too dim for my eyes, and I saw some candles here that look like they might still burn."
Sadavi dug in his leather toolkit and tossed his comrade an engraved flint and steel firestarter. Ankniv caught it in neatly and turned to the candle. He scraped the steel across the flint and produced several warm sparks that lit the wick to the cone of wax. As his eyes adjusted he could see the candle a bit better now, it had four spires on it that kept the wick string in place and a shorter fifth one that sort of stuck out the side, then his heart stopped as he recognized it and understood what it was.
"Ankniv? Is that a hand you just lit on fire?" Sadavi spoke up behind him.
"It seems it is."