The Mines

General Summary

The sphere floated around us. It did not seem hostile but... "Do you think it can understand us?" Davina asked, then turned to it, "Hello, can you understand us?" The sphere floated over to her, and white light crackled around it. "Sadly, I cannot understand that." It cracked light again, and the red light faded. In the middle of the sphere, we could now see, was a glass eye of sorts. It looked... Curious.
In a second, a flash of light shot from the sphere to Davina. She did not seem hurt, but flinched. As the light lit up, she froze and matched its gaze. After a moment, the sphere lowered its gaze and lost some altitude. It seemed docile. "That was... different," Davina grabbed her head, flinching. "What happened?" I asked. "I saw my home, my friends, my family, my memories, all flashing one after another..." She shook her head, then opened her arms to the sphere. It lazily floated into them. She muttered to it, "I'll tell you this, small creature, you sure picked the wrong person for your master..."
I spotted Octaviu eyeing the sphere. It seems it did as well, and floated from her arms and cracked near him as well... As the last time, it scanned him with its light. "Did you get the warm tingly feeling too?" Davina asked. He nodded, and tried to reach for the sphere. It floated away, but stayed close to it. He walked to one of the runed indents near hemisphere. It followed... And turned to a liquid-like substance as it filled the hole in the wall. In a split second, the door shot up, and the sphere emerged from the wall, whole once again. A cold air emanated from the room. Small dust-like particles floated in the air, shining in the lantern light. I could sense the presence of the changed water within... "Will that open the other door?" I asked Dinu. "I can try it..." Dinu moved the sphere to the other indent. Octaviu entered the corridor, and collected some of the dust particles. I offered a light to him as I felt them for traces of the changed water. It seemed the hall was lined with more of the runes... Dinu followed him after a moment. "Should we follow them?" Davina asked me. I hummed, "I would have liked to have seen what was beyond the other door..." I watched as Dinu and Octaviu's forms and lights faded, and after a moment's consideration, followed as well. Davina said something about watching behind us as we travelled. That she'd protect me. From what, I'm unsure. The only thing we've seen have been that small creature... I said nothing as we moved down the hall, catching up with Octaviu and Dinu. Octaviu seemed to be scanning the ground for something. I noticed a small crevice in the wall, and it was lightly glowing. I pointed it out to Octaviu. "Looks like it can be removed," He said, "Should I try?"
"I should like to try something..." I said, "I'd like to see if it responds as the door from earlier did to my magic." "Are you..." Davina started, "Are you sure that's a good idea?" I paid her no mind as I warmed the air around the panel. In a second, the panel popped from the wall. I felt the others flinch back behind me. Within the panel, an odd glowing white group of statuettes sat. Sixteen eight-eyed dragons holding items... A sphere, a sword, a staff... Beautiful. And fascinating. I moved to take them, but Dinu held out a hand to me. I glanced at him. "I've never seen anything like this before..." Dinu said "The college would be fascinated," I breathed. "It looks like a child's plaything," Octaviu said as he reached for the panel. "It does look a bit like my old dragonchess set..." Davina said.
I went to take one of the dragons for examination. There was a small spark, and the white glow beneath it dimmed. I could see a small contraption under it. "Octaviu, you're good with mechanisms, aren't you?" I spoke up. "Indeed I am, what you got?" I shone my lantern onto the panel, and he moved in to look. He pulled his loupe out, and looked over the mechanism "If we put it back in, you think it will light back up?" "That's a good idea, let's see if we broke anything-" Octaviu said. I handed the figure back, and he placed it down again. It lit up again.
"What if these things are powering the place?" Davina asked as Octaviu fiddling with the gears. "Well it doesn't seem to be doing much good about it," I gestured to the lack of light above. A breeze blew through, and the waves called. Davina said she disliked that.
"Hey, you wanna take a look inside this thing?" Octaviu asked me. He told me to hold it as he picked at the device. After a moment, he swore, and deeper inside the structure, a loud thunk rank out. "Did we just kill something?" "Oh don't be silly, if anything was killed, it was done by Octaviu and not us," I smiled. Davina asked what we should do. I said the waves were calling, and moved to view the small room beyond. I quickly took one of the dragons figures. Octaviu took one as well, and in succession two more pounding sounds echoed deeper in. Octaviu spoke Dinu cracked his knuckles, and his veins darkened considerably. Exiled magics. I swallowed my discomfort and placed the dragon in my pouch as we moved back on to the next room.
It was a larger room, lined with black pillars. A large dragon statue watched over a large basin of the not water. I approached the basin. It was blackish due to the metal walls, and a dim light shone from below. I shaped the water, or tried to. It fought back considerably. It would not respond. "Well this is clearly not water," I said. I pulled out my my waterskin, and compared the substances together. It moved slower than before, but listened... Until it didn't. The water snapped from me as it slipped from my grasp, rejoining the not water within the pool. I gazed into the pool, watching the not water. My reflection gazed back at me. It was me. It watched me, eyes fixed on me. I felt wrong. I couldn't look away. My hairs prickled up. It sharpened its gaze. I stumbled back. The others asked me if I was alright. I said I was fine. "It's... It's not water. It's alive," I explained. Octaviu asked if we should try to speak with it. Dinu seemed to be focused intently on the water. I looked back to the not water. The level was rising slightly, and it started to bubble. Over time, it the not water spilled over from the basin, but the amount didn't seem to change... It seemed to be... Expanding, almost... As... Uncomfortable as it made me, I was equally enthralled. I wondered if I could use that principle... And then the water became more tumultuous. It bubbled higher and heated the room. I heard an odd gurgling, and I noticed the water was creeping down towards the the right side of the room, and draining... Somewhere. Dinu looked incredibly angry. As his face frowned deeper, the water bubbled more. Psychoreactive. "Dinu, snap out of it!" I shouted as I cast a spell of frost over the water, cooling it. It froze over in a moment, and Dinu fell to his knees. "Sorry, I don't know what came over me..." He muttered, "It's like the water was just heating up, and just heating up my emotions..." Davina spoke to him, but I paid them no mind. I watched the basin as it unfroze itself and unfurled itself. Where was that current coming from...? I glanced to the eastern wall, where the water had drained to.
"Hey guys, check this out!" Octaviu called out. He was standing in front of the dragon statue, its eyes all aglow in red. He said they lit up when he waved his hand in front of it. Before we could dwell on that, a deep voice called from deep within called, "Greetings."
"They know our language now...?" Octaviu whispered. Dinu frowned, "Perhaps they learned it through the sphere...?"
"Who are you? What do you want?" Davina spoke to it. "Do you come to make the sacrifice?" It asked, ignoring Davina's questions. "What sacrifice?" She asked. It responded with silence. "Where is the high priest?" It asked, the voice closer now. "I'm not the high priest... But maybe I can look for him,"
"Then we'll try and find him," Davina said, slowly backing out of the room.
"Insufficient," The voice said, now coming from the dragon. red, and from it came...

Report Date

23 May 2023