Path of Dragons

Book 5: Chapter 61: Elemental

Elijah ran his fingers along the damp wall, then pressed his thumb and forefinger together. Because of the algae that covered the stone, they stuck together, though only slightly. In addition, a slightly musty smell hung in the air, suggesting the presence of rot. But he wasn’t put off by that. Instead, he marveled at the sheer amount of life present in the area. Via One with Nature, he could feel everything – right down to collections of single-cell organisms, and the vitality they emitted was nearly overwhelming.

It was a different sensation than what he felt out in the jungle, or in his grove, but it was no less potent for it. And for a while, Elijah just stood there, his eyes closed, as he basked in the feel of so much life. He took a deep breath, letting the smell of decay play on his nostrils. It wasn’t like what he’d smelled back in the Citadel of Innovation. That was artificial, composed of rust and corrosion and grease. But the rot inside the pyramid was natural, and Elijah couldn’t help but revel in the way it made him feel.

At least for a few moments. Then, his adventurous spirit took over, and he pushed further into the entry hall as he looked for something interesting. The interior of the pyramid was so worn that most of the architectural flourishes had been destroyed by erosion, but there were signs – here and there – of what it might have once been. One stretch of wall bore a relief sculpture with deep grooves that seemed like minimalistic representations of fire. There had once been more there, but time had worn the rest away.

As Elijah stepped forward, aiming for a gaping hole in the far wall, he looked around like an astonished tourist. Which he sort of was, he reminded himself. Glancing up, he saw that the ceiling was coffered, with glints of gold peeking through the thick algae. For a moment, he considered flying up there – it was only around thirty feet high – and scraping it away. However, that felt oddly disrespectful, so he decided against it. A good thing, too, because when he encountered wall that had been similarly covered, he saw that it wasn’t metal at all, but instead a glittering covering that was less than a tenth of an inch thick.

The hole in the wall led to another chamber, which, in turn, led him to a hall. Over the next couple of hours, Elijah found more of the same, but he was no less excited by it. Every time he caught sight of a surviving fragment of art, or a bit of remaining architecture, his excitement was renewed.

Then he found the stairs.

They led down into impenetrable darkness, which was troubling enough to give him pause. Up would have been fine, but any time he’d descended deep into the earth, he’d been confronted with difficult situations. But they were almost always rewarding. And besides, the stairway’s decorative handrails suggested that it would lead to the reason the pyramid had been constructed in the first place. Eventually, his curiosity began to outweigh his caution, and Elijah descended the steps.

Nothing happened.

There were no hidden monsters. No ancient and inexplicably enduring traps. Just a grand stairway that led deep beneath the ground. After a few dozen feet, Elijah found that some of the frescoes on the wall had survived. Like previous artwork he’d seen – especially in the aqueduct – it depicted scenes of battle. However, further on, the tone changed. Instead of fighting, it looked as if the ta’alaki in the frescoes were performing some sort of ritual.

And there was one that stood larger than any of the others. From the electricity flowing around him and creating a halo over his head, the figure in the painting was clearly meant to represent someone that, until then, Elijah had only heard about.

“The Lightning Emperor,” he said, repeating the title he’d heard in one of the challenges. The frescoes continued on until the stairway ended in a deep pool of dark water.

Elijah was not surprised. The jungle above was subject to a tropical climate, which meant that it rained on more days than it didn’t. All that water had to go somewhere, so the moment he’d gone underground, he’d fully expected to find that part of the facility was submerged.

He didn’t hesitate for long before he dove in. With the Ring of Aquatic Travel, he didn’t need to fear suffocation, and he felt positive that he could retreat if he found some obstacle he couldn’t overcome. So, he swam down, following the frescoes until they disappeared, having been worn away by the persistent corrosion of being underwater. However, before they disappeared altogether, Elijah did see one that troubled him immensely.

It was the same Lightning Emperor, and he was standing before a giant cask that had been opened to spew forth mingled darkness and rays of light. Nearby, there were thousands of other ka’alaki and ta’alaki struggling against powerful warriors who held them at bay. Elijah didn’t know what it meant, but he didn’t like the implications.

He kept going, hoping that he would find more hints as to what had happened after the emperor had opened the cask, but all he saw were more blank walls. Then, just when he was on the verge of turning back, he surfaced in the center of a small room. Elijah squinted into the darkness, hoping that he could get his bearings.

The chamber was tiny – maybe ten feet across – but there was an open door on one side. And through that opening – it had clearly once been barred by a stone door that had crumbled into a nearby pile – Elijah saw a glittering stem jutting from the ground. Immediately, he knew it was a Branch of the World Tree, and on that barren branch was a single, glimmering leaf.

He almost stepped forward immediately, but he stopped when he saw that one of the walls in the small room where he’d surfaced was decorated with calligraphic writing. To his eye, it appeared to be English, but a little focus told him that it had been written in an entirely different language – whose writing looked more like Sumerian cuneiform than any language Elijah knew. The system was clearly doing some heavy lifting when it came to translation. It read:

In the chamber where secrets lie,

Elements four, beneath the sky.

Fire's fierce blaze, a guiding light,

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Illuminates the darkest night.

Wind's soft whisper, swift and free,

Carries voices across the sea.

Water's flow, both strong and pure,

Heals the wounds and wounds the cure.

Earth below, steadfast and true,

Gives us ground to start anew.

Combine them all, the answer's near,

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Unlock the door, the path is clear.

Remember, seeker, this simple creed:

Balance and harmony, the key to succeed.

Elijah read the poem three times over, but aside from the literal meaning – that the elements must be in balance – he couldn’t understand what it was trying to tell him. Perhaps it was nothing. Or maybe it was religious in nature – an excerpt from a sacred text. The pyramid certainly had the look of a temple, so that was likely the best answer.

In any case, he wasn’t terribly concerned with an old poem. Instead, his attention kept wandering to the next room and the Branch of the World Tree it contained. So, he pushed his most recent discovery out of his mind and stepped into the room.

Immediately, a blue tinted shield expanded to encompass the branch. The earth rumbled, and the floor all around that circular shield fell away. Elijah stepped back, but the door through which he’d entered had disappeared, and it had been replaced with a blank stone wall.

“Shit, shit, shit…”

Panic suffused his mind as he searched for a way out. But no matter where he looked, he found no more exits. However, what he did see were four stations located – at least as far as he could tell – in each cardinal direction. The one to the north was a simple iron brazier containing a half dozen ancient logs. The west held a fountain and a trio of bowls. The east, a set of tall, brass pipes. And finally, the closest to Elijah’s current position was a bed of dirt.

Then, everything went pitch black. What’s more, water somehow started to fill the chamber. Then, something pricked his neck, and Elijah immediately felt dizzy. He fell to his knees with a splash. The water had already risen to a couple of inches deep, and something cold gripped his finger – the one wearing the Ring of Aquatic Travel.

He vomited as the familiar feeling of being poisoned coursed through his body. He tried to cast Soothe, but when he attempted to embrace the ethera in his core, nothing happened. It was still there, but there was something keeping him from accessing it.

He vomited again, and this time, the irony taste of blood came with the bile.

His head swam as fear pervaded his mind. However, Elijah wouldn’t allow that to conquer him. Instead, he forced himself to think, and after a few seconds, he latched onto the poem.

“Water. Healing.”

It was a long shot, but he found himself racing in the direction where he’d seen the fountain and bowls. However, he quickly slammed into the wall, nearly knocking himself unconscious. That was when he realized that the darkness didn’t only hinder his vision. Instead, it also blocked the senses that came along with One with Nature. They were still there, but they were muddled. Unreadable.

“Fire’s fierce blaze, a guiding light,” he repeated a line from the poem. “Illuminates the darkest night.”

He needed to get to the brazier. Even as the water level rose, Elijah forced himself to remember the room’s layout. With his Mind cultivation, he had no trouble visualizing it. Then, he put that picture to work and started across the room. A few moments later, he nearly fell through the pit.

His foot slipped right through the water and into open air. He would have kept going, but for his high Dexterity that allowed him to balance on one foot. Elijah had no clue how the water didn’t drain into the pit, but he wasn’t keen to figure it out, either. Not with the venom coursing through his body, slowly robbing him of his strength. So, after pulling back, he methodically made his way around the hole and eventually reached the brazier. The water didn’t flow there, either, but he intuitively knew it wouldn’t remain that way indefinitely. If the waters rose to a high enough level, the entire room would be flooded.

The iron was cold, but the logs were blessedly dry.

There was only one problem – how was he intended to light them?

At first, he tried to use Storm’s Fury, but then, he remembered the Firestarter he’d bought from the Artificer back in Argos. Lars. That was his name. With a shaking hand, he searched his Ghoul-Hide Satchel, only finding the item after a few long moments. It took the shape of a laser pointer – the type he’d used when he’d worked as a teacher’s assistant while pursuing his doctorate – and he quickly activated it by pressing the button on the end of the pen-shaped device. The logs caught fire immediately, and in only a second, the entire chamber lit up. More, his senses returned to normal.

Until that moment, Elijah hadn’t realized how much he’d come to rely on One with Nature. Now, though…

Without it, he’d felt blind and deaf.

But he didn’t have time to dwell on that. Not only was the water steadily getting deeper – it had reached his knees – but his nausea had increased in its intensity, telling him that he was on two different types of timer. Even if he managed to take care of the poison, he would still run the risk of drowning. He suspected that, like his ability to cast spells, the Ring of Aquatic Travel had been deactivated.

So, he lurched across the room, stumbling twice before reaching the fountain. In his muddled state, Elijah found himself wondering how the fountain was still flowing even as it was halfway underwater. But he quickly shook himself out of that and studied what he knew was some sort of puzzle.

There were three bowls, all of different sizes. Then, there was the fountain itself and a dry basin set into the ground. After a little trial and error, Elijah figured out the goal of the puzzle – he needed to get the water from the fountain to the basin. The entire thing was so surreal. Even underwater, the bowls and the basin remained empty. None of it made sense – at least from a physics perspective – but he had neither the time nor the inclination to care. So, he focused on what mattered – filling that basin.

First, he tried to cup his hands beneath the flow, then splash the water into the basin. However, he was horrified to see that it only drained away. Then, he used the largest bowl, hoping that the extra volume would make a difference as he quickly transferred water from one to the other. But he encountered the same problem.

And as he did, the waters around him continued to rise. More troublingly, his mind grew even fuzzier. He knew that if he didn’t figure it out soon, he wouldn’t have the wits to finish the puzzle.

He let out a scream of frustration.

Then, a line from the poem stood out to him.

“Water’s flow…”

That’s when it hit him. He didn’t need to move the water via the bowls. He needed to create a flow. Hastily, he arranged the bowls from largest to smallest, and he was relieved to find that they fit perfectly between the fountain and the basin. As the water flowed, spilling over the lip of one bowl and into the next, all the way to the basin, Elijah vomited again. His hands began to shake as he saw the water level in the basin continue to rise. One inch. Two. Three. It kept going until, at last, it reached the lip of the basin and overflowed.

It flashed with ethera, and even in his muddled state, Elijah could feel the intense flow of vitality it contained. He dunked his face in it and drank deep. Instantly, the effects of the poison disappeared.

Elijah collapsed backward, his breath coming in ragged gasps as his wits returned alongside his physical well-being. How close had he come to dying, there? When he’d entered the pyramid, he’d done so on a whim. And suddenly, he was in a life-or-death situation? There was nothing quite so humbling as being reminded that, in the scope of the multi-verse, he was little more than a gnat.

But he wasn’t out of the woods yet, so Elijah picked himself up and looked across the flooded chamber.

The next item on his list was to stop the water, and given that he didn’t think that a bed of dirt represented wind, he zeroed in on the pipes. After wading across the chamber and climbing onto the dais – with his mind muddled, he hadn’t even realized that they were separated from rest of the chamber – and studied the set of pipes.

They brought back memories of Dat whistling as they climbed the Singing Cliffs. It didn’t take him long to figure out that he was looking at a crude set of windpipes, so he found the mouthpiece and blew. And nothing happened.

Groaning, he said, “I’m not a goddamn musician.”

But he didn’t give up. After a few moments, he found something approaching a tune – in the same way that idle humming constituted a song – but it was enough. The water stopped rising, and then, drained away. That left only the bed of dirt.

Elijah approached it cautiously, fully expecting a surprise. But when he sensed what was inside, he let out a long, relieved sigh. Then, he embraced Nature’s Bounty, and a moment later, a series of plants peeked through the soil. The growth was far faster than anything he’d ever seen, which allowed him to direct the plants a lot more accurately than he normally could have. And soon, he’d arranged the plants into the same symbol he’d seen when he’d first entered the pyramid.

That was good enough, because the moment he’d finished, the wide crevasse that had opened around the Branch of the World Tree disappeared. So did the shield.

At last, Elijah had a clear path to his goal.

He stepped forward, and without fanfare, plucked the crystalline leaf. He only had time to read the name before some invisible force hit him in the stomach and sent him flying all the way across the chamber, through the door, and into the room behind. As he passed through the door, he saw the wall close in. And a moment later, the opening was gone.

Elijah lay there for a long time before he shook his head and looked at the title of the guide. It was The Tragedy of War.