Chapter 11: Chapter 11

The trip to the ruins took three days. They set up camp in a nearby clearing since it was still morning. “We will split into teams. Normally it would be me and Lyreen, and Thokri and Barika but we have an extra now,” Voekeer said. “Baa. I don’t need help looking at stones,” Thokri said, walking off. The elves departed soon after, heading in a different direction. Anna and Barika looked at each other and shrugged. The two of them set off to explore the ruins where they followed a path that could have been a road sometime in the distant past. The path was narrow with tall trees on either side. They had to climb over large roots that had grown across the ancient stones on several occasions. There was a clearing at the end of the path. Anna was shocked to see what lay before her. “What, why?” she thought. It was another set of standing stones with an alter at the center. Barika walked next to her and looked at the stones. “We found one of these near Fishport. That one wasn’t overgrown though. I wonder why this one is such a mess?” Barika asked. Anna looked back at the stones. They were overgrown with vegetation. One of the five was leaning over because a tree had grown nearby, and its roots pushed the stone to the side. She walked over to the standing stones, and Barika walked next to her. “Is something wrong?” Barika asked. “No, the stones sparkle, and I want to look closer,” Anna replied. “Is there a lot of magic left?” Barika asked. 

“No, it’s almost gone,” Anna replied. These stones were in far worse shape than the ones at Fishport. She walked up to the alter and put her hand on the white stone. This one was cracked in half. She could see a hollow sphere in the center of the altar. Whatever was inside, it had been taken long ago. She moved on to the stones. They were identical to the ones from the site she had been formed at. “What is this place for?” she asked. Barika shrugged. “I have no idea. It looks like a ritual site, maybe a temple, but I just can’t tell,” Barika said. Anna stared at the symbols on each stone. They were so different from everything else she had seen here, almost like they were from another world just like her. They walked around the stones for a few more minutes before heading off to explore more of the ruins. They spent the rest of the day looking at broken stones and collapsed buildings. They returned to the spot where the party had decided to meet and set up their tents. “You two find anything?” Voekeer asked. “Just some stones and an alter like the last ruin. This one was overgrown though,” Barika replied. 

After the camp was set up, they sat around the fire that she had started, and Thokri was cooking their rations. She was chewing a piece of jerky, she liked them drier anyway, and watched the others. They were in a better mood since the farmstead had soured everyone’s mood. It seemed that exploring this place was starting to bring it back. She hoped the next few days would be fun. She didn’t know what the dreamer had done to her, but she felt so strange and wanted some time without new people, to figure out what had happened. She ate a bowl of the ration stuff she was given. She still wasn’t sure it was food, but the others didn’t look hungry, so it must be fine. “Am I just picky?” she thought. After she finished eating, she laid in her bed and went to sleep. She was alone in a void. She looked around. “Hello?” she asked, but nothing happened. “Is anyone there?” she asked. She could feel the silence closing in around her. “PLEASE, SOMEONE, ANYONE?” she screamed. 

She woke up with a start, looking around. She was alone in her tent laying on her wolf pelt. She slid out of her tent and put on her dress. No one else was awake, so she got a fire started and waited for the others. Barika sat next to her. “You alright? You’re up earlier than normal,” Barika said. “Yes. Just can’t wait to explore the ruin,” Anna replied cheerfully. Barika gave her a hard look, then nodded. She didn’t look like she accepted Anna’s answer, but that she didn’t want to pry. “How can they tell when something’s wrong with me?” Anna thought. Thokri got up and started breakfast, just the same goopy rations as always, and she only ate a single mug of the stuff. After the others finished, the two of them headed off to explore more of the site. The next few days went on like this. There was nothing here, just crumbling overgrown rocks. She had hoped the exploration would cheer everyone up, but now they all just seemed depressed. She was feeling down as well. Every night she found herself in an endless void, completely alone.            

The group sat in camp glumly one night. “Another waste of time,” Voekeer said. “Aye, but it pays well,” Thokri replied. “It’s still a waste of time. Let’s pack this up tomorrow morning,” Voekeer said. “I’d like to try something first,” Anna said, and this got their attention. “When I was taken over in the burrow, whatever was controlling me used the other core to make something that might help,” she said, still unwilling to tell them about the dreamer. “Well, go ahead. Can’t hurt,” Voekeer said. She stood up and held out her right hand, palm up, before pulling from the Dreamer’s core. The power flowed easily, unlike the first time in the tent. It warmed her mana channels slightly, and an eye appeared, floating just above her hand. Lyreen stood up and leaned forward, looking closely at the eye. “I’ve never seen magic do that,” she said. “That’s not magic,” Barika said abruptly. “Can’t you feel it?” she continued. “Yes. It feels like, like, I can’t really describe it actually,” Lyreen said, still looking at the eye. Anna looked through the eye for the first time. Another thing she learned from her experience in the burrow was how to shut off its vision until it was needed. “Losing myself for a few days seems like a steep price,” she thought.  

She saw Lyreen through the eye. The woman’s face was almost transparent. She saw glowing lines like a web throughout it. Gazing down, she followed the lines, finding her mana core. It was about the size of Anna’s finger and glowed with a light green hue. “I can see your mana core and channels,” she said. Lyreen stood up. “Really?” she asked, her face excited. “Yes. It’s as big as my finger and green,” she answered. “That’s right,” Lyreen said, nearly bouncing with excitement now. “Without a sight crystal?” Barika asked. Anna looked at her with the eye. She had thin channels that glowed dimly. Her core was the size of Anna’s thumbnail. Her mana was a dull blue, and oddly, there was a gold haze around her core. “Your core is the size of my thumbnail, and it’s dull blue, but I see gold around it as well,” Anna said. Barika looked shocked. “Yes. I pray to the goddess every morning using my mana, and she bestows her blessing on me. Her blessing is gold,” she said, looking at Voekeer. His mana core was the size of her finger, just like Lyreen’s, but was dim and flat. “Yours is the same size as Lyreen’s, but is dim,” she said. “As far as I know, every elf has a mana core, but most don’t have enough mana to cast spells,” he said. Finally, she looked at Thokri. He didn’t have one at all. “You don’t have one,” she said. “No lass. No dwarf has magic,” he replied. Voekeer looked oddly at the dwarf for a moment.  

“Well, let’s see what this can do,” Anna said, looking around with the eye. She spotted a glow from one of the ruined buildings and started walking towards it. All but Barika could see in the dark, and she simply lit the end of her staff, so they followed her. “It’s in there,” she said, pointing at the building. “Something is glowing,” she added. Thokri walked to the collapsed entrance and inspected it closely. “I could clear it out in a few hours,” he said. “Let’s come back in the morning,” Voekeer said. After a night's rest, they were at the building again. Thokri was banging away with a pick. Anna had offered to help, but he shooed her away, explaining that one wrong hit could bring the whole thing down. He pulled the last stone away, and they entered. The glow was coming from a tablet on a pedestal in the room. She walked towards the tablet until she heard several thumps behind her. She turned to find her companions had collapsed. She rushed back to them, but she couldn’t see anything wrong. Using the eye, she noticed wispy lines coming out from each of them leading to the pedestal. There was something glowing inside of it. Then she ran to it and found a thinner spot and punched a hole in the stone. There was a small crystal that was getting brighter by the second. Not knowing what to do, she reached in and crushed it. The crystal ruptured, producing intense heat that melted the stone pedestal and sent the tablet crashing to the ground. It seemed unharmed by the fall. She shook the molten rock from her hand and looked behind her.  

The rest of the party had recovered as soon as the crystal had been destroyed, and she explained what had happened while they were unconscious. None of them had ever seen or heard of a crystal like she described. “Let’s get a copy of that tablet for the guild. I don’t want to drag it out of here,” Voekeer said. Lyreen walked over and inspected it. “I’ve never seen this language before,” she said. After retrieving her writing supplies, Lyreen had returned to the tablet to copy it. Anna flipped it for her so she could copy the other side. None of them wanted to stay close to the ruins after what happened, so they packed up and set out. “Where to next?” Anna asked. “Next ruins are a month away, so we will stop at this town,” Thokri said, pointing to a dot on his map. “More humans,” Anna said with a sigh. The dwarf and elves nodded knowingly, and Anna looked at Barika. “I didn’t mean you, and I liked the people in Fishport. It’s just after that farmstead, I was hoping to stay away from them for a while longer,” Anna said. “I know. And to be frank, I hope we don’t run into any more of their kind myself. People who live in small communities and don’t get many visitors often have small minds,” Barika said. “Barika, why did you leave your homeland?” Anna asked. Barika sighed. “I was happy there until my parents arranged for me to be married to a boy when I was sixteen. He was a fine boy, but I never wanted to marry, so I ran away and kept running till I found the goddess,” she answered. Anna nodded. She understood completely. “Why would anyone want to stay in a small village when they could go explore the world?” she thought, smiling at Barika who smiled back. 

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