Chapter 16: Chapter 16 – Unknown Room

Minutes trickled back like sand on an hourglass, slowly she could visibly see her eyes starting to adjust to the darkness more, the room slowly becoming a much brighter shade, allowing her to see better in it. Though it was getting better, it wasn't quite useful yet, she could just barely make out the shapes of the walls in the distance, along with the jagged stalagmite and stalactite that decorated the ceiling and floor.

The room itself, aside from these stones, seemed to be completely empty of any additional furniture, or creatures. It wasn't even that large of a room.

Then suddenly, like a flip being played with, flickering on and off, she saw flashes of brightness followed by darkness. It was clear her eyes were trying to adjust to the darkness faster, her body was getting better at it, but they weren't quite there yet.

That was until the darkness of the room started to fade, and was replaced by a dimly lit view. It seemed all that was needed was time, because her eye was able to adapt, though, it still wasn't as clear as daylight, she could still see enough to look around. It wasn't natural-looking, it was like someone tinted the room with a layer of shadows, while holding up a tiny light.

Now that she could see, the only issue remaining, well, the main issue for the moment at least, was her leg. She wasn't sure if it had healed yet, or if she could move, she hadn't felt any pain since she took the stone out from it, so maybe it was already healed.

Deciding to test it out, she tried to move the leg slowly, 'Shit, this hurts more than i thought it would.' While she could move now, it was troublesome. While she could make small movements without much pain, trying to press on the leg would cause a lot of pain, and any sudden or stretched movement resulted in a sharp pain within her leg that felt like it was breaking again.

Her best guess was that while the outside was healed, the muscles that were inside still had some damage to them, and would take much longer to heal by themselves without blood.

She laid there for a moment, thinking about what she should do next. She knew she couldn't stay here forever, even if it was a comfortable place, and it wasn't, she had no idea how long she'd been down here, or how long it would take to get out. Her food supply was gone with the attack earlier, nor did she have any water to drink, eventually her body was going to start craving again, and she didn't want to lose control like last time.

Not to mention she had nothing to eat even if she lose control, who know what might happen then.

Clenching her teeth, she made a decision. She decided that she would put up with the pain and try to look around the room, since there were some parts she couldn't properly see from this angle with the darkness, she hoped that maybe she could find something useful in the corners, mushrooms especially.

Holding her body up against the wall for support, she walked around the edges of the room. Thanks to the room not being large, she didn't need to move around for a very long time, and she could always stop when the pain got unbearable.

As for the reason she called it a room and not a cave, well that was because of the walls. They weren't naturally formed, at least Shi didn't think so. They looked like they were carved out by people to be in a certain weird pattern, which in turn made it difficult for her to get a proper average of where each wall was, like an illusion, creating depths in the wall that could hide things.

Eventually, using her head she found an opening in the cave walls, meaning that, she literally fell headfirst into the opening as she was trying to move around the wall. Nonetheless, this was great for her, now she had somewhere to go.

So she quickly picked herself off the ground, ignoring the pain from falling on her wound, and the shame of doing something so foolish, even if no one saw it,

'I saw it', no one saw it.

She looked around at where she was now.

It was a dimly lit passageway, in the distance, she could see a faint hint of light coming from the other end of the passageway, this light actually helped enhance her vision to see better, allowing her to adapt easier.

The passageway was also made from stone just like the rest of the place, however, it also had some oddly metallic pillars placed approximately every few feet, to seemingly keep the passage secure from caving in. Shi could instantly tell that the passageway was like the other room, artificially carved out, and why wouldn't it be since it was linked.

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So with this thought in mind, Shi moved down the passageway towards the other end, her eyes gazing around as she did, noticing that the walls were adorned with odd carvings.

Some looked like markings of a weird language she had never seen before, while others were in the shape of images that didn't make sense to her. Odd upside-down trees, fangs of a beast, eyes that glowed faintly red, vines with thorns, and many more odd things that didn't seem to have a specific rim or reason to their order.

Since she couldn't understand what they were, and while she thought they were odd and slightly worrying, she simply noted them in her mind for whenever they might be of use, that is if they would ever be of use, and continued to walk towards the light.

'Light, there should be a way out, i hope.' She thought to herself, as her movement picked up the pace, the walls around her becoming brighter as she reached closer to the exit. Soon enough she was basically running down the passageway, towards the end.

Finally, she reached the end of the passageway, bursting through it to wherever the light was coming from. Blasted by a sudden influx of bright light, she was temporarily dazed, her eyes blurred as they once again tried to adjust to the brightness to allow her to see. Thankfully, it was a lot easier to adjust to a brightness she was used to seeing in, than one she wasn't, so it only took her a few seconds to regain sight.

Gazing around, she realize she wasn't outside like she had hoped by coming this way. Instead, she was inside a large square room.

The walls of the room were perfectly cut and flat, as if the best artisan spent a lifetime on them, pure white like quartz without a hint of a stain. Large pillars were erected around the room holding up the ceiling that stood high above, a ceiling that was decorated with a similar drawing to the passageway from before, however, this drawing looked more detailed, and it depicted what Shi could only guess was some sort of war. It was bloody and grotesque, with odd creatures fighting against what she assumed were normal people.

While she was interested in it, and what it was supposed to be, staring at it did nothing to help her, so she moved her gaze, looking around the rest of the room.

What surprised her about the room, was how clean it was. Shi would expect that a room that had probably been underground for who knows how long and was most likely abandoned, would be filled with dust and slowly falling apart. Yet this room looked like it was brand new, preserved in its perfect state.

While she was amazed by this aspect, her eyes kept tracing the room.

Her eyes instantly fell to the center of the room, what she assumed was the center at least, because there stood a platform that was raised a few feet above the floor, in the shape of a hex. There were seven well-designed stairs that were leading up to this platform, and for some reason, deep within her body, Shi felt a calling towards it. Something urging her to come closer, it wasn't natural, Shi knew this, yet she wanted to do as it said.

Her eyes dimmed as she felt the need to obey what the feeling said to do. Without her knowing, or even wanting to, her body started to move on its own, inching closer to the platform ever so slightly. She couldn't fight it, she didn't want to fight it. It felt good to do what it said, her mind and eyes locked on the platform.

'What is this?' Shi thought to herself, she didn't know why she felt compelled to go to it, or why it called to her, but she felt something, like a pull towards it, she couldn't explain it, but she knew it was right, and that was enough for her to not question it further, and instead do as the feeling wanted her to do, moving up the platform one step at a time.

'Shi, stop, i don't feel good about this.' The voice in her head said in protest, urging her to stop her foolish actions, yet to its dismay, she didn't seem to pay attention to it at all, she simply didn't care to stop.

"I'm going to the top." She said, the words flowing out of her mouth without her realizing that she said it, it was like a compulsion, a feeling that had taken over her entire body. Slowly, she ascended the stairs, climbing each step felt like it took years, in mere seconds it felt like she had lived several lifetimes, she felt different, yet, the same.

Finally, she reached the top of the platform. There it stood, a pedestal erected in the middle of the platform, this pedestal was not the same color as the room or platform, those were white, and this was pitch black. Staring at it Shi felt like all light was sucked into, leaving nothing but spotless darkness, it felt depthless.

That wasn't the main thing about the pedestal though, no it was merely an addon to the thing truly special about it. Atop the pedestal was a small black and white orb, just floating there. It was transparent, allowing Shi to see through it, but why would she want to see through something so enchanting. Shimmering with a bright hue, it called to Shi once more, and this time nothing was stopping her from answering it.

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