Aer - Memories of Old, Part 3
As told by Auk
When I came to, I was back in the Sanctuary, in the same space where I had accepted the power fragment. However, things had changed: the whole place was shaking violently, just as it had back in Karah’s Shrine, and rocks were jutting from the once-smooth surface of the water I had strode across to speak with the Twilight Guardian. The rocks completely blocked my return, forcing me to look ahead at what appeared to be a square pillar of light. Pure white light radiated upwards in a pillar eight feet across, and where it met the water, orange light akin to flames leapt upwards, though keeping strictly to the square edge of the white. I wasn’t seeing any way out—I couldn’t fly here, inside the structure—so I decided to trust that the light would let me leave. Lantern key in hand, I took a few cautious steps forward, past the threshold of the orange flames, and felt the white light lift me upwards. I closed my eyes for the short trip.
When I stopped moving, I opened my eyes again, and saw that I was back at the massive key symbol atop the Twilight Lake. However, when I turned around to face what should have been the entrance to the Sanctuary, no entrance was evident. At all. The entire structure had been sealed off by a mass of black rocks. I took to the sky to get a better view and—and I nearly dropped out of it! What had once been a massive, smooth lake was now half-covered with black rocks that appeared to have exploded from within! The Sanctuary entrance was a mountain of black stone, the only remaining evidence of it being the key-presentation diamond to which I’d been returned, and the shrine-ring of raised stone that now formed a sort of container around the base of the mountain. Further out from there, many additional rocks had erupted across the lake, angled outwards from their center below the surface. Even if I could never enter the Sanctuary again, this was a bit much: it was a complete destruction of one of the most peaceful locations in the region.
Overwhelmed and not really sure what I was doing, I flew around aimlessly and somehow ended up back at the village. I supposed… I probably should get directions for the next leg of my journey. Even though it might mean more destruction of sacred sites, I, personally, had been given the fragment of power to unite with its brethren. I couldn’t just hand it off to someone else like I could with the Lantern. This was something that I had to do. After a little more time steeling myself, I pressed myself forward to speak with John.
“Hello, Auk!” he greeted me, not having any idea what I’d just witnessed. “If you’re looking for Medvin, he is in the cave here in the village. Probably studying some tablets.” Right! The tablets I couldn’t read. “But, what about a story? Maybe about how I met Daina? No?”
I shrugged. He evidently took it as a sign to continue. “One day, I followed a honey-colored doe across an island in the East. The most beautiful doe I had ever seen. Suddenly, I came up to a bird shrine. There she was, standing next to it. She smiled at me and my heart was hers.” I just looked at him for a moment, confused. “Daina, not the doe, dummy!” Oh! That made more sense. “It was the first time I visited the Land of Gods. I was chosen to take care of its lands, while she was to inherit the duties for Karah’s Shrine. Pity that the shrine caved in. From what Daina said, it might not be possible to rebuild it. I’ll try, at least!” Good on him. He’s got a lot of tunneling to do. I think he might need more help than just his family.
“Anyhow, where are you off to now? Maybe the East is next in line for a visit? It’s a bit wilder than the western islands, and there are many ruins from the time of the Ancients there. I think the most impressive place is Lifla’s Grove, home to Lifla the Spirit Deer of the Land of Gods. In the grove grows a most remarkable giant tree. Like a storm cloud, that one! Lifla hasn’t been seen in ages, but it’s said he saved the tree from the Great Divide. The Ancients built some kind of altar near the tree. So far, I haven’t found out what it does. Might be worth it to take a look?” That sounds like my path forward. If it’s like the Windsong Falls and the Sanctuary, I think I can expect a key there.
I turned around, and Daina was seated by the campfire, her back to one of the logs that could equally be used as seats versus the back rest function it presently served. A few steps brought me to her side, and she spoke up at me. “Welcome back again, Auk! I hope your travels are easy on you. Erin is over her head and ears with joy that a real bird shifter came to visit.” Wait, how do they get around? They’ve spoken of traveling the islands, and I haven’t seen a vehicle… “To the point where I’m a bit worried that she will run off somewhere on one of her ‘expeditions.’
“Once in the North, when we stopped for a short rest by the hot springs, she was gone in a heartbeat. We looked all over. The storm of the Howling Peaks was less intense back then, but it was still very cold. We found a cave nearby, and went on in to see if she had gone there. She has a certain affinity for hidden places. As it turned out, the Spirit Bear of the North had just recently moved in there. Erin sat on his back, talking about everything between sun and moon. Should I be proud or worried? Well, I always ran away at her age, so who am I to judge?”
Daina paused for a moment, a faraway look in her eyes. After a few seconds, she remembered that she was talking to me. “Ah, I’m getting all nostalgic here. Pilgrimage. Let’s see.” She thought for a bit longer before continuing. “So, the next step is usually the Archives, the temple in the East. The Ancients built monuments and cities there, more so than in the West and the North. John has been there frequently, I know. It’s said that the signs of the Great Divide were early spotted in the East. Much of the ruins have been reclaimed by the land, but just continue to the Eastern Steps and it shouldn’t be too hard to find.”
I nodded and thanked her for the information, then left to take a look around and possibly find Erin. On one wall of the village was a painting clearly made by someone with a ladder—or at least someone taller than myself—using a deep red paint against the pale red stone. It depicted a sort of… shrine? The images reminded me of Windsong Falls, with a mountain in the background, overlaid with images of the raised stone circle around a diamond, with half a sun on the left and half a moon on the right. Left of the mountain entirely was the Spirit Fox; opposite that and equal in size was a depiction of a crane I had never seen. Symbols representing wind flowed above the mountain, and below were a few small rocks. A streaming flag was visible on the right side as well, between the mountain and the crane.
There were steps to the left of the painting, and I took them upward and—ah! That’s their vehicle. A sky canoe was tethered to the dock built outwards from the rock, all ready to go. Erin was not in sight, so hopefully she was still on the island and not in a second canoe. Having no other leads, I headed into the cave below the Lighthouse.
As John had said, Medvin was inside, looking at the tablets I could not understand. “Welcome back, Auk,” he greeted me before I could even call out to him. He might be slow, but he can pick up on even my wind-softened footsteps. I spoke to him about what had happened to me since we’d last met up, and his face brightened. Actually, he interrupted me to talk about what he’d been reading. “Come, look at this - I think I know what you found: ‘The Keys to the Caretakers.’ They are described as glowing symbols. So it warped into the Lantern, you say? Spectacular! It pains me that I can’t go with you. But my back would pain me more.”
It did a lot more than that. I kept on with my story, and he interrupted me again. “What!? You actually USED the key?” I nodded. “It makes sense that they would open the temples, I suppose.”
He took another break, so I finished my story. When I had gotten through it, he shook his head in return. “But to think my apprentice would converse with the Caretakers in person…” He trailed off. I waited. “We all believed the Gods were either in eternal slumber, or perished. Our prayers have always been to the spirits of the skies and lands, and to our ancestors. I have a bad feeling, child. But if one was still slumbering, you should search for the other Caretakers. Questions need answers. Before it’s too late.” I agreed. “It seems big changes are coming to our world, and… I see you as my own daughter, Auk.” There was sadness in his words, as if he could see something coming that I could not. “Be careful out there. Promise me as much.”
I did.
“My first guess would be that the other Caretakers still seek refuge in their temples. By choice or not. I found a passage about ‘Eternal Skies’ - rooms in the temples where the Caretakers could speak with the Ancients. Look for these rooms, Auk.”
I still hadn’t found Erin, but I had found my path forward, so off I went. Along the way, I stopped at small islands where something caught my eye. The first was an archway, with a memory of the Spirit Fox speaking to a man could be revealed by Karah’s Light. “Go back, Yohal. This is not your path.” I wondered what that was about, thought I did recognize the name from before. The man worried about the black rocks? A short distance beyond that was a strange black spike of rock jutting from an otherwise nondescript island. When I flew down to it, I found it protruding through a rabbit? Was this the “plague of black rocks” I’d read about? Yohal’s proximity suddenly made sense.
As I flew on, the mists ahead cleared enough that I could spot the massive tree John had spoken of, surrounded by many other tree-covered islands. This had to be Lifla’s Grove. I landed on the nearest one, and found a deer impaled by a similar black spike to that of the rabbit. I made a mental note not to touch any black rocks if I could help it. A huge tree stump sat on another island, so large that it must have once housed something close to the size of the great tree in the center. By the tree stood a tall dark gray pillar that was wide in one direction but very thin in another: it must have been at least fifty feet tall and twenty wide, but couldn’t be more than four feet thick. Its top bore a wider section like a beam, with an orange column down the middle of the wide side facing the tree stump. The marking was perhaps five feet long, down from the top and protruding towards me from the basic thickness of the pillar, with a faded orange square below it. And below that, a decagon ten feet across of pale gray stone surrounded ten orange triangles that gave me the distinct impression that they might be able to move to open a cavity within. The base of the pillar bore pale gray stone in a way that reminded me of an inverse of the Key to the Sanctuary, though for something so large it might just be the foundation.
I’d put it off long enough. I approached the base of the giant tree, from the side that held the most land. Some roots were visible on other sides, but there wasn’t much room to land, there. On this side, a huge blue door was visible, a familiar red diamond adorning its peak and two enormous black gear-like carvings near the base. This clearly wasn’t just a natural tree. The door faced another shrine-like structure, though this one was a triangle and lacked a stone circle. The corners had red diamonds adorning three pillars at both the base outside and the top inside, and the steps led to the familiar square that beckoned for a lantern key. Above the square, far above my head, floated something I could only describe as a fourth pillar, though this one was only four feet tall and floated level with the tops of the others, slowly spinning.
I used the Lantern and spotted its effect in the distance on a second giant thin pillar: the triangles indeed moved outwards, rotating to open like an iris box. If that was the lock… perhaps the Ancients wanted something to move through the middle? Flying around, I saw nothing to create a beam of light, so… perhaps they would accept moving the Lantern through the hole? And by extension, me, since I was holding it. I flew closer and noticed that the pillar had lit up around the hole, but I flew through it anyway. And was rewarded for my efforts, a chime sounding as I did so! The structure at the middle was a triangle, so I assumed there would be three of these.
On my way to the next one, I noticed a tablet-like structure with a familiar sun-and-moon motif from the Sanctuary upon it. A fox—not the Spirit Fox, but a normal red one with twin tails—stood before it, almost reverently. The fox did not react to my approach, so I left it alone. But I noticed that there were memories here, and shone Karah’s Light upon them. The people were - they were fighting! Two were dueling with fists, as another lay on the ground and two more raised swords at a man with his back to the structure! “No!” the defenseless man shouted. “Why are you doing this?”
“The old Gods are dead!” his attacker responded. “This power belongs to the God-King Koroku now!”
I had no idea what they were talking about, but perhaps it would come up in some writing that I would find later. I moved onto flying through the next pillar, and I found a tablet nearby.
Of Urzha, which we loved, lost and long for. City of cities, bright and dead. The white swan of marble, raising her long neck elegantly into the purple sky. Her eyes, a thousand souls, swimming the lake of the never-ending afternoon. In the heart of spring. Her song, a million hearts, praising the beauty of life undiminished and brief, a petal on the wind of fall. The white swan of marble, folding her luminous wings silently in the ashen dusk. Never to be seen again.
Urzha, Urzha… right! It’s the place that made the Lantern I’m now holding. It must have fallen from the Great Divide; this was probably recorded just a little later.
The pillar I’d passed through last had now closed its previous opening, and the dull orange square was shining with a bright white light. Clearly, I was doing something right. I flew to the last one, the one by the tree stump, then returned to the shrine at the tree. The door was still closed, but the shrine had changed! The diamonds at the tops of the pillars now held intense beams of light that converged on the floating pillar, which had stopped spinning. I held out the Lantern again, and I heard a clanking sound in the distance; the gears on the door turned, and it moved downward, into the rock below the tree. Time to get another Key, I think.
The interior of the tree was less “tree” and more “cave.” It was dark, and dust hung in the air. A root extended downwards from the entrance, wrapping itself around a glowing spike of rock at least ten feet tall. More intensely-glowing rocks lit the interior of the cave; no sunlight was visible in here at all. Off to the side, a cluster of brown rocks formed something akin to a bird nest, and in their center was a sort of a black liquid bubble, patterns of black and translucent dimness flowing across its surface. Within the bubble, however—the Spirit Deer! Well, that would explain why she hasn’t been seen. I approached and held out the Lantern.
“Is that you, Karah?” she asked me. She took a moment, then shook her head. “No, that can’t be right. Who are you?”
I offered my name. She nodded. Then, haltingly, she continued. I could tell she was tired; this unnatural formation could not be good for her. “I need to get… Out. I am weak… It’s the rock; it’s not of this world. The rift… Further down, in the cavern. Close it.”
What? How? She didn’t give an explanation, but when I moved into the more open area, what she was talking about was quite obvious.
The chamber before me was a sphere, or most of one. In its center was a structure that was clearly man-made, a tower with vertical slots on its four sides and decorated with squares in rows and on each face of its extended corners. Around it floated small islands of rock, drifting in circles, and above was a starry blackness that seemed malevolent in its presence. Few glowing rocks were present here, but those that were showed that the blackness had a defined edge against the cave ceiling; I almost felt like it was creeping downward, as if to consume the room. I leapt between the rocks, timing my jumps carefully, to reach the top of the pillar, which held another glowing square, though there was a giant rock directly above it.
When I held out the Lantern, the rock above turned yellow like the glowing rocks that lit the space… and the rift closed! It just… faded away, retreating upwards until it was no more. I could see the Deer from my current altitude, and the black bubble around her vanished as well; she gave a happy cry in gratitude that she could move once more. I ran back to speak with her.
“You! You did it. I feel much better already. Thank you. I was beginning to fear a fate where I would fade away. Koroku’s men took hold of my home. They wanted the magic of this place. I fought for so long, but I am just one and they were so many. At least I kept the most important secret, and it’s the one you are looking for, too, isn’t it? I have what you need. Here, take the key. It was my task to protect it, and so I have. Thanks again, young one. I’ll leave the rest to you, now.”
She bowed her head, and from before her leafy antlers shone the Key, a symbol of a triangle with another triangle cut out of it: essentially, a thick V with a triangle filling most of the gap, a key in two markings. It flowed into the Lantern, and I knew my task ahead: locate the Archives and open the temple within. As I headed out, I found the Spirit Fox waiting for me again.
“Ah, my friend! What leads a bird to the East? And to visit Lifla on top of that.” I told her. “Oh, so she held the key all this time? Use it where it belongs: further east, and a dash north. Close to my home, to be true. But answer me this: How come temples lead downwards, when people look up to the sky for answers? It has eluded me for centuries. But that’s fine. Humans are special creatures, to say the least.”
I don’t think I have an answer, either.