Re: The Approaching Storm
Introduction: Back From Where I Was Before
Yeah, it's been a while, but I'm back. Here's the next chapter, which involves Kartaikian reading a lot of stuff. Everything written in italics is written down in the story. The myths that he'll be reading are important later on in the story. Most likely, that is.
Chapter IV: Without Conclusion
Smoke. Heat, light, fire. Flames. They wouldn't leave; they wouldn't die. Through the haze of heat and smoke, there was a face, visible but unrecognizable...watching...seeing everything. All went dark...
Kartaikian awoke from his disturbing dream at the sound of his body hitting the floor. It wasn't a long drop, but it knocked over a stack of scrolls; one of them opening up as it rolled along the wood planks, finally stopping when it hit a bookcase. He didn't pay much attention to it at first, and got up off the floor.
It was still quite early in the morning, and no one appeared to be awake. It was also still raining, but it wasn't quite as windy and there was no thunder and lightning. Kartaikian decided he'd best leave now, before anyone awoke and tried to entice him to stay. He turned to the stack of scrolls, and began to restack them. However, something on the unrolled parchment caught his eye.
It was a grotesque and bloody illustration of a man being cut in two with a giant pair of sicssors, composed of two halves of a sword. To further get the point across, all the blood was drawn in red ink. Needless to say, it caught Kartaikian's attention, and he read the caption that went along with it.
Drawing to left: an illustration based on ancient writings found in the ruins. Supposedly the ancient blade had a will of its own, and sliced in half anyone who touched it. The interesting part of the description was that the blade itself was actually composed of two parts. In my illustration I estimate the size the blade must have been in order to cut someone in two vertically, which seems to be the direction described.
I assume the blade to only exist in myth, as a blade with a "will of its own" is not a practical idea. My guess is that it was used to threaten people who opposed the throne. I notice the only writings that say anything about the mythic blade were within the royal buildings themselves, and no one outside of the royalty seemed to know anything about it. I also notice that the blade is not here, so if it did exist it has long been taken somewhere else.
The story interested Kartaikian, and he continued to read. It was clearly some kind of journal concerning someone's exploration of some anceint ruins.
The inner cave: I discovered the cave, which I call the "cache," a while ago, but yesterday I found a way to get even deeper in. It's amazing the stuff I've found here. First off, there's the gold. Thousands of pounds of gold; well, that may be an exaggeration, but there's enough here to keep me wealthy for a long time, at least. That's not the most facinating thing though. Nay, the most facinating thing I've found are these scrolls. They're written in a different language from the rest of the writings I've been deciphering, so it'll take me a while to get these ones translated. Still though, these scrolls probably contain a wealth of information, everything I'll need to know about this unknown civilization.
I've packed up all the gold now, and the scrolls. I've been spending my time writing down any inscriptions I see on the walls of the inner cache for later translation.
Kartaikian scanned over a bunch of symbols and letters that must have been traced off the walls of the "inner cache." There was a lot, and most of them had notations underneath, the translations.
The mystic blade revealed: one entire scroll devoted to the mystic blade that I found described on that pillar weeks ago. It took me forever to translate, but I have done it. I've copied the entire thing in another scroll, but here I'll give a short summary.
The blade was supposedly a gift from the ancient civilization's gods. It was put there to express the will of their gods onto the ancient tribe, and had to be continuously appeased. To appease the blade, and therefore the gods, they would sacrifice those who'd done wrong, in order to cleanse the tribe of evil. The sacrifice was usually deprived of all of his/her belongings, which were later burned, and then the sacrifice was sliced in half with the blade. Unlike the description I'd found, the blade is not composed of two parts, but supposedly it had been broken by the evil spirits before being repaired by the gods, and has a crack running down the center.
The only person qualified to touch the mystic blade was the holiest man in the tribe, the high priest (or so I call him; he didn't have any title from the scrolls I read, but he seems to fit the description of a high preist). The preist would cut the man in two with the blade (how this was done I have no idea) and the sacrifice was then actually left to rot for seven whole days. The temple they did this at was, as you can imagine, empty for those seven days. Then the remains were burned, and the remains of that were buried.
The blade itself was supposedly kept in the highest part of the temple. I could never find the temple, so I assume it was destroyed. The preist would sacrifice once every month, the most evil person he could find in the tribe. It was a good way to keep crime down, I would assume. The preist would spend the rest of the month praying and cleansing himself, trying to remain holy.
Kartaikian skipped over a lot of information that didn't intrest him, and then found something intriguing.
The high preist's scroll: this scroll I found was written by the high preist and executioner himself, apparently. His handwriting was, well, horrid. Thus I was only able to decipher bits and peices of the scroll. Apparently, according to the preist, he knew more about the blade than anyone else (which would make sense; as he was supposedly the only one qualified to touch it) and had fed false information about it to just about everyone. I don't quite understand why he would do that, but the only thing I was able to get from it was that the blade had some sort of spirit within it. Supposedly the spirit of one of the gods, or perhaps an angel. Or a demon, I don't know. The spirit had possessed the preist when he'd touched it, and, according to the preist, "broke [his] heart in two."
He kept the curse, and his "broken heart" (this term seems to have a completely different meaning to this ancient civilization, one that has nothing to do with love) a secret from the rest of the people, and continued to sacrifice as payment for his wrongdoings. It seems that he thought that by appeasing the god that possessed the blade, he could, quote, "repair [his] heart." He also, supposedly, hid the blade somewhere where no one could find it, rather than in the top of the temple.
The scroll ends without conclusion, so whether he fixed his heart or not is not known to myself.
This scroll also ended without conclusion, so Kartaikian rolled it up and put it with the rest.
He exited the building and found his horse. He gathered his sword and quiver, putting them in their respective places on his body, and guided his horse away from the stables. As he began to leave, he saw the trapdoor in the middle of the outpost open up, and Aydriak climbed out. He saw Kartaikian and called him over. Telling his horse to stay where it was, he went over to the trapdoor.
"You're up, I see," Aydriak said. "Here, come down," he said, as he climbed down the ladder. Kartaikian followed him down, closing the trapdoor as instructed.
The ladder led down into an underground cave, which was lit by lanterns. The cave was filled with, surprisingly, gold. Gold coins mostly, but also many other treasures of gold, such as gold bars and such. There were other things too, like precious gemstones and old scrolls, and weapons as well.
"What is all this?" Kartaikian asked.
"This is my storeroom. All the stuff my group has collected through exploration and adventuring goes in here. Since you're leaving now, I might as well say goodbye and give you a little parting gift." He handed him a large bag of gold coins. "Don't bother rejecting them, I have so much gold I don't know what to do with it all. Please, take them."
Kartaikian did so, putting the heavy bag in his backpack.
"Well, do you have any plans as to where you're going now, or no?" Aydriak asked.
"Anywhere, really. Anywhere but here," Kartaikian answered.
"Well, you'll need a map then. I've mapped most of the lands around here, and I'll give you a copy. You seem like the adventuring type anyway, so maybe a bit of adventure would do you some good. There have been rumors of a powerful artifact in the ruins a bit of a way from here...they say that the man who recovers it will double his strength and power." Aydriak handed Kartaikian two scrolls. One was a map, the other one was a scroll about the sword that would double a man's power, according to itself.
"I don't really..." Kartaikian began.
"No, I insist. I have a few copies of that scroll. You have nothing better to do anyway, right? Anyway, you don't have to do anything with it if you don't want to."
With that, Kartaikian said his goodbyes, and departed.
Notes: The Sword of the Gods
This chapter speaks about a mystic sword that will play a very important part in this story. Pay attention to everything said about said sword. I have nothing left to write I guess...