“Leave it to me.” Ellene stepped forward ahead of them. She swept her palm out and across her chest. Before their eyes, old cracks were smoothed, large chunks of stone settled back into place, and the vines tightened, lending further natural supports.
Yet, despite all this, Jayme and Andru seemed skeptical.
“Are you sure it’s safe?” Jayme asked.
“We’re pretty high up…” Andru glanced over his shoulder, panting softly at the exertion of their climb.
“I may not be a builder, but I know how to use my magic to manipulate the earth enough to make a secure path,” Ellene insisted.
“I have faith in Ellene.” Vi started forward.
“As if I don’t.” Jayme rolled her eyes, taking a wide step, determined to be the second on the bridge.
Once across, the four stepped into the smothering darkness of the heart of the ruins. The shifting moonlight of the jungle already hadn’t been enough to see by. The small flame that magically hovered over Vi’s shoulder, guiding them, had provided just barely enough light.
Here, however, the darkness seemed to have that same impenetrable quality as the first set of ruins Vi had stumbled on. It clung to every corner of the cavernous inner space, darkening relief sculptures and collapsed columns alike. Her friends huddled closer, staying in the halo of light from her flame.
“This feels like the right place,” Vi whispered.
“How so?” Jayme’s voice had dropped to a whisper as well. Something about the atmosphere was making them all tense. Perhaps it was they couldn’t see the far walls or ceiling. The only source of pale moonlight was the archway they’d entered from.
“I can’t describe it…” Vi shook her head. “A place with purpose? Something important happened here.” Vi wondered if she truly felt that way, or if Taavin’s words were merely inspiring the feeling.
“I can only imagine.” Ellene’s voice echoed off the high ceiling. Whatever the girl could imagine, it wasn’t the need that Vi felt to remain as quiet as possible. “What’s over there?”
With a flick of her fingers, Vi sent the small flame ahead of them. They hustled to keep up, none seeming to want to linger in the darkness for too long. The pale outline of two figures were highlighted in orange, slick with damp that dripped softly from the tall ceiling. One figure held an axe and knelt before the other. It was almost an exact replica of the statue in the Mother Tree… save for a few key differences.
“Is that… a man?” Jayme squinted. Time and age had taken its toll on the statue and it was impossible to tell. “Wearing a crown?”
“I think so?” Vi tilted her head, trying to imagine what the statue might have looked like when it was first made. There was something masculine about the figure… yet it also had a litheness that read as feminine. Androgynous, would be a better term. “Wearing a crown? I didn’t think chieftains wore crowns?”
“We don’t.” Ellene frowned slightly. She seemed disturbed by the sculpture. “And what’s he holding in his other hand?”
“Some kind of blade?” Vi wondered aloud. It was curved but half-broken. She couldn’t tell from the blunted end alone what it may have been originally.
“He has a sword on his hip, though,” Jayme pointed out.
“Maybe he was some kind of warrior?”
“Dia would kneel to no warrior,” Ellene insisted. “She would only kneel to the Mother.”
“Perhaps it’s not Dia,” Vi suggested, more out of kindness. The woman was holding an axe, and nearly in the same pose as the sculpture of Dia in Soricium. It seemed too similar to be mere chance.
“Maybe not…” Ellene was seeing what she wanted to see. But there was no use in pointing that out.
“Perhaps he’s a warrior for whoever this is…” Andru’s focus had wandered to the wall behind the statue. Whatever he saw had him entranced enough that he’d wandered away from the halo of light.
Vi, Ellene, and Jayme joined him. With a mental command, Vi had the fire lift above her head, illuminating another relief on the wall.
It was massive in scale, the figures easily four times life-sized. A man and a woman were locked in combat. The woman had a blazing sun behind her and she pointed a staff at the man. The man was angular and sharp-looking, wings of lightning crackled behind him. Soundless cries of battle had been cast on their stone faces, resisting the wear of time in an impossible way.
“I would think it’s the Mother and Father but…” Andru trailed off.
But they’re fighting, Vi finished mentally. The Mother and Father were said to be in an eternal dance, hand in hand, forever with each other throughout the ages as one watched over day and the other night. The crones of the Empire said they were lovers, not enemies… And that’s what Vi would’ve believed before Taavin had told her his truths. Now, she saw it and knew she was laying eyes on a great battle.
This was the truth of their world. An ancient good—Yargen—pitted against an ancient evil—Raspian. They were all mortal pawns laid between them, cast in stone at the gods’ feet.
The Solaris Empire and its people had been so far removed from this great struggle that they didn’t even see its impact on their lives.
