Time held little meaning. Kira had no way of knowing how long she’d been walking, but she was thinking it was more than long enough to have reached her destination.
She could only attribute the experience to another illusion.
Or maybe it was reality, and she really was stuck in a cave of some sort, winding her way deeper and deeper underground.
That was a chilling thought. One she was glad she hadn’t voiced as the lu-ong avatar shifted uneasily on her wrist.
Jin did not like being underground. For any reason.
He had no problem being stuck in a giant metal can hurtling through space but stick him in even the shallowest of caves and he’d melt down in the most epic of fashions.
“How much further?” he whined.
“It’ll take longer the more you ask that question.”
This place was strange.
Kira couldn’t shake the impression that any reaction to their surroundings would end in a lengthier and more rigorous test.
“You always say that,” Jin complained.
“That doesn’t mean I’m not right.”
Jin grumbled to himself but settled down.
An undetermined length of time later, Kira finally sensed a change in their surroundings as the smell of water reached her. It carried with it the scent of dirt and growing things. Neither of which belonged in a cave-like environment.
Light pierced the veil of black.
Kira squinted, resisting the urge to raise one hand to protect her eyes as she found herself on the edge of an immense room like that of the ancient cathedrals.
Only on a much greater scale than those human masterpieces.
Intricate columns held up a ceiling covered in complicated mosaics and beautiful paintings. Sculptures decorated the entrance of each tunnel, featuring long dead heroes whose names were likely still remembered.
It was the emotion on each statue’s face that stuck with Kira. The anger and determination as they battled invisible enemies.
One guess as to the identity of those enemies.
The Tuann were nothing if not tenacious in the way they clung to the story surrounding their origins. It was a species-wide trauma that fed into every aspect of their society.
Of course, the adva ka would feature heroes from that time period.
What did Kira want to bet that a big part of the purpose of this rite could be directly traced back to that era?
It made the familiar cast in the features of one particular statue all the more intriguing.
She recognized the line of the person’s nose. The angle of their jaw.
She saw those same features in the mirror every day.
This was her ancestor. Likely one of the early Overlords of House Roake. If not the first.
As Kira moved deeper into the room, she was a little surprised to find the crowd waiting for her much larger than she had expected. Several of the initiates milled around, looking confused as Tuann trickled out of the tunnels surrounding the perimeter the room.
Kira paused on the faces of a few initiates she’d personally eliminated.
Huh.
