"Finally," Ravel muttered.
22
KAILIN
"Destiny is not a gift bestowed but a burden accepted."
—Ancient Elucian proverb
The descent into the underground chambers felt different this time, perhaps because it was bringing us closer to our prophesied destiny. I'd been dreading this moment because sharing it would make it real in a way it hadn't been before, and because the burden of the prophecy would settle on my friends' shoulders as heavily as it sat on mine.
It wasn't easy being designated as the saviors of the world. None of us had been born a hero, none of us had imagined a destiny so great.
Apart from Alar, that is.
It seemed to me that he'd always known he would be the savior of Eluria. That was why he was here, trying to find a way to save his own people by aligning with mine.
Saphir led with his glowing staff, Moki perched on his shoulder and was uncharacteristically quiet. Ahead of me, Codric kept up his running commentary about the symbols.
"See this one?" He pointed. "It always appears in clusters of three."
"Enough about the symbols," Shovia said. "We get it. Very interesting. Very mysterious. Have fun with them, but don't bore us to death by going on and on about them."
Codric snorted. "And to think that you fancied yourself a member of the spy corps. A spy should have excellent pattern recognition skills."
Shovia froze and turned to him. "How do you know so much about what makes a good spy? Were you trained as one?"
The implication hung in the air. Elurians. Foreigners.
Next to me, Alar tensed, and behind me, Ravel groaned in frustration.
"Can we please keep moving?" the commander said.
"I'm a fan of mysteries and puzzles," Codric took Shovia's hand and continued the descent. "The more complicated they are, the more I enjoy solving them."
"Is that why you enjoy me?" Shovia teased. "I'm enigmatic and mysterious?"
He laughed. "You are none of those things, but you have a great ass."
That earned him a punch to the arm, which was probably black and blue by now.
Hadn't he learned his lesson?
The fact that Shovia occasionally talked like that about herself and others didn't give him the right to do the same. At least not in Shovia's book.
When we reached the chamber with the locked door, Saphir pulled out his key and inserted it into the lock.
The door swung open surprisingly smoothly, indicating that the chamber had been visited often. I wondered what treasures the shaman kept in there that necessitated frequent visits. In my imagination, I saw ancient scrolls, perhaps even books, artifacts, and maybe depictions of Elu.
After all, this was the god's temple.
The interior turned out to be intact, clean, and devoid of any treasures, old or new. Stone benches lined the walls, and a round table dominated the center with nine stone stools surrounding it. The ceiling was flat, maybe twelve feet high, and every surface was covered in carved symbols and detailed drawings of dragons in flight.
Had it been a classroom? Or maybe a meeting room for shamans? Why the massive door, though? Maybe this place had held secret meetings.
"You can put your glow staffs in the wall brackets," Saphir said.
The light from glowstones was too dim to fully illuminate the chamber, even though the space wasn't big. They cast wavering lights across the walls, making the dragon carvings seem to move.
