“I’m not either, but if we don’t keep moving, I’ll think twice before going down there,” Tethys whispered, lacing her fingers through Araes’s. The scratch of his calloused palm sent a wave of calm through her body and they started for the entrance.
They sank into the darkness, the mine swallowing them whole.
The tunnels extended for what felt like hundreds of miles, but that all-consuming shadow was the ultimate trickster. She clung to her lieutenant as they plunged deeper into the ancient cliffside with ears constantly on alert for even the slightest of indications they weren’t alone.
Salt deposits hung like daggers from the tunnel’s ceiling, in some places so large they had to crawl on bruisedknees to avoid hitting their heads. The feel of this place was unlike any other. Not just the earth beneath her soles, though. The smell, the taste. Her entire being was an imposter in this ancient space.
The squeak of her boots echoed through the cavern as they continued into darkness, passing calcified driftwood, broken and scattered along the path.
“How far do you think this extends?” she whispered to Araes, stepping over an abandoned mining cart with rusted wheels and weathered barrel.
He turned to face her, only a shadowy outline visible in the darkness. “I’m not sure, but we’ve come this far. We might as well see where it leads.”
She nodded and continued through the cavern. Were they walking uphill or down? Her body felt weightless in the hazy mist. Did they turn left just now? She couldn’t keep her steps straight, and soon her thoughts muddied.
“Eos above, we’ll go mad down here. How the Aquilaeans survived this…” She trailed off, thinking of the mortals trudging through darkness day after day.
“I think most of themdidgo mad,” the lieutenant replied. “Let’s keep moving.”
They carried on until the path narrowed. Araes, with a hand never leaving his blade, took the lead. Droplets fell from the ceiling and pooled at their feet, mineral deposits staining the water with a shade of copper all too similar to congealed blood.
A trickle of silvery light appeared in the distance, intensifying as they grew closer. Tethys shielded her eyes as they adjusted from total darkness to total light. When her vision clarified, she took in the cavern. The tunnel opened into a space with ceilings over a hundred stories high as if the whole cliffside, maybe even the whole damned continent, had been hollowed out.
Glow worms speckled the walls like constellations, glinting with a faint bluish hue resembling starlight in themidnight sky. At the room’s focal point was a swirling pool, reflecting the worm’s light. Its water glittered and swirled like the most precious of gemstones. Along the back wall, a vast carving mapped the expansion of the night sky from the furthest northern constellation, Draco, to the southernmost, the Crux.
“What is this place?” Araes breathed, his eyes wide with the grandeur of the cavern.
“I have no idea. There’s no written record of anything like this.” Tethys followed the stream’s path and circled the small central pool. Although the water was clear as glass, she couldn’t see the bottom, suggesting it spanned over an incredible distance, maybe even an infinite depth. She knelt beside it, the hem of her cloak gathering over her boot heels ,and brushed her fingertips across its shimmering surface. It was warm like the southern sea, but the liquid felt thicker than water, like it had more substance to it than just sea salt.
“Goddess, come look at this.”
Tethys flinched at the lieutenant’s voice, disrupting her entranced gaze as she watched the glowworm’s light refract in the perturbations on the pool. She rose to her feet and met him at the back wall. Araes’s eyes, now struck with wonder, fixated on the carved star chart.
“It makes you feel small looking at the heavens like this,” she said, scanning the wall.
“That it does,” he whispered. She drew lines between each starry point, collecting the constellations in her mind. There was the hunter and beside him, his hound. There was the great bear and the little bear, and beside them the harp. A mortal princess sat atop her throne opposite her lover, destined to eternally chase one another across the night sky. She found her favorite star cluster a foot or two below the carving’s center.
“Something’s not quite right, though,” Tethys said,biting her lip. “There should be five stars here, not six.”
She pointed to the constellation. Although not an expert in astronomy or celestial mapping, Tethys was certain the sculptor made a mistake. She’d recognize these stars anywhere, because unlike the others that painted their heavens, this group had a bluish hue. It was different from its celestial siblings, and oftentimes, although just a flickering speckle from the heavens, Tethys felt the commonality in her differences.
“Strange,” Araes suggested.
“Perhaps, but it’s an obvious error, especially for someone so knowledgeable as this creator. They’ve aligned the constellations above the Venian sky almost precisely.” She pointed to a grouping of lesser clusters on the far right side of the map. “I think it’s purposeful.”
Tethys traced each groove, unsure exactly what she searched for. The furthest indent to the left, however, was deeper than the rest. With held breath, she plunged her fingers into the crevice. Her heart fluttered when she felt smooth metal.
“There’s something hidden in here,” she said, working her fingertips around the cool surface. It felt like ice in her hand. Her heart raced as she pulled it from its hiding place.
In her outstretched palm was a small silver key with an ornate, masterfully-crafted bow. The room hummed with sheer, ancient power channeling through the key’s metallic surface.
“The prism key,” she breathed, twisting its stem between her forefinger and thumb. The glowworms’ silvery hue glinted off each perfect curve, casting gemstones of light over the cavernous walls. There, engraved in plain, lettering was the word:vincio.
“Eos above…” Araes’s chest rose with a heavy breath as he took in the reflected beams. He grinned at Tethys but stopped short only a heartbeat later. “Now what?”
“I’m not sure,” Tethys replied, struck by the spatteringof light encircling them. She tucked the key into the safety of her trouser pocket and started for the pool.
“That was…suspiciously easy,” Araes said, still enchanted by the cavern’s ethereal beauty. Before Tethys could kneel beside the pool once more, however, the cavern groaned, disturbing dust particles from the dagger-like salt deposits overhead.
