Sitting on the ground, I try to catch my breath and fully process what had just happened. The doors continue to muffle most of the sound from the beast as it tries once again to escape. Unless someone learns the word for 'open' in Ancient-Kaimarian, I think the doors will continue to hold for a few more millennia; though I think the cave from which I entered may prove a better escape route in that kind of time scale...
Looking down at the book besides me, I notice all the weeds, dust, and gravel that was in the path of the doors had been pushed up and into two neat arcs, showing off the incredible range the doors were capable of, "They're definitely going to notice that in the morning," I pant to myself, "They're also going to immediately spot the mess of tools that got pushed out of the way, too..." Oh well. That's a 'later'-problem. For now, I need to find a way back to camp; or at least get close enough to Aiya again to get her help.
Hefting the book against my bare chest, I begin taking the trail back towards camp. With the sun beginning to crest the horizon to the east, I knew I didn't have enough time to make it all the way back before the group would begin their journey back towards the dig site. All I needed to do was not get seen as they come my way, and then I'll be golden. I make it about half way back up the trail when I hear something in the distance.
"Ain!?" The echoes cry throughout the valley, "Ain!?" I guess they started early, though I am in no condition to be seen right now; especially with the book in my clutches.
"Biiiitch-!?" Another call echoes. I'm sure I know exactly whose call that was.
As the calls get closer and closer, I find myself desperately looking for a place to hide. They have mercenaries who would likely find me easily; and with my footprints already in the dirt on the trail, it'll be pretty easy to pinpoint exactly where I am. I dig around my pouch for an answer, thankful that it has survived when nothing else of mine has. As I dig around, I find an small vial of a glittery-white fluid with the label 'Ingested Invisibility', "Hell yeah," I whisper in excitement, "Now I just need to find a decent place to hide so the book's not visible..." I backtrack a few meters, ensuring my steps lined up with my footprints before taking cover inside the stump of a fallen tree.
"Miss Ain!?" Another call cries out for me, this time I could recognize the voice's owner as the professor.
With the group so close, I decide to chug the vial's contents, gagging as the potion makes its way down my throat. It tasted like week-old sour cream that's been left out in the sun; the taste alone nearly made me vomit the contents back out before they could take effect. After only a few moments, I notice my body slowly turn only slightly-transparent. "Shit," I mutter to myself under my breath, "This wasn't an Invisibility potion, those bastards at the Etherial's guild gave me a bloody Stealth potion! I'll have to beat someone upside the head over it when we get back to port..." At least it's better than nothing; so long as I stay hidden and don't move, I should remain unseen.
"Ain!?" Aiya's voice could be clearly heard from the rest; and she was at the tail-end of the group, too! I just needed to get her to lag behind a tad bit more...
Once I'm sure that she's alone, I tear off a small chunk of wood from the inside of the stump and toss it at her feet before ducking back into the stump. Peeking through a small hole, I can see that she noticed it and is walking towards my general direction.
"Ain? Are you there?" Her voice was quiet as she looked around for the source of the thrown object.
"Pst, Aiya," My whisper causing her to jump and look in my direction. I could tell she still couldn't see me, but she could at least hear me, "Aiya this is important. Is there anyone else around?"
She looks around for a few moments before slowly approaching where she thought I was, "No, it appears no one's around," She whispers lightly. Her voice sounded like it was on the verge of tears.
"I need you to do me a massive favour," I begin explaining, "Go back to camp and bring me any clothes and bandages that you can and bring it here in my backpack, please? It's an emergency."
"Y-yeah, sure..." Aiya stutters, "Are... Are you okay?" She continues looking around as if she hasn't quite found me yet.
"Mostly, yes. Also, whatever you do, ignore Neidle and what he's about to discover about the doors... And please hurry!"
Aiya runs off to catch back up to the group before running back towards camp with a mercenary to escort her. I sit patiently, curled up in the stump for her to return with the supplies I needed. About two hours pass before I hear footsteps returning from the direction of camp. By this time my potion had long-since worn off and I was forced to stay exceptionally still. The mercenary likely wasn't actively looking for me, but I'd rather not risk being seen.
"Whew," Aiya wipes her forehead, feigning exhaustion, "I need to rest for a few minutes. You go on ahead without me, I'll catch up."
"No," The mercenary states plainly, "We've already had one of you brats go M.I.A, I'm not letting another one of you out of my sight-"
Just as the mercenary is about to finish his line of thought, another one of his comrades comes racing up to him and Aiya, "Come quick, come quick!" His shouting sounded urgent, I'm willing to bet the professor finally noticed the doors, "There's been a big discovery!"
The mercenaries run off as Aiya stays behind, "Ain? You there still?" Her voice was a sweet relief in a time like this, "I got what you asked for."
"Wonderful, thanks, Aiya, you're a life-saver," I sigh a breath of relief as I shift around in the stump. I'll definitely need to shower after this expedition, "Could you set the backpack down and uh... Turn around?"
"Y-yeah," Aiya nervously turns around, "Is everything alright?"
"Oh, that cave just destroyed my clothes and bandages... I came out of the water looking like I came out of a meat grinder, was not fun." I step out of the stump, the remaining wood creaking as I carefully exit the tiny shelter, "You'd never guess what happened, oh hohoho!"
"Sounds like you had fun at least..."
"No," I chuckle awkwardly as I slip on the spare clothes she brought me. They were a size or two larger than I had anticipated, but they'll do. I fashion one of the articles into a sort of fabric mask to cover my entire face and head, "How do I look? Did I miss a spot?"
Aiya turns around and nearly cries, "You look fine. Shall we meet up with the others? Deliver the good news of your survival?"
"Not yet," I shake my head, returning to the stump to retrieve the book and store it in my larger bag. The weight on my shoulder was so much easier than in my arms, "Can't leave without that!"
"What is it?" She asks with a concerned look on her face, "Did you find something important??"
"Very," My voice was cold and to-the-point, "You have no idea how much of a bad position we're all in if they open that door..."
"Why? Did you see inside!?"
"Oh I didn't just see inside, I was inside it, myself. What was once a site that held the ritual to create my kind became a tomb for some unholy abomination." I turn to face Aiya, locking eyes with her, "If you see those doors start to open, for any reason, run. Run so fast and cover your ears. And whatever you do, don't turn around."
"You're scaring me... What did you find!?"
"I don't intend to intimidate, I apologize. I just mean to warn you," I start heading back down the trail, motioning Aiya to follow, "The thing I found inside was the result of a greedy and impatient man attempting to play God. He turned the princess of that time into what's called an 'Aberrant', a failed amalgamation of her and one-hundred-seventy other human sacrifices..."
"Mora's Light..." She gasped, "And it's still alive in there!?"
"Correct. I thought it was a mindless creature on an endless looping pattern; but when I managed to escape, it tried to escape alongside me... I couldn't let such a beast out into the world," I pause for a moment and my body trembles as I recount the details of the beast. Its texture-less 'skin', its morphing form, and it's abhorrent 'voice'- Gods, the unholy noises it made still make my skin crawl...
We remain silent for he majority of the trek back to the dig site. Aiya kept shooting fearful glances at me on the occasion, as if trying to find the words to speak her mind. Just as the dig site comes into view, she stops, "What are we going to do? They must've already noticed the doors moved during the night, and if that creature is still lurking inside, I imagine they've heard it already, too!" Her gaze alternates between my face and the dig site below, the members of the expedition all huddled around the door in fascination and wonder.
"Good question," I acknowledge quickly. She made a good point, am I supposed to just walk down in there as if I never went missing and then tell them to 'wrap it up and go home'? If they see me, they'll know something's up for sure... Someone doesn't just go missing and then the immovable object that's been the center of study for over a year suddenly doesn't also move without both things being brought under scrutiny. "Any ideas?" I finally ask, as I try thinking through several scenarios in my head.
"Could you take them?" She asks, clearly thinking I am far more powerful than I really am.
"What? No. There's at least a dozen or so mercenaries, and they all have weapons," I scoff at the idea, "I've fought people before, but not that many."
"Hmmm," Her sweet-sounding humming turned dark with malicious intent, "What if you just opened the doors and let the aberrant deal with them?"
I stare blankly at her as if she had just suggested burning down an orphanage, "Are you suggesting we indirectly murder our colleagues and protection?"
"Well when you put it like that, it makes me sound evil!" Aiya folds her arms and pouts.
"... Let's keep that as a backup plan then," I attempt to brush off the suggestion, "Let's try just walking in and pretending nothing bad happened."
"Are you sure? Wouldn't that look suspicious?"
"Yeah, but I work better under pressure than thinking ahead at this point, so may as well wing it."
Walking back into the dig site, we approach the group from behind to avoid getting spotted immediately. Professor Neidle was studying the arches that the doors had created when they opened, as other students were trying to organize and re-stack the tools in a place where they wouldn't get knocked down again.
"Ah, I'm so glad you finally showed back up," Neidle confesses, flipping through his notebook for a new empty page to fill, "I was about to send one of the mercenaries after you. I see you also found miss Ain, too! Wonderful, I'm glad you're okay," His words sounded superficial, as if he was truly blinded by his passion and the phenomenon that had taken place during the night.
"What happened?" I put on my best surprised voice as I point to everything being knocked down and messy.
"Oh a marvelous thing occurred sometime during the night!" His excitement was boiling over, "By some miracle, the doors managed to open; knocking down those tools and pushing all this debris out of the way!"
"Are you sure it wasn't some animal or something?" I try my best to shoot down his theory with some nonsense, but he wasn't having any of it.
"Of course not!" He exclaims wildly, waving his arms around like the conductor of an orchestra, "An animal would not be capable of such perfect symmetry or curvature! They would absolutely knock things down; but there wasn't even a set of prints to imply such a thing had even happened. Thus, the doors must've opened."
"If they opened, why would they be shut again?" Aiya asks curiously, "Wouldn't they have stayed opened?"
"Possibly..." The professor rubs his chin, "I had thought about that. My leading theories are either that they automatically close via some mechanism or enchantment or they were forced shut by whatever, or whomsoever, opened them."
"Why would someone close them again after they've been closed for so long?" I try to play along, seeing if I could convince Neidle to abandon the idea of investigating further.
"Maybe to keep a secret hidden?" He replies in a thought-provoking tone, "Or maybe to keep something from getting out?"
Thankfully I have some semblance of a mask hiding my emotions, else he'd see right through me, "What could possibly be needing kept inside after all this time?" Clearly not some freak failure of a ritual that may or may not kill us all if it gets out...
"That, my student of unknown-beauty, is a fantastic question," He snaps his notebook shut in excitement as he goes to inspect the doors again for what I assume is the hundredth time today, "One I hope to be the one to find the answer to!"
I glance at Aiya as if to say 'if only he knew' only to see her giving me the same look already.
"Also," Neidle continues, "The mural yesterday confirmed a suspicion of mine; and today's discovery has cemented that even further!" He points to the arches of dirt that were moved out of the way of the doors, "The doors actually opened outwards! All this time, we've been using explosives, battering rams, et cetera!... When in reality, we were really just pushing on a 'pull' door!"
"Well that sounds... Helpful?" I guess hesitantly, "Are we going to try and yank them open now?"
"Oh heavens no," Neidle waves my suggestion away like one would with a hungry gnat, "We had tried that when we first discovered the site last year! Trying that again would do nothing but waste time."
"Why not just ask it to open," Maeki shouts back as he continues to reorganize the fallen tools, his tone was saturated with sarcasm.
"No, no, no! That's silly-" The professor looks up from his notes towards the enormous guardians of the aberrant, "Actually, I don't believe we have tried that yet."
Professor Neidle sets down one notebook and pulls out another. Flipping through the pages, he comes across a passage and hands me the notebook, nudging me to read it aloud. Hesitantly I grab it and begin reading, "'On rare occasions, it has been found that tombs, crypts, and secret passages are safeguarded by words or phrases kept hidden from the records to ensure their secrecy.' -T'nuc Atalaii of the Seventh Age."
"As miss Ain just read," Neidle begins, snatching the notebook back from me, "Sometimes Maeki is right in that all one must do to enter is know the proper passphrase! Brilliant, my boy, brilliant!" He grabs Maeki's shoulder firmly as he wears a big smile, "Now what would this passphrase be?"
I take a deep sigh. He's getting close, I pray he doesn't figure it out... The man who had it enchanted was a moron, so it's not like the passphrase is complicated or obscure.
"Open sesame!" Neidle commands the door, "Eh, worth a shot... 'Enter'!... 'Friend'!... No? Didn't think so. 'Part'!... 'Open'!..." The professor begins to pace as he continues to shout various synonyms for 'open'.
"Why are you shouting the commands in Common?-" My tongue slipped out of my control and spoke on my behalf before I could even process what I had just said.
"What was that, miss Ain?" Neidle turns towards me giving me an inquisitive look.
"Why are you shouting?" I try to deflect.
"No no no no..." He waves his hands to disrupt my inane question from entering his mind, "You mentioned Common?"
Shit. "Uh, yeah," I chuckle nervously, "Doesn't the Ancient-Kaimarian empire predate Common as a language by several ages?"
"You're absolutely right!" He lifts his arms to the sky, "Of course it wouldn't be in common! You students are so helpful today!" He whips through yet another notebook of his containing a crude Common-to-Ancient-Kaimarian dictionary and begins spouting off words with a terrible accent. I know no one's regularly used that language in a few millennia, but that shouldn't excuse terrible enunciation.
"Aiya," I whisper, slowly stepping back from the doors, "We need to be prepared to leave now." Aiya nods, understanding the gravity of the situation and begins stepping backwards with me.
We only get thirteen paces away before Neidle exclaims, "Zeit'iier!" The ground beneath us begins to quake as the towering monoliths begin to slowly creak open. The students who were still organizing the tools rapidly evacuate from the path of the doors and meet up with the professor. Even the mercenaries were greedily gathering around, hoping to snag a piece of treasure before anyone noticed. "It worked! It worked! You're a genius, miss Ain!... Er, miss Ain???" Professor Neidle turns to look at Aiya and I as we continue to quickly depart the premise, "Where are you two going!? We've made the discovery of a lifetime!"
As the doors creak to a halt and the ground settles, the students and mercenaries, alike, all gag reflexively from the sight of the hoard of skeletal remains littering the room in front of them. The mercenaries take the first steps inside, their torches lighting up the charred walls and skeleton-covered flooring like a campfire in the night.
"Professor, look! There's lights!" One of the students shouted. We couldn't hear what was said after that, but as we ventured up the hill exiting the dig site, we could no longer see or hear the others.
"Do you think they'll be okay?" Aiya asks with a worried look in her eyes.
"Absolutely not," My words are cold as ice, "If the aberrant wasn't in that room when they opened the door, they have anywhere from thirty minutes to less than two before it shows its miserable figure-" Just then a scream rings out from the building as we see the majority of the students tripping over themselves as they attempt to flee from the premises. "Ah, so it was actually just barely outside the main altar room. Great," Handing Aiya my backpack with the book inside I point in the direction of the camp, "Get back to camp and take this. I'll see if I can't close the doors to seal it back up again."
"You said earlier that you couldn't take it!" Aiya shouts as she's dragged to the ground by the weight of the backpack, "Ack! What in the hells is in here, anyways!?"
"I can't, but at least I know the command to close the doors. Heaven knows Neidle probably got caught by the beast already, and since I'm the only one who knows to use the same passphrase to open and shut the doors, I'm literally the only one who can imprison the aberrant back inside." I turn back towards the dig site and see one of the mercenaries fall to the ground, holding his hands over his ears as a puddle of blood begins to form, "You don't have much time. You need to leave, now. If I don't return by nightfall, I need you to destroy the backpack and everything inside. The world mustn't know how to perform the ritual."
Aiya strains to put the backpack on, but gives me a nod before dashing back towards camp. She doesn't get far before she turns around, shouting, "Be careful!"
I push through the onslaught of fleeing students as I make my way back to the dig site. Once there I see the mercenary who had collapsed just outside of the door; his body was bloated, his eyes had popped, and his skull was nonexistent. "Thank the gods I'm not made of flesh anymore or this would've been me earlier this morning..." I whisper in shock.
Looking up towards the doors, I see the mercenaries battling with the aberrant beast, its gaping maw unhinging to reveal rows of arms where teeth should be and a set of pincers where its tongue ought to be. An ink-like liquid flowed from his terrifying excuse for a mouth as it grappled with one of the Pit-Fighters, its mouth-arms grabbing the mercenary's sword while trying to reach further towards the man wielding it. "Ĺ̴̯ě̸͇t̵̤͊ ̶͎͛m̴̰̓e̴̮̓ ̶̞͘ḛ̸̾s̶̃͜ć̵̺a̴̩͑p̴̢͊ě̵̱!̷̫̿" The abomination shrieks in Ancient-Kaimarian, its twisted song causing the Pit-Fighter to drop his weapon in agony as he's driven to insanity.
One of the other mercenaries, an Etherial from the looks of it, holds a hand up as a neon barrier appears in front of the Pit-Fighter in an attempt to protect him from the aberrant's next move, "This should hold, are you alright!?" The Etherial asks. The Pit-Fighter says nothing as he tries to keep from going mad.
The other remaining mercenary was a Slinger, of sorts who had been firing volley after volley of arrows into the aberrant; each shot passing right through as if it weren't even physically there. "Fuck," The Slinger reaches for another arrow from his quiver but had just shot the last that he had, "I'm out! We need to retreat! This thing is shrugging off my shots as if I wasn't even here!" They turn to leave and see me in the courtyard, "Hey, you need to get out of here! You have no idea what that thing is!"
"Oh, I'm aware fully aware of what it is, it's an aberrant," I declare, pointing towards the disgrace to the gods.
"I've never heard of an 'aberrant' before," The Etherial calls out, as they begin casting another spell, "How do we deal with it!?"
I shrug, "Your guess is as good as mine. I just know its origin and what it is, not how to defeat it..."
Just then the Etherial creates a ghostly projection of a wall between the Pit-Fighter and the aberrant, "That should buy us some time." The Etherial motions for the Slinger to assist them in moving the Pit-Fighter out of the altar room.
"N̸̢͌ŏ̴͔!̶͉͠ ̴͇͑P̶̤̑l̸̛̫e̷͔̓a̸̦̔s̷̻̈́e̴̲͘!̶͙̐" The horror screams and thrashes in what almost sounded like a panic as the Pit-Fighter was carried out of the building, "D̸͚̂ö̷̡́n̴͉̍'̶̥͐t̷̯̐ ̶̦́l̸͖̀ë̸̟́á̸̬v̷̟́e̷͚͌ ̸̞͘m̷̫̍é̸̜ ̷̗͒a̵̟͠g̶̩͂a̸͇̒ḭ̴̎n̶̟̿!̴͖̕" Its words cause all of us to drop to the ground. It was as if its speech was manifested against the better judgement of the universe; as if to defy The Lost Gods' and Goddess' wills to cry out with such a perverted tone.
I manage to power through the blow to my psyche and help the others to their feet enough for them to evacuate the aberrant's prison, "Can you keep it inside while I shut the doors?" I ask the Etherial.
"O-of course," The Etherial rubs their head in pain, "So long as that barrier I put up doesn't... Fade..." We turn our attention towards the barrier as it flickers and fizzles away, releasing the aberrant from the corner of the room it was trapped in. "Start closing it, I need to recast the barrier!"
I give them a nod, hold my hands up towards the doors and shout, "Zeit'iier!" The doors quake as they begin to approach each other to seal off this chamber once again, it has seen too much daylight in the past few hours than it ever should have. "That spell would be amazing right about now!" I urge the Etherial as the aberrant charges the ever-narrowing opening between the doors.
There is no answer.
I turn around to see what the issue was, and the mercenaries all met the same fate as the one I saw fall with Aiya. "Shit," Pulling out my revolver, I fire a round towards the disgraced princess, the loud Bang! Stopping the beast in its tracks for a moment. I forgot that gunpowder is a very recent invention; the princess, nor her subjects, have likely never heard anything so loud before.
The monstrosity lets out a violent cry as its body contorts in an attempt to make it to the door in time, its limbs multiplying and morphing into a variety of claws and tendrils. I let another round fly towards the aberrant, the bullet flying through the beast identically to the arrows the Slinger was firing. It jumps to a stop before re-morphing into a new form that I couldn't even begin to describe even if I tried. "P̶̳̈́l̸͙̅ḙ̴͆ä̷̫́s̷͇̾ȅ̴͚ ̷̘̀d̴̥͒ȏ̴͕n̸̨̔'̵̘̽t̸̯̒ ̶̹̈́l̸̫̽e̸̖͝a̷͔̾v̶̟̊ẻ̶̼ ̶̽͜m̵̤̅e̶͕̅!̶̗̈́" Gods, its revolting reverb of a voice pierced my very soul in a way that didn't just feel wrong, but unclean.
I continue to fire off rounds at random intervals as to maximize the fear that the weapon produced; it may not be able to damage the thing, but at least I can slow it down. "I'm sorry, princess," I call out, "Until I can find a way to free you, you need to stay put!" I fire the last round I had prepared and rush towards the door. The aberrant must not escape.
"I̶̭̕ ̶̹̇ć̵͈ä̶̯́n̸͈͊'̷͕̉ṫ̴͙ ̴̣̇b̶̰́e̵̘͒ ̴̗͘ä̵̝ḷ̶̚ō̶̗n̶͕̔e̸̞̾ ̸̯͠à̶͔g̵̦͝a̴͚͒i̸̼̓n̴̗͐!̸̰̿" The thing screeches in agony, as it makes its last attempt to escape as its teeth, claws, and tendrils attempt to keep the door from shutting.
"Nope!" I declare, thrusting the butt of my revolver into what I can only assume was the aberrant's face, staggering it just long enough for the doors to close on its tendrils. Its jet-black tendrils burst from the pressure as the doors rejoin with an almost-air-tight seal. The aberrant bangs, slashes, and shrieks at the doors, its unholy cries muffled by the monoliths. The aberrant is once again sealed, but at a great cost..
