Beyond the camp, the group continued, and at this point, the path was completely new to Mauphey, and he made sure to say as much to the others. Previously, he had tried before to look for a way to go around the camp, but couldn’t find the path again due to the way the trees in the forest had grown into an incredible maze. And he had figured at that point he would need the help, anyway. “Still, I’m pretty confident that the temple is further on. I know I’ve seen some spires between the tree-tops. It was just an issue of getting there,” he said.
Once again, Mauphey led the way, but he was much more cautious this time, focusing on the new ground in front of him. While they weren’t silent, the others kept their voices low, as they didn’t want to attract anything problematic, just in case there might be something hostile in these woods. Mauphey heard the three of them talking about a green dragon jumping them in a forest before, but didn’t follow the topic closely as he had to keep his eyes ahead of him.
The path wound around quite a bit, going between trees and crags, back and forth, and as Mauphey considered the terrain, he realized that it was probably deliberate to try and hide the path from above or around the temple. He concluded this is why he had so much trouble finding the path after trying to go around the camp, and he felt awed by the priests’ dedication to keeping this place a secret. It also encouraged him, as their efforts nearly ensured that they were protecting something of value in that temple.
However, at a certain point in the path, it turned into a stone staircase leading down into the earth. While he was impressed by their structure, and how the embankments on each side hid it from view, he became concerned at what was at the bottom of those stairs. They went deep into the earth, easily 20 feet underground, but there was no ceiling, allowing the daylight that drifted down between the leaves of the trees to reach nearly to the bottom. The descent ended with a small landing and a pair of massive doors, made of a similar stone. Just looking at them was intimidating.
The Horan Priesthood were dedicated to their own form of asceticism, refraining from the trends and temptations of the outside world and focusing on their studies of their beliefs and principles. The large doors were covered with their symbols and images of abandoning the material world, giving the carvings and bas reliefs this sense of ancient austerity. The doors were not wide, perhaps five feet across for each, but they were tall, going nearly back up to the surface, and as Mauphey inspected them, they also seemed thick.
After several minutes, he sighed. “I don’t know if we can get past these. They probably weigh more than we can push. We’ll probably have to find another way in,” he said with disappointment, turning to the rest of the group who had joined him at the landing.
“They don’t seem that heavy,” Fayra said, looking up at the doors and judging them for herself. She put a hand to her face in thought, and Mauphey felt like she was scouring the doors like an expert merchant examining the value of some jewels.
“I think they’re at least half a foot thick, and probably won’t open without the right password. I have no idea what that could be. Maybe there’s another entrance somewhere.” Mauphey rubbed the back of his head, feeling the futility of the idea.
“Let me try!” Fayra offered, and she walked up to the doors.
“There’s no way-” Mauphy started, but Rondus put a hand on his shoulder to interrupt him.
“She’s no lightweight,” Rondus stated. He had a confident, fatherly tone, as if he was expecting Fayra to handle it just fine.
“Yeah, she’s pushed things that were much heavier than this,” Seryth added.
Mauphey was baffled. “How?” he blurted, unable to comprehend what they were thinking.
“Watch,” Rondus said, and he gestured with his chin towards Fayra as she examined the doors more closely.
“Do they push or pull?” she asked as she considered the task.
“Push, I would imagine. I don’t see any hinges,” Rondus called out to her. Fayra nodded in response without looking back at him.
“Right, I’m going to give it a shot,” she said. At first, Mauphey expected her to attack the doors right away, but instead she settled into a strange stance. While he could only see the back of her, he could tell that she had stood with her feet apart and her fists touching together, as if in meditation.
“What’s going on?” Mauphey whispered, scared to interrupt whatever it was that Fayra was doing. At this point, Rondus and Seryth had backed up several feet, near the foot the stone stops, to give Fayra room, so Mauphey joined them.
“She was raised in the ancient martial art of Jalkan, called Galatair,” Rondus explained in his own heavy whisper. “It’s a style that’s about focusing one’s energy into a core, then releasing it in massive blows or great feats of skill. It takes years to be proficient in it, but Fayra has been doing it since she was born. I speculate she would be considered a master now if she went back to those training grounds.”
Again, Mauphey was awed by this explanation, and he stood by with the other two to watch Fayra. At first, he felt a little silly just standing there, but then remembered that Rondus needed space and time to set up his sleep spell, and decided to wait. After a few moments, Mauphey began to feel some kind of energy or sensation emanating from her, making him wonder if this wasn’t a kind of magic of its own.
Then, he heard Fayra humming. Not really music, but she hummed a single note, which was rising, and as it began to peak, she finally moved. She took two steps up to the doors, placed one hand flat on each one, and proceeded to push against them with all her might. Mauphey could see her muscles along her arms and shoulders flex and shift as she drew strength from them.
While she continued to hum, now through gritted teeth, nothing happened at first. Mauphey couldn’t see the doors budge at all, and it looked like Fayra was just pushing against an immovable wall. At this point, her muscles were becoming more defined under her clothes, and drops of sweat collected on the surface of her skin. Her humming shifted to more like a long shout, getting louder as she pushed harder.
After another minute of this, just as Mauphey began to wonder if it was all in vain, he heard a small crack, and the dust on the door’s carvings started to shift and fall. This compelled Mauphey to hold his breath. Taking a quick glance at the other two, they seemed to be excited as well, but in a more confident way. Seryth’s eyes were wider, but so was her smile, and Rondus just smirked as he watched. Another crack, another dustfall, and Mauphey’s heart jumped a little. He had seen strongmen lift considerable weights, but had no idea that a person was capable of a feat of strength like this. His own eyes opened wide, taking in this superhuman effort with a sense of pure wonder.
Fayra then stopped her elongated humming to take in a deep breath, putting her back foot forward to switch legs. Then, after another few heartbeats, she gave another singing shout as she pushed harder than before. Soon enough, the cracking of the doors became more regular, and Mauphey saw the doors start to shake and jostle. Whatever was holding the doors in place was beginning to fail, and slowly, the gap between the double doors was visible, if thin. She gave one last push, and the doors creaked open a little more, then more, then enough for an average man to squeeze through. This final push stretched for another moment that felt nearly like an eternity for Mauphey.
Finally, her voice died down as she gave her last bit of effort to budge the doors just a bit further, before dropping her arms and falling to the ground.
“Is she okay?” Mauphey asked, suddenly scared.
Rondus just chuckled. “She should be fine. She’ll be pretty spent for the next little while, but she’ll be back on her feet before the end of the day,” he explained, making it sound like this was pretty typical. Mauphey conceded that they would know best, and just nodded his head. Still, he remained a little worried, as he had never seen anything quite like that before.
Seryth waltzed up to Fayra on the ground. “Do you always have to fall over when you do these things?” she teased, a devilish grin on her face and the tip of a hand over her lips.
“Shut up,” Fayra wheezed out. She was panting pretty hard, but smiling as well, satisfied in opening the doors.
Rondus followed Seryth up to them, looking at the results before saying, “Couldn’t you get it any wider? I’ll barely fit through!” The gap was about two feet apart.
“Well, maybe if you’d exercise like Fayra does, you wouldn’t be so wide,” Seryth said, the evil grin turning on the big guy.
“I doubt losing weight would make me skinnier,” Rondus noted gloomily.
“You’re certainly welcome to try and widen the gap,” Fayra taunted from the ground. Slowly, she shifted to get a hand underneath herself, then rolled her body to an upright sitting position, leaning against one of the doors.
“Well, I suppose you did loosen them quite a bit,” Rondus pondered out loud. He decided to step up to the other door and lean his weight into it a bit. However, after a brief moment of trying, he shook his head, confident he couldn’t move them further. “Truly some impressive work.” Mauphey wasn’t sure if he was talking about the doors or Fayra’s ability to open them, but he didn’t bother with asking.
Instead, he took a peek through the gap into the darkness. What little light streamed through showed another descending staircase, but beyond fifteen or twenty feet, it was more darkness. “We’re definitely going to need a light,” he stated.
“This should do,” Rondus answered, twisting himself around to reach for the lantern hanging from his pack. He also pulled out a bottle of oil and filled the lantern’s wick.
“What, no magical fire?” Mauphey teased as he pulled out his tinder box. Rondus just rolled his eyes as he held the lantern out for Mauphey to light. “I’ll go first,” he offered, which the others didn’t seem to mind, and so he took the lantern from Rondus and sidled through the gap.
With new light to push back the darkness, Mauphy could see that the stairs descended another good fifty feet before reaching another set of stone doors. However, these were a more standard height, maybe eight to ten feet high, and had standard door handles. Looking around the staircase, it was carved into the ground in the shape of a square tunnel, as high as the double doors they just opened, but tapering down to the doors at the bottom. The ceiling was just stone, but the walls had been carved with a simple design, mostly straight lines parallel the flow of the stairs. He tried looking around for some kind of switch or level to open the doors further, but he couldn’t find anything in the light of the lamp.
“I don’t think there’s a way to widen the doors on this side,” Mauphey announced, and he could hear Rondus grumbling in response. He then saw Seryth walk through the gap with ease and take a look around.
“Wow, I don’t think anyone has been here for quite a while,” she said with wonder. She kicked some dust off from one of the steps and it made quite the dust cloud, even in just the limited light of the oil lantern.
Fayra came next, holding Rondus’s backpack over her head as she squeezed through. Mauphey was surprised to see her already on her feet. “Are you going to be okay?” he asked casually.
“Yeah, just don’t expect much from me for the next hour or so,” she answered, still breathing somewhat heavily. She set the pack down on one of the steps, then sat down next to it to catch her breath.
Rondus had to take off his breastplate to make it through, holding it out ahead of him as he struggled with the gap. The green tunic he wore underneath got scraped pretty heavily by the edges of the stones doors, but after a minute or so of grunting, he was able to squeeze through.
“What’s the next step?” Rondus asked as he put his breastplate back on.
“I see another set of doors at the bottom,” Seryth noted, then added with a sly smile, “Maybe Rondus can handle these ones.” Rondus just grumbled again.
“Let’s check them out, in any case. Maybe they’re unlocked,” Mauphey offered. When the other three nodded, he made his way down to the bottom, taking the lamp with him. He could hear the other three following behind, their steps muffled by the dust.
The doors were made of wood, and had a simple but elegant design, a staple of Horan architecture. The doorknobs looked to be made of silver or something like it. Not seeing any traps, Mauphey reached out and turned one of the knobs, only to hear the distinct clunk of a locked door.
“That doesn’t sound good,” Fayra said. She coughed once, clearing some of the dust she inhaled from her heavy breathing.
“I think there’s a keyhole,” Mauphey said, and he adjusted the lamp in his hand to get a good look. Under the right doorknob of the double door set, he found the small keyhole. Seryth happened to be standing next to him so he suggested that she hold the lamp while he reached inside his pack, pulling out his knife and a lockpick.
“Those are some curious tools for a historian,” Seryth noted. He couldn’t tell if she was teasing or not this time, as her tone wasn’t as musical, but still lilting.
“Because of how much I’ve traveled around, I’ve picked up quite a few little skills, here and there,” Mauphey idly mentioned. “I imagine it’s the same for you three, learning this or that over the years.” He stayed focused on his efforts to unlock the door.
“That’s certainly true,” Rondus said. “After I joined these two, I quickly had to learn how to cook a decent meal, as-”
“Hey!” Fayra and Seryth said simultaneously, cutting off the big man, who only chuckled in response. Hearing this, Mauphey thought back to the meals they’ve had together, and since they seemed pretty good, I could only shudder to imagine how they ate when they first started.
“Are you able to open it?” Seryth idly asked after a long moment of silence. After the food joke, they had all stopped talking, leaving Mauphey to tinker in peace.
“Lockpicking,” Mauphey said, breaking up his words as he worked, “is a matter . . . of patience.” Then, right on cue, he muttered a quiet “ah!” and the lock clunked open.
“Nice!” Fayra praised. She stood up, and dusted off the back of her shorts. She had mostly recovered by now and was ready to get back to exploring.
“Rather curious that they would have two sets of doors that worked differently,” Rondus noted. He had taken back the lamp by now.
“It’s pretty common for a lot of cloisters and monasteries to have two layers of security at each entrance,” Mauphey explained. “I’m sure they could only open and close the big doors with their powers or something, while these doors would require a mundane key. It means that one can’t get in without having both or forcing their way in, which would take time, giving them the opportunity to raise the alarm and set up defenses.” Rondus nodded in response, seeing the logic of Mauphey’s explanation.
At this point, Mauphey opened one of the double doors and took a peek inside, but only saw more darkness. He then turned to the other three and quietly said, “I don’t know what may be beyond these doors. You never know if someone or something has moved in since the Horan left.”
“I recommend we keep our voices down and only speak when we need to,” Rondus suggested. The other three nodded in response, then Mauphey took in a breath and carefully opened the door wide.
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