As the lamplight illuminated the room, Mauphey didn’t see any immediate threats, and carefully walked in. It was a large room, carved out of the earth, with many passages in multiple directions. The floor was tiled, but the design of simple lines was the same across the floor. There were no other light sources than the lamp, and the minimal decoration gave the ruins a very haunted, empty feel, like walking into a tomb. However, there were no crumbling walls or rubble, as everything remained intact. Sturdy engineering, at the very least, Mauphey noted.
The other three entered the room and took a look around, letting their eyes adjust to the minimal light. Their footsteps seemed especially loud, despite their efforts.
“Should we light another lantern?” Seryth suggested quietly.
“Not yet. We don’t know the place very well, but we also don’t want to announce our arrival if we can help it. Maybe if we find their library,” Mauphey answered. He waved to the rest of the group to follow him into a passage on the left.
Despite the multiple passages, the temple was explored easily enough. They soon found some living spaces, including rooms with multiple bunk beds, though the straw mattresses had long since decayed away to nothing. They also found a kitchen area, with more than a few tables, indicating they had quite a few people here at one time. Plenty of ceramic plates, cups, and bowls still lingered, and seemed to be in decent shape. Seryth wondered if they would be worth anything, but Mauphey didn’t think so. Their simple designs would make it hard to prove they were made by the Horan, and so they might seem like a scam.
As they continued to move from room to room, finding little more than dust, Fayra concentrated on listening, only to hear silence beyond her friend’s feet. She said as much to Mauphey, suggesting that they really were the only ones around, but he just nodded and continued his stealthy, quiet manner as they moved on.
After finding a very empty room that had little more than a few spare rug threads (which compelled Mauphey to think this was a meditation room), they eventually found a pair of double doors that had more lines in the walls than usual around the frame. “That looks promising,” Rondus noted and Mauphey agreed. The doors were very similar to the wooden ones at the entrance, but when Mauphey tested a handle, he was surprised to see that it was unlocked.
Carefully pushing the door open, the group peered inside, and the lamplight hit the sides of many book cases which were lined up neatly in rows. Looking up, Mauphey saw that the ceiling was also higher here than usual. Opening the doors wider, he took the lamp with him as he stepped into the room, and sure enough, there were several books scattered throughout the book cases. He wasn’t able to count them all once, but figured there had to be at least twelve cases in total, perhaps more. Taking another good look around, he felt confident that the room was otherwise empty and waved the others to come inside.
“Let’s go ahead and light a second lantern now,” he suggested, and Rondus obliged.
“I think we hit the jackpot!” Seryth sang as she stepped quickly down a different aisle.
“This is quite a few books. It will take us a while to thoroughly explore them all,” Rondus noted.
“Only look for ones that are still intact,” Mauphey advised, starting with the shelf in front of him. “I’m sure many of these will crumble to the touch, having been left alone here for so long. If you can keep them intact when you take one, give it a good glance to make sure it isn’t blank. Any that you find in good enough condition we can stack at the entrance.”
“Good point. We probably can’t take them all, so we’ll have to choose which ones are worth taking,” Rondus added. He had the second lantern lit and was going down his own aisle to search.
“If they were so dedicated to living such stark, simple lives, why would they bother writing so much down?” Fayra asked, sifting through the shelves.
“The Horan Priesthood was established by the prophet Hora, who was dedicated to the minor god of knowledge Linarr,” Mauphey explained. “Hora taught that the way to true knowledge was through eliminating distractions and focusing on meditation and internal discourse. Essentially trying to find the divine within the self. Over time, his followers began writing down their philosophical and religious debates and explorations, hoping to find truth largely by collective effort. However, they kept them as closely guarded secrets, so this is quite the treasure trove of knowledge, figuratively speaking.”
“And so your library will pay pretty well for them, huh?” Fayra asked. Her tone was conversational, asking out of curiosity.
“Very much so!” Mauphey answered.
The group quickly got to work, and soon they had a small pile of around eight books stacked carefully near the wooden doors. They had also left their packs there for the time being. Fayra found a pair of books that looked quite promising, but when she tried to take them back to the stack, they crumbled in her gauntletted hands, the dust falling down her clothes. “Too much stinkin’ dust,” she muttered. “I’ll probably have to clean these when we get out of here.”
Mauphey was starting to feel pretty happy in finding so many when suddenly he heard Seryth give out a yelp. “Ew! What’s that?” she cried. While she sounded more disgusted than scared, the other three quickly turned away from their search and stepped quickly to where she was. They saw her pointing to something that was over in the corner of the library.
On a small dais was a chair that was flush against one of the walls. The chair looked rather strange, as it was covered with sigils and markings that made it rather different from everything they had seen so far. Sitting on the chair was a skeleton wearing a strange purple robe that had a dark red trim. The chair also had metal clasps over the skeleton’s wrists, keeping it prisoner there. Rondus quickly ran to grab one of the lanterns so they could get a better look. He approached it cautiously, though Mauphey said “Don’t touch it” anyway.
The skeleton looked old, as if the bones were about to fall apart just by the lightest breath. Rondus was a little amazed that they were all still connected somehow. However, when he turned his attention to the robe, he was even more surprised, as it was somehow in pristine condition. Mauphey then stepped up beside him to look for himself, but Fayra stood guard, keeping her wits about her and Seryth stayed by the bookcases. She wasn’t scared, but also felt that whatever was over there was definitely dangerous, and didn’t want to get closer.
Rondus pointed out the strangeness of the robe to Mauphey who nodded. However, he turned his attention to the sigils on the chair. After a moment of looking them over, he shook his head. “Can you make sense of these? Are they magical?” he asked Rondus. The big man handed the lantern to Mauphey and he crouched down to take a look. After a moment he, too, could only shake his head.
“They seem magical, alright, but I can’t tell what kind,” he explained. “This must be something specific to the Horan Priesthood. I can only guess, based on the way the thing is shackled here, that it’s some kind of sealing magic. I have no idea if it’s still active or not.”
As if on cue, the bones suddenly started shaking and rattling. The noise echoed off the blank walls of the library, causing Fayra to assume a fighting stance, her fists in front of her. The two men backed off immediately, and Seryth asked “What happened? What did you do?”
“We didn’t touch it,” Mauphey said, retreating back to the book cases. He continued to watch as the bones seemed to rattle themselves to dust. After a moment of watching, he realized that it was the robe that was moving and shaking around, being held down by the skeleton. However, as the bones disintegrated, the robe began to arise from the chair, floating in the air.
“Is it magical?” Fayra asked.
“It must be,” Rondus answered. “It’s in such good condition that it has to be.”
The robe continued to shake and wiggle on its own, the last few bones dropping out of it onto the chair. Mauphey also started hearing a voice, one that was humming and muttering as if someone had just woken up. “Who are you?” he asked once he decided this was more than just a moving robe.
“Oh,” the voice moaned. “How long has it been now? Have those insipid priests finally passed on? I told them they couldn’t hold me forever.” He spoke in a rather casual but condescending manner, and his voice was low, but thin, as if he was very old.
As the group continued to stare up at the robe, they saw a spirit appear, embodying the robe as if he had been wearing it this whole time. He had the appearance of a small man, with a thin neck and a round head. He had many wrinkles, but no hair on his head or chin. However, his eyes had small purple lights peaking through as he blinked a few times, as if getting used to a new light. He opened them wider now, taking in the room and seeing the four adventures grouped together.
“You’re new,” he noted, as if noticing an ant on a rock. “To answer your question, my name is Nezult. To think that I was once one of the most powerful sorcerers in the land, only to be captured and imprisoned by such ridiculous priests!” He twisted around in his new form, as if experimenting with it, though it faded into nothing just below the waist, the robe hanging beyond it loosely.
“We have no business with you,” Fayra suddenly stated. She had taken a step forward and glared at the spirit with a stern face.
“I’m sure you don’t,” he answered, not looking back at her. He was now examining his hands. “A handful of adventurers, I suppose. Opportunists. Not that you’ll find much around here. Those penny-pinching priests wouldn’t know a good bit of gold if it bit them. Honestly, they were insufferable, going on and on about their ‘principles,’ and other nonsense,” which he said with great mockery. “Honestly, dying was quite the mercy.”
“You’re dead?” Mauphey gasped.
At this, Nezult looked down at the ranger in blue with a look of annoyed disappointment. “Surely, this spirit form is a large enough clue for you,” he answered very sardonically.
“Well, no,” Mauphey uttered. “I meant, how are you still . . .” but he couldn’t really find the word to finish his sentence. “Alive” certainly didn’t make much sense.
“Ah, how do I continue to exist beyond death?” the spirit concluded with a smile. His eyes shined a little brighter before he answered the implied question. “Only a sorcerer of considerable power would be able to maintain his ego beyond death. Only through incredible magic that some consider to be profane!” He said this with glee as he smiled down at this audience.
But then he suddenly frowned as he regarded his spirit body. “Though, I must admit this form is quite paltry and in need of some assistance to truly be reborn. Fortunately, there seems to be one among you that could help with that, as you smell . . . quite . . . . delicious!” As he said this, his smile grew wide again, now revealing a set of sharp, bat-like fangs on both sets of teeth. Nezult let his words linger in the air for a moment, drinking in the fear he assumed he was causing, before dashing at the group directly.
Fayra could feel a knot in her stomach as she heard the spirit’s words, but she had faced the undead before. Well, they were zombies at least. So when Nezult descended upon them, she was ready with a punch, hoping to plant it right into his face. While her attack was on target, her fist passed through the spirit like it was mist, and he recollected next to her, the robe following. “Oh, you’re quite brave,” he noted in a teasing voice. “Unfortunately, you’re not the one I want.” Then he screamed loudly in Fayra’s ears, causing her to cover them with her hands, crying in pain as she fell to the floor.
However, this was enough time for Rondus to pull a spell together. Without hesitation, he summoned a ball of fire into his hand and threw it at Nezult. The magical fire clashed into the side of the spirit’s face, but he reacted to it as if a glass of water had been splashed at him.
“Basic,” he reported, “but I suppose your speed shows sides of efficiency. Still, you should really get back to your books if you want to do more than that.”
“Shut up,” Rondus growled and he summoned two more balls of fire, one in each hand, and put them together. This created a stream of fire directed right at the sorcerer, and Mauphey could feel the heat coming from it, causing him to stumble back in response. He collided with the book case there and, unable to keep his feet, slipped to the ground onto his bottom.
Nezult responded quickly himself, using only a single hand to produce a similar blast made of ice magic, and the two magical spells collided. At first, their powers were equal, as the collision crackled and torched the air, but soon Rondus was grunting with the effort and he was quickly losing ground. The smashing energies soon drew closer to him, and with one brief smile, Nezult pushed his spell harder, forcing the ice to smash into Rondus. The power sent Rondus flying backwards, his skin and clothes now covered with ice.
Mauphey felt helpless in the face of all of this. His bow and quiver was over by the packs near the entrance, not that he felt they would be of any use against this spectral monster. He had never faced anything like this in his life before, and all he could think about was how terribly out of his depth he was.
However, Nezult ignored him, charging straight towards Seryth. She had her rapier out and was trying to summon a gush of wind, but that took time, and Nezult was all over her in an instant. She tried swiping at him with her sword, but she only hit the robe with the blade’s side, making a pathetic thud.
“Delicious indeed,” he muttered, and he licked his lips before taking a deep bite into Seryth’s neck. She screamed and flailed her arms, trying to get him off. After a moment, he let her go, and she backed off, trying to stay on her feet. She held her rapier in front of her, anticipating his next move, but then she crumpled to the ground with her spare hand on the neck wound. She felt incredibly weak, and snarled as Nezult laughed over her.
“Yes,” he said, as if still drinking in the bite, rising up into the air. “That will do nicely for a start. I do look forward to getting more of you in the future!”
“What did you do to her?!” Fayra screamed. She had found a book that was mostly intact and threw it at him, as he was now floating too high for her to easily reach with a punch. However, after hitting the sorcerer’s robe, it just broke into pieces, the individual pages falling like dead leaves.
“Oh, don’t worry,” Nezult cooed. “She won’t die, not until I’ve drained her powers from her first, anyway.” Then he cackled again before floating off.
Still angry, and now desperate, Fayra jumped up onto one of the book cases and began leaping from top to top to chase after the spectre. Channelling some of her remaining power, she leapt into the air to try and strike at Nezult before he could disappear. However, just as she was about to land her attack, the sorcerer quickly spun and caught her in mid-air by the throat.
“Cease this,” he said, calmly. Then he closed his fingers, making her choke. She tried to swat at his hands, but for some reason, they kept passing through his body, despite being held in mid-air. Bored, he finally let go, watching her drop to the ground into a pile. He sneered, then turned again and disappeared into the wall above the entrance doors. One more cackle reverberated around the temple’s halls and then there was silence.
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