Kono:
The darkness of the cave was a relief to Kono's tired eyes. She reckoned the goblin's also felt at ease in the faint light of the tunnel. Unbeknownst to them, Kono would have an easier time spotting any traps in the darkness. A clumsy stumble and the clatter of loose stones told her all she needed to know about how Amelia was handling the darkness.
I'll need to point out any traps for her. A light spell would let her see more easily but I'd rather not waste the mana. Magic would be better spent on what's ahead.
Kono stopped in her tracks and turned back to the girl while pointing down at a barely exposed bear trap. The rust on it alone would be enough to end anyone's adventuring career, let alone the part where it snapped your leg off. Amelia nodded grimly in response. Kono watched with mild fascination as the girl's pupils slowly grew. The drow felt a peculiar pang in her chest at the sight of the frightened Amelia.
As she continued descending into the shrine, Kono considered these strange feelings.
That was fear in her eyes. Why do I find it so tantalizing? Do I enjoy protecting her? Or perhaps it's the control: a natural instinct to take pleasure from fear.
Kono paused again to point out a thin tripwire whose greasy string barely reflected the faint light.
No, I'm quite familiar with that particular pleasure. This is something different. This is unnatural.
At this point in their descent the tunnel evened out. Tiny shafts of light shone through small gaps in the ceiling, and ,despite their size, they somehow illuminated the tunnel fully.
This light is natural, but it's enhanced by some kind of lens meticulously placed in each crack. What kind of place is this to deserve such reverence?
Kono risked a glance up into one of the cracks and quickly turned away to avoid the blinding light within.
Any looter worth her salt would have pilfered these lenses. The sale value alone would be worth ten times what I'm making from this job.
Kono turned back to check on her companion. Amelia appeared quite fascinated by something painted on the flat wall. The way she bent forward to get a closer look framed her body nicely in the magic light.
Alas, looting would break contract, and if that drow didn't steal them then she's either ignorant or here for something far more valuable.
If they were going to be ambushed it would have happened by now. Kono decided to take some time to see what struck Amelia's fancy so suddenly. Kono gazed over Amelia's shoulder. The girl was studying some kind of ancient iconography on the flat wall.
"Look here Kono, isn't it strange how this wall is so flat? And these images... They show a cycle, but it's strange." Amelia thought aloud as she ran her slender fingers along the wall.
Kono inspected them herself from a distance. The pictures were ancient but they weren't crude. A circle of icons in the center showed the life of a tree from seed to fallen log, and circling that was the cycle of a stag from birth to death to dust. The goblins had scribbled their own little green figures spearing the stag at all levels of its life. A similar cycle but for humans was displayed around the stag circle, and the final circle showed the phases of the day from dawn to dusk then dawn again.
"It's strange" Amelia mused. "The cycles aren't in sync with one another. In fact they're even a little misaligned in some places." The girl pressed her palms against the stone and pushed with a light grunt. The stone gave way and began to turn as a small cloud of dust fell out from between the turning stone. "Aha! It's a dias!" Amelia wrinkled her nose and sneezed from the particles which made her helmet bounce a little on her head. "A turning stone!" Her voice was nasally. "It must be some kind of puzzle, or a meditative way to worship."
Kono too was fascinated by the find. Perhaps more so that the girl had noticed something she hadn't. The drow rubbed her chin a little in thought. "You'd think the enemy would have found this by now."
"They were too busy scribbling on it, so neither the goblin nor the drow noticed what this was. That's just another clue for us. Every advantage right?" Amelia turned and smiled at Kono like she already had all the answers.
Is she imitating the way I was back at the dung clearing? Annoying... cute, but annoying.
Kono gave in. "Alright Amelia, what's the advantage?"
The girl giggled to herself in pure joy. "Look here, on the outside, it's the sun rising and falling from day to night. And on the inside we have birth and death. Everyone knows that a seed turns into a tree, but there's a pattern here that our goblin and drow friends wouldn't know off the top of their heads." Amelia stepped back so Kono could get a better look. For the first time that day Kono felt like she wasn't at an advantage.
"So we match the dawn with birth, simple enough."
"Not that simple, the dawn has to happen at a certain spot. Someone who hasn't lived on the surface their whole life wouldn't know it without thinking. Watch." Amelia turned the outer dias until the dawn was exactly on the eastmost point of the circle. A light click came from within and some ancient mechanism caused the whole wall to move to the side with an eruption of dust.
They both stepped back and covered their mouths. When the dust settled Amelia's now dust covered face was all smiles. "See? The sun rises in the east! It was a compass!"
Kono was quite impressed, but not quite sure how to show praise. A head pat maybe? A light smile? She opted to just raise her arm as a gesture for Amelia to go first. The girl practically hopped at the invitation and eagerly moved through the new doorway. Kono followed behind, keeping that light smile to herself.
The room itself was a small bedchamber. The furniture was sparse with only a double bed on one wall and a small bookshelf on the other. The shelf doubled as a dresser and storage for texts. Amelia wasted no time moving to read the spines, but the sight of the bed's occupants made her freeze. Kono came up behind her fearing trouble, but the two skeletons that lay there were long dead.
Kono recognized the robes folded neatly at the foot of the bed. "These were priestesses of Erastil. I remember seeing this kind of iconography seventy or so years ago. These people must have been killed in the purge." Her voice was low as she looked at the skeletons more closely. "I don't see any signs of violence. Perhaps they shut themselves in here to die on their own terms." Kono bit her lip a little. There it was again, that creeping sting of guilt.
Amelia didn't look at the bodies for long. Kono wondered if the girl had seen enough death for one day.
Or maybe she's already numb to it.
Amelia returned to the books, glancing them over while she mouthed out the titles written on the spines.
"Verdant Conception of Mana In Erastil's Divine Light... Offensive Applications of Floral Arcana... Whoa... These are spell grimoires!" Amelia was practically gyrating with excitement.
Kono plucked one off the shelf herself. "Giggles and Glitter: Fae Charms To Flitter Your Titter... Ugh, gnomes."
.
Kono made a mental note to read that one later. As much as she disliked it, gnome magic often had its uses.
"Look there's something behind it too, another dias." Amelia had crawled up on the dresser portion of the shelf now, and was once again entranced in another puzzle. Kono knew when to let the specialists work. Fearing another puzzle walk through the drow decided to rifle through the drawers below. They were filled with clothes that had long since withered away. A certain piece caught her eye; a silk white dress of obvious quality. Its fit was for a young woman, someone special.
Verdant Conception indeed. So that's what this shrine is. A place of power for mana conception to be performed. No wonder it's been forgotten.
She quickly stuffed the small dress into her pouch. She'd rather not Amelia realize the implications of this place.
Why shouldn't she, and why hide the dress? Why do I keep second guessing myself?
With a familiar click and billow of dust Amelia had figured out how to open the hidden compartment. The girl exclaimed as Kono stood up to see what lay within. She couldn't help but gasp as well; inside the compartment was a small pile of shining green emeralds.
"I've never seen anything like this! Gems! Real gems!" Amelia looked back to Kono with a beaming smile. Her face and hair were absolutely covered in dust.
"They must be catalysts for green spells. This is quite a valuable find." Kono took one out and inspected it closely. The gem glittered brightly in the light, and its deep green was practically entrancing.
Not a bit of light within. This gem is virgin with no spell or enchantment inside. Quite valuable.
"So uhh, we can take these right?"
"Well this is the lord's forest after all."
"I suppose that's true."
"And it's not like he said you couldn't hunt it."
"I'll be sure to give back his emeralds. If he comes asking about them."
"Of course."
"If."
"This place must be very old." Kono mused to herself as she ran her fingers along an ancient painted image. The ones further up the tunnel walls were less likely to be besmirched by the goblins, for obvious reasons. The two had opted to leave the loot behind for now, after all they could easily pick it back up on the return trip.
The further they traveled the thicker the air became, but it wasn't just with dust. They came to old brickwork that had been laid in many centuries ago. Kono felt the hairs on the back of her neck tingle from mana in the air.
"It seems this place is more than just a convenient hideout for them. This is an ancient place of power." Kono said while she idly waved her hand through the air. The mana felt like static electricity it was so thick.
"I don't sense anything." Amelia replied, her voice hushed.
"That's because you haven't undergone the ritual."
"Is this the power of the gods then?"
"Nothing so grandiose, the power here comes from the flora. Trees, flowers, fungus, all of them create mana. This place is some kind of natural congregation point of mana, mana that hasn't been harvested for quite some time."
"Like a really big, ripe, magic melon."
"It certainly wasn't coincidence that brought that drow here."
"I just don't understand how a place this important could be wiped out and forgotten."
