Page 63 of Returned to the Vissigroth
With nobody pursuing us for the time being, I was cautiously optimistic, but I also couldn’t help but feel that we were going straight where the Eulachs wanted us to.
"They're not smart enough for that," Thalia grumbled. Her thoughts must have gone the same way as mine.
"Maybe they’ve changed," Oksana shuddered behind me.
The tunnel widened suddenly, and the air turned cooler and damper. Some kind of underground basin or chamber loomed ahead. Thalia slowed, sword up, her eyes scanning the shadows.
“I think we lost them,” she murmured. “For now.”
My lungs burned, and my entire body screamed at me, but I was alive.
We all were.
I turned slowly, looking at Thalia, at Oksana; they were both dust-streaked and had blood on their clothes. I imagined I didn't look any better. But at least we were still breathing.
“We need to find another way out,” I said. “And we need to do it fast.”
And silently, in the hollow of my heart, I prayed Mallack would find us before the Eulachs did.
The chamber we stepped into was massive, its ceiling lost in shadow, with columns that rose like skeletal trees into the dark. Pale moss clung to their bases, and scattered across the stone floor were long-forgotten benches. Some had toppled, split down the center by time or tremors, but a few remained intact, worn smooth with use. I could almost picture figures sitting there, silent and still, waiting.
The glow from Thalia’s torch bounced off the walls, illuminating the faint glimmer of inscriptions carved into the stone. They looked old. Etched with reverent hands, worn down by time. Beneath my feet, the floor changed again, became more mosaic than stone, a delicate spiral pattern that radiated outward from the center of the chamber.
Oksana’s voice was hushed. “This has to be some kind of temple.”
“I think we were herded here,” I said softly, echoing Thalia’s earlier words. “This wasn’t by accident.”
Thalia lowered her sword but didn’t sheath it. “If they wanted us dead, they could’ve finished it. They had us cornered.”
“They want something,” Oksana muttered, circling one of the half-buried pillars. “Or they want us here to find something.”
I didn’t like either of those thoughts. Because either option required too much thinking, planning, strategizing, all skills the Eulachs didn't possess, or at least, hadn't possessed until now.
I stepped toward the far end of the chamber where a raised platform stood. A dais. It had a single stone bench in front of it and a shallow basin carved into the floor, now filled with nothing but dust. Something about the whole space made my skin prickle.
“There,” Thalia pointed toward the wall. A small tunnel, almost hidden behind a fallen pillar, was carved low and narrow. Barely wide enough for one of us at a time. “Another way out.”
“Or in,” I added grimly.
We stood in silence for a moment, catching our breath, letting our hearts slow. The dragoons began positioning themselves around us. They tried to make it look casual, but it was apparent they sensed the looming danger, too. Maybe more so than us, as they were all battle-proven warriors; otherwise, they wouldn't be in the legions protecting the susserayn and vissigroths. I could still taste fear on my tongue, but beneath it… wonder. Like we were standing inside something bigger than history. Bigger than us.
“This place,” Oksana said finally, “isn’t just ruins. It’s part of something ancient that has been buried for thousands of rotations.”
Thalia looked at me, her eyes sharp, bright. “Do you feel it too?”
I nodded. “Like we’ve stepped into a memory that’s not ours. And it’s not finished with us yet.”
“Then we’d better find the ending,” Oksana said, adjusting her grip on her blade.
Around us, the quiet pressed in, too still, too heavy. But I could feel it. The same weight I’d felt in the Zuten apartment. Something had happened here. Something important. And we were standing in its shadow.
"What are we supposed to do now?" I thought out loud. "We can't just stay here and… wait."
Thalia shook her head, "Ney. But without knowing where those tunnels lead… we could wander around them for rotations and never find a way out."
Oksana looked at the passage we had seen earlier. Slowly, she turned in a circle before nodding at it. "This leads in the general direction of the other side of the Pyme mountains, where the males went…" she drifted off.
"How do you know that?" I couldn't help but ask.
