Fuu examines the temple chamber

While the bulky dragon statue dominated the entry way, it's polished stone shining in the bold lighting, it hardly took up much of the chamber itself at all. Their tour guide was momentarily occupied by Emmaline delivering his payment and it was not particularly any of Fuu's business to intervene, so while the other three were per-occupied, Fuu began to wander about the rest of the chamber, the base of her naginata's shaft giving a soft click against the stone with every lazy step.

What first drew her eye was the room's obvious centerpiece. Someone had taken great care in making certain that the architecture of the stone itself worked to draw the eye toward that central point. Down the length of intricately carved supporting arches which pointed inward from each corner of the room toward their intersection, across the concentric squares of slightly misaligned stone toward the bullseye at their middle, all of it went toward one grand display.

There upon the dais, hidden from initial view by the fountain, was the skull of what must have once been the largest dragon the world had ever seen.

A person might have lived inside it as a small home. In fact, in the poorer parts of the cities she had wandered, Fuu was certain that those living in squalor would have found it to be a luxurious upgrade. The pair of prominent fangs were nearly the length of her body, and the eye sockets might have been comfortably climbed through like flung open windows.

Fuu stared at it for long seconds in contemplative silence, marred only by the obscene noises of Emmaline renewing their bribe with her tight, hot throat.

Aethyr was the only divinity renowned for slaying dragons, but those legends lay in ancient mystery, and, as the temple of the Sacred Goddess was not on particularly friendly terms with that of the Holy Father, Fuu knew them not by substance, but by rumor alone. Even with her limited familiarity with the traditions of the most popular religion here on the mainland, nothing about this place made it feel like a revered temple to the god of sunlight, healing, and protection. There was a notable lack of windows, for one, no grand stained glass to filter the blessing of Aethyr through to his followers. And it would be quite bizarre to find a temple to the Holy Father built solely of deep black stone. The place devoured light like a ravenous hound.

The particulars of this display made it even more certain that this was not some ancient forgotten temple to Aethyr. For one, Aethyr, along with Chimata Lha, was one of the two most active gods within the verdant belt and the most active on the mainland. His churches were powerful, even ruling the holy nation of Ilia as it's only government. He had his cardinals to speak his word and command his followers here within the mortal realm. Surely they would have sent an expedition out to reclaim it, particularly if it were the site of some great victory over an ancient and immensely powerful foe as this skull must surely denote.

Her lacking archeological background left Fuu merely grasping at straws, so she moved on to the rest of the room. Some intricately embossed vases and other common decorative treasures filled plinths along the outer walls, but what truly captured Fuu's attention could best be described as a small menagerie.

Whether they were lifelike recreations or the flawlessly preserved corpses of some half dozen slain terrors was beyond Fuu's ability to discern. What she did know was that every creature who's likeness haunted that place in what might have been taxedermied form would have proved a challenge that all of the Bravos together would have struggled to take down. Here stood a mighty troll, a mutant of some sort with three arms and a stature half again as tall as the already hulking creatures typically stood. Beside it, a younger dragon with smooth black scales. It would have been dwarfed by the titan implied by the skull, but it still stood well above the height of an elephant, and was presented with a lifelike depth and shine to it's scales. The creatures Fuu did not immediately recognize, like a man-sized thing with the head of an octopus, or a svelte woman with demonic horns curling over an eyeless face, she knew to imagine as potent spell casters who might yet be the most dangerous foe in the room, despite their small size.

"It's like a museum..." Robin said breathlessly from beside her. Fuu nodded.

The blush had faded from Robin's face, replaced by an awestruck openness that suited the girl just as well. Beside her, Emmaline had come to join them, blinking through a bleary, half scowl as though she had been torn out of a fitful sleep. Their guide lead the way.

He briefly stopped to knowledge Fuu, then continued forward and pressed his hand against a circle that lay embedded into a door set into the far well. When a deep purple sigil alighted on the shiny black stone of the door, he hissed in low satisfaction, then pressed it open and turned back, gesturing for the girls to follow into the hallway beyond.

With a smile from Robin, a confused blink from Emmaline, and a shrug from Fuu they did exactly that.