Through the doors

The closed passage is the most interesting to me. My body scurries up to the door, and I begin searching for any way to open it. As I slide up the length of the door I find no handles and it does not appear to push open. What catches my attention is that the surface of the door seems to be carved. Feeling every inch I can I notice a change in the pattern a third of the way up. Pushing myself nearly flat against the wall I try to reach for the top of the door, perhaps for a latch. Before reaching the top, I stop.

I recognize the carvings as Elven writing. The recognition surprises me, as it comes from Carnachias and Melanoche giving me the ranger class. I decide to make the most of the gift and read. The tall door makes it difficult to reach up the entire length. I pick up the words “twin”, “speak”, and “deities”, but it’s difficult to reach the top like I had planned. I’m elevated up about three meters, but I would estimate the door to stand just over four.

After a moment sweeping the writing as best I could, I managed to decipher that bottom line. It read “Merely speak the name of the twin goddesses, should you wish to enter.” Why were there instructions written in Elvish on this door? My Elven lore reminds me that elves are often suspicious of others. I assume the rest of the carvings on this door were other languages. This space, when occupied, was made to be accessed by multiple races. The elves did not make it.

Who were these twin goddesses? The only two I knew of were the two who brought me here. Even then, I would not exactly call them twins. Anyway, I assume Elven writing is not included in the temples of those two. Still, how could trying hurt me? I speak their names aloud. Well, I try to.

I try to speak on instinct, but it seems to only cause shivers in my liquid form. I suppose I don’t breathe either. I seem to be encountering as many difficulties as wonders at this point in my life. Carnachius probably didn’t see the point in including verbal communication. Perhaps my humanoid form can speak?

I roll up onto my legs. I assume it is dark enough for my shroud to not stand out. The attempt to speak leaves shakes my chest, but produces no audible speech. This is starting to frustrate me. Opening my superficial mouth, I notice it stops at the back of the throat. I try to stretch the hollow space longer to make some lungs. I’m no anatomist, so it takes me a moment to make a breathing sack instead of a mile-long jaw.

I spend the next few moments trying to speak with results ranging from wet wheezing to bugle practice. Like trying to learn whistling, I spent several moments with no satisfaction. When I did succeed I fruitlessly attempted to repeat my results. After several minutes I finally made some word-like sounds.

“Re leatha, yeyyow eathah, ret leathr yeyyow yeahthah, red leather yellow leather. Oh my word! W-w-w-w-word. Urgh, this is thphllough.” My speech comes out robotically, but understandably. Breathing does nothing to steady me, even with my cobbled lungs, but I do find some entertainment in trying to pronounce specific consonants. After playing with that for a moment I test my door-opening theory.

“Carnachius and Melanoche.”

A harsh grating sound begins to rumble in the hall. I drop into a crouch, but not into my liquid form. I was surprised it worked, and I was going to keep my guard up. As the large doors continue on their course it closes off the other parts of the passageway. I worry about not being able to close the doors, but I suppose that issue will need to be addressed later. I pick up a dusty scent when the doors have mostly opened. It has a similar scent to that in the left corridor. The grinding stops after a minute, leaving a deafened silence in its wake.

The room before me is large, with it’s ceiling flying back up to the surface. The dark chamber was still, making it difficult for me to detect even structures. Still, it comforted me to think nothing here would try to eat me. Dropping into my liquid form, I roll into the chamber. After rolling forward for just a moment, I worry that I would get lost If I went straight into the room without any guiding landmarks. Turning to the left, I try to follow the wall closely. If there turns out to be a maze in the temple I’ll have started on solving it.

I make note of the first embedded support pillar I pass. The room continues on to two more of those pillars before coming to a corner, which is occupied by a cold brazier. I feel it up to see what secrets it may hold. The only secrets were ash. Continuing to follow the wall, I quickly discover more points of interest. The brazier was next to a raised section of floor. Just a few metres along that I find an altar and alcove. The altar is covered in rock dust, and the alcove is occupied only by the smashed remains of a statue. Looking around a little more, I found that the altar was surrounded by junk, and another similar altar setup was to be found alongside it. Between the two nooks there seems to be a section of wall that had writing on it, but anything I could read had been smashed with the statue.

I find the whole setup interesting but useless. It tells me nothing I could not already suppose. Still, judging by the setup, there should be other altars in different parts of the room. I continue down the wall to confirm my position.

The next altar is four or six meters down and in similar condition. Farther down I find a third, and a fourth. That last one catches my attention with an extra detail. Bone fragments lay scattered among the piles of rock dust and smashed statues. They are dry and meatless, left here long ago. Like I say, I’m no anatomist but there seemed to be a lot of ribs here. Maybe more than one person had died here. This lightless place seems less hospitable by the moment.

I continue sliming my way through the temple cloaked in silence. Where I expected to find the fifth altar there was merely a crater, the stone floor battered beyond recognition. Next to the damage was a crushed brazier. I assume it marks an end to the altars, but the wall continues on. I follow suit. It leads me to more destruction. A series of stone indentations lead to a hole in the wall. I feel the subtle, stale air currents suggesting a passageway beyond. I also detect the far wall of this temple courtyard here, so I decide to leave the passage for another time.

I follow the far wall away from the altar wreckage. The floor becomes more disjointed and turbulent. The walkway is no longer worked stone, but boulders and gravel. Traversal becomes interesting as I subsume the stones to move around them. Still tracing the wall rather closely I come to a large pile of obliterated stone. I assume someone did not appreciate this location specifically. Is it another altar? I sink through the cracks of the pile with the stones pressing into and through me.

A light surprises me as I sink through the rubble. It is the first thing I see in this world. I don’t feel the light or smell warm air. I only see a rich blue light shining dimly despite my lack of eyes. It kind of scares me.