I found myself a nice place a few yards away from the fireplace, under the trees. I just lay myself against the ground, and rested my head on the shallow incline of the tree roots as it led up to the trunk. I let my muscles relax and exhaled.
“You seem pretty tense,” Nyx said. “Even though you just sighed.”
Well, everyone’s questions were pretty on point, I said. I need to think through things a lot more.
“Think through what kinds of things?”
Well for one, what are we going to do once we get to the castle? I asked.
“Scout inside, and find this man.”
I reclined back and got comfortable. But we know nothing about him, I said. For all we know he’s so powerful even my past self couldn’t take him in battle.
“Well. Think of it this way. It’s either we do this. Or we sit still and wait for someone else to help us. And that usually doesn’t work. At all.”
I know, I sighed.
Footsteps came from beside me and I turned. Irmeia stood there, a warm smile on her face. “Do you have space for another Eternal who can’t seem to sleep?”
I chuckled. “Sure.” I shifted a bit to the side.
“Thank you,” she said, and sat by me, resting her head right next to mine.
“What’s keeping you up?” I asked.
“Prying into a woman’s secrets, are you?”
“No?”
“I’m kidding,” she chuckled. “Honestly, I just can’t stop thinking about my past.”
Figured this would happen, I thought.
“I do not know who I was, or who I’m supposed to be. I seem to know what my powers are, but nothing past that.”
I smiled. “I know the feeling.”
“You do?” Her face leaned closer to mine.
“Yeah,” I nodded. “I felt the exact same way when I first woke up a long time ago. I was clueless about anything and everything. I could have been attacked and I still would have had no idea why.”
She chuckled. “You’re amusing, Diablo.”
“So I’ve been told.”
“By me,” Nyx chuckled. “Multiple times.”
“Say,” Irmeia said. “The elven girl. Freya. Did I do something to offend her?”
“Uhhh,” I paused. What do I do here?
“It’s just, she seems to have something against me. just want to make sure I’m not doing anything wrong.”
I shook my head. “It’s nothing. She just takes a while to completely trust someone.”
“So the fact that my memory is kind of blank right now is a source of trouble?”
“Something like that,” I said. “Don’t worry yourself too much over it. She’ll come around soon, when she realizes you don’t mean anyone harm.”
“I see,” she said. “Thank you.” Irmeia sat up and swiveled around, resting her head on my lap.
“Hey!” I sat up, and my face flushed red.
She smiled. “How cute.”
I sighed. “What are you doing?”
Irmeia laughed. “Don’t be that way.” She reached out, and touched my face. “You know,” she said. “I’m glad you’re here for me. I don’t know what I would have done if I’d woken up alone in this world.”
I smiled. “I’m glad I have another Eternal I can talk to as well.”
Her hand reached to the side of my head, and she ran her fingers through my locks. “Your eyes,” she whispered. “It’s like I could stare into them forever.”
A twig snapped, and I jerked my eyes toward the sound.
Freya stood there, an emotionless expression on her face. “Apologies,” she said. “I seem to have interrupted something. I can wait.”
And with that the elf walked away briskly, before we could even get a word in.
“Oh dear.” Irmeia sat up. “She didn’t sound pleased.”
I sighed. “It’ll be fine.”
Eventually, my mind added.
Irmeia headed off right after, probably bothered by how Freya had. I couldn’t blame her. The Eternal already felt like she was doing something wrong, and the elf didn’t make her feel any better on that end.
I thought about checking up on her later on, but decided against it. She was capable of taking care of herself, or coming to me for help if she needed it. Soon my thoughts shifted from the situation and pressed onto a more serious issue.
I spent most of the night awake, just thinking about everything we were going up against. In the end, I got maybe an hour of sleep before the sun rose again and it was time to leave.
“You seem tired, Zoran,” Raffyr said as we got onto the Volcanic Forest Bears, ready to head out. “Did you not get enough sleep last night?”
“I managed a bit,” I said. “I’m probably just tired because of all the running around.”
“Sure, of course you got enough sleep,” Nyx said.
Well it doesn’t really matter how much sleep I got does it? I asked.
“If you fall asleep in the middle of a battle, don’t blame me.”
It won’t be THAT bad, I said.
“Never say never,” the spirit chuckled.
And on that note, we headed out, moving through the sparse grove of trees and trying to find a pass between the two mountains ahead. The Volcanic bears seemed happy that we were in this kind of terrain now, and the creatures kept their steps speedy, moving through quickly.
None of us spoke the whole time, and each one kept to their own thoughts. The only sounds we heard came from the bears and from the winds themselves.
It took us about ten minutes to find the mountain pass — although it wasn’t really a pass. The mountains didn’t really have any proper route between them since they overlapped each other, and so we actually ended up climbing a small section of their base, where the two mountains converged. It wasn’t more than a hundred yards high, but it still ended up taking us fifteen minutes to get to the top of the path.
I looked down, at the slope heading back to ground level. Another fifteen minutes, I noted.
“Zoran, look!” Freya called out, with tension dripping from her voice. I glanced up, and there I saw it.
Carved into a mountain a mile away were pillars of beautiful stone, the size of each one apt for the home of a giant. Large jewels glistened from the base of each one, and caught the morning light, shining it our way. Unease struck me from the mere glance of the castle. A gentle pressure sifted into my mind, and I traced the huge amounts of power that were radiating from the place.
For a long time, we had known nothing about this man in the castle. However, in that moment, I knew with a confidence that was absolute.
This man was an Eternal.
***
CHAPTER TWENTY
Deep down I had always known.
Always known that this man was probably one from my own kind. But actually feeling it for myself was a completely different thing. There was power radiating from within this castle of carved stone, and though it wouldn’t mean much to the normal person, I could tell this man was an Eternal.
“Well,” Nyx said. “Given only Eternals and Dragons existed in this time and age, it seems obvious that if one is not a Dragon, then they are an Eternal.”
It doesn’t HAVE to be that way, I said.
“Diablo is right,” Acnologia said. “The other races of the world came into existence somewhere around this part of time. They might already exist for all we know.”
Either way, this mystery man is probably an Eternal, I though. It doesn’t matter what other guesses we could have made. It doesn’t change the fact that he is.
“Zoran.” Irmeia stopped her bear beside me.
“What?” I asked.
“You sense it too, don’t you?”
I nodded. “Inside the castle.”
“I can’t tell how strong exactly though. But definitely an Eternal.”
I didn’t need any confirmation that what I’d felt before was real, but this more than justified the feeling. I turned to ever
yone else, and noticed that they did not say anything and just kept moving forward, getting ready to climb back down.
Nothing asked, nothing told, I tapped my Volcanic Bear on the neck and directed him back to level ground. The Bear grunted once and started our descent. I kept the castle of engraved rock in my eyes for as long as I could, but the structure soon disappeared behind the trees, and I diverted my attention as well.
We walked through the grove before us, sunlight and wind infiltrating the place as they saw fit. A flowery scent carried within the gales, but lasted only for a few moments before the winds turned stale.
My mind felt empty, no longer occupied by intense thoughts piling onto each other. My only concern was this man I was to face. Polaris’ words were still fresh in my mind.
Does not exist.
That’s what the Ga’em had said when the Star Dragon had tried to Analyze this man. That surely meant something. I had been on the other end of weird Ga’em things happening to me, so I knew this was definitely indicative of something. I was just unsure of what exactly.
“Let us not worry about this too much, Eternal,” Acnologia said.
“Yeah,” Nyx agreed. “There will be time to look into this when we meet this man.”
Fine, I said, knowing fully that I’d still end up thinking about him, and probably many times at that.
My Volcanic Bear strode forward as we made our way to the end of the grove. Before us lay another mountain-path heading upward, but this one was steeper and more rugged than the previous. It wasn’t well defined, but I could tell it rose to the castle and that’s all that we needed at the moment.
“Do you think this man would have sensed us?” Irmeia asked.
I hadn’t considered that, I thought. “Well, whether he has or hasn’t, we just have to keep heading up to that place. We don’t really have another choice.”
“However, I do feel that if this man knows of our position, we must do something to counter that knowledge.”
“We really can’t though,” I said. “If he knows where we are, then he would do it by sensing our presence. That means randomly moving around won’t hide us from him.
“Eternal,” Oris called out from behind. “How much longer to this place?”
I looked ahead, at the path before me. Rocks stood on trail, both embedded on the ground and lying loose on the surface. This was not an easy path to maneuver.
“We’ll reach in an hour,” I said.
The Knight didn’t say anything and just diverted his attention back to the ground before him. I caught a glance at Freya and the other two. Raffyr and Viola rode the same bear, and not a single question had come from their lips in all this time. Freya on the other hand seemed visibly emotionless, but I knew there was nothing I could do for her, and so I turned ahead.
We soon rode onto the rocky path and headed up the mountain. The route swirled around the rising structure, inclining upwards as it did. About an hour passed in silence before we caught first glance of the castle of stone.
My eyes kept watch over everything in my vision — at the end of the route a few hundred yards off from us, at the section of castle showing from the left side of my vision, at the light reflecting off the jewels studded into the design. Everything.
“We need to be alert,” Nyx said. “There’s no telling what this man might be up to.”
I know. I focused on the structure as I moved forward. Is there an alternative way to get into this place? I wondered. Walking through the front entrance is probably not the best idea.
“It is not,” Acnologia said. “I will take a look,” the Dragon added. I heard the sound of wings opening up, and the next thing I knew, the Dragon had risen high into the air.
What are you doing? I asked, a little worried.
“Trying to get a better image of this castle,” the Dragon said. “It will—”
What? I asked, panicking at his sudden stop.
“I found another entrance,” he said.
Wait, really? I stopped my Volcanic Bear and the entire cohort stopped along with me. That was fast.
“Indeed,” the Dragon said. “The entrance is much higher up on the mountain. It is embedded into the slope.”
My eyebrows furrowed. That’s an odd place to put an entrance.
“Never mind,” Acnologia sighed, and glided back down to us.
What? I asked.
“The entrance has a trigger field right out front.”
Ah, so you enter it and this place’s owner will immediately know.
“Exactly.”
“Fine then.” I faced everyone else. “We’re going in through the front entrance.”
“Eh?” Viola blinked. “Head on?”
“We don’t really have any other choice,” I said. “Acnologia found another entrance but it has a trigger barrier in front of it, meaning in our eyes it’s as good as not having that entrance at all.”
“So we’re just striding through the front entrance?”
I glanced at the pillars of solid stone before us. “Yup,” I said. “We’re striding in.”
“I’m not sure that’s such a good idea.” Freya bit her lip. “But it sounds like it’s the only option. Is it?”
I nodded. “I don’t know of anything else.”
“Very well then.”
I tapped on my Volcanic Bear and we headed forward once more. A staircase rose from the ground, and lead up to the section where the pillars started. I got off my Volcanic Bear a few yards before the steps, and waited for everyone else to do the same.
“It’s better to go through here on foot from now on,” I said. “Volcanic Bears inside an urban setting are not helpful.”
They nodded and got off as well. We made our way to the staircase, glancing around as we did. The jewels studding the pillars glowed much more marvelously up close, with the morning sunlight illuminating the flecks within their structure.
We stepped up the pathway, and climbed up to the upper surface. A wide entrance lay before us, about twenty yards in from where the pillars stood. A breeze flew out the darkness, and sent an eerie chill down my spine. I activated my Night Vision skill and looked through, noticing an empty room right within.
“Come on,” I whispered and stepped forward.
“Eternal,” Acnologia said. “What must I do? I do not fit in here.”
Oh, I blinked. I’d completely forgotten about that part.
“Zoran?” Irmeia asked.
“Sorry. Just a second.” I stood at the entrance of the chamber. Nyx, can you access the familiar storage system?
“I can work through the menu,” the spirit said. “Why? Do you want Acnologia to go back into the storage system?’
Acnologia, I said. You were able to summon yourself out of the system on your own, right?
“Indeed,” he said. “That seemed to be what happened.”
Okay, so we don’t have to worry about you being stuck in there again, or anything similar to that, I said.
“I don’t think you need to.”
I nodded. Nyx, open up the familiar storage menu and send Acnologia back into it.
“Understood,” Nyx said.
I saw a small flash of light behind me, and I glanced back. I no longer saw a Dragon but a stream of lights shaped like one. The glowing specks surged around me, spinning in a twister-like motion for a second and then dissolving into the wind the next.
“Dragon’s been stored,” Nyx said.
“Everything is fine Eternal,” Acnologia sounded softer, but fine nonetheless.
Good, I looked forward, gesturing at everyone else to follow. They all looked at the spot where the Dragon had stood but they’d all understood what I’d just done. There was no reason to explain anything, and so I turned my attention to what was in front of me.
The darkness before me was not unnerving, which was usually a good sign. I was an Eternal who thrived in darkness, and so if I ever found darkness nerve wracking, then there was something odd happening in
there.
I’d honestly expected this place to also have such a kind of darkness, but that did not seem the case. At least for now. I glanced around, and used my Night Vision skill to scope out an entrance.
If we’re searching for the mystery man, we’ll probably have to head deeper into the castle, I said.
“He’s definitely not anywhere this far out,” Nyx agreed.
How deep does this place go? I asked.
“No clue. There’s no map I can access.”
That’s odd. I looked around, and noticed a dark cutout of wood right before us. An entrance, I thought.
Suddenly, a hand tapped my shoulder. I turned around to see Irmeia point at something, a design on the wall to our right. I glanced in the direction and noticed a large rune inscribed into the surface. I couldn’t really tell much about the rune, but I could tell it did something within this place.
I however did not do anything to it, and kept moving forward, asking everyone else to follow. We walked through the next entrance. A dull light glowed into the room, and I noticed that a gemstone of white lay in the middle of the ceiling. The room had three other doors, one on each of the three walls before me.
“This is a puzzle,” Freya whispered.
“Seems like it,” I said. Any thoughts, you two? I asked.
“None,” Acnologia said.
“Just be careful,” Nyx warned.
I nodded. I quickly realized that just randomly guessing a way out wasn’t going to get me anywhere. Instead I closed my eyes, focusing on my mind and letting my thoughts go through unopposed.
My concentration spiked, and I let my consciousness sense the energy around me, trying to see if I could sense precisely where this man was. If I could figure that out then it’d be easier to know which direction to go in. As of right now all we had was a blind guess.
And that wasn’t useful at all.
A minute passed, but I still felt nothing. I sighed and opened up my eyes.
The Eternal: A Boxed Set (World of Ga'em Book 6) Page 69
