Ancient Ruins

by Benjamin Medrano

  “Phynis, why are you interrupting? She broke into our camp, freed our prisoner, and wants to just leave as though she did nothing wrong,” Vendis asked, her eyes narrowed. “Can we really let her get away with that?”

  “I just want to ask Miss Dryad why she decided to intrude. Or if she means us any harm. We don’t want to attract too much attention to begin with, and if she and Lily aren’t a threat, it’ll be safer to let them go,” Phynis replied calmly, then turned to the dryad. “Miss Sistina, was it? May I ask why you intruded?”

  Looking at Phynis for a moment, the dryad pointed at Lily again and made a walking gesture with two fingers. She pointed at the sky and slowly moved her finger to point behind the mountains. Finally, she pointed at herself, then crossed her arms and tapped her foot slowly, as if waiting impatiently.

  Phynis blinked, considering before asking hesitantly. “She was out past nightfall, so you came looking for her?”

  The dryad nodded, then reached over and gently ruffled Lily’s hair, prompting a soft squeak of protest.

  “And do you mean to harm us?” Phynis asked softly, ready to jump backward, just in case. She didn’t think the dryad intended to hurt her, but you never knew for certain.

  The dryad gave Phynis a condescending look and simply sniffed, shaking her head, giving a dismissive gesture.

  “Well, I suppose that’s a good thing. But I have questions for you. Lily claimed that you could do things that seem quite—” Vendis began to ask her question, only to stop as the dryad made a sharp, cutting gesture with her right hand. The ground quivered at the gesture, and the dryad’s eyes narrowed ever so slightly.

  She pointed at Vendis, at herself, and then very firmly at Lily. Then she gestured into the forest and made a walking gesture again.

  “Umm… what do you mean by that?” Phynis asked after a moment of trying to puzzle out the meaning of the gestures.

  “She’s saying that if you want to ask questions, you’ll have to come to our home. She’s annoyed,” Lily interjected hesitantly, glancing at the dryad and hiding behind her, her voice growing quieter. “Very annoyed.”

  The dryad nodded, tapping her foot slowly, and Phynis noticed that the two mages had grown pale, and seemed very nervous. That couldn’t be good, and Vendis seemed upset, so Phynis made a snap decision to intercede.

  “Very well. May we send someone to find out where you live, and come by in the morning?” Phynis asked quickly, meeting Vendis’ angry gaze and shaking her head slightly.

  The captain frowned, but didn’t outright object this time. Fortunately, the dryad nodded her agreement, gesturing for the soldiers to get out of her way.

  “Vendis? Please assign two people to get directions for us?” Phynis asked politely, watching the dryad with growing concern.

  The guards quickly stepped out of the way of the two women, and at Vendis’ command, a pair of the night watch started after the two as they left. Vendis approached a few moments later, asking quietly, her voice holding a faint quiver of suppressed anger. “Your Highness? May I ask why you let them go?”

  “Why don’t you ask your mages?” Desa asked softly, a frown on her face. “Though I can probably tell you why they’re worried.”

  “Oh? Then what is it?” Vendis asked with impatience. “She’s just a dryad.”

  “Because she didn’t say a single word the entire time. She didn’t make a gesture, save when she interrupted you, and that wasn’t any part of spellcasting I’ve seen. And in spite of that, she destroyed the ropes with a touch. That I might possibly ascribe to her being a dryad, but she also made the earth shake with a single gesture. No magic user I know of can cast spells without using words or gestures. And ignoring either requires significant degrees of training,” Desa explained grimly. As Desa spoke, the oddities of the encounter finally fell into place for Phynis. But her guard captain kept going. “And the other part is the shroud of mana that I could feel around her. That dryad was exuding an amount of mana that’s simply… unbelievable. I’ve never seen anyone or anything with that much magic, and she seemed to not even care. In the situation we’re in, we can’t afford to offend someone with that much potential.”

  “Oh. I… didn’t notice almost any of that.” Vendis’ anger slowly faded as she considered what Desa had said. And just as slowly, her face paled a little. “I hope I didn’t ruin our chances of negotiating with her.”

  “So do I,” Desa agreed, her voice soft and her eyes worried.

  Phynis, on the other hand, frowned as she thought about the dryad Lily had called Sistina. She had seemed more annoyed about Lily being out late than anything else. Thinking about it, the woman had still agreed to meet with them in spite of everything. So she smiled, shrugging as she spoke. “I think we’ll be fine.”

  Chapter 6

  “She lives in a cave?” Phynis asked incredulously, staring at the unassuming cavern entrance for a moment, then looking at the soldiers who’d guided them there. “A dryad lives in a cave?”

  “This is where they brought us last night,” the guide in front, a woman named Alaina, replied in an almost defensive tone. The guard hesitated, then continued. “Lily said she’d come meet us this morning to be a guide. We waited for half an hour to see if it was a ruse, but they didn’t come back outside.”

  “Hmm. This is… odd, to say the least.” She frowned, looking at Vendis and Desa. They were accompanied by four soldiers in addition to the two guides from the previous night, none of whom had been with her when she’d been captured. That way, if this was a trap, the seven who hadn’t been branded could easily overpower her and Desa if they were given orders. “What do you think we should do at this point? It’s half an hour before dawn, correct?”

  “Close to that. I don’t like the idea of staying here for too long, since we aren’t certain when pursuers will come after us. I’d suggest waiting until a quarter-hour after dawn at most,” Vendis replied, warily watching the cave. “I’d recommend going inside, but I don’t trust caves. They can be nasty.”

  Desa laughed softly, finding a convenient rock to sit on. “I entirely agree with you there. Caves have a tendency to be unstable if they’re very large, and this is part of the Godsrage Mountains, so who knows how bad this one could be?”

  “Mmmhmm. I hate caves. I had one almost bury me when I was a child. I can deal with them if I have to, but if I don’t, I’d really rather avoid it,” Vendis added, keeping a wary eye on the cave. “Besides, there could be a monster of some type in there.”

  “A very good point,” Phynis admitted, finding a log to sit on herself. “I’d really rather not get eaten by something large and scaly.”

  Her reply prompted smiles from the others, but they all settled down to wait. After about ten minutes, one of the guards perked up, looking toward the cave expectantly, then nodded at Vendis. As the others stood, Phynis followed suit and strained her ears. It took the princess a minute, but eventually she managed to hear the faint sound of someone whistling a happy tune.

  It took a few more minutes before a soft golden glow appeared in the depths of the cavern just before Lily rounded the corner, holding what looked like a tree branch that had twisted into a handle and descended to wrap around a golden orb shining with light. She paused in apparent surprise for a moment on seeing them before waving cheerfully.

  “Hi! Sorry for being late, I didn’t think you’d be here already,” Lily apologized as she stepped closer. Phynis couldn’t help but notice that despite her cheerful demeanor, she was watching the soldiers nervously. Considering how obvious it was, Lily was either a masterful actor, or was unused to hiding her feelings.

  “It’s perfectly fine. May I ask why you’re living in a cave? I've never heard of dryads living in caves before,” Phynis replied, brushing a few bits of bark off her pants. She frowned down at them, noticing that they were starting to get rather dirty and worn. It was especially annoying since Lily had almost perfectly clean and well-made clothing. But she suppressed the irrita
tion, looking up again as Lily responded.

  “Honestly? I have no idea. I met her down here when I was running from the Enforcer,” Lily replied with a shrug and a sad smile. “She saved me when the Enforcer chased me into the tunnels. He got close enough that he ordered me to stand still and to not resist. That’s when she stepped out of her tree. I think he intended to take her as a slave, but when he attacked, she beheaded him. I think I barely saw the afterimage of her attack.”

  “That… how did she manage that?” Vendis asked, shock apparent on her face. “Enforcers are extremely powerful.”

  “I told you, I don’t really know. Her tree just wrapped a frond around his neck while he was watching her, and it… pulled.” Lily blinked, and suddenly went slightly green. “It was pretty disgusting, come to think of it. But I was a gardener, not a scholar or anything important. I don’t know much about dryads, save that they’re bonded to trees. And it doesn’t help that she doesn’t talk much.”

  “We noticed.” Desa’s voice was dry. “Is she mute?”

  “Sistina? No, not at all.” Lily stopped and frowned, then shook her head. “I have a mental link of sorts to her, as a side effect of what she did, and I can tell what she’s feeling most of the time. And she seems to have trouble with words for some reason.”

  “Shouldn’t we get on with the meeting? We do have something of a schedule to meet, and it won’t be long before the caravan is found,” Vendis reminded Phynis somewhat pointedly.

  “Sorry about that, Vendis. I got carried away by my curiosity,” Phynis apologized, then looked at their guide. “Could you lead the way, Lily?”

  “Of course! Just don’t let me get too far ahead of you. This place is like a maze inside. I’m honestly stunned I managed to accidentally make it into the cavern where Sistina lives,” Lily replied, turning to lead the way inside.

  One of the soldiers followed Lily most closely as they started into the cavern, Alaina taking the rear guard. Aside from the ground being more level than in most caverns Phynis had seen, it seemed to be normal enough at first. After a short distance, the tunnel split into numerous paths, after which things grew more interesting. Leading the way down a series of branching tunnels, Lily showed them into a larger cavern that was filled with golden light. The cave wasn’t enormous, but Phynis gasped as she gazed upon a small chamber filled with vegetation. It was mostly occupied by flowers and bushes, but even a tree was flourishing in what should have been a dark, dank cave. Phynis looked up to see still more plants hanging from the ceiling like green drapes, and a large golden crystal set into the ceiling provided the warm light.

  “What is this?” she asked after a moment of being awestruck, turning her gaze to Lily.

  Lily had stopped and was watching them in bemusement. At the question, the dawn elf shrugged and answered simply, “It’s one of the other caves. I don’t know why everything grows so well down here, but it does. I think Sistina encourages the plants to grow, and that she somehow puts up the lights. I’m not sure, though, since I’ve never seen her come out this far. Aside from last night, I mean.”

  “The air is also rich with mana. I’m not sure why just yet, but I have some thoughts as to what’s going on,” Desa murmured, looking around with obvious surprise of her own. “This is very unusual indeed. But it explains how a dryad could be living in a cavern, I suppose.”

  “Perhaps so. I still find it more than a little strange,” Vendis replied, looking at some of the bushes closely. “Shall we continue?”

  “This way. It’ll be a ways yet,” Lily warned and led the way through five more small chambers, each similar to the first one they’d reached. The attached tunnels almost began to blur together, and it was right around the time that Phynis worried that they were lost that she realized that the perfume of flowers had grown far more potent than before.

  When they stepped into the verdant, almost indescribably huge cavern and saw the willow tree towering over everything else, Phynis gasped aloud. But it was Vendis that spoke words for her.

  “Dear goddess, what is this place?” the captain murmured softly.

  * * *

  Sistina’s body was sitting cross-legged among her roots, with hands in her lap and eyes closed. But she wasn’t focusing on her body at the moment, and was instead thinking and trying to remember more clearly. The sight of the prettiest elf the night before had brought to mind a half-remembered face, and she was trying to place the faint memory.

  She didn’t miss the fact that Lily was leading some of the other elves through the tunnels toward her, though. And she definitely didn’t miss that among them was the elf whose appearance had sparked the memory. So her attention focused on the elves, and particularly on the woman in question. The nearest other woman had a heightened aura of mana surrounding her that indicated she was a magic user of some kind, and the two of them both had the aura Sistina associated with the brand which Lily had borne when she’d first arrived. That one had changed slightly after she claimed it, but it wasn’t so different that she missed that these brands felt stronger and more potent than Lily’s had been.

  The elves were also physically different from Lily. Lily was slightly shorter than even the smallest of this group, and where she had pale skin with a slight golden tinge, these had light brown skin, and their hair was generally a shade of white or gray in the case of all but one of them. That was the woman Sistina had focused on as well, and her hair was a pale pink that fell to the middle of her back. But when Sistina focused still more of her attention on the elven woman, she realized that the pink was from some sort of plant-based dye, and the roots of the elf’s hair were coming in silver.

  But it was the finely boned face of the elf and her brilliant blue eyes that made Sistina’s memory strain so much. The face was just so incredibly familiar.

  The group ground to a halt as they gawked at her cavern for a long minute before they finally started toward Sistina herself. Lily took a moment to hang her lantern on a peg near the tunnel entrance before taking the lead. The obvious shock on the elves’ faces was almost amusing, and Sistina noticed with some curiosity that the elven woman with the magical aura seemed even more shocked than the others.

  But it was just as they were approaching her tree that the memory suddenly snapped into place, as she realized what the woman’s face reminded her of. The young woman’s face was suddenly superimposed over the memory of another young elven woman with pale skin looking down at her with a smile on her face. A memory of Sistina Constella.

  * * *

  As they stepped close to the massive tree, Phynis asked softly, gazing upward in astonishment, “What type of tree is this? I’ve never seen anything like it. And what are those lights?”

  It took Phynis a moment to realize that the glowing specks of light seemingly coating the tree were also floating around the tree. And it took another moment before she spotted what looked like tiny berries hanging from some of the upper branches, that on second glance looked like crimson jewels of some type. But sitting beneath the tree’s canopy, her legs crossed and a serene expression on her face, was Sistina.

  “I have no idea. I thought it was a weeping willow at first, but the bark and lights… I just don’t know,” Vendis responded, looking shaken as she looked at the dryad warily.

  “If I’m not mistaking things, it actually is a weeping willow. Just enhanced by mana to its current form. So much mana…” Desa’s voice was filled with awe, and Phynis looked at her in surprise. The look of utter amazement on Desa’s face was something she’d never seen on her loyal guard before, which just heightened her own surprise.

  At that moment Sistina’s eyes snapped open, focusing on Phynis, and the dryad suddenly spoke, the air throughout the cavern growing still as a single word echoed like thunder. “Constella.”

  The word reverberated through the air and Phynis’ mind, making her freeze in place for a moment. The sheer power of the word was astonishing, and Phynis felt like a whole world of meaning was infused
into it. And yet the dryad’s voice had no malice in it—there was just a sense of… happiness. But no one knew how to respond, though the guards tensed and Vendis had a hand on her sword again.

  Phynis finally managed to react after a few moments, her voice trembling as she spoke. “H-how did you know?”

  Lily looked between the two in obvious confusion, seeming even more dazed than the rest of them. Sistina stood smoothly, tapping her own chest once before speaking again, the power fortunately missing from her voice this time. “Old.”

  Tapping the side of her head, Sistina added, “Remembered.”

  “What do you mean?” Phynis asked, still stunned by the power, and that the dryad had known her family name. Her guards closed around her warily, watching Sistina. Phynis couldn’t help but notice that Sistina didn’t seemed concerned about their actions at all, and was simply watching Phynis closely.

  “Why are you so shocked? What’s the meaning of Constella?” Lily asked plaintively, having finally shaken off her own daze.

  Phynis hesitated, then admitted the truth to the younger woman. “My name is Phynis Constella. Crown Princess of Sifaren.”

  Lily’s face went pale as she realized the implications of what she’d said, and her jaw dropped.

  “Y-you’re… oh my goddess! I’m so sorry! I didn’t, umm, I didn’t realize…” Lily stammered, flustered.

  Before anyone could respond with more than smiles at the young woman’s earnest reaction, Sistina stepped toward the young dawn elf. She put a hand on Lily’s shoulder and smiled gently. The dryad made a show of breathing in slowly, holding it, and then slowly letting it out. Lily copied her, and after a minute recovered enough to blush and look at Phynis, who gave her a smile. Sistina smiled again, and gestured for the others to follow her around the tree.

  “It’s fine, Lily. You aren’t from Sifaren, and I didn’t say,” Phynis told the elf gently as she followed Sistina around the tree to just in front of the tomb. It was odd, she realized, as the tomb looked almost entirely untouched by time. Finally, she looked at the dryad and asked, “What did you want to show me?”