Luckborn

Otter was up and moving early. He was too excited about what they might find in the darkness that lay beyond the waiting passage.

While he waited for the others to wake, he busied himself constructing makeshift torches from branches and ruined bits of cloth soaked with oil. Their lantern was too damaged to use, but several flasks of oil remained intact. He didn't know how long the light from the torches would last, but at least it was something.

Tomas thanked them again for their help and, with his family, set out for the nearest village.

Jasper knelt in front of Rell, who was still bound up tightly. "Sit tight. We'll be back shortly. If you run, we'll track you down. Maybe put another arrow in you."

Otter grimaced. He didn't like threatening people, but he also wanted Rell to face justice for his crimes, so he said nothing. He lit a pair of torches and handed one to Erin. He'd save the others in case they needed them to find their way back. Then he stepped across the threshold of the passage.

The light chased shadows into corners, revealing more of the carved hallway that led downward—each step descending deeper into the bones of the hill. The others came silently behind, packs slung, weapons loose at their sides.

The stone beneath their feet was dry and remarkably even—clearly cut by a master's hand. As they passed the first bend, the residual sounds from outside were swallowed up.

"It feels like a tomb down here. Do you think this could be some type of barrow?" asked Erin.

"I don't think so," said Sage. "Look at the carvings. They don't look religious."

"I've never seen anything like them," agreed Milo. "And yet they feel familiar."

They reached the bottom of the slope and came to a wide doorway framed in heavy stone. A set of broken hinges suggested there had once been a door here, but it was long gone.

Otter stepped through first, torch held high.

A wide, circular room stretched out before them, the floor and walls all carved from the same dark granite. Spiral lines had been chiseled into the stone, radiating outward from a low pedestal at the center of the floor.

Otter stopped, something in his gut telling him to be wary.

"Okay, this has arcane ritual written all over it," piped Milo as he stepped past Otter and made a beeline for the pedestal.

As Otter moved to join him, he saw that a rectangular stone coffer, no bigger than a breadbox, sat atop it. It bore a shallow spiral sigil that matched the ones carved into the floor.

Milo was already reaching for the lid as Otter called out a warning. "Careful! It could be trapped."

Milo snatched his hand back. "Oh, right."

Otter examined both the coffer and the pedestal, but saw nothing. Not that he really knew what to look for. That was Levi's area of expertise. Erin also examined it and saw nothing, but out of an abundance of caution, used her bow to nudge the lid. Nothing happened when she did.

"Is that writing on the wall?" Sage asked, pointing to a dimly lit section several feet away.

Otter turned his attention to a script that seemed out of place among all the sigils. "I think so, but I can't read it. Milo, can you?"

Milo looked away from the box. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Let me see." He moved away from the pedestal and ran his fingers over the strange words. Then he began casting a spell. A moment later, he said, "The weight that anchors must also be borne."

Sage gave him a confused look.

"That's what it says on the wall. The only thing it says."

"Then it must be significant. What do you think it means?"

Milo shrugged.

Otter looked back to the pedestal, where Jasper was lifting off the lid. "Hey, Jas—"

Jasper turned to look at him, lid held in both hands.

Otter winced, expecting something to explode. But nothing happened. "Never mind."

They all crowded around the now open coffer and peered at its contents. Resting in a velvet-lined groove lay a short bronze rod, one end carved into a chiseled tip, and the other engraved with more sigils like the ones that adorned the walls.

If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.

"What is that?"

"No idea."

"Looks valuable."

Milo leaned in. "That rod has energy running through it. Something very old, but still… active."

"And that velvet's not rotted. Look at it. It's dusty, yes—but preserved. Like it's been sealed for only a few years," Sage added.

Holding his breath, Otter touched the chisel with a single finger. Nothing happened. He wrapped his hand around it and lifted it out of the box. It was heavier than it looked.

A sudden grinding sound came from overhead.

From the ceiling above them, small seams split open in four places. Metal bolts slid aside. A breath later, stone slabs began to lower from the ceiling—thick, square-cut blocks dropping steadily toward the floor.

"What the hell is that?!" Milo yelped.

"Trap," Erin said.

"No kidding!"

"Put it back!" Milo yelled.

Otter slammed the chisel back into its velvet groove.

The grinding stopped. The slabs halted, hovering several feet lower than before.

"Okay. I guess that's supposed to stay there."

In the seconds it had taken to realize his mistake, the ceiling had dropped several feet. He did a quick mental calculation and realized there was no way to get the box out of the room before being crushed. Unless they could figure out how to deactivate the trap.

"Okay, let's keep moving," Otter said. "See what else this place has in store. We have to pass back through here on our way out, so speak up if you have any ideas about bypassing that trap."

Erin nodded. "Smart. No use dying over the first puzzle."

Reluctantly, they turned from the pedestal and looked for a way out.

On the opposite side of the chamber, a second archway led away into darkness, the spiral motif giving way to lines that twisted like eddies. Water-worn grooves cut through the stone beneath their feet.

They followed it in silence, Otter keeping a close eye on the torches. He figured they'd used about half their fuel by this point.

The new corridor sloped steadily downward. The further they went, the colder the air became. The walls here were damp—beaded with condensation, slick in places. Drops of water tapped gently from the ceiling to the floor, creating soft, echoing plinks that made Otter's skin crawl.

After a few turns, the passage opened into a wide, echoing space.

The chamber was circular, much like the last, but dominated by a still, black pool that filled most of the floor. In its center, a narrow shaft opened in the ceiling high above—at least twenty feet up—pouring a steady stream of water down into the pool like a liquid pillar. Mist clung low to the surface, and the air smelled clean, metallic, and old.

Their torchlight cast warped reflections across the ceiling. The ripples didn't come from the waterfall.

Otter stepped forward cautiously. The pool's edge was lined with smooth stone—deliberate, almost like a basin. At its bottom, he saw something glint. Not brightly, but enough to catch his attention. A shape. Bronze, like the chisel? He couldn't tell, but something was down there.

"Artifact?" Erin asked quietly, stepping to his side.

Otter nodded. "Looks like."

But before they could discuss further, the water shifted.

From the deepest part of the pool, something stirred—a current that swirled in a wide spiral, then surged upward in a loose column, like a body rising without bones.

The water took form.

It rose to man-height—or taller—held loosely together by constant motion. No eyes, no face. Just a shape held by force and flow.

Jasper reached for his sword, but Milo clamped a hand around his, holding it in place.

"No sudden moves. That thing's a water elemental. I think. Summoned and bound by powerful magics. I don't think it will attack unless provoked or we threaten what it's protecting."

Otter looked at the swirling mass of water with intense curiosity. "Do you think we can communicate with it?"

Milo shrugged. "I don't know how intelligent they are."

Otter began to take a step forward, but Erin grabbed him by the arm. "Careful," she hissed. "That thing could drown you faster than you can blink."

Otter nodded, and she released him.

Then he did step forward. The elemental shifted, and while it had no eyes, Otter got the distinct impression it was looking at him.

"Um, hello. I'm Otter. These are my friends. We're just exploring. We don't mean any harm."

The elemental didn't respond.

Otter took another cautious step, watching the thing's reaction.

The elemental shifted again, coiling in on itself slightly. The water around its base began to churn—subtle, but threatening. A warning, if nothing else.

"That's close enough," Milo murmured. "It's keyed to proximity, probably. A ward construct. No communication. No reason. Just programmed behavior."

Otter backed away slowly, hands still raised. As he retreated to the others, the churning water stilled. The elemental relaxed—if such a thing could be said of a creature made entirely of water.

"This place was built with purpose," Sage whispered. "If there's a trap in the first room and a guardian in this one, I bet the rest of the chambers are connected somehow. Mechanically or magically."

Otter nodded. "I agree. My gut tells me we're looking at an elemental temple. Four elements. Four trials. Probably four artifacts. I doubt we're supposed to just grab them one by one."

"You think there's some kind of sequence?" Erin asked.

Otter looked around the chamber. The only other way out was the hole in the ceiling where the water poured in. He pointed to it. "Yeah, that's what I'm thinking. My guess is that hole leads to the chamber of air. The question is, how do we get up there? And do we have enough light left to try?"

Milo peered upward, squinting into the dark. "Not without a rope. And even then, we'd be climbing straight into a waterfall. Not exactly ideal."

Erin shook her head. "The walls are too slick to scale, even with climbing gear. And that wind... feel that?"

A faint but distinct breeze pushed down from above, stronger than it had any right to be given the confined space.

Jasper raised an eyebrow. "A vertical shaft with wind and water flowing through it. That doesn't sound like any chamber I want to climb into blind."

Otter lowered his eyes back to the elemental. "What if…I ask for help?"

Jasper grimaced. "From the giant murder puddle?"

Otter took a breath and stepped forward again. He held his arms out to his sides, palms up. "Can you take me up?" he asked.

For a beat, nothing happened.

Then the pool surged.

The water around the elemental twisted violently, rising in a spiral. Otter took a step back, startled—but not fast enough. A tendril of water whipped forward and wrapped around his waist like a belt, lifting him clean off the floor.