The Tears of Kas̆dael

"Sorry! Sorry!"

Jasper closed his eyes, but not quickly enough, as a stream of dust and gravel hit him in the face as the beam pinning him to the ground shifted. A moment later, Erin's worried face popped into view.

"Oh, thank god, I thought I'd killed you."

As the beam shifted into a semi-liquid form and slithered off his chest, Jasper coughed wetly, spitting out a gob of blood, before replying. "You'll have to try harder than that. Got a potion?"

Technically, he still had enough essence in the tank to cast Circle of Forgiveness once or twice, but there was no telling if the sounds of battle would draw any other enemies upon them, so, for the time being, he knew it was best to conserve his essence. He choked down the sickly sweet liquid with a grimace, grunting in relief as he felt his broken rib pull out of his punctured lung and click back into place. "Eaugh." He hacked out some more blood, finally clearing his lungs, and took a shaky breath.

"The others alright?" he asked, as he crawled out of the hole Erin had dug through the pile of rubble that had pinned him down.

"We've dug everyone out but S̆ams̆ādur now," the scout replied, "but he seems fine."

"Fine?" A grumpy voice drifted up from beneath the rubble a few dozen feet away. "You brought a hundred tons of rock down on my head."

"It wasn't a hundred tons," Erin protested as the two picked their way toward the spot Ihra and Tsia were already working to clear out. "And it was an accident. I was just trying to grab a few rafters, not bring the whole damn ceiling down. If anyone is to blame, it's their crappy building codes."

Jasper glanced up at the massive hole in the ceiling before turning a speculative eye back to his fellow earthling. The durgu was definitely exaggerating, but not as much as one might expect. The shrine's ceiling had been completely demolished, and its floor had disappeared beneath a several-foot-deep pile of thick metal plates, long rafters, and heavy granite tiles. They were rather fortunate, he realized, that there was another room above them, as he shuddered to think what would have happened if the scout had breached the roof to the black storm outside. "How did you bring the ceiling down?" he asked curiously. "A few hours ago, it almost killed you to open those gates; now you're strong enough to bring down a few dozen tons by accident?"

"I guess you could say I've been touched by a dryad. Apparently, I ruined her plans to turn me into a tree or something, but she still wanted to 'help' me," Erin replied drily, rubbing at a spot on his chest. "Don't worry, I'm pretty sure I used up whatever extra 'juice' she gave me."

"She wanted to turn you into a tree?" Jasper started to ask, before shaking his head. "Forget it. As much as I've got a million questions, they can wait till after we've closed this damned portal." Reaching the edge of the growing pit Tsia and Ihra were excavating, he hopped in and hoisted one of the fallen ceiling tiles with a grunt.

They worked quickly, keeping an eye out for any further signs of life as they cleared enough of the stone and metal for Erin to drag S̆ams̆ādur out. "I need a bloody beer," the prince grumbled as they dragged the last rafter off his leg and tossed him a potion, "not this disgusting thing." He chugged it despite his protests and, as his bones reset, accepted a hand up. "Anyone seen my axe?"

As the others started sifting through the rubble in search of the axe, Jasper caught Ihra's eye and jerked his head toward the door. "We should scout it out," he mouthed.

If there was one good thing that could be said about the collapsed ceiling, at least it had solved their door issue. A larger-than-life statue of one of the dino-centaurs had broken through the doors as effectively as a battering ram, and they squeezed through the gap in the splintered wood.

The room on the other side was easily four or five times the size of the shrine, though its purpose was not as immediately obvious. At first, Jasper thought it completely empty, as the only thing in the entire room was a low, basalt altar at its center, easily large enough to accommodate three or four full-grown oxen at the same time.

Yet, the altar was dwarfed by the size of the chamber, a massive hall whose vaulted ceiling rose a hundred feet above the altar, capped with a large crystal dome through which dusty glass, Jasper could see the dark tendrils writhing in the heavens. "Damn it, I was hoping the storm had passed by now," he cursed. "You don't think it knows we're here, do you? Like, there's an intelligence behind it?"

Ihra chewed on her lip as she stared up at the ceiling. "I hope not, but…I found it odd that it came straight toward the temple," she admitted.

"That's what I was afraid of," he agreed glumly. "Maybe it's all a coincidence and will abate on its own, but if it doesn't…" He wasn't sure what they'd do in that situation; they needed to close the portal, after all, but not with themselves on the wrong side of it.

They left a trail of footprints in the dust as they approached the altar, and as the dust was kicked astrew, he realized the chamber wasn't quite as empty as he thought. An intricate array was carved into the floor, looping spirals of crystal channels and deep grooves whose true purpose was hinted at by the dark, rusty stains that still clung to their sides. "Somehow, I don't think I want to know what they did in here," he commented as they reached the altar and found its surface still clotted with blood.

The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.

"It might just be animals," Ihra pointed out, but neither one believed it.

"For kruvas̆-sake, wait up!" Their conversation was interrupted by the durgu's booming voice, and they turned to find the others trickling into the room, with his long axe slung over his shoulder triumphantly.

"There's nothing here," he greeted them, but Tsia shook her head.

"There's something in that thing," she disagreed, keeping her eyes glued to the altar. "But as long as we don't touch it, I think we'll be fine."

"Aw, and here I was planning to take a nap on it," Erin snarked, somewhat to Jasper's surprise. Then again, he's always a little more lively around her.

The group steered clear of the ominous altar and headed toward the far side of the room, where another pair of ostentatious gates awaited them. The wood resisted Erin's pull again, but this time there was no howling storm of death about to descend on them, so they opened it in shifts until they widened the gap enough to slip through.

Another hall awaited them, as immemorable as the first, but they'd only made it halfway down when Ihra paused and tilted her head. "We're not alone."

"You sense someone ahead of us?" Jasper started to ask, but she cut him off with a frantic shake of her head, as she stared at the ceiling.

"Not ahead, above us. I can hear their heartbeats…"

Jasper glanced up quickly. Like everything in the temple, the ceiling was elaborately decorated. Its vaulted arches were painted a deep azure blue and studded with the stars of an unfamiliar heaven, most of which still glowed faintly despite the millennia that had likely passed since they had been recharged. It was definitely beautiful, but he saw nothing that could be mistaken for a living being.

He'd learned to trust Ihra's senses, though, and quickly began prepping a spell. And as Soul Sear's white orb formed at his fingertips, the ceiling rippled.

For a brief moment, the stars and heavens danced and then the illusion burst like a bubble, revealing a huddled mass of bodies clinging to the ceiling. They seemed almost in hibernation mode, with their long talons and sharp beaks buried deep in the frescoed sky, but before Jasper could sigh in relief, one of them slowly turned its head. It froze as its hawk eyes locked on them, eyes of bright amber tainted with streaks of black, and then it screeched.

"Damn it." Flinging the spell at the chimera, Jasper broke into a sprint, but his speed was no match for the chimeras. He'd made it only a few dozen feet before the entire hall was ringing with their raucous cries and a shadow flitted across his shoulder.

He spun to the side in a flash, grunting in pain as the hawkman's claws scored an ugly gash across his cheek, but he kept his focus long enough to fire off a second cast of Soul Sear. Yet, despite being barely ten feet away from him, the chimera dodged nine of the ten orbs with almost preternatural agility. The tenth, though, clipped its wing.

It was only a glancing blow, barely a wound for most, but as the orb exploded in a small halo of white flames, the beast went up with it. Right, I forgot they go up like tindling.

Dodging to the side as another one strafed past him, he slapped it with a flaming palm, smiling with grim satisfaction as it went to the ground in flames. The smile was quickly wiped off his face as another struck from behind, dragging him into the air as its talons sliced deep into his shoulders.

"Stupid birdbrain." With the talons digging into his tendons, it was a struggle to lift his arms, but as soon as he managed to clamp his palms around the chimeras' scaly legs, the captor became the captive. His ears bled as the creature screeched, flailing around helplessly as the flames quickly engulfed its body and dropping him to the ground.

Jasper landed deftly, spinning to the left as another swooped toward him, only to fall limply at his feet as an arrow lodged in its throat, and quickly cast Soul Sear at the group of chimeras swarming above them. It proved a waste, though, as the beasts scattered with near-perfect precision, allowing the orbs to strike harmlessly against the ceiling, before diving toward him like a squad of kamikazes. Damn it.

He backpedaled, trying to buy some space to prep another spell, but they closed in on him faster than he could draw his essence. But before they could reach him, a torrent of wind hammered them both, knocking him off his feet and flinging the chimeras back up to the ceiling. He rolled to his feet as Tsia struck again, this time hammering with a proper windblade rather than the blunt gust of wind she'd been forced to use to knock him out of the way. But though a storm of feathers rained down on their heads, as the air cleared, they could all see that her windblade had failed to punch through their tough skin.

But the brief moment of respite had given Jasper time to come up with an idea. A pale, corpse-like hand rose from the granite floor as the chimeras dove again. It danced slowly, wriggling its fingers in a mesmerizing rhythm, and bodies started dropping out of the air as the birdmen froze.

Soul Sear. This time, the creatures couldn't dodge as the fiery orbs streaked toward them, couldn't move as the flames leapt between them, couldn't flee as the second and third waves of orbs bombarded them. Within seconds, the battle turned into a massacre, and by the time the wriggling hand dissolved back into the pavement, there was none left to escape.

Jasper's stomach churned as he turned away from the pile of burning corpses. He didn't feel guilty about killing them - hell, if they were suffering from the same corruption as shrine maidens, their deaths had likely been a mercy - but that didn't make their fate any less piteous. He wasn't sure if Kas̆dael had any dominion over the afterlife here, but he said a little prayer anyway, before turning to catch up with the others.