Sanctuary

When he opened his eyes, he found himself surrounded by white walls, which were covered in intricate carvings that depicted various stories from the history of some long-forgotten nation. There were also pictures drawn on the wall depicting figures vaguely reminiscent of human ones; however, they all looked a little different, making them look like something alien; something completely out of this world.

The ceiling was clearly a dome, something like Hagia Sophia, though a lot smaller. Within the half-sphere, a bright glowing orb hung, looking like a miniature star as it bathed the interior in a warm golden light.

Strangely enough, this place gave Leo a weird comfortable, almost "at-home" feeling. It wasn't a bad feeling but he just couldn't put his finger on what made this place so special. After taking his time to appreciate the atmosphere, he got up from a simple-looking stone bed he was lying upon.

"Uuuffff..." He groaned as he stretched his entire body. He took notice of a bandage wrapped around his leg, he didn't even remember when exactly he got this wound. His skin was covered in numerous scratches he got during the escape, but now, they all were gone, not even scars were left. The wounds had completely healed with no traces left? Weird, but not the weirdest thing he encountered so far.

Leo looked around the room. It was pretty spartan in its furnishing, as besides two stone beds and a table there was nothing else if you don't count the pictures on the walls. There were no windows and only one door that presumably led inside the temple. He had no idea how long he slept here. Hunger couldn't really be a measure anymore. At this point, Leo wasn't sure of how hungry he was. Maybe he didn't eat for long enough for his feelings to

dull, or maybe it was the dehydration at work. His throat almost felt like sandpaper.

Leo walked in front of the door. It was rather large for the size of the room he was in. The door had an interesting design; a strange circle with strange markings etched all over it; they almost looked like the letters of some ancient language; however, he could not understand a single one of those characters. He tried to touch them with the palm of his hand,

but nothing happened despite the peculiar otherworldly feeling they gave

him. So he simply pushed the door.

It opened without any resistance and revealed a hallway that l with pillars supporting the ceiling. Another room was visible at the end. The hallway itself was rather short, and Leo managed to cover it in less than a minute. He walked out to a circular balcony overseeing a large circular nave with a giant stone stele in the middle.

The stele was standing tall, reaching to the ceiling, and had strange writings carved into it, but most of them were covered in dirt and dust due to age and weathering. It was the same characters he saw on the wooden door before, but as if separated by hundreds of years. As if the writings on the door were modern English while the ones on the stele were in Latin. The characters were mostly the same but arranged

differently.

The stele itself was made out of what looked like obsidian, with tiny glowing specks buried within the material, looking like stars in the night sky.

Leo looked up and saw another glowing orb, this one several times bigger. The warmth of the miniature star seemed to penetrate deep into his flesh and bones, calming and invigorating him like a warm embrace.

The light coming from it was soft and gentle, not harsh and glaring like the electric lamps he was used to. As he stood on the balcony admiring this beautiful sight, someone approached him from below and spoke.

"You are awake."

Leo looked in the direction of the voice and saw an old man wearing a robe with a hood covering his head and his face. The man had long gray hair and an impressive beard that went down to his chest. His robe was decorated by the same characters he saw on the door.

"Come down now, you will find the fountain on the first floor." The old man spoke and turned back, disappearing back inside the temple hallways.

Leo slowly moved towards the stairs, past several doors that were connected to the balcony. Each door had symbols on it similar to the one on the door he just came out of. Unfortunately, Leo couldn't read them. After walking for a minute or so, he finally approached the staircase that seemed to loop downwards until it reached the bottom floor of the temple. The steps were rather steep and narrow and they led straight down to a round room with several exits. On lead to the nave, as he could see the stele from here. Another exit was hidden behind a pillar that looked like it would come off the ground. It was probably another staircase leading downwards, but instead of going down it led back up; however, there was nothing but darkness beyond it and Leo couldn't tell if it led outside or inside the temple. The last exit was closed shut.

Leo stepped into the nave, finding himself in a magnificent hall, resembling a massive church, with rows of marble columns holding up an ornately painted dome above his head. This place must have been built in the past by someone rich because it was obvious that they spared no expense when choosing materials to build it, yet he somehow felt a sense of familiarity about it.

There weren't as many decorations as he'd expected in this kind of place. There were a few statues in the center of the nave, but besides them, Leo could only see plain wooden furniture. On the other side of the hall, past the stele, was a raised platform that had a rather large pool within it. In the middle of the pool, there was a statue of a woman with flowing hair and a veil over her head. She was holding some sort of wand in her hand and pointing it at the stele. Her dress resembled robes similar to those worn by the priest he met moments before. Water ran from underneath the veil as if she was crying.

'The fountain, huh.' Leo thought to himself as he approached the stele and inspected the writing on it. He couldn't make any sense of it, so he walked past it towards the pool. The water tasted sweet and refreshing, despite it being "tears" of the statue. After satisfying his thirst, he turned around to see the old man.

"It is the first time I see a Prime so weak. Your world must be about to die right?"