Bound By Magical Blood

Harry began throwing some ancient gold coins into the bag with a small crazed chuckle before throwing it in his pack leading to aunty Irene and I looked away from the statue and then at the dwarf and then I mentioned "Not feeling bad about the fact that those gold coins are to probably help the dead in the afterlife?"

"Ney, dear friend, they probably long since spent them in Sharheim," Harold mentions with a grin as he states in a cheerful tone, "We should head deeper, anyway. There is much to explore!"

We heeded his advice and then we went through the thick wooden door that sat a few meters behind the massive statue of the ancient heroine and proceeded deeper. The waft of cool air flew into our faces after the feasting hall being so well-lit and warm. We went deeper into the torch-lit halls of this centuries-old tomb before coming across the mummified remains of the peoples of times gone.

Irene looked at the floor to see something that looked like oxidized copper, picking it up between two fingers and noting something was off. It wasn't from a time long past, this was a bullet casing.

"Shite..." Irene muttered, which caused me to look at her and then she announced, "Bullet casing, everyone."

"Bullet casing?" I asked while looking at the dried, gurning bodies of the ancient Desidren peoples. I noticed a lot had sharp ears and human heads and faces, all dressed in their armour. They were incredibly tall.

"Yeah, a bullet casing from an old lever-action rifle. No bottleneck, just one long cylinder of brass." Irene identifies with her eye and then says, "I thought this place was untouched?"

"It was supposed to, but it seems someone beat us to it by about a hundred and fifty years," Harry says, looking at the bullet. "Stamped for the Eighteenth Era and the ninetieth year."

Ari then says, "I'm not stopping until I find the place that holds my ancestor's armour. No matter what year someone came down here."

Irene then motions us to stop and then points at the rifle on the floor and a worn backpack and looked about "Tomb traps somewhere, this poor bugger was shooting at something or someone and either got dragged away or taken by a trap. Nobody just drops a gun and a pack."

She was quick to use her rifle to hook the pack with the iron sights and tugging it across the floor carefully before then bringing it to us as we opened it and investigated what was inside. Rusty cans, a journal, some ammo and rope.

"Gods... poor git..." Ari says, while carefully putting the journal into her bag and then she carried on and so did we, as we went down the mossy stones that made a flight of stairs and found ourselves in another chamber of bodies.

My instincts were kicking in, as I could feel, as if I was being watched by the bodies or maybe the adrenaline was kicking in as some poor explorer might've met his end here and I didn't want the same.

It was then Irene ordered quietly, "All of you behind me... We'll have to go slow. I'm checking for traps."

We followed behind her as her eye scanned the area as we moved. She looked for everything—tripwires, pressure plates, levers and with that she then either jabbed at it with an ancient spear she grabbed from a mummified body or threw a rock at it. A lot of the traps we saw were brutal and definitely meant to keep out intruders.

We saw many shrivelled bodies beyond the Desidren, of adventurers that met their end by the traps, but some were even more bizarre. Stab wounds, throwing axes, decapitations, arrows and caved-in heads, but the throwing axes and arrows were of the same ancient origin. This didn't feel right at all...

We maintained and then came to a massive spiral staircase lit by the sunlight above. But one thing caught Harold's eye that also interested us as he examined the writing around this one locked the door and Harold read from his translation book "Appeteru fjolutr meigarr anat. Icla wara foljar. This is apparently a storage room for books... the issue is it has a magical lock."

Ari then inquires, "Any lock in particular?"

"Yeah, and it stems from the same thought of the fables of Aeryhn and her many deeds. The massive glacial wall that she constructed during the time the titan of the sea stomped and sent a great wave at Elderia. Essentially, we'll need water and ice magic..." Harry interpreted to Ari.

she nods and then says, "Let's give it a shot then..."

Ari then stood there, forming a ball of water from the cool and humid air and with that she also formed a ball of ice in the other. Ari launched the water by dropping it to the floor and stomping it up and at the door and then freezing it as it hits the lock. The door hissed as the magical lock triggered and then broke the ice.

The massive sliding doors opened to a chamber that was spectacularly preserved, much like the feasting hall. Wooden bookcases, but amongst that was a spectre sitting on a throne, dressed like an ancient priest to the temple of knowledge. It walked forward and bowed, muttering something in Desidren and then vanishing, making us jump in response.

We entered the incredibly preserved library, the polished marble walls helping light the library up. It was absolutely stocked with scrolls, tomes and books. Ari was quick to look for anything magic-based with the help of Harry, as Aunt Irene and I searched the library for curios or items we could take to decorate our camp with.

I took a small gold statue of the god of knowledge and a few ancient scrolls that might have something interesting on them and Irene took an ancient knife that was heavily decorated from a table and a few ancient health potion vials. We took our leave, and I honoured the spectre with a few gold coins on the throne to keep him at rest and to thank him for letting us take items from the library.

Harry inquires, estranged, "Why'd you do that?"

"Because I was thinking about the feasting hall and how there were those old gold coins on the table, so I assumed it was to honour the dead so I followed with that idea," I replied honestly.

We heard the pressurized door to the library close as we leave and then go up the spiral staircase and I bring my rifle back from my shoulder and into my hands as we head up the stairs and then finding ourselves walking up to a long hallway of Desidren scripture and the many great deeds of the Iceborn on engravings before meeting a massive golden door that had a blue flame sitting in the centre.

It was then Harry made quick work reading the writing on the many rings of the door, pulling out his book on Desidren script and began reading "Here lies the ultimate resting place of the noble and holy sorceress Aeryhn Iceborn... Halter of the ocean titan, splitter of the seas and so on...,"

and he then says, "To open this door you must give the blood of the sorceress that runs through your veins."

I then muttered to Irene, "Got that ancient ritual knife you pulled out the table in the library?"

Irene nods before then handing it to my blood sister and then patting her on the shoulder "All yours, darling, be careful."

Ari nods and goes off on a guess, as she cuts her hand and covers her hand in her own blood and presses it on the fiery glass ball, only for that blood to be dragged through the magical glass and it floated there, glowing blue, making the letters glow blue, but nothing opening.

Then I felt this sensation of my arms being moved, as spirit hands guided me, which made me panic, trying to hold myself back, but whatever was guiding me didn't care as I yelled, "What in the ten realms is going on! Help!"

Irene and Harry tried to hold me back as I kept moving towards Ari and my arm reaching out to the knife. Even Harry, with his immense dwarven strength, was struggling but then, with a sudden force of the wind, they got pushed off me and onto the floor before being walled off with this ominous, transparent purple shield wall as then the spirit forced me to cut my hand.

I stood there looking at the horrid gash as I gasped in pain before they forced my wounded hand on to the glass, my heart feeling like it was about to escape my chest with how hard it was beating as Ari and I commit to a second blood pact to be brother and sister but this time, bound by magic as the forceful spirit left my body, the purple shield fell and then the massive doors opened after the rings rotated into a line that would part to open to the divine tomb.