Day Seven: Revelation and Restoration
by @
Draco981
To say that the dragons of the Lamplight Expedition Co. and the Sanctum Survey Squad were at the end of their ropes would be a vast understatement. The lack of fresh equipment was making progress increasingly and agonizingly slower. The dwindling food supplies meant everyone was getting cranky and irritable, more so than they had already been with each other. The constant rumbling coming from Luminax’s footsteps above kept everyone on edge, even with the library’s safety features, and also meant that little sleep was had by anyone. Even the Arcane dragons, who may have been used to going sleepless, were showing signs of being worn out due to exhaustion.
That being said, the leaders of both teams were still determined to outdo each other. Unfortunately, they were both focused on the same artifact, and the struggles between a Guardian and a Fae working on the same thing could not have been more present.
“It’s a string of stone beads, alternating pink and white, hardly large enough for either the Arcanist or the Lightweaver to use. Its size makes it large enough for perhaps only the smallest of breeds to use as jewelry, if that’s even what this is,” Stella muttered out loud.
“There isn’t anyone blind here,” Marjorie said dismissively and condescendingly.
“I can tell the pink stones are chalcedony, perhaps signaling the role of the Arcanist in this place,” Stella continued, thankful that her monotone voice was hiding her contempt. “The white beads are evidently calcium-based, but what are they…?”
Her voice trailed off, and she started reaching for a device to allow her to identify the stone. Marjorie chuckled, bringing the necklace up with one talon, taking Stella by surprise: “How do you not know marble when you see it? And these pieces are exquisite! Almost as if -”
The Guardian was caught off guard as she looked toward the string of beads. The two team leaders watched in awe as the string and every bead seemed to grow in size steadily and silently until it was large enough to fit around Marjorie’s forearm.
A gasp was heard and the two team leaders turned to see Winnie and Alwyn both standing nearby, both clearly having seen the event that just transpired.
“Fetch the other team members and bring them here now!” Marjorie ordered Alwyn quickly.
“You too!” Stella added. Both young dragons nodded and quickly ventured off to find the rest of their teams, leaving the two to ponder the implications of the find.
“The Lightweaver and the Arcanist were the only two who had access to this place,” Stella began.
“And the two types of stone present in the chain imply they both had a hand in its creation,” Marjorie continued, adding her own line of thinking. “This would mean that -”
“They worked together on this object!” Stella chimed in.
Marjorie thought a few moments further, “Come to think of it, nearly everything here was made by both deities. If one began, the other finished, and vice versa. That’s an incredible feat of collaboration, they would have had to have developed an immense bond for it,” the Guardian looked back at the beaded chain. “So perhaps that could mean -”
“This was made for that bond!” Stella joined, finishing the thought with Marjorie. The two looked at each other and shared a brief smile.
“OK, but, what is it?” said a new voice. The two team leaders looked up to see that the rest of both of their teams had arrived and were awaiting their word.
“Isn’t it obvious?” Marjorie asked. “It is clearly sacred jewelry used for ritualistic purposes.”
“What kind of rituals?”
“Rituals to strengthen the bond between the Arcanist and Lightweaver,” Stella answered this time.
Mina let out a small laugh. “So it’s a friendship bracelet?”
“No!” Marjorie corrected with a small laugh of her own. “This jeweled band was created in tandem by the Arcanist and Lightweaver as an expression of their mutual trust, support, and affection for one another.”
“...So it’s a friendship bracelet,” Mina concluded.
Stella groaned. “Fine, it’s a friendship bracelet. You happy, you simple-minded beast?”
Marjorie turned back to the Fae and gave a low growl. “I know you didn’t just say that.”
Stella stared straight into Marjorie’s eyes, “I wouldn’t have said it if it weren’t true.”
This statement was met with several growls from the Lamplight Expedition Co.
“Do I need to remind you which member of your team
ate an important historical document?” Marjorie said threateningly. R0seth0rn looked guiltily at the floor.
“And how about this one?” Cassius snapped, pointing at Grace, “Always fumbling about and nearly breaking everything they touch!”
“You leave Grace alone!” Winnie warned. More growls soon erupted from the dragons of both teams, the tension in the room was growing exponentially.
“Can’t keep your team in line, can you?” Marjorie taunted Stella, setting the bracelet down. This soon became a mistake, as it directly led into a massive shouting match between every dragon present. The volume in the room was so great it even drowned out the rumblings of the footsteps from Luminax above.
Then, at some point, every dragon in the room heard a sound that brought all of them to alertness and fear. It was the sound of a spell being cast. A beam of magic, pure white and without a clear element began streaking around the room. No one knew who cast it. The beam abruptly shot across the room and struck the bracelet, launching it into the air. Vex dove over and snatched the bracelet before any more potential damage could be done to it. The dragons of both teams almost immediately went back to furiously arguing with each other, now blaming the others for nearly destroying the sacred artifact.
“Oh, will you all quit it!” Vex shouted suddenly at the top of their lungs. The squabbling teams paused momentarily and looked at the Sandsurge. Vex seized this brief moment of their attention that they had. “Look at this!” They shouted, holding up the bracelet in their claw. “This was meant to symbolize and strengthen the bonds of friendship and trust between the Arcanist and the Lightweaver! Now look at all of you. How well do you think you are representing this bond between them?”
The weight of their words quickly sunk in as the two teams gave long looks at each other, reflecting on their actions.
“Why are we even competing like this?” Vex continued. “This place was made entirely as a collaborative effort between our deities, neither of them was trying to outdo the other.”
“I agree,” Mina said, “I know that our influx of supplies and food being cut off has made our progress slow and put all of us on edge, but I think this element of competition between us has made this entire experience not worth it.”
Most of the dragons of both teams nodded in agreement, but Stella and Marjorie stood shocked at the Skydancer’s words.
“How could you say something like that?!” Marjorie asked, appalled.
“Don’t you want to be the one to make the discoveries here?” Stella added.
“Well, yes,” Grace began, “But the way we’ve been doing this seems to directly contradict what our gods had in mind.”
“Yes,” Edward agreed, “The Lightweaver and the Arcanist,
both of our flights, were both motivated by the discovery of what they didn’t already know, that pursuit of unheld knowledge, that was why they worked together to make this place; to continue that pursuit together.”
The two team leaders looked skeptical of what they were hearing.
“Stella, Marjorie, if I may,” Mina began, “that brief moment you two spent together figuring out the purpose of the bracelet, and the joy of finally getting to that conclusion, that was your favorite moment out of this entire expedition, am I correct?”
The Guardian and the Fae looked at each other for a moment, still clinging on to that feeling of competition they had. Finally, Stella admitted out loud, “Yes. That moment, that feeling, that’s what I strive for. That is why I chose to work in this profession.”
“Me too,” Marjorie said with a sigh, “I don’t get that kind of excitement from making a discovery in a competition, only collaboration.”
A few moments of silence passed. The two groups of dragons looked at each other in anticipation, then at their leaders for instructions on what to do next.
“I know what this calls for,” Stella announced, not enthusiastically, but formally. “Marjorie, I’m aware that our efforts during this expedition have been strained, and I understand that introducing this element of competition has only worsened this strain for both of us and our teams. It would have been better if we had collaborated on this project to begin with.”
Stella extended her claw, now with a pink glow surrounding it, towards Marjorie. The Guardian understood immediately what was going on.
“And to you, Stella, I understand that your methods of discovery may be rather unorthodox compared to ours, but I acknowledge that that doesn’t make you any less capable of exploring a place such as this. I let my pride get in the way of my thinking when I accepted your challenge, and I agree that we should have worked together.” She extended her own claw, covered in a yellow glow. She nearly reached Stella’s claw before pausing. “So, we’ll split the credit?”
“Yes, that would be best for us,” Stella confirmed.
Marjorie relaxed and, despite the size difference, the two team leaders placed the palms of their claws into each other. Suddenly, the bracelet flew out of Vex’s hand, came undone at one point, and then wrapped itself around Stella and Marjorie’s forearms. As this happened, the glows of the respective magics of the two grew more intense, and then seemed to migrate towards their meeting point. Stella and Marjorie quickly pulled their claws back, afraid and unaware of what was taking place. In the open space their claws left behind, a large white ball of energy floated silently, with two smaller streaks of Arcane and Light magic orbiting around it.
Then, two massive voices emanated through the entire room.
"The bond has been renewed..."
"...The origin must be restored."
Before anyone could openly acknowledge what just happened, the ball of white energy rose up, the streaks of energy orbiting in increasing speed. Then, the energies coalesced before quickly flashing into a massive pink and yellow rune circle with intricate patterns, perfectly symmetrical except for two large circles within it, one with the Arcane rune and the other with Light’s. The circle flashed before dissipating, leaving several streaks of magic behind. The streaks hovered for a moment, before fanning out and spreading all over the room, affecting nearly everything they came near. Both teams watched in awe as all the dust in the room was cleared away, light far brighter than what they had brought filled the space, and, most incredibly of all, the damage and dilapidation brought by time on everything in the room was completely undone, leaving it all in pristine condition.
The dragons looked around them at the spectacle that had unfolded before them. Their gaze fell back to the streaks, which were now hovering above them. Then, as if satisfied with their work, they floated out of the room. No order needed to be given for every dragon to follow them. The streaks then fanned out and spread all over the ancient site.
“Pair up and split up!” Stella and Marjorie ordered in unison. WIthout hesitation, each team member found a dragon of the other element and chased after the streaks, which, notably, were also paired up with the other element.
Cassius and Grace followed a pair into one room, where countless massive shelves had collapsed all over the floor, their contents strewn about. The two watched as the streak of Light magic danced around the walls, restoring the ornate siding to its original grandeur. The Arcane streak flew over the center of the massive pile and briefly flashed brighter. Every object was surrounded in a pink glow as they soon began to float and elegantly began moving around the room and settling in the right place, the books, scrolls, and tablets arranging themselves within the shelves in perfect order. The Light streak, now done refurbishing the walls, circled quickly around the shelves, healing all the damage to them and their contents. Around the library, similar sights were being seen. Edward and Vex were surprised to see a pair of streaks repairing the damage from the collapsed tunnels, perfectly fixing the falling stones and cleaning up the debris.
Vex approached a section of the ceiling and tested it. “It’s perfect. I’ve never seen anything as strong as this.”
Elsewhere, R0seth0rn and Mina discovered a room with a massive underground spring. The streaks they followed danced around the room, and began a massive sequence of events. Stones in the water flew up and repositioned themselves in the ceiling, which was soon carved into a large dome structure. The Aether and Skydancer were surprised to see areas of soil around the spring, not having been able to see it without the new light provided. They were more shocked to see the two streaks dive into the soil, and from it sprouted dozens of plants, growing into plants native to both the Starfall Isles and the Sunbream Ruins. The plants grew bounties of flowers and fruit.
“Oh, thank goodness,” R0se said, darting towards the awaiting meal, but she was stopped as Mina grabbed her.
“We shouldn’t. This place was meant for our gods, we shouldn’t disturb anything we don’t need to.”
In a nearby room, Winnie and Alwyn were amazed at the restoration of two massive fields of exquisitely soft fabric, one in yellow, and the other in white. Next to both were two equally large pedestals that looked to be more like tables, one in marble and the other of pink chalcedony. Winnie spotted something on the marble pedestal and flew up to investigate it as Stella and Marjorie came into the room.
“Come and look at this!” Winnie called. The other three dragons flew up to see. It was a large stone tablet with something clearly carved into it.
“That’s the ancient runic dialect of the Lightweaver herself!” Marjorie excitedly pointed out. “She wrote: ‘While we may not need them ourselves, we must agree that some mortal luxuries are definitely as justified as our children claim.’”
The quartet of dragons looked around at each other and shared a small laugh, knowing their gods’ common habits of abstaining from most of their own practices considered necessary for their own lives.
The two teams soon reconvened and shared their discoveries before making plans of what steps to take next. These included sharing food supplies and rationing them appropriately, trying to help each other get sleep when they could, and, most importantly working
with each other on any new discoveries that would be made, and there would clearly be a lot of them. It wasn’t until much of the excitement died down that a new problem was noticed.
“When was the last time anyone saw the talking statuettes?” Grace asked. As murmurs spread between the group of dragons, it was realized that the two enchanted figures had seemingly vanished. Before anyone could propose anything as to where they had been last seen to where the group could find them, two massive thuds were heard. The group now exchanged glances of curiosity and excitement.
“Was that Luminax or -?” Willie tried to ask before being cut off.
“Why don’t we go find out?” Marjorie suggested, eagerly running towards the doors before waiting for a reply. The rest of the group followed just as eagerly, and they were all overjoyed to see new light coming into the main entrance hall. The Emperor had finally left the vicinity of the library, the massive doors were open.
“Everyone!” Stella called, “look up!”
The group obliged, wondering what the Fae had seen. Gasps were then made at the spectacle above them. Where the walls and ceiling had once been bare, they were now covered in beautiful artwork. The centerpiece of one side was a massive fresco of the Arcanist with all four wings spread wide, his arms outstretched. The other side contained a similar fresco of the Lightweaver in the same pose. The outlines of the images held several lines of magic pulsing around them. Both gods looked down at the space between them, and they seemed to subtly smile at the ten dragons on the floor below.
“I can’t wait to come back to this place,” Marjorie said.
“Definitely,” Stella agreed, “But I am more than willing to rest and to actually eat something more than our rations.” This was met with nods and short statements of agreement from everyone else.
A few hours later, the two teams were talking in a site just outside the entrance of the library that was quickly going to become their base of operations. Everyone was well-fed and most of them felt far more rested. They were discussing plans for what they wanted to accomplish the next day, who would accomplish it, and what the best way of doing so was.
“My map!” Mina exclaimed suddenly. “I was working on making a map of the library, where is it?”
“It wasn’t me!” R0seth0rn said quickly. The large group started looking around for the Skydancer’s map scroll.
“Found it!” Grace called eventually.
“Thank you! Where was it?” Mina asked.
“It was back in the entrance hall of the library. You must have dropped it somehow.”
Back at the base camp, Mina unrolled to scroll to see if any damage had been done and to show what she had written down so far.
“We should make copies of this,” Stella suggested. Winnie patted R0se on the back with a bit of force. The Aether turned and narrowed their eyes before returning their gaze to the map.
“Well, if I recall correctly, after the entrance hall was that chamber that led off in several different directions,” Marjorie tapped on the portion of Mina’s map where a rough circle had been drawn to indicate the chamber she mentioned. Suddenly, two lines, one yellow and one pink, appeared on the edges of what Mina had sketched out and moved their way across the parchment. They circled around the area Marjorie had pointed out before dissipating, leaving behind strokes of ink in a perfect circle with several openings that clearly indicated the passages leading to other parts of the library.
“Wh- Mina, how did you get the map to do that?” Stella asked.
“I didn’t! I’ve been using normal ink this whole time!” Mina explained.
“But then who did -?” Stella wondered before cutting herself off, realizing on her own what the only explanation could be. As she did, the two lines of magic reappeared on the paper, and began moving around before settling with an Arcane rune in one corner and a Light rune in the opposite corner. Everyone in the group realized what this meant.
“We’ve got a great time ahead of us!” Cassius said excitedly.
