Chapter 13: Tomb of Fire

Miko:

Shuffling off to the side, I kept the Aeternae in my peripheral, trying not to make any sudden movements to spark the creature into action. Before I could focus on my surroundings, a roaring bleat that evolved into a blood-curdling howl rang out through the room, stopping the breath in my chest. I had seen animals plenty out in our fields and the woods. Animals could be reasoned with and traded with in a way. A horse exchanges its strength for hauling and its speed for travel, for food and protection. Bears will trade space, or your hunt, for your protection. Animals act out of fear or instinct and the most basic of needs; if a person can provide food, water, and cover from the warmth and cold — an animal can be tamed. However, beasts cannot be reasoned with. They are superior to men and are aware of it. In the calculative eyes of a beast, we are but simple prey who wields weapons instead of fangs or claws. This was a beast, and like the stories of our ancestors, the Aeternae was to be feared as such. A bead of sweat rolled down the side of my face, a feeling I was unfamiliar with. At first, I thought it was out of fear, but my skin itched in an uncomfortably hot manner, and I realized the room was increasing in temperature since there was nowhere for the heat to escape too. I feared for Maleki’s safety, but this fight would have to happen now so I could start doing my part. Every minute matters, and we aren’t nearly as flame- resistant as our opponent appears, considering it shot out through a wall of flame unburnt and unharmed.

This will be a test of endurance. Will the room burn us up before this beast chews us up?

A deep roar, and the beast moved swiftly toward Maleki. Trusting him to take care of his portion — I rolled out of the way clumsily — limping back to my feet and going as fast as possible to the other side of the room. There were nine braziers, one for each platform that, like the walls, covered a circular disc cut out into the ground. Another design feature that mirrored the intricacy of the walls and doorways.

I studied the walls, the floors, and the ceiling as quickly as possible. We needed a way to shut off the fire, and considering it wasn’t there when we first entered the room, a way to return the room to normal must exist unless the room resets naturally after a certain amount of time passes. Hopefully, that’s not the case.

Starting with the murals, I inspected them closely. The fire along the other sections of the wall prevented me from getting too close or touching anything. Behind me, on opposite sides of our entrance, were two stone frames that covered a landscape cut of a male and a female. They were engraved to look at each other, one sitting comfortably on top of a tree’s branch looking down and the other on the ground looking up. Moving on, the left side of the room had three image sections. Engraved in the stone, an angelic woman with a warm smile stood alone. To the left and right of the depiction of the woman were the two cratered murals. From here, it looked like a fist formed in the center, cracking outwards in the shifted rock. Barely anything was left, but they both appeared to be men, one surrounded by water and the other by air. I hobbled to the front of the room, two more images in pristine condition: a woman with short hair, clothed in mud, and a man standing tall with his hands behind his back.

Behind me, Maleki had the Aeternae constantly circling him, its tail sneaking behind and dragging across the ground like a snake. The head of the beast bobbed and arced as it circled, lurching its neck occasionally to test my brother’s reactions.

Focus. The other murals. Two on the other wall, a woman and a man again. The man’s mural was very different; he was a shade with only some details to show his hair and eyes. To the right of him, a depiction of a woman with long, beautifully braided hair and orbs of different sizes hovered around her.

There weren’t any notches in the stone that could hide a mechanism from what I could see, but then again, I couldn’t get close enough to feel and confirm.

Maleki intercepted the first strike from the beast, stepping to the side and dragging his blade against its front leg. The Aeternae snarled in response with teeth as long as my fingers. The heat was getting more intense; I blinked my eyes to provide them a moment away from the burning sensation this room caused. Perhaps there is a weighted stone on the opposite side of Maleki? Limping with a quick pace, I found a stone similar to the one we had accidentally stepped on. Pressing hard with my only good leg, I held all my weight over the stone. Immediately, it clicked into place, and shifting could be felt as the whole chamber shook like an earthquake. The fire around the room soared higher, the heat intensifying directly around me. A flicker rose between the floor panels as they shifted, more distance being added between them. Each of the braziers opened up, creating a flat bubble of fire. The Aeternae raised its neck at the change, adapting to the drifting plates. Maleki grabbed the edge of his platform with his scythe to keep himself from falling backward. Well, something changed, although I’m not sure I made it better. This restricted Maleki’s possible combat areas so that if he needed to move to another platform, he would have to jump over a two-foot-tall flame that rose out between each large stone plate. If I got closer to the ground, I could breathe better, and my eyes didn’t sting from the heat, so I stayed as low as possible to the floor while still being able to move.

The platforms fully widened, and I leaped over to the closest one in front of the pressure plate. These two platforms mimicked the size of the two directly across the middle platform that Maleki and the Aeternae were fighting on. I’d need to inspect the platforms now to see if there was anything different between each one, but time was not in my favour. When I looked over to the next platform, I got lost in watching Maleki fight for just a moment. His skills were that of our father’s, quick and gliding with precision. He would probably look clumsy with a soldier’s sword, but he has mastered his tool to the point it might as well be an extension of his being. There were no tricks nor confident swings. However, my brother’s skillset was refined by single actions repeated over and over. He was not used to quick, small bursts of movements, and this beast was catching on to the timing of the attacks and the time it took the scythe to reset back to a defensive position.

A jolt of movement shot out, and Maleki slammed the snath of the scythe downward, blocking the first attack. The second attack came in, and he pulled hard so that the head of the scythe would meet the beast first, blocking the second attack. Before Maleki could reposition, the Aeternae moved around the side, scooping a front paw out near him and clawing his back. “Augh!” Maleki yelped out in pain. He grabbed near the middle, above the top grip, to bring himself back to his feet, retaking his defensive stance. If we wanted to survive, Maleki would have to adapt as well…

I have to solve this quickly. Maleki is running out of time and being forced to stay close to the ground to avoid the intense heat. Pivoting my focus, I traced my eyes quickly over the closest platforms. Each was designed to mirror the background style of the mural they were closest to, using shapes and patterns that could distinguish characteristics of the mural’s subject. The key to solving this must lie in what is depicted on the stone walls and reflected in the interaction with the fiery circular sections on the nine stone plates around the room. Think, Miko! Your brother is fighting for both of you while you get to solve riddles. Be useful for once! The braziers. They separated earlier when the room fully closed, and what was left was a disc in a cylindrical hole. Within, there must lie a pressure plate similar to the ones I have stepped on twice now. If I were to design this, I would hide the mechanism in a single spot, requiring some risk to activate. The problem is — to activate the mechanism — someone would have to reach and place a heavy object through the flame disc. Deactivating is the whole point of this, so I don’t see a way to turn these fires off, and I didn’t bring enough water to put even one of these out.

Water! One of the murals had a man surrounded by water, but it was slightly destroyed. Maybe someone before us tried something on the murals themselves? I stood tall and began walking over to the side of the room with the three murals and found the man surrounded by what appeared to be waves. This brazier looked like all the rest, with an inset cut below the start of the hole where the fire shot out and connected into a full circle. My hand hovered above the top to test the heat; it felt the same as any flame I have ever been close to. I lifted my head to my brother’s predicament, looking to see if this next part was necessary. He had now gained another cut, and that horn was getting dangerously close to landing. The fear of pain surged within me, and I tugged deeply at my diaphragm. Three short breaths exhaled through my nose. I slammed all my weight into my good leg and pierced through the flame disc up to my thigh. Everything burned, singeing my skin for the brief second it took to hit the bottom. I waited, then screamed out in pain as the pressure plate activated. Pulling my leg out immediately, I covered the circular burn that formed around my lower thigh in an attempt to hide the pain somehow, as if that would stop it. I huffed and puffed, crying from the pain. The room shook after a slight delay of the pressure plate’s activation, and then the fire roared, soaring higher with a red hue at the base of the flame. My breaths shortened, finding it harder to get air. Damn it. That must have been the wrong choice! The oxygen in this room is getting removed by the fire, and there’s no way for it to enter from outside the room since every crack and seem is either blocked or lit aflame. We would soon pass out if this kept up.

The Aeternae shifted out of the way of Maleki’s strike, which he used to reposition so that I was in his peripheral view. “Miko! Are you okay?”

“I’m alive, just burnt. There are pressure plates in the braziers, but I chose the wrong one.” I yelled.

He yelled back in a demanding tone, “No! Don’t hurt yourself. I just need a moment to beat this thing, and then I will find the right one.”

The Aeternae acted while Maleki was distracted, and he was barely able to bring the shaft of his weapon to catch the bite it lunged with. Saliva dripped from its mouth, and Maleki pushed his palms in alternate directions to spin the neck of the beast. It folded onto the ground from the maneuver and unleashed its tight grip on his weapon, shaking off the failed assault in frustration. My brother was getting lucky and starting to look increasingly more tired from the effort.

I had to try again. What else can put out a fire? Of all the depicted elements left, air was the next best choice. We need air to breathe, and cold or fast winds can extinguish a forest fire on their own. I got to my feet with a grunt, now wielding a non-functional leg and a burnt one. My hand gripped the side of my leg as I pushed through the next platform to get to the one that showed the man surrounded by winds. My eyelids shut, and a tear rolled down my cheek, knowing what was coming next. Again, I gathered what was left in me and isolated all my weight into my previously good leg. The searing began instantly, covering my leg as it traveled down to the pressure plate. When it settled at the bottom, I waited for the click as the same spot in my leg burned even further into a second-degree burn. I laid back on the platform after pulling my leg up and slammed my fists against the stone floor in pain. An inescapable pain, one you could not run from. I instinctually clawed my fingernails into my thigh beneath where I was burned to distract myself from the spot that hurt — a failed trick.

Ten seconds passed, and a high-pitched whistle sounded out as the fire intensified again. A new visible blue hue could be seen on the rim of the spikes of flame. I failed again. With all this reading and dedication to knowledge, I couldn’t even figure out this puzzle. I have to earn this! I can’t let Maleki do this alone. Damn! My leg burns ferociously, unlike any pain I have ever felt. I just want to stay down and give up.

Maleki doesn’t deserve an end like this, though. Think, you damned idiot! What’s different in this forsaken room? All of the murals show people in their natural environment with what seems like elements of some kind. One of the murals didn’t show an element; it was just a man with his hands comfortably behind his back. That mural must purposefully be missing the element because it would be redundant; his element is Agni!

I just have to get over to his platform, but there’s one between us. The line of flames covering the floor and sectioning off the stone plates had risen higher, almost entirely blocking Maleki and the Aeternae from view, except for their heads. I tackled through the first fire in my way, as whatever hair might have existed on my arm being burnt into black char. I itched at my skin from the searing pain — one more to go. I hobbled quickly and jumped as high as possible in this lame state, catching the fire mostly with my bum leg. This felt right. Accept the fire. “There is power in expectations.” Nomen had given us the hint already. The other elements lie, but fire burns expectedly. Water can boil and drown you, but we need it to drink. The ground shakes, shifts, and crushes, and we comfortably build upon it. Air can be hot and cold or carry you away in a tornado, yet we need it to breathe. But fire — fire burns. Heat and flames are a constant state, never changing. We cook our food and warm our homes with it because fire is predictable, like the cruelness of the beast.

Plunging my leg into the fiery pit, I felt the plate, the heat, and all the sweet things that go with it. Another scream belted out of me as the last bit of air escaped my lungs. The pressure plate clicked, and I dragged myself forward with my good arm, scraping against the grooves in the floor to find a place to pull. My eyes blinked, and the world started to fade. Blackness encompassed me, and I began to pass out.

“Miko!” My brother yelled passionately through the silence of that dark place I was in. “You did it!”

I begged the world to let me back in, and my eyes opened to the room shifting and shaking. The plates collided together, and the fire in the room leveled out to just a level low enough to provide light. The beast hissed, finding the temperature change not suiting. I got to my feet and began to rummage through my bag, my vision still cloudy and my head pounding from fighting the loss of consciousness. Found it!

The beast was still interested in a meal, or perhaps just the fun of the kill, and pushed Maleki with two swift attacks with its claws and then a strong chomp with its long canines. Maleki stepped back, avoiding the first strike, then met the Aeternae’s left claws with his scythe, cutting the beast firmly. His blade was out to the side, unable to be brought back in with the timing of the beast’s third attack; he instead let his left hand carry the full weight of the scythe, which allowed it to fall when his right hand was removed. His palm and fingers folded into a fist, and he made an unexpected move. His body lunged at the enemy, and his fist came out wide, collapsing into the Aeternae’s eyesocket and stunning the foul creature. The distance had been closed, and despite the shock, the Aeternae was inches away from Maleki and dragged its horn down against his body, cutting his chest and upper bicep.

I stood tall and pulled my good arm out behind me as far as possible without locking my elbow. With a swift rising movement of my arm, arcing down from a high position, I spun and threw the weapon Grandfather gave to me at the start of this whole journey. Resistance and air ignored this circular disc, and despite my lack of strength, it moved through the air quickly. The disc found a target in the Aeternae’s ribcage. Bellowing out from the pain as blood poured out its side and from the culminated injuries where Maleki’s scythe cut it open. Beastly eyes stared back at me as the neck of the Aeternae swiveled and angled to look at me directly. Before it could move, Maleki stood tall throughout the previous strike against him and pulled with all his might upwards against the Aeternae. A second later, the bulk of the horn slid off the creature and hit the ground with a thud. The beast looked down, recognizing what had been done, and stunned with rage. Before it could act, Maleki’s shoulders had reached their maximum extended height, and the scythe had hit the end of the swing. Maleki’s wrists turned ever so slightly, and then the force of his shoulders and knees buckling brought the snath and scythe right over his opponent’s neck. An unclean cut, proof of his uncertainty and inexperience with the scythe as a weapon. The Aeternae panted and huffed from the mortal wound. It limped back to its chamber, and I watched with sadness. I participated in the beast’s death, but Maleki bore the weight of this earned kill. One he had not walked away from unharmed. I walked over to embrace him, and two thuds could be heard. The first was the beast’s as it fell lifeless, and the second was my brother’s as his knees hit the ground, his hands rested in his lap.

My pace quickened, ignoring the injuries I had sustained. I fell close to him, pulling his neck into my shoulder. “You’re bleeding badly, Maleki.” Warm blood trickled from his chest and back, covering my hands and clothes. Footsteps entered the chamber, and I was too tired to look at their creator. In my heart, I knew they were Nomen’s, which my ears confirmed hearing the unique softness of his steps.

“I will retrieve the bandages from your bag and do the rest. You may relax.” Nomen said in that soothing voice.

I did not argue, nor did I move. Instead, I listened for my brother’s breaths, feeling them shorten along with his heart rate.