Zul was given a task to go under the great city of Ra'Sasha and enter the Catacombs - a collection of haunted rooms and hallways, which had been explored by Professor Alexis, but after a reason not mentioned, Alexis pleaded to the government to never open the Catacomb doors.
Trianite’s Palace—at the dead of night. Without its overhead skylight, the dim lobby was only lit up by small, artisanal torches that lined the pillars and walls every so often. Near every torch, every yard or two, a guard stood. Their armor glistened in the wavering torchlight, flickering their sheaths every so often. I couldn’t see past their helmets, either: for all I knew, they could be asleep or vigilant hawks staring off into the dark abyss beyond them.
I tip-toed toward the leftmost staircase and heard a guard move as soon as I did.
“D’you hear that?” one said.
“It’s probably the waves.”
“I never understand why that glass window is so close to the water. You’d think it’s a bit—”
“Quiet over there!” their commander yelled, and while he did, I creaked open the door leading to the leftmost staircase.
Oh, dear Trianite, they’re right there! I can’t make this less noticeable—I have to open this wide stupid door!
I stuck my foot into the foot of the door. Slowly summoning a water bolt, I aimed at a far pillar in the lobby. When the bolt struck the stone, the guards flinched and looked outward.
“What was that?” one said.
“It came from over there?”
“Well, go check.”
While the guard’s plated armor clinked and clanked as he took long strides to the pillar, I grabbed the doorknob and swiftly shoved myself into the staircase chamber.
“There’s nothing here,” the guard said.
Because you can’t see me! A large grin stretched along my cheeks as I looked up, then down. Many levels up, Trianite rested on her bed. She slept at the uppermost level, on a separate section that branches off into the rest of the mountain. Whatever floors separated this one from hers was left to my imagination as I descended down the spiraling staircase.
Light had died out. I lit a match, illuminating the few feet in front of me. The carpet walls that signified royalty, the ones which complemented Trianite’s colors of ice-and-midnight blue, gradually vanished. In its place, the old chiseled stone of Gedredelian architecture stood in its place. Crafted by hand, the stone intricately lined the walls in triangular panels until I reached the bottom.
I hadn’t seen such craftwork since the Great Collapse—it was like this place was frozen in time…
My steps echoed in the room, which acted as the Catacombs' entrance. Although I was quite puzzled at what I was supposed to do, I quickly surmised a plan. There were piles of gravel that had fallen from the ceiling, cutting the room in half. Humps of rock seemed to have come from the right wall. It must’ve cracked.
Great. Just great. Really what I needed.
I tried scaling the gravel, but I kept sliding backward. So, I had to resort to a water spell.
“Hey! Who’s down there?” a voice yelled into the staircase.
Damn it! They heard the falling gravel!
“Get over here! I think something’s down here!”
Well, I have to try something drastic then.
Centering my palms on the gravel, a glyph was summoned and sprayed out water, pushing the rocks into a small avalanche. It moved it!
“Men! Someone’s down there! Down, down!”
I emerged on the other side and saw an open doorway. Just straight ahead lay the flipped lever.
Five guards unsheathed their blades and saw the gravel path. I ran into the Catacombs and wiped the sweat on my face. My invisibility potion wore out, revealing my smile and hand on the lever.
“No, don’t go in there!”
I flipped the switch, watching the doors close from either end of the wall. The two sliding doors pushed into the gravel, closing the air between it and ending the guards’ echos.
“No!” The guard stuck his hand out. “You don’t know what’s in there!”
“Trianite forbids this!”
“May they have mercy on you!”
And their shouts fell silent as the wall thudded shut and the Catacomb torches flickered red in flame.
No footsteps—not even the dragging wheels of wagons or the sounds of the pounding hammers reached the depths of these Catacombs. With a candle in my hand, I walked through the long, winding walls, which led to doors and other dark hallways beckoning to be explored. Doors led to more doors, rooms to other rooms, seemingly never-ending in the great black expanse.
Some places were perfectly intact, preserved from however long ago it was built. Places like infirmaries, rows of beds, and storage silos all came in pairs. If there was one, there was the other. No matter how destroyed, chewed up, or preserved it was—there were patterns. And then there were the gutted chambers, so badly destroyed and so gone beyond repair that even the floorboards and the ceilings were gone. I had stumbled into one unknowingly, and it was a whole foot lower than the other room. The cold, stone floor was the basis for the rhythmic melody my boots made. Barren wastelands, sunken caves, and the chilling reality that in some areas, the old inhabitants had to destroy parts of this… for some reason or another.
The only movement I saw was the shadows produced by the torchlight, waving and fluttering on the olden walls. The stone was different—a completely foreign architecture. Paneled every so often, the gray rock had to have been chiseled by hand, or—my hand grazed the cuts and slits on the walls—by claw.
How strange—never in my life would I have thought that a whole secret, underground city was underneath Ra’Sasha. It felt like this place was bigger than the city, wider, longer, though more compact and tighter. Why would Trianite keep this hidden? Why would, after all this time, I was not aware of this place? Only Alexis—only a select few… Was someone hiding something?
A cobweb stuck to my arm.
“Eugh,” I tried removing it. I ripped the sticky substance away, wiping it off my body. “Disgusting!”
A growl rumbled beyond the darkness.
The hairs on my arm flung up. “What?” I whispered. “Hello?”
My heartbeat accelerated, and all of a sudden, I felt myself tremble as a deafening silence crept inside the room. What was that? A growl? What could possibly be living here?
Then came the breathing—the ins and outs of a beast echoed across the walls. The voice was deep, and its presence heavy. The tips of my fingers began to sweat, and it felt like the candle was about to slip.
I stepped backward, hoping that whatever was just beyond that door, or beyond that wall, was sleeping. It could be a few feet away from me—it could be right behind me, but I couldn’t see anything. The candle’s light flickered and shook as my body shook between the beast’s breaths. The light wavered—it could only do so much. It could only show me so much of the clawed walls, the busted-down doors, and the ripped floors.
It could only do so much until the flame vanished. Sizzling into the wax, the smoke reached my nose as the void engulfed the room.
And in that abyss, whether far or close, the stars had reached me. Little white dots flickered, shimmered, and became solid as a midnight sky seemingly stood right in front of me. Though those weren’t stars resting alongside the guardian moon.
They were pupils.
Tens and hundreds of them all staring at me.