Twelve Gifts

The light from the torches embedded in the staircase walls glowed faintly with the same turquoise hue as the waters of the chamber where I had awakened. It was probably some kind of magic meant to make the flame last longer... if it even was fire. After all, last time, it had been the water itself that seemed to emit the light.

But it still felt strange. On one hand, I had no trouble accepting that explanation. Magic felt as natural to me as breathing. On the other, I couldn’t accept something as unscientific as “magic.” To make things worse, a third part of me was convinced of knowing cases where magic and science coexisted in perfect harmony.

My mind was still a chaotic mess of contradictions and inconsistencies.

But before the headache could return, I noticed that the end of the seemingly endless staircase was finally in sight. Though to my surprise, I found my path blocked when I reached the top.

To be more specific, I stepped into a corridor that led nowhere, ending in a finely carved mural. At its center was a relief of a long haired woman, her face expressionless as she looked at me.

"That’s… the woman who always appears in my dream…"

I immediately recognized the silhouette that was always surrounded by light. What struck me as odd was that, no matter how delicate the carving was, it still felt like it didn’t do justice to the beauty of the woman in my dream. But that feeling had no real basis… after all, what I always saw was only that: her silhouette.

"…"

Sadness, anguish, anger. A feeling I couldn’t quite name washed over me, but for some reason, the sensation from the sphere in my right hand brought a sense of calm.

"I don't know what kind of relationship you had with me. Chances are it didn’t end well, judging by the dream I always have. But you’ll have to forgive me, I can’t focus on that right now," I said as I stepped closer to the relief, searching for a button or some kind of mechanism that might open a hidden door. "My main concern at the moment is finding a way out of here… Do I have to go back? But I’m pretty sure there wasn’t another path…"

I was about to give up and turn around when, for just an instant, I thought I saw the relief smile at me. I leaned in, curious…

"!!"

I nearly fell backward as the woman’s eyes began to glow with a bluish light that completely engulfed me.

When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in a new room. I looked behind me and came face to face with a different relief. It was massive, and this time it depicted the same reflection I had seen in the water… in other words, myself.

Beneath the relief was a silver plaque engraved with golden lettering. It wasn’t English. The writing didn’t even use our alphabet, nor was it Cyrillic, and it certainly wasn’t Chinese characters.

I hadn’t expected to be able to read it. Not even remotely. And yet, its meaning began to flow into my mind on its own. It felt like I had managed to rescue a single strand from the tangled spaghetti on the plate and coil it in a way that somehow made sense.

«Let the twelve Kings offer tribute to the King of Kings. May his soul reign eternal among the gods, and guard the legacy he bequeathed unto Ameritia.»

"King of Kings? Something like an emperor? And Ameritia, why does that sound so familiar? Is there even a place on Earth called that…? Was it Earth? Wasn’t it Alpherion? No… it was… Ugh, my head…"

In any case, it seems my ancestor, who looks exactly like me, was a pretty important man. Either that, or I’m a zombie, because this is clearly an epitaph.

Looking around, I saw that the architecture was similar to the previous areas, and the space was still lit by those faint turquoise torches. But this time, the room was square, and directly across from the relief on the wall stood a massive set of double doors, which were most likely the exit.

"How are the locals going to react when they see me coming out of here? Maybe I should disguise myself to avoid drawing attention until I understand my situation better."

My gaze swept across the room, and what stood out the most were the six recesses on the walls to my left and right, twelve in total. Inside them stood pedestals holding a variety of items, each accompanied by its own inscription carved into the pedestal itself.

"These must be the tributes. I thought that line was just symbolic…"

What sat atop the pedestals wasn’t exactly clothing that would help me blend in, but when I looked down at what I was wearing, a nearly transparent white tunic that offered zero protection from the elements, a new and firm resolve took hold of me.

"If I apologize on my knees, I’m sure they’ll forgive me," I said, clenching my fist with completely unfounded confidence as I walked toward the first of the twelve recesses.

*****

"I ended up taking everything. I’m a hoarder, just like in video games… whatever those may be."

My spaghetti brain ran at full steam when it came to remembering weird stuff, only to get tangled when it had to deal with things that actually mattered. But let's leave that problem for later. Right now, I had more pressing matters.

My appearance had changed a full one eighty, at least when it came to clothing.

I was now wearing a fine, long navy blue coat embroidered with what looked like thread made of gold. The set also included beige pants with a texture that made me think of silk (though I’m not even sure I’ve ever touched silk in my life). To complete the look, I also had on a pair of perfectly polished leather boots, not a single wrinkle or stitch out of place.

Honestly, it was the kind of outfit that screamed "rob me!", but among the twelve tributes, it was really the only thing that resembled actual clothes. However, I had to leave out the cloak that came with the set, since it had a golden emblem embroidered on it that clearly belonged to that so-called King of Kings. I had already seen the same emblem engraved into the relief.

"King of the Endless Desert… I'm sure this wasn’t meant for me, but I appreciate that at least you offered something remotely normal," I said with my hands clasped, as if praying to the spirit of the former (?) king. "Of course, I suppose you’d be upset if I didn’t mention the countless enchantments woven into the threads of these clothes. I was just talking about the appearance…"

From the different inscriptions, I gathered that the twelve tributes, including the attire I’m wearing, are artifacts, something considered the pinnacle of magical items. Each one even has a name of its own.

"I think this set of clothes was called The Veil of the Rising Sun... or was that just one of the enchantments it had?"

That king wrote such a long description, I’d already forgotten half of it by the time I finished reading...

"But what I do know is that I don’t even want to imagine what people would say if I got them dirty with mud or something... "

Thinking about names, I recalled that "Zendal" appeared multiple times in the inscriptions on the pedestals. But then again, I’m not even sure if that’s my real name. And all of them described such grand and fantastical deeds that I find it hard to associate them with myself.

"As long as I don’t remember anything, I’ll treat all of this as borrowed… Besides, there’s no guarantee they won’t take it all back the moment I open those giant doors."

I stored the cloak, which was far too ostentatious, in the artifact gifted by the Supreme Arcane Authority of the Isle of Mages. It was a ring named Atra, which had the (spell?) Shadow Vault (bound?) within it.

As its name suggests, the spell allowed me to store a vast number of objects within the ring, using my shadow as the gateway. Or at least, that’s what I understood…

The dark, gleaming stone set into the ring reminded me of a black hole for some reason. It was unsettling enough that I chose not to dwell on it too much.

"Until we meet again in this world…"

Those words weren’t on the pedestal where the ring had rested, but engraved on its inner band.

"In this world? Shouldn’t it say something like 'in the afterlife'? Or maybe the writing on the plaque beneath the relief wasn’t an epitaph after all…

!!

… Ow"

At that moment, the sphere of light, now floating around me, had abruptly interrupted my thoughts by slamming into my face.

"Mmm… why couldn’t I store you in the ring? Even the armor forged by the 'Ten Dwarf Masters' and the supposed sacred bow of the 'First Elf' went in without any trouble…"