Chapter 4:

The Depths

Oddment


Araech, The Land of Scars. A region named for the countless lakes carved into the ground by the falling debris of a powerful impact ages ago. The lakes range in size from as small as a house to as big as a country. Most lakes go without names, as only the largest of them are given them. While their size may vary, they all share the trait of incredible depth. 

In the town of Lomorr, a girl sat quietly by the stone street. Her head hung down, and she kept her legs close to her chest. She just wanted to make herself seem small. Despite her efforts, someone from a passing group was able to recognize her.  

"Look, it's Luthil, the sewer rat! Don't get too close, or she might bite you!" The man sneered. 

Luthil didn't even raise her head. She knew that trying to defend herself would only make things worse. The group continued to laugh and make fun of her until they got bored. After they left, Luthil didn't feel sadness or anger. She only felt indifference. It was nothing compared to the beatings she'd received in the past anyway. 

Years ago, she was spotted in one of the drainage tunnels under the town scrounging for food. Ever since then, the people of the town gave her the nickname sewer rat. At first, it was just a minor annoyance to her. However, as time went on, the teasing turned to harassment and scorn. Most days, Luthil either stayed in the tunnels or tried her best to hide in town. 

Suddenly, she felt a light tap on her side. Trying to ignore it, she remained still. She was tapped again. With her head still down, she looked under her arm to see what was tapping her. It was something thin and gold with symbols all over it. It tapped her again. Finally, she looked up and saw a hand attached to the top of the golden stick. Attached to the hand was a strange man wearing a rather large hat. 

"Are you the one they call sewer rat?"

"Go ahead, make fun of me," Luthil replied, putting her head back down. 

"I'm not here to make fun of you. I'm here because I need a guide."

Luthil looked up again with confusion. "A guide? Me?"

"I'm going down into the so-called sewers. It's like a maze down there. Without someone to guide me, I doubt I could even find my way out. So I asked around for someone who knew their way around the tunnels. That lead me to you. So, what do you say? You'll be compensated, of course." 

"Buy me lunch, and I'll consider it." 

"Sounds good to me. I was getting hungry anyway." 

Luthil hid behind the man as he bought their food from a vendor. They found a secluded place and sat down to eat. 

"So, do you have a name? I'd hate to keep calling you sewer rat." The man asked as he handed her food. 

"Luthil." 

"Nice to meet you Luthil, I'm Sojou." He said, taking off his hat. Luthil was too focused on her food to notice his red hair. 

Luthil scarfed down her food like a starved animal. When she finished, she looked up at Sojou. "What are you trying to find under this town in the first place?"

"It's not under the town. It's in there." Sojou said as he pointed to a lake in the distance.

"Lake Lomorr? Why? The only thing special about it is that it's the second largest of the named lakes. Even then, It's just a puddle compared to Lake Urmorr." 

"I'm not so much interested in the lake itself, but rather, what's inside it. And the only way to get there is through the town's tunnels." 

"If you already know that much, then what do you need me for?"

"Well, I know of it, but not exactly how to get there. That's what you are for." 

"Ok, but I've never been inside the lake or whatever. How am I supposed to find it for you?"

"In the tunnels, do you remember seeing anything out of place? Like a strange wall or something?"

"Now that you mention it, I do remember something. There's a really old-looking door down there. I could never get it to open, so I just forgot about it." 

"Can you take me there?"

"Sure, but if it's not what you're looking for, I'm still getting paid, right?"

"I intended to pay you upfront if you agreed so, don't worry. Besides, I always find what I'm looking for," Sojou said as he handed her a large bag of coins. 

Luthil looked inside the bag with wide eyes. She had never seen so much money before. 

"If that's enough for you, then let's go." 

Luthil nodded silently. She clutched the bag as if he would try and take it back any second. 

It didn't take long for them to reach the entrance to the town's drainage tunnels. Their stench made Sojou recoil, but Luthil was unfazed. Sojou let Luthil lead the way as they meandered through the darkness. Small holes in the ceiling allowed for just enough light for Sojou to see her ahead of him. They wandered for quite some time until Luthil stopped. 

"Here it is," she said as she stepped away so Sojou could see. An ancient door jutted out from the wall. It was made with black metal and was marked with inscriptions. Luthil could see no handle to open it. "Is it what you're looking for?"

"We'll see." Sojou began to mumble words in a foreign language. For a moment, nothing happened. Then, the inscriptions on the door started to glow. Instead of swinging open, it sunk into the floor, revealing a passageway. Sojou smiled. "Looks like I was right. I wish I could tell you that your job was over here, but I still need you to find my way out. You can either stay here and wait for me to come back, or you can come with me."

"It'll be no fun just waiting here, so I'll go with you."

"Suit yourself." 

The passageway was lit with glowing inscriptions similar to the door. It went far out of the town in the direction of the lake. Steadily, they progressed through it until it ended at a square hole in the ground. Again, Sojou mumbled in a strange language. Soon after, they could hear a sliding sound. Luthil jumped back as a metal platform rose through the hole. Sojou casually stepped on it as if it didn't just come out of the ground. 

"Don't worry. It's safer than it looks." 

Luthil hesitantly moved onto the platform. When it started to slide back down, she almost leaped away out of instinct. With clenched fists, she held herself back as they sunk beneath the floor. They continued to descend for what felt like forever. At long last, the platform stopped after it arrived at another passageway.  Luthil felt her legs wobble when she stepped back on firm ground. 

This passageway was quite different from the last. It was tube-shaped and constructed almost entirely out of metal. Light filtered through thick sections of glass around the ceiling. Luthil tried to look out the glass but could only see blue. The color confused her as they were too far down for it to be the sky. When she saw a fish swim overhead, she realized that they were now at the bottom of Lake Lomorr. 

"What are you hoping to find down here anyway?" Luthil asked, still looking through the glass. 

"A rock." 

"A rock?"

"A special rock. I read about it in ruins near here. Apparently, this rock didn't originate from the ground like all other rocks. Instead, it came from the sky."

"How does a rock come from the sky?"

Who knows. But they seemed to think it was some divine object. They built this entire place so they could get to it."

"So we're in some kind of underwater temple?" 

 "I guess you could call it that. Though, I think its design was influenced more by functionality than spirituality."

The passageway eventually opened up to a large circular room. Uniform windows lined the walls allowing a view of the lakebed. Luthil gazed through the windows in a trance as they made their way around the room. Looking through a window on the other side of the room, she saw the building in its entirety. It consisted of similar circular rooms all connected by passageways. They all connected to form one large circle. At the center of the circle was another round room. Dwarfing the other rooms in size, it certainly was the centerpiece of the building. Luthil pointed it out to Sojou. 

"That must be where the divine rock is," Sojou said once he saw it. He moved around the room to get a better view of it. "It looks like there's a passageway connecting to it on the opposite side of the structure. Since it's the same distance from both sides, I'll let you pick which way we go. Right or left?"

Luthil thought for a moment, then responded, "Right."

"Right it is. We'll go through the other side when we leave." 

 They proceeded to head down the right passageway. Before long, they arrived at another room and stopped to look around. This room contained more furniture than the previous one, with a few tables and chairs spread about. On one of the tables was a golden device of some sort. Sojou picked it up and inspected it. One end of it resembled a rounded triangle with a hole in it. The other end had two round protrusions, each covered with tiny holes. 

Luthil looked at it with a puzzled expression. "What's it do?" 

"I found a small inscription on it that said something about water and air. My best guess is that it's some sort of device used for breathing underwater. I'll have to test it out later," Sojou said as he stored it in his box. 

The next room they entered held nothing noteworthy. Luthil thought she saw something move in the room across from theirs. She decided that she must've been seeing things and didn't mention anything. Eventually, they made their way to the center room of the building. 

Most of the room was taken up by an amphitheater with rows of seats lining the walls. The ceiling had large ornate windows with strange shapes and figures on them. In the middle of the room was an altar with a black rock on top. Luthil went up to look at it. 

"It doesn't seem very special to me. Did you ever consider that these people might've just been crazy and worshiped a regular rock?" 

Sojou took a close look at the rock himself. At first glance, it didn't look too different from any other rock. However, upon closer inspection, Sojou noticed darkness emanating from it. The darkness somewhat reminded him of Essence, but he could tell it was different. Before he could investigate further, the sound of footsteps echoed down the hall. Sojou quickly grabbed Luthil and ducked behind the back row of seats. 

A group of men wearing black cloaks entered the room. They circled the altar and bowed their heads. The first to speak up was one with a gold lining on his cloak, presumably their leader. "R'labh, the ascendant one. We humbly request your presence." 

Luthil recognized the voice as one of the people who had mocked her earlier that day. She watched as he pulled out a knife and slashed his hand. He passed the knife to someone else who did the same. Once the knife had made its way around the circle, they reached out their bloody hands over the rock. As blood dripped on the rock, they began to chant in a strange language. 

"What are they saying?" Luthil whispered to Sojou. 

"They're performing a sort of ritual to summon something."

"Summon something!? They can do that?" 

"I'm not sure, but the dark energy in that rock seems to be growing stronger." 

Luthil looked back at the rock to see darkness pouring from it. The darkness writhed about resembling a mass of tentacles. The building began to shake and rumble. She looked up and noticed cracks beginning to form on the large windows. Water began to spray from a small crack in one of the windows.  She and Sojou exchanged looks. "We need to go." 

They ran out from behind the amphitheater and rushed past the group of men. Sojou made it to the passageway, but Luthil wasn't behind him. He turned back to see that one of the men had grabbed hold of her and held a knife to her neck. 

"I didn't expect to see you here, sewer rat." She struggled with all her might, but his grip wouldn't budge. "You'll make for a nice offering to the ascendant one." The man pushed Luthil closer and closer to the growing darkness. Three other men were about to grab Sojou when a light flashed from his staff. 

Luthil looked at Sojou, "We need to go." 

They ran out from behind the amphitheater. A man reached out to grab Luthil. Before he could, Sojou whacked him in the face with his walking stick, knocking him down. Without giving the rest of the men time to react, Sojou grabbed Luthil by the hand and ran out of the room. By the time they reached the next room, they heard a loud crash followed by the sound of rushing water. Not stopping to look back, they hurried to the entrance. 

They reached the rising platform in no time. Jumping on the platform, Sojou caught his breath and said the words to activate it as fast as he could. The platform slowly began to rise. A torrent of water flowed into the passageway ahead of them. There was nothing else they could do other than hope they made it in time. 

Just before the water crashed into them, the platform rose above the opening. They both let out a sigh of relief. After calming down, Luthil turned to Sojou. "How'd you know that he would try and grab me?" 

Sojou smiled. "I just have quick reflexes." 

Luthil eyed him suspiciously. She knew he didn't move from reflex. It was like he knew it was going to happen. She eventually decided to drop it. He had saved her life one way or another. It didn't take long for Luthil to guide them out of the sewers and back into town. 

"It looks like it's time for us to part ways," Sojou said. 

"Where are you headed to?"

"I have reason to believe that Lake Urmorr may contain something similar to what we found here. Although, it's most likely on a much larger scale." 

"We'll probably meet again soon then," Luthil mumbled. 

"What?"

"Nothing." 

Sojou started to walk away and waved back to her. "Till we meet again." 

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