The Forgotten Tomb

In the vast savanna of Ezeok, a man excavated an archeological site. It was a large building that was now mostly buried in the ground. Writings dug up from the same area described it as the tomb of an important emperor. Strangely, no record of the emperor's name had been found. The man had been digging at the site for years and managed to unearth the front of the tomb. Now, he was about to finish clearing the entrance so he could go inside.

He stepped inside the building for the first time since he first discovered it. The walls weren't as eroded as they were on the outside. They still retained some of the paintings and colors that they originally had. One wall had stylistic depictions of the local wildlife, while another had a repeating pattern. The archeologist was surprised and excited about all of it. He was so caught up in all the discoveries that he didn't watch where he was stepping. 

He stepped on a tile that sunk into the floor under his weight. Then, he heard something moving inside the walls. Suddenly, arrows shot out of the wall in front of him. He barely managed to duck down before the arrows passed over him and embedded themselves in the opposite wall. Had he been a second slower, he would've been impaled. With the excitement of finally going inside, he had forgotten the numerous writings that said the tomb was filled with traps. 

He carefully made his way back outside without exploring any further. He knew that if he wanted to go inside again, he'd need help. There was only one group of people that he knew would be up to the task. He went to his tent and searched through his stuff until he found a small sphere. Once it activated, it emitted a signal that alerted any nearby Seekers of his location. If any received the signal, it would still take them a day or two to arrive at the site. 

After a few days of waiting, the first Seeker arrived. He wore a large hat that shaded him from the sun. He approached the archeologist. 

"Are you the one that sent out the signal?" 

"Indeed, I am." 

"Thank goodness. The last time I responded to a signal, I arrived at a mountain village, but no one there called for a Seeker," The man said, taking off his hat. He had short brown hair and a slightly wrinkled face. Reaching out his hand, he greeted the archeologist again, "You can call me Vaisi."

The archeologist shook his hand. "I'm Kadattee. Thanks for answering my call." 

"No problem. Although I don't help out for free, you know." 

"Of course, I never expected you to. Let me go get your payment," Kadattee said as he went into his tent. He came back out with two pouches of coins. Kadattee handed one of them to Vaisi. "I'll give you half of it for now, and you'll get the other half after you're done assisting me." 

"Sounds fair to me. What did you need help with anyway?" 

"I'll refrain from telling you at the moment since other Seekers may be arriving soon. If no one comes by tomorrow, we'll get started."

"In that case, I think I'll take a nap. Wake me up if anyone else comes along." Kadattee nodded, and Vaisi laid down in the shade of a tree. 

Kadattee went back to his tent to review some research. Later that day, two more people arrived together. One was a woman that wore a blue cloak. The other one was standing next to her. He was a man that wore a hat even larger than Vaisi's. Kadattee went over to greet them. "Thank you for coming. I am Kadattee."

"I'm Yusivel, and this is Sojou." 

Sojou waved at him. "Nice to meet you." 

"Likewise. I have to say that I'm quite surprised that both of you arrived at the same time." 

"Sojou was with me when I received your signal. Since his transmitter was broken, he ended up following me here."

"Well, I'm glad to have both of you. If you give me a moment, I'll go get your payment." 

Sojou stopped him. "If it's alright with you, I'm fine without payment." 

"That's completely fine with me. However, if you change your mind at any point, I'll gladly give it to you." Kadattee looked over at Yusivel. "And you?" 

"Sorry, I'm not crazy. I'll take the payment, please." 

"Very well." Kadattee went back to his tent and gave Yusivel a pouch of coins. 

By this time, Vaisi had woken up and was moving over to them. Sojou recognized him and waved. "We meet again... Vushi? No, wait, Vansi? No, that's not right either. Was it Veisi?"

"It's Vaisi." 

"Oh, that's right, Vaisi. I was close. Anyway, I hope we can get along this time."

"I wasn't in my right mind last time we met. I won't be pointing a sword at you anytime soon." 

"Because I took your sword last time." 

Yusivel interjected, "What are you guys talking about?" 

They both responded, "Nothing." 

Kadattee came up to them. "Now, I will explain why I called you here. As a Seeker, I've spent the past few years researching this place. It was the tomb of an emperor who reigned thousands of years ago. Originally, most of it was buried underground, so I've only recently gained access inside. Were the circumstances any different, I would've just explored the entire thing myself. However, I realized that it was too dangerous to do it alone." 

"What makes it dangerous?" Vaisi asked. 

"You see, the emperor was quite a paranoid man. He worried that after his death, his enemies would still try to oppose him. Believing that they could somehow disturb his afterlife, he did everything he could to protect his own body. Countless traps were put in place to kill anyone who dared enter. I had assumed that they had broken down ages ago. When I went inside, I confirmed that they were still functioning and almost lost my life."

"Are we just supposed to be your meatshields then? Springing all the traps for you to go in without worry?" Yusivel asked.

"You're only half right. I do, in fact, want you to find the traps and disarm them in one way or another. However, I will be going in with all of you. It is my intention that we go through as carefully as possible. With more of us, it will be more likely that someone can see the trap before we activate it. Then, we will either break the mechanism that makes it work or set it off from a safe distance. Any objections?"

"It's fine with me," Sojou replied. The other two nodded their heads. 

"Alright then. Let's head inside the tomb." Kaddatte led the others into the entrance. He pointed out the arrows stuck on the wall and the wall that fired them. It grew darker as they went further in. Sojou activated his hat and lit up the surrounding area in white light. Not long after, they discovered a tripwire going across their path. They all stopped and considered their next move. 

Kadattee was the first to speak up. "Let's just step over it for now. If we find whatever it activates, then we can figure out how to disarm it from there." One by one, they all stepped over it carefully. Across the room, they found a sheet of metal spikes hanging from the ceiling by a rope. It was clearly meant to swing down and hit whoever walked into the tripwire. 

They went to the side of the room away from the path of the spikes. Sojou used his walking stick to hit the tripwire, activating it.  The spikes swung down with great force and slammed into the ceiling on the other side of the tripwire. 

Yusivel shivered. "To think that we would've been on the other side of that had we not seen that tripwire."

Kadattee reassured her, "As long as we continue to be careful and observant, there is no reason that we should fall victim to any of these traps." 

"I really hope you're right." 

With the trap dealt with, they moved on to another corridor. Kadattee still led from the front with Yusivel and Sojou in the middle, and Vaisi in the back. Kadattee watched the floor, Sojou and Yusivel watched the walls, and Vaisi watched the ceiling. Slowly, they made their way forward. The fragments of the once beautiful artwork on the walls now gave them a haunting atmosphere. Bits of dust and dirt fell from the ceiling every so often, reminding the group that they were underground. Not only did they have to worry about traps, but also the integrity of the ancient structure they were in. 

Vaisi noticed some oddly placed holes in the ceiling. "Everyone stop!" He yelled before anyone went under the holes. 

"What is it?" Kadattee asked. 

"Look up at the ceiling," Vaisi said, pointing to the holes. "Those holes only appear in that one spot. It's clearly a trap, but who knows what comes out of the holes."

"Or how it's activated," Sojou added. 

"Whatever it is, it'd have to either be a little behind them or right under them," said Yusivel. 

Cautiously, they searched around under the holes for something that would activate them. The walls were ruled out first. They looked normal and wouldn't have been a good place to trigger a trap anyway. If someone were walking through, they wouldn't necessarily be touching the walls. Since the trap was on the ceiling, the only thing left to check was the floor. They didn't notice it at first, but there was a faint light going across a section of the floor under the holes. 

"That's definitely out of place, but how would it activate the trap?" Vaisi asked. 

"It could be that it can sense when the light is interrupted. Like, if someone were to step in that spot, it would block the light for a brief moment." Kadattee replied. 

"So should we jump over it first, or just throw something in front of it and see what happens?" Yusivel asked. 

"It might be too risky to try and jump over it because we don't exactly know where the light ends. I think as long as we're far away from the holes, we should be fine." Sojou answered. "Anyone have anything to throw onto it?" Vaisi took off his hat and handed it to Sojou. Sojou tossed it in front of the light. Almost immediately, long metal spears fell through the holes impaling the floor and Vaisi's hat. 

Vaisi shrugged. "It was uncomfortable anyway." 

They made their way through the rest of the corridor until it diverged into two smaller paths. One went to the left while the other went to the right. 

"I think we should split up to cover each path. They're too narrow for any more than two of us to make any relevant observations." 

"I'll go with Sojou!" Yusivel said with enthusiasm.

"Then Vaisi and I will take the left corridor." 

Sojou around the room. "Don't I get a say in this matter?" 

Yusivel replied immediately, "Nope." 

Kadattee and Vaisi headed down the left corridor. Kadattee turned back to say one more thing, "If these paths don't meet up, let's all meet back here. Otherwise, we'll see you in a little bit." After waving goodbye, he turned forward, and they both disappeared into the darkness. 

"Looks like it's just us now," Sojou said. 

"Is that a good thing or a bad thing?"

"We should get going. We wouldn't want to make the others wait on us," Sojou said as he promptly went down the right corridor. 

"Wait for me!" Yusivel yelled, running after him. 

They went down the corridor, looking for traps as they went. Eventually, they ended up in a small room. Everything in the room was black. Sojou noticed a lump of something in the back corner of the room. He went to take a closer look but still couldn't tell what it was. Picking part of it up revealed a pile of bones. Sojou dropped the bone he had picked up and noticed that his hand was now stained black. He quickly realized that what was on his hand, as well as the entire room was soot. 

Because the floor was black, it was hard to make out any small details on it. Sojou didn't see the partially raised portion of the floor and stepped on it. It sunk into the ground a bit and two stone slabs fell in front of the exits. 

"What's going on?" Yusivel asked. 

"I think I may have activated a trap." 

"So what, are we just going to be stuck in here until we starve?" 

"I think whoever built this had something a lot quicker in mind." A quiet hissing noise started to come from cracks in the walls. Sojou put his hand to one of the cracks and felt a bit of air leaking out. Moments later, he saw a spark at the other end of the room. Before he was engulfed in flames, Sojou activated his staff and returned to the corridor outside the room. 

Sojou stopped Yusivel when she tried to enter the room. "Wait, there's a pressure plate in this room. Follow my steps and we'll go around it." 

"How do you know there's a pressure plate in there? everything's all black."

"Just trust me on this one." 

"Alright." 

Yusivel paid close attention to where each of Sojou's steps so she could move in the same place. They made it across the room with no issue. Once they were on the other end of the room, Sojou dislodged a stone from the wall and threw it on the pressure plate. A stone slab fell in front of him, blocking the room off. Moments later, a flash of light could be seen through cracks in the slab, followed by a wave of heat. 

"What was that all about?" Yusivel asked. 

"I was just disarming the trap," Sojou said as the stone slab sunk into the ground, revealing the freshly charred room. They moved down the next corridor until it opened up into a large room. It was quite extravagant compared to the other rooms they had been in. The architecture had fine details, and the paintings were much better preserved. However, the most eye-catching feature of the room was the golden throne in the back. 

As Sojou and Yusivel were about to go over to the throne, Vaisi and Kadattee appeared through a corridor on the other side of the room. They were both soaking wet. 

"What happened to you guys?" Yusivel asked. 

"We got trapped in a room that started to fill with water. Luckily, we were able to break out of it before we both drowned," Vaisi said. "Anything happen to you?"

"Nope. We made it here unscathed," Sojou replied. 

Kadattee mostly ignored them as he took in the sight before him. He approached the throne and found a mummified body sitting on top of it. On the body's head was an elaborate golden crown with all kinds of jewels embedded into it. Kadattee picked it up and it gave off a purple glow. "The legend was true!"

"What legend?" Sojou asked. 

"It said that the emperor's crown held immense power. It was able to freely control Essence from anywhere around it. Because of that, he placed traps all over his tomb so that no one else could wield his power." 

Sojou looked concerned. "It sounds dangerous. You probably shouldn't even be touching it." 

"I know, but I have to try it on at least once to see what it's like," Kadattee said as he placed the crown on his head. His eyes started to glow a bright purple, and Essence began to seep out of the walls and ceiling. The Essence swirled around him forming a ring. The ground started to shake. 

"Take off the crown!" Sojou yelled while moving closer to him. 

Kadattee flicked his hand, and a wave of Essence knocked Sojou across the room. Yusivel also tried to take the crown off of him but was blown back as well. Vaisi just stayed back because he knew what would happen to him if he tried anything. 

"The power must be corrupting his mind. We've got to get that crown off of him somehow," Sojou said. 

Vaisi thought for a moment. "What doesn't make sense to me is if the emperor could control the Essence, how did he die? Either he was incredibly stupid, or..." 

Sojou finished his thought. "The crown used his own life energy for power." 

"That's all the more reason to get that thing off his head as soon as possible," Yusiviel added. "Anyone have an idea of how to do it?" 

"I might have something," Vaisi said as he pulled out a small pouch. Inside the pouch was a little yellow crystal. "If I smash this crystal, it will dissipate most of the Essence around us for a moment. However, doing so will also make all of us quite weak, including Kadattee. If both of you get close to him, I'll smash the crystal before he can blow you back. Right before I do, you'll have to jump forward to reach him before you become too weak to move. " 

Sojou set his things on the ground so he could move freely. "Seems simple enough. Just tell us when to jump." 

Vaisi nodded and they got into position. Sojou would approach him from the right while Yusivel was at his left. They started to run in unison, converging on Kadattee. When they got close to him, Kadattee raised his arms to send them back with a wave of energy. 

"Now!" Vaisi yelled as he smashed the crystal. Sojou and Yusivel both leaped at Kadattee as a shockwave of yellow energy spread through the room. It caused the Essence to fade around Kadattee as Sojou and Yusivel knocked him over. They fell on him like ragdolls, but it was enough to force the crown off his head. 

Sojou and Yusivel were the first to regain control of their muscles. They got off the now unconscious Kadattee and looked for Vaisi. He was lying on his stomach, staring up at them. Sojou walked up to him. "This looks familiar." 

"Oh, shut up," Vaisi said as he struggled to get up. After he was standing, they went to check on Kadattee. He remained unconscious even after they waited for a bit. 

Sojou picked up the crown. "I think I should be the one to take this." 

"Shouldn't I get it? It was my plan that saved us after all," Vaisi objected. 

"I'm grateful for that, but I still don't think I can trust you with such a powerful artifact. Besides, once I put it in my box, it won't be able to interact with anything on the outside. It's the safest place to put it." 

Vaisi sighed. "Alright, I'll let you have it. It'd be too risky for me to use anyways." 

Sojou glanced over at Yusivel to see her response. 

She waved her hands. "Don't look at me. You can keep that thing."

Sojou put the crown away in his box. Since Kadattee was still unconscious, Sojou and Vaisi carried him out of the tomb. With all the traps cleared, leaving was a lot easier than getting in. Kadattee woke up in his tent later that day. He found the three other Seekers waiting outside. Deeply bowing to them, he apologized, "I'm truly sorry about what happened. Something just came over me, and it was like I was someone else. If there's anything I can do to make up for it, please tell me." 

"I think the other half of my payment would suffice," Vaisi said. Yusivel nodded in agreement. 

"Of course, I'll get your payment right away." Kadattee went back to his tent and came back with two pouches of coins. He handed it to them and they noticed that they were a little heavier than the first half was. However, neither commented on it. Kadattee turned to Sojou. "Are you sure you don't want any payment?"

Sojou tapped his box. "I've already gotten more than enough payment. I wouldn't worry about it if I were you." 

Not long after, the Seekers said their goodbyes and went separate ways. Kadattee continued with his original goal and researched the tomb for many more years.