Discovery

Avii stared out over the city that once upon a time would have housed a hundred thousand souls or more. He eyed the buildings that filled volcanic walls like marble shelves, their white faces painted red with the glow of the bubbling lake beneath. Then he marvelled at the spire towards the centre of it all. A towering obelisk that gradually came to a sharpened point, its smooth exterior only briefly interrupted by balconies. From those, bridges of light flickered weakly, making connections to the far walls of the city before vanishing as quickly as they had appeared.

Then, Avii watched as the tower pulsed with energy. Watched as streams of radiant white light flowed from its base to the tip, where, upon reaching the apex, it pooled into a sphere of magical energy before bursting outward in every direction. It bathed the magma chamber in its magical luminance, connecting with the hanging city and restoring life into its dormant shell. Avii gasped as arcane lights flickered back into existence and distant objects began to move as though they had been gargantuan sleeping beasts. Then, seconds later, the ancient world grew dull again, its moving parts slowing to a stop, until all that remained was the technicolour mist of magic lingering in the air. Like wisps of smoke caught in a breeze, it flowed effortlessly before it too eventually faded into the background arcana.

Avii’s heart raced as he watched this process unfold. It thudded against his chest as the light, similar if not identical to what he had once seen, reached out to him. A light that had previously erupted out and destroyed his world. One part beautiful and the other terrifying. And as Avii wrestled with the conflicting emotions he felt, he waited for it to once again take him. But instead, it stopped at the glass, disappearing and giving him the ability to stare over the waking city. The city his people had been searching for since the mining began. The ultimate magical civilization that had been lost to time.

As he stared out over that lost world, he listened to the space behind him. Listened as golems continued their march, moving into the room before teleporting away. As powerful arcana fueled their awakening and what he assumed was their never-resting march to war. But theirs wasn’t the only magic of the space.

Around the glass, Avii saw leystone and runic symbols that glowed with arcana. From where they were placed, they seeped their energy into the edges of the window, reinforcing where it was held. Gently touching the rigid pane, he marvelled at its design before eventually turning his back to it. Finally ready to take the rest of the room in, he stared over the space he found himself. He eyed the relatively simple design it bore in comparison to the world he previously saw beyond. Noting how all that filled the circular chamber were a trio of equidistant altars set along the outskirts and the labyrinth tile at its centre.

That, and the numerous corpses.

“I can’t believe you found it.” He muttered to himself as he looked over the bodies. “Found this place in all its glory. But why didn’t you check it first? What idiot wouldn’t check for traps before fiddling with such a remarkable space?”

Avii had an idea of who would be so idiotic to charge in without checking first, but he dared not think his name. Feared to besmirch the dead. But as the thought came to him, there was something he needed to do. So, continuing to ignore the golems that ignored him, Avii crossed the space to inspect the corpses.

Around the altars were the remains of Kovika soldiers. Their combat armours had been melted down into a barely noticeable slag while their bodies were charred beyond recognition. It was easy to tell that these figures came later, as their special armours, similar to those he had already encountered, were only made after the fall of Maldain and the capture of Avii. More than that, from what he had learned, these were the ones likely responsible for activating the golems some two years prior.

Giving them no more attention than they deserved, Avii moved to the Maldainian MULEs next. In much the same way as before, he took hold of the armours to clear the dust and reveal names that he was familiar with. That was until he reached the final suit and the skeletal remains of a body that had long since decayed. As he approached, he noticed the burnt-out cigarettes around the corpse, a dozen or more revealing that they didn’t die immediately. The figure had remained alive, buried deep in the mountain with the riches of a lifetime, until finally expiring. And as he rubbed at the collar, he saw the familiar name: Beerk Kaal’eesh

“No,” Avii whispered as tears pooled at the edges of his eyes before draining away. “Beerk.”

Avii stared at the name on the collar as though it would change if he looked hard enough. As though any other name would appear besides his brother’s. A man that, if Avii was pure Maladainian, he would have been just as much so.

Kneeling, Avii reached over and pulled his brother’s armour into an embrace and screamed. He had never expected to find Beerk alive, but to find him at all came as a bigger surprise. The fact that his corpse had been so close made his previous fears more realistic. Fears that he had been there that day, in the room where the world ended for his people.

Avii held the corpse so tight, his body trembling at the discovery, that the skull rolled from his brother’s shoulders and clattered to the ground. At this, Avii jumped, shifting his head down to the side of the suit. It was there that he spotted it. The note that Beerk had held in his fist. The pieces of parchment that would be his final words.

With a sniffle, Avii released his brother and reached for the paper. Pulling it free, the frozen knuckles gave way, breaking loose now that their purpose had been fulfilled. Then, with a soft breath, Avii unfolded the letter, watching as the burnt-out cigarette that had been folded between the sheets tumbled to the ground. He picked it up, inspecting the mostly-burnt object in the moments before reading the letter.

---

Avii,

I knew you’d eventually find this letter, brother, because if I hadn’t been turned to dust like the others, I knew your stubborn ass wouldn’t have as well. I also knew you’d never be able to resist coming back down to tear into me for getting trapped in the first place. So, how’s topside looking after that quake? I haven’t heard anything from my crystal since the wave pushed over us. And I don’t hear rescue coming either.

I may be a bum, but I can read the writing on these grand walls, and they’re telling me that this is it. Hells of a way to go, eh? Surrounded by riches I’ll never be able to cash in. But that’s risk, I guess. We both knew that when we agreed to this job. And here I was so excited to share with you the discovery when I made it up again. I knew you’d be so jealous of the fat commission I was to make. Planned on buying you a nice bottle of something too, just to rub it in.

You should know it wasn’t me, Avii. Oh shut up! I know you were thinking it. Ol’ Beerky did it again. But it wasn’t, okay? It was Wilkens and Sasha, those damn Kovik and Estarian Collaborative Transfers. We told them to stay back. Not to touch anything. And then they both come in as we’re clearing for traps and start fiddling with that panel before the glass. I swear, it was like they were competing to mash buttons as though they were taters begging for butter. Caused the whole mountain to quake and then the flash from that big pylon out there. The light threw me across the room, knocked me out, and when I came to, everyone was dust.

Brother, if you’re reading this, I’m dead if for no other reason than I’m on my second-to-last ciggy. You’re probably standing over my corpse, bawling your eyes out, and asking yourself why I still look better than you. But I’m taking that secret to the grave. I just hope it hasn’t been too long since we’ve seen each other. I hope mom and dad are okay. I hope you, Kani, and Jeanie made out fine. Promise me that you won’t mourn me. After all, this mountain was all I knew. I’m okay with dying in it. Just do me one last solid, brother. Find a hole and bury me here. I lived in this dark and wish to remain. And as your payment, I’ll leave you my last ciggy as thanks.

Live well, brother. And may fate bring us together in the afterlife.

Beerk

P.S. I smoked the last ciggy to ease these final moments. Sorry for being a bum until the end. Love you, Avii.

---

Tears splashed down over the letter as Avii did his best to hold back his sorrow. While he knew now what had happened in those final moments and that it had not been his brother that doomed their nation, he still hurt. Still ached without his kin. Ached knowing that he had survived the blast only to die alone where it all began.

“Yuh damned bum,” Avii choked on the words as he reached over, taking Beerk’s skull and placing it back atop the armour. “All the way to the end.”

Taking the last cigarette that his brother had consumed, Avii inspected it. He could see that there was still the smallest amount left over after all the years. A single last drag. So, standing back up, Avii freed himself from the front of the armour and slipped the slender stick between his lips. With a snap of his fingers, he lit the end of the spliff and shared in the last breaths his brother took.

“You left me enough,” Avii replied as he reached out and placed his hand to his brother’s skull. “Rest now, brother. We’ll be together again soon.”

Avii had already wasted enough time on the dead and couldn’t risk waiting any longer. So, closing the front of his suit, he approached the console he had dreamed of. The one he had seen in the vision and replayed in his mind every day since. With a hovering hand, he remembered the sequence of runes needed before. One after the other, he pressed them. He watched as they began to glow with magic, all the while the golems remained uninterested in him or his goals.

And then, as he tapped at the final rune, he turned to watch as the golems that marched slowed to a stop. Twisting his head, he glanced around the room as the constructs knelt, collapsing their long limbs and gemstone heads back into their bodies until all that remained was a single egg-shaped object. Until their forms ceased to glow and they all became dormant.

Turning his head back towards the glass, Avii stared over the city. Over the world he had spent his youth searching for. And as he did, he thought of how it had taken him thirty more years to finally reach it. How he was only there because of a mission that his captors, both Estarian and Kovika alike, gave him little choice in. A mission that he took up for himself. A choice to carry the future on his shoulders. For people who would never know his name. So that their children would maybe one day live a life free of war and fear. And after all of that, he was ready to join his brother. Ready to find his wife and child in the afterlife. Ready for rest.

“It’s done.” He whispered, closing his eyes. “The mission is done—”

With that, his body lurched forward as pain shot through him. Coughing up blood over the altar before him, Avii opened his eyes once more. He looked down at the metal rod that had skewered his armour from behind in the moments before a second came. It cut through the opposite side of his body, tearing at his organs and spilling blood down his MULE.

“Avii.” A familiar voice whispered from behind him with words that he had heard in his mind many times before. “You survived. Your purpose has been fulfilled. Now it is time to die.”

They were Harbinger’s words, but now they came from Ostave’s lips.