Chapter 8

Despite how quickly the men fell to their slumber, the sun was quicker to rise. One by one, the crewmen woke up, and began preparing themselves to enter the library.

Leaving her tent, Yeng immediately spotted Sunder, kneeling in front of the library’s doors. “That excited to enter?” she asked in a slight yawn before sitting down next to him “Bet you didn’t even sleep last night.”

“I kept waking up.”

After rubbing her eyes and yawning once more, Yeng realized how frightened Sunder was. His eyes seemed to have not closed in hours, even his blinks were far and few between. The backs of his hands were covered in small marks, some of which he was still piercing with his fingernails. “Hey,” she said, putting her arm around him, “what’s wrong?

“This building,” Sunder remained affixed to the library’s open doors, still shrouded in darkness after the first couple of steps. “Every time I look at it, I just think about that scar, and suddenly my entire body just wants to run away. It doesn’t make sense. This is out in the open, for anyone to enter, yet it has this aura- this… I can’t even put it into words.” Sunder quickly blinked once, piercing his skin even harder before Yeng slapped his hand away. “I-I don’t get it, I never felt like this before…”

“Well,” Yeng got up and pulled Sunder by the hand. For just a moment his eyes screamed for help, but she kept up her nonchalant smile. “Then let’s go inside and find you some answers. Don’t worry, if you get scared you can hold my hand.” with a wink she grabbed his hand and held it tight, slightly pressing on his fresh wounds.

Sunder let go of her with a huff, snapping out of his trance as he tried to wipe away the red from his cheeks. “Go order the others to do something, leave me alone.”

Yeng giggled, giving him a little tap on the forehead before going back next to the tents and playing around with her new camel friend. Sunder turned around once more and looked inside the library, the sun carefully crawling inside, giving him a glimpse into scratched walls and a tight corridor. The moment he felt his breathing grow heavier, he turned back, bumping into Hui.

“Sorry,” he said, rubbing his head and using Sunder to keep himself standing, “that little pouch had a real kick to it last night.”

“I was surprised to see you still had anything left in that wineskin.”

“Haven't touched that thing since we left. I’ve drank nothing but water since we left Qishn.”

Sunder smiled with a small snicker. “Really? You’re lying.”

“I’m not…” Hui threw his head down for a moment, appearing to fall unconscious as his body followed suit. Sunder quickly tried bending down to grab him, but the moment he got his hands on him, he saw everything upside-down as Hui twisted his body and fell on top of him, grabbing his shirt and placing his thumb on his neck like he would a blade. “See?”

Sunder could only blink as he looked up at Hui. He heard several stories of his times as a soldier, but this had to be the first time he showed him his skills. “Wow. I-I was not expecting this.”

“Did you think your mother had me recruited just to get me away from home?” he got up and extended his hand to Sunder, who took it as he brushed away the sand from his clothes.

“Honestly, yes. Guess I owe Yeng a drink.”

“And while you do that, I can give this back to Lieh.” On his other hand, Hui revealed the dagger Sunder had kept on his waist. He tried taking it from him, but Hui pulled back his hand, pushing the kid away with his knee.

“You heard that?”

“You might be our leader, but this is still too much for you.”

“Hui, I made a promise, please give me that blade.”

“I can’t, I’m sorry. Every time something bad happens anywhere, you let it fall on your shoulders.”

“That is what it means to lead.”

“That little girl wasn’t your fault. If your parents stressed as much in twenty years of ruling as you did on one year of journey, they would have burned down the kingdom in a week. You can’t keep putting all that weight over yourself.”

Sunder closed his fist, keeping his eyes locked on the dagger before closing them for a moment, “Then that weight is now on you. Got it?”

“Yes captain,” Hui smirked, raising the dagger to his forehead and saluting him. “Now get ready for whatever’s inside.”

Rushing to his tent to grab his father’s sword, Sunder kneeled by it, unsheathing it slightly and pressing the wounds on his hands against the cool metal. As a surge of energy rushed up his spine, he left his tent, looking over at his crew waiting for him.

“Lead the way cap,” said Yeng, throwing a lit torch at him.

Sunder grabbed the torch in mid-air and approached the entrance to the library. Taking his first step inside, he immediately felt a rumbling, the wind began rushing faster inside, nearly extinguishing the torch. As he was pushed forward by Yeng and the rest of the men, the wind was quick to die down, but that was only the start.

Sunder began slowing down as the ground felt looser with each step, as if the stone floor was ready to give out to an empty abyss, it was hard to notice if it was him or the stone that was shaking uncontrollably. Losing his balance, he grazed the torch on the walls.

“Wait, look at those marks.” Sunder stopped, moving his torch to reveal several markings all over the walls. These were not from natural degradation, they were meticulously planned indentations that covered both sides of the hall they were in. “These are words,” she continued. Despite the seemingly random markings, Yeng’s keen eye was able to notice an order to them. “It’s hard to understand, but it seems… Greek?”

Ang-Shi quickly made his way from the back of the line and got behind Yeng. “It appears you’re right, but these words seem to have no clear meaning. ‘The three unities’, ‘The Persians’-

“We’ll take some stone rubbings before we leave,” said Sunder, continuing his path forward. “Anything not directly related to the Elements is a waste of time.” He tried his best to emulate his father’s authoritative tone, but everyone could hear the fear in his voice, fear that was quickly spreading to the rest of his men.

As they continued through the narrow hallway, a small rumbling echoed out to them, like an earthly growl. “This building is old,” said Yeng, attempting to ease the rest of the crew. “It stood Gods know how many years without crumbling, it would just be rude for it to decide to fall apart today.”

Soon enough they began seeing small paths diverting from the main hall, “We’ll split off once we reach the end of this hallway” said Sunder, “we don’t need to wander aimlessly, we have plenty of time to search every inch of this place.”

It wasn’t long before the continuous stone grumbles quickly turned into a roar, shaking the ground below them at odd intervals. The crew could do nothing but stay quiet and follow this seemingly endless hallway, but with each step, Sunder began feeling numb. His mind drifted back to the Fool’s Current, somehow feeling the same now as he did seeing the ocean move him toward his destination. This was it, he was almost done. Too busy to hear the murmurings coming from his crew, he kept walking in complete silence, ignoring the ever-increasing rumbling.

“What the hell is happening?” asked Lieh, wielding both daggers as he called out to Yeng for answers.

“We’re getting closer,” she said, trying to hide the terror in her voice, “and whatever’s inside here knows that.”

The footing became worse than that of Artemis’ during a storm, but Sunder walked unfazed, keeping his balance unconsciously. A small light gleamed at the end of the hall, followed by a large tremor that knocked half of the men to their knees, blowing off the torch at the end of the hall with the help of a sudden wind. The ground threw Sunder against the walls, but his mind was still adrift, focused only on moving forward. He finally took a step out of the hall, entering a giant room with large holes on the ceiling that allowed the light to come in, along with tiny veins of falling sand. Sunder’s mind slowly began focusing as his eyes landed on a green statue in the center of the room. A woman, the embodiment of perfection, standing with her hands clasping in a praying position, her emerald-like composition grayed out by the dirt that had settled upon it.

“Sunder!” he was knocked out of his trance by Yeng’s screams. Looking back, he saw the walls of the hallway close down, the remaining members inside barely managing to jump out before they crushed the few weapons left behind with a dry thud that reverberated through the room. Immediately putting his hand up to his waist, Sunder sighed with relief as he could still feel his father’s sword was with him.

As the echo dissipated, they realized the trembling too had stopped. Everyone regained their composure and quickly began looking around the room, all gazes quickly falling upon the female statue that had entranced Sunder. He took one step toward it, but before he could take the second one, the statue shook, blowing away the dust that had gathered over her. Fractured lines began racing across the statue as it grew more brittle by the second. Everyone remained frozen. Unsure of what to do, they simply held their weapons tight.

Two synchronous sounds of shattering glass echoed through the room before two green vine-like appendages emerged from the back of the statue. In an instant, they flew out toward Sunder. He had no time to react, as two arrow-like spears, bigger than his face, dashed toward him. Both vines grazed his neck before parting from him, drilling through Ang-Shi and another crewmate and pinning them to the wall for only a second before retreating to the statue, leaving both men to fall limp on the floor with a hole where their hearts used to be. A flurry of green emerald shards was shot out as the rest of the statue broke, revealing its living form. She jumped up toward Sunder, nearly as fast as her vines, and grabbed him by the neck. The rest of the crew ran to fight, but they were quickly constrained as vines emerged from the ground and grabbed onto them.

“Why do you come here?” said the woman. Her voice echoed through her entire porcelain-like body, and Sunder saw his fearful expression perfectly reflected in her massive black eyes, as if replaced by two obsidian circles. “Have you the need to destroy this place yet again?”

“We-we’ve never been here before,” said Sunder, feeling the air slowly being squeezed out of him.

“Sunder!” screamed Yeng, before her mouth was encircled with vines.

“You want this power so much? Then let us see you carry this burden.” Sunder tried his best to escape the woman’s grasp, but it was as if a stone shackle was slowly tightening around his neck. He used his legs to push on her chest, but all it did was make her grip tighter. Darkness began creeping over his vision, but just before he passed out, he felt his sword slip off his waist and fall to the ground. With a rush of energy, he directed all his strength into his fist, swinging as hard as he could at the woman’s face.

A howl of pain followed a large cracking sound. Sunder’s fingers had been mangled, and the woman remained motionless. Stone shifted all around them as a section of the wall sunk into the sand. The woman looked at the group that was restrained by her vines and with a single flick of her feet, made them throw the crew outside.

“Sunder!” screamed Yeng once more, standing up the second she hit the sand and immediately running to him. Grabbing a dagger from her boots she jumped up to the woman, nearly twice her height, being caught by the neck before she could even swing her blade.

“You are quite fond of him. Live to see him suffer then.”

“Only after you die, bitch!” Yeng struggled to speak before swinging the dagger into the woman’s arm. The cracked tip flew out as Yeng dropped the shattered blade, her arm shaking as she kept weakly punching the woman.

The woman then moved her foot once more, shifting the sand around the men into a hexagram, followed by a circle that touched all six points. She then threw Sunder, barely holding onto consciousness, next to the men. With one of her hands now free, she raised it, and around the circle, thousands of grains of sand began flying around it. The spinning particles began forming a wall, filling the circle soon after, each grain hitting the men inside with the strength of a small arrow.

“Sunder!” Hui stood over him, shielding the boy as thousands of small cuts ravaged his clothes and quickly made their way onto his body. “Wake up!” the rest of the crew watched in shock as bones and scraps of dried flesh began emerging from the sand before being sucked into the vortex of sand, devoured in an instant. Most were ancient, but a few of the bones were fresh, still carrying leather straps with Rhea’s insignia.

Lieh attempted to punch through the spinning wall of sand, and as his fist made contact, two of his fingers immediately flew off, the rest of his hand being shredded for a moment before he pulled it away. “Fuck!” he screamed, trying his best to hold the pain, “I guess this is it.” After a large breath, he began laughing, relieved as he held down his bleeding hand.

“The captain doesn’t get to die before his crew, c’mon.” Hui helped Sunder to his knees as En-Lai and the others circled them with their arms crossed. They looked up in silence as their blood painted the sand maelstrom, its color deepening by the second.

“Long live the Sun of China!” Unable to do anything besides shielding Sunder, his crew said their goodbyes, each one with pride in their heart and a smile on their face. “LONG LIVE OUR CAPTAIN!”

The woman’s eyes went blank, releasing her grip over Yeng as the sand froze in place. Before she could even hit the ground, Yeng saw a giant pillar of light, bright enough to nearly burn her eyes off, engulf her friends.