The Guardians' Pendants (The Zor Chronicles Part I) (19 page)

If our help is needed
to make ends meet

From the hearts of Five
to the hearts of all

If guidance is needed,
one must simply call

“Call?” Lanaru butted
in, eyeing the scriptures on the wall himself. “Are you sure you’re
reading that right?”

“Would
you
like to give it a try?”
Kaho retorted.

Lanaru frowned, taking
a deep breath. “Help!” he cried. “We need help!”

Kaho rolled her eyes.
“I give up on him,” she decided, exasperated.

“Wait!” Ikani blurted suddenly. All eyes turned to him. He
hesitated for a moment before speaking anew. “Think for a minute!
If this could possibly be the entrance into the Shrine of
the
Gods
, then perhaps we must
‘call’ for them!” he mused. “Kaho, did you ever study up on the
Gods enough to learn of their names?”

Kaho paused, trying to
think. “I did… but it was so long ago now,” she lamented. Straining
as the thought, she began to recite another verse from memory.
“
They are the Five… creators of
life… the Gods of Time and the Gods of
Highest,
” she stopped once again.
The others eyed her with desperation.
“Sahr… Nordin, Karza… Rezelna and
Demias!
” she exclaimed
suddenly.

On cue with her words,
the wall before them was pierced by what appeared to be four small
incisions, each glowing with the same blue colors as their
Guardians’ Pendants.

“Keyholes,” Ikani
breathed. “
Secrets we keep for the
chosen who seek,
” Ikani repeated.
“We are the chosen!” he exclaimed. “Let us enter the Shrine of the
Gods!”

Chapter XVI – Calling
For Help

Ikani squinted,
attempting to see beyond the light that had suddenly engulfed him
as he passed through the newly formed door into the Shrine. The
more he squinted, however, the brighter the light seemed to grow,
to the point where his eyes were forced shut. He had no idea where
he was going – or, for that matter, where he was in the first
place. To Ikani, it seemed as if he had been brought far from the
dimly-lit tunnels of the Vaults altogether and was now on his way
to a place of everlasting light.

“Can anyone hear me?”
Ikani called, his voice echoing through the surrounding stillness.
“Kaho? Lanaru?”

Suddenly, the light
gave way around him and Ikani finally opened his eyes. He was
standing at the front of a great hall of sorts that was contoured
with a maze of staircases and doorways in every direction he
looked. The walls and the floors below were composed of stone
bricks similar to those found throughout the rest of the Five
Islands, though different all the same in the sense that they bore
the look of extensive age. Ikani turned at the first sound of
footsteps coming from behind him.

“Whoa,” exclaimed
Lanaru, emerging from the door to Ikani’s rear. “What is this
place?”

“Have you been
listening at all this entire time?” came the sound of Kaho’s voice
to Ikani’s left. “If my calculations are correct, I’d say that this
is the legendary Shrine of the Gods of which Tavar Havea spoke,”
she answered.

“Yeah,” Ikani breathed,
nodding. “The same Shrine that Remula has been searching
for.”

“But for what purpose?”
piped up Enoke, who was standing beside the female Veha
now.

“Who knows,” Ikani
answered simply, shrugging his shoulders. “That’s for us to find
out, I suppose – and when we do, it’ll be our job to get whatever
it was that he wanted here before he reaches it
himself.”

“Then what are we
waiting for?” Lanaru asked. “Let’s search this place from top to
bottom and put an end to this Remula freak’s game before he can put
an end to ours!”

Ikani nodded. “Right,”
he said.

“Shall we split up,
then?” Kaho proposed.

“Yeah,” Enoke replied
with a nod. “I’ll take the doors on the floor above
us.”

“I’ll take the left
side of this room,” Kaho declared.

“I’ve got the rooms on
the left side, then,” Ikani added.

At that, the three Veha
set off towards their designated doors, leaving Lanaru standing
alone behind them.

“Wha – hey!” the Mara
called. “What about me?” he demanded, stomping his foot in
frustration.

“Process of
elimination, brother,” Kaho retorted cheekily. “Do the
math.”

Lanaru paused for a
moment. “Oh… right,” he said finally, eyeing the doors on the far
wall. “Leave the best for last! I know your game, Kaho
-”

“Shut it, Lanaru!” the
other Veha all exclaimed in unison.

“Hmph,” Lanaru
muttered, frowning. “Fine then; I’ll just find… whatever
myself.”

At that, all four Veha
set off towards their designated areas of the Shrine. Ikani made
his way towards the door on the right that was furthest from the
main entrance and closest to the far wall. Grabbing hold of the
metal door handle, he pushed the door open. The room beyond it came
to light around him, bearing a striking resemblance to the main
hall and, likewise, carrying with it just as many mysteries that he
would have to unravel. Ikani’s spirits sunk as he stood before
another random layout of doors, some of which even hung over
nothingness on the middle of the walls. Taking a few steps
backwards, Ikani turned back in the direction of the others, though
when he did so he was surprised to find that he was now completely
alone in the main hall.

“Hello?” Ikani called, his voice echoing through the empty
chamber. He stopped, looking around at the doors, knowing any one
of them could very well contain the other Veha by now – he could
only hope that whatever doors they had chosen had led somewhere
more promising than what stood before him.

“Well, we
did
decide on exploring these
doors,” Ikani figured, speaking aloud to himself in an attempt to
ease an inexplicable and increasing sense of nervousness that was
now coming over him. “Perhaps I’ll just try another
door...”

And so Ikani moved onto
the next door down to his right. He pushed it open and was
surprised to find that it was completely dark behind this door – a
sizable contrast from the luminous nature of the hall behind him.
Deciding it was best that he move on and explore the room anyways,
Ikani readied his Fireblade with the intention of using its power
to light the way before him. However, as he took his first step
inside the room, Ikani’s body suddenly lurched forward before he
could even register what had happened. The door must have opened
high on the inner wall. He let out a cry of mixed surprise and fear
as he plummeted into the darkness, landing with a loud thud on the
solid ground below moments later.

“Ugh,” Ikani groaned,
rubbing his side as he rose to his feet. “That was far from
pleasant.”

His eyes were drawn to
the appearance of a light above him, and as he peered through the
blackness up at the rectangular light that penetrated the darkness
above through the door from which he had come, it became apparent
to Ikani of just how far he had fallen.

“Let’s just hope
there’s a way back up there,” he breathed quietly to himself. At
that, he readied his sword once again, focusing his energy to the
blade, watching as a small flame flickered at its tip before dying
only moments later. At that, Ikani was taken aback. His Fireblade
had never failed him before; he was shocked by its sudden lack of
power.

“I suppose my powers
are no match for those of the Gods themselves,” Ikani remarked.
“After all, it is their power that rules over these
parts.”

Ikani looked around,
his head on a swivel as he attempted to find something – anything
at all – through the perpetual darkness. With nothing more than the
aid of the faint light that was cast down from above, Ikani managed
to catch sight of what appeared to be the outline of another door.
He made his way towards it without hesitated, stopping only as he
gripped the handle. “Let’s not fall off another ledge this time,”
he said aloud to himself before pulling the door open. It came as a
pleasant surprise to Ikani when light poured in from the next room,
allowing for his spirits to be somewhat brought up once again. The
presence of the newfound light, however, offered no help in solving
the maze of that was laid out before Ikani once again. His eyes
scanned the new room, counting seven more doors, each one branching
off in different directions.

“A chance of scenery
really would be nice by now,” the Veha muttered bitterly to
himself. Without thinking, he hurried towards the nearest door and
swung it open, stepping inside. Yet another scene came to life
around him, and this one was filled with just as many doors – if
not more. There was, however, something else as well. Ikani’s eyes
momentarily fell upon the frame of a mirror standing in the far
corner. What seemed like a million broken shards of glass littered
the stone floor before him.

“That counts as
something, I suppose,” Ikani figured. Then, suddenly, he froze. He
thought back to the rooms that now lay behind him. Before falling
into the darkness, he had been expecting nothing in particular
beyond the door. The dark room below had proven to be just that – a
room of pitch blackness that not even the light of his Fireblade
could penetrate. He had entered into the following room wishing for
anything but another ledge and hoping for light. He had been gifted
with both. Before entering into the room with the broken mirror, he
had asked for a change in scenery. Glancing at the empty frame and
the shards of glass before him, Ikani realized that it wasn’t much.
It was just enough, however, for him to begin to sense a
pattern.

He hesitated at first,
feeling as if he was perhaps simply over thinking things. After
all, such discoveries could have easily been coincidental in this
unknown environment for all Ikani knew.

Ikani sighed. “I wonder
if a tree could grow down here,” he mused aloud as he eyed a door
in the far left corner. He moved towards it and pulled it open,
stepping into the next room. His eyes widened in shock when he
found his question answered in the form of a large tree reminiscent
of those that grew in plentiful in the Af’Lanu forest, sprouting
seemingly from nothing out of the brick floors of the room, its
branches hunched over beneath the low ceiling, bringing the foreign
feeling of life on the surface to the ever-extending underground
tunnels beneath Af’Lagi.

“
If our help is needed, one
must simply call,
” Ikani recited
the line from the scripture at the entrance once more, becoming
aware now of another significance altogether. He had
called
for
the light; he had
called
for the tree. At that,
Ikani smiled proudly. He had outsmarted the Shrine’s magic. He had
discovered the meaning behind the message that lay at its
entrance.

Ikani took a deep
breath and closed his eyes before speaking anew. “I need to find
what Remula wants,” he declared loudly before opening his eyes
anew. They fell first upon the middle door on the right wall.
Suspense – excitement combined with tremendous nervousness –
coursed through Ikani’s mind as his shaking hand gripped the door
handle and he swung the metal door open.

The Veha, however, was
shocked and disappointed upon finding the room completely
empty.

At that, Ikani began to
lose hope anew. What did this mean? Had Remula already succeeded in
locating the Shrine before them, claiming that for which he had
tirelessly been searching? Had they failed Tavar Havea in being too
late? Ikani attempted to compose himself, pacing around the empty
room. Finally, he stopped before moving towards the nearest door to
his right. Grabbing hold of the handle, Ikani shut his eyes
tight.

“
Show me
what Remula wants,” Ikani declared. “Or… what
he
wanted
.”

With that, Ikani pushed
the door open, and plunged into the endless darkness of a
memory.

Chapter XVII – Fear
and Rebellion

Rezelna stood beneath
the moon as the only figure in sight, overlooking the landscape
before her. The village below was finally beginning to take shape,
she noticed. That remark, however, came coupled with the
realization that her job – and, for that matter, her destiny –
would soon be ready for completion.

“At last, this world is
beginning to develop into a place where they all may live,” Rezelna
spoke quietly to herself. “It is my hope that their days be filled
with eternal peace as the memories of war escape
them…”