@VitaVitaAR@PKMNB0Y As far as Misaki could tell, the plan for the next few days would require no small amount of work. Knowing that bamboo “paper” existed was good, yes, and fundamentally speaking it would work perfectly for the sake of retaining information…
But there
was a reason that it was phased out of use in the modern era. There was most certainly a market to be had in the creation of wood pulp paper, and given that she had no proper combat capabilities (and that such skills could not be obtained without proper time and effort), the next best thing she could bring to the table was the development of technology. The only major problem on that front in terms of safety was trying to not make herself too conspicuous, but all
that really meant was that she just had to progress at a measured pace.
As she finished writing a few things in Japanese and sketching out a basic diagram for the frame, the foxgirl found herself startled by the appearance of one of the oni—the same one she had caught sight of earlier today, before she had followed Nobunaga to the Kyrinth’s shrine.
“A-ah… Sorry, I was a bit lost in thought,” she began, standing up and brushing herself off before bowing towards Haruno. “But if you want to speak with me, by all means. Is something the matter?”
“Mm...no, nothing is wrong really.” She’d reply. Her eyes drifted towards the drawings in the sand Misaki was making. Despite her friendly tone, there was the sense she was still on guard, judging from the way one of her hands hadn’t left her blade didn’t do much to dispel that. “I’ve simply been looking for an opportunity to speak with you...though I was hoping you’d turn me away. That would have been more expected.”
Haruno exhaled lightly, frowning.
“Who are you, exactly?” She asked. “You and that human...there’s something off about the two of you, and I can’t quite put my finger on it.” She didn’t seem hostile, but definitely curious and on guard. “And the fact you willingly engage with us Oni, its...suspicious.”
“Suspicious, are we?”
Nobunaga placed a hand to her chest as she spoke, smiling pleasantly. She had been aware their actions could potentially seem strange to those who hailed from the distant land so similar to her own. And indeed, her caution had been warranted. There was little that could be done aside from facing the matter head-on.
“I suppose it’s simply a matter of my upbringing. My father employed a variety of people prior to his untimely death, so I am not unused to interacting with your kind,” she responded, “Perhaps my attitude has rubbed off on my companion?”
It was a swiftly devised ruse. Nobunaga was not entirely certain it would work, but if the oni of this world were employed by Mie, then it was not impossible they were employed by others.
Misaki’s eyes widened slightly at the oni’s statement, pausing for a moment as she realized her blunder. It hadn’t occurred to her that discrimination against the oni had been common, given the world that she lived in. Even so, it wasn’t as if she could act otherwise—it just wouldn’t feel right.
“Ah… I…” she trailed off, scratching the back of her head as Nobunaga chimed in. There was no real way for her to follow up on that, given who she was, but it would have to be addressed… Somehow. Given her apparent inability to readily lie, it only seemed right to try and give a half-truth instead.
“...I’m just… Odd, is all. Unlike my companion here, I’ve just… Lived my life as an academic. Something like where you come from or what your lot in life was just isn’t really important to me.”
It might have sounded a bit odd or hollow, but that was the best that she could do here.
“Hmm...” Haruno frowned, considering the words of the two travelers, eyes narrowing slightly. It was, at least, clear she didn’t entirely believe them. “I...that makes sense, I suppose. If you’re a scholar...the onmyouji do at least treat us with...civility. Though I don’t know of anyone else in Chagawa who willingly employed Oni aside scoundrels looking to cause trouble and people looking for scapegoats…” She shifted her gaze towards Nobunaga as she spoke, the suspicious look turning to one more akin of minor embarrassment.
“A-ah not that I would imply that your late father or that you are such disreputable people! N-not at all! I’m sure he was quite the practical minded man - oh that doesn’t sound any better...” At least her posture relaxed slightly.
The way that the oni had responded to their statements did not particularly sit well with the foxgirl, especially given what she had said. The fact that she still didn’t trust their words couldn’t have been helped—doubly so given how Nobunaga was lying through her teeth—but she had at least been genuine in her excuse. If she was to be frank, their presence as a whole was inherently intriguing enough to ignore any sort of societal pariah status that they may have had, but that was neither here nor there.
Even so… Would it have helped to extend the lie a bit more?
“Ah… Well, I haven’t told Lady Mie this, but… I was actually born outside of Chagawa. I’d rather not be treated as an outcast, so I don’t say that often, but if it makes you feel any better…”
Misaki trailed off, scratching the back of her head with a nervous smile before looking back towards Haruno.
“...With that said, I would appreciate it if you didn’t tell your boss—though, if I’m going to be honest, she probably knows already, given how she was acting with me earlier,” she continued before glancing back to her work in the sand. “Though… Hm. I wonder if I could ask for help with this…? No, that might be a bit…”
Nobunaga paused for a moment. Ah, that was a rather wise choice to cover for Misaki’s oddness in the eyes of those native to the distant land. Having originated from beyond its shores in the first place.
The petite black-haired girl sighed.
“Ah, I suppose my attempts to cover for you were not enough,” she commented, simply, “I apologize, Misaki-san. I guess I never have been at my best when put on the spot like that, but I thought I could do at least a little better.”
She scratched the back of her head, as if she felt mildly embarrassed.
“... As for my father, I suppose I never questioned his dealings too deeply…” continued Nobunaga, faking a confession of her father’s potential criminal activities, “But regardless, to my knowledge he treated everyone in his employ well enough.”
“You were born outside of Chagawa?!” Haruno seemed utterly shocked by Misaki’s words, her gaze turning to one of what seemed to be disbelief. “That...I suppose it could make sense if you were, but then...that would also mean...” The Oni frowned, glancing away from the two other girls with a thoughtful, but troubled expression. “...did some other place have Kin related to the ancient guardian beasts…?” A brief glance back towards Misaki. A gaze of judgement, and determination. A few quiet seconds would pass before eventually the Oni would sigh. “...no, you have no reason to make such a bold face lie to me.” A relieved expression as Haruno would offer a small smile. “It’s not my place to say, but I’m sure Lady Mie would be put quite at ease if you told her this. She may have her suspicions but...she has to err on the side of caution, especially when dealing with her kin.”
Haruno however, would not say more than that on the subject even if pressed by the two.
“I am glad however, at least, there are others that see past the Oni’s heritage.” Haruno would offer a genuine smile to Nobunaga. “I suppose if you aren’t from Chagawa though, Misaki, you aren’t aware of us or our life there, are you? And if you’re heading there...well, I could tell you some things, if you want if your friend here hasn’t already? It would be foolish of me not to aid when you’ve been this forthcoming when it could directly help you.”
The foxgirl could only return Nobunaga’s apology with a sheepish smile; she was not one used to apologies, and hearing one from a figure so famed in history directed towards herself only compounded how uncomfortable that felt. Nevertheless, it was something that could not be ignored; attempting to extend the charade would likely have gotten them in a larger mess.
The oni’s response, though, was a bit less visceral than Misaki had expected; though some reaction was to be expected, the bits she could piece together from what was said did not paint a particularly flattering picture of Chagawa despite its name. If anything, it sounded more like Heian Japan rather than something closer to the later shogunates, which did them absolutely no favors. At this point, though, there was no reason to jump to conclusions—not when someone was so willing to explain the nation’s inner workings so as to allow them a clearer picture.
“Ah… I shall do so when the time is right, then,” she said, nervously scratching the back of her head before nodding. “But if you would be willing to explain, then I would happily listen. Please, by all means.”
“Mhm, t-then I’ll do my best.” Haruno replied. “I can’t...really speak much to how the human clans work really. Only how they view us Oni and our Clans...” She would begin, a look of minor resentment coloring her features. “And erm, I promise I’m not trying to color humans in a bad light here.” She’d cast a nervous look towards Nobunaga before continuing. “I’m not sure...where you come from, or if you have a similar origin, but the Kitsune in Chagawa are all descendants of the ancient Guardian Beast which felled a great evil that plagued the land, once...well, that’s how the humans and they tell it. To us Oni, that ‘Great Evil’ was the ancient Serpent King, and our ancestor. When he was felled by the ancient Beasts fangs, his massive body fell to the earth, shattering it and breaking the land in countless pieces - and as such the islands of Chagawa were formed.” She would glance towards the sea. “After it was over...well, accounts vary and we’re not even sure ourselves. They say his hatred and evil eventually would create the Oni at the place he fell, or we were people warped by his evil into serving him.”
She shook her head.
“The Kitsune would retreat to the mountains, a giant tree growing where it would bloom all year round with the prettiest flower blossoms...the humans, would form several Clans led by warriors and people skilled in several fields. A single clan would go on to deify the ancient beasts and found the Onmyouji and what well...they claim they’re the single rulers of Chagawa, but the clans often don’t adhere to that.” Her voice would turn to a tone of resentment, cool minor anger as she continued. “Us Oni were treated as monsters, and...as much as I’d like to say we’re not, none of us deny that well...I can’t...say its not in our blood to find ourselves enjoying things humanity detests. Even I, if I get too...distracted, I might start doing something unpleasant.” She’d blush a bit at admitting that, seemingly mildly embarrassed by whatever that meant. “A-ahem, a-anyways, Oni are divided into several Clans, much like the humans are...though these clans are always changing in power and leadership constantly.”
The Oni would grimace, showing some mild distaste for what she was saying.
“I can tell you more about the individual clans themselves later. Thinking about them honestly makes me irritated. All you really need to know is that most would attack humans on sight. How Lady Mie got most to treat her in a friendly manner...well, I can’t say I know how she did it...” Haruno would frown, thinking for a moment. “....Hm. I suppose the only other thing of note is that if you’re going there, you’d probably want to keep a low profile. The humans there would likely consider you a messenger from the Kitsune, and the Oni unaffiliated with Mie, would probably just kill you without question.”
Misaki opened her mouth slightly before choosing to close it instead, a more serious expression on her face as the oni detailed to her the history of Chagawa. In many ways, it was structured like a traditional myth, but given the way that the world seemed to be structured, writing it off as just that would be far from the truth. To say that the Japan that she knew was not guilty of similar discrimination would have been a bold-faced lie, but that did not mean that she liked it any more as it was here. In her eyes, such thoughts were far too old-fashioned for the sort of world she would have liked to live in—doubly so on her second time around, where she felt as if she had a chance to make a difference if given the time and right opportunities.
“I… See. Well, stereotypes don’t mean much in the long run,” she said, shaking her head before shrugging. “But your warning is much appreciated. Even so, to go so far as to attack people on sight… Coming from you, that seems more believable than not, but I’d hope that dialogue would at least be possible if the need arose. If your employer could do it, then it isn’t impossible, right?”
Given that she had no confidence in her ability even now to actually fight, avoiding such an outcome would be her ideal course of action. The likelihood of having to parley with those clans in the near future was fairly high—at least, as far as she could tell—which meant that one wrong move could mean the end of her.
Maybe understanding the reasons behind Lady Mie’s ability to reach over those boundaries and make contact with the oni would be worth looking into en route too…?
“Hm, certainly if she did it I see no reason why another couldn’t.” Haruno replied with a nod. “I would erm, suggest if I could, in the case that you do you show either no weakness, or great cunning. There is nothing most Oni respect more than some form of strength or...savagery, though I doubt you’d erm, ahaha, want to do that.” She would offer the pair a smile as she glanced towards the ocean. “Uhm, it is getting a bit late, and Lady Mie is probably looking for me...if...she hasn’t been drinking again.” Haruno would sigh, seemingly mildly dismayed at the thought of that. “I really do think you should try being frank with her, but I realize its not my place to suggest such things. Thank you for speaking with me, its not...often I get to speak with those who aren not Oni. If there is nothing else...then I shall take my leave.” Assuming she wasn’t stopped, Haruno would leave back towards the caravan’s location.
The Illuminated Temple pt2
[@CrusaderLord]
Thankfully, nothing else stopped Leannah on her way out. The parts would be dragged back to the room and rest near what was seemingly an operating table. Everything seemed mostly intact, aside from her stunt earlier, which just left three more rooms to explore from here on out. As she would leave the room, the door would simply...disappear? Fade from existence as she left with the statue and the orb.
Seemed like once she took whatever it was she thought was important, she wasn’t going to be going back.
The catgirl would sigh in relief at not having to return to the accursed room, but all the same she would place the parts of the statue that she’d drug in next to the operating table. From here she’d go with the orb and place it on the operating table for safe-keeping as well. Sure it was ‘damaged’, but...surely it still was functional for what was needed, yes? Besides, seeing the statue parts there was giving her some inkling at things. Were the parts, or some of them at least, needed to be placed on this table? Probably. But since she had all the parts she could come back to this later, as there wasn’t much time to dawdle around.
Leannah winced at the searing pain of the burnt right side of her body, and attempted to run magical energy gently through it to help ‘numb’ the pain somewhat. It was a minute attempt, nothing she’d let go out of control or frankly not shut off if it began to go wild, but all the same it was some means of trying to keep herself moving.
Turning her eyes about the room after the attempt, regardless of however successful it was, the former human walked to go enter the Eastern Room. It seemed simplest in comparison to the rest, though wasn’t likely to be as easy as she in part was hoping, and the lack of presence of obvious places for things to jump at her was perhaps needed after the prior room’s shenaniganry.
However, she would still scout the room from the doorway, and as she then entered she would very carefully watch her steps and scour the room itself for anything...strange. Well, anything that wasn’t obvious at least.
The eastern room, as she could see, was completely bare. The walls were made of the same smooth walls as the rest of the place. It wouldn’t be until she’d approach the suspended statue that she’d notice something engraved into the floor under it.
“To learn of the old, the Sage descended into the realm of the dead to plunder the corpses of the past.”
There was a click, the sound of something releasing from above. The sound of metal sliding against metal. A quick check would see the statue that was suspended from above suddenly having been released from its chains and was falling towards her.
Reacting instinctively, Leannah rolled left and out of the way as the hint of the statue’s movement caught her trained attention. As much as it was annoying that something like that happened, however, at least it was enough of a trope-y trap that she didn’t have an outburst at it. Not that such would do anything, but after the last room she was not a fan of enemies swaming her for the moment...then again she could make things explode in a small supernova. But the supernova also made her crispy in the literal sense. Hmm.
Either way she just hoped to not fall through the floor or something as she basically ‘roll-dodged-leaped’ to the side to try to avoid getting hit.
Leannah was able to swiftly dodge the falling statue, rolling across the floor to the side. The statue careened into the floor. As soon as it hit the floor it would smash right through it, revealing a deep pit below! The statue would seem to fall in a straight line, landing on a small outcrop in the middle of the pit. Upon impact, the statue would shatter leaving just the main pieces intact. From what she could see - the area under the floor was entirely hollow, just a massive that she could barely make out other fixtures in. She could see a few floating platforms if she were to poke her head into the pit, illuminated by odd blue light pulsing from the walls and the bottom of the pit.
A few seconds later, the rest of the room began to rumble as the floor under her feet started shifting slightly. Not enough to fall, but enough to likely give a scare of it being unstable.
Didn’t seem like she would be able to survive just...jumping down. Maybe there was some other way she could retrieve what she wanted.
The catgirl let out a sigh as she looked into the pit, stabilizing herself as she stood up once more near the edge. So an unstable room, a fall that would be rather bad to take, and obvious floating platforms sitting in the air with an eerie odd blue light pulsing from the walls and bottom of the pit itself? At least she’d gotten the blue before having to swipe left at the chance of getting crushed by a falling statue. The state of things did confirm, at least, that the statues themselves were also rather important beyond the orbs. It also confirmed she probably needed to save a princess and wear a pointy green hat whilst playing musical instruments. Ha.
Jokes aside, Leannah dusted herself off and looked about the room once more. If there was anything of note here she’d want to see it if it came out now, but otherwise it seemed the path was clear for what to do. She’d also gotten the word clue along the way thus far: “To learn of the old, the Sage descended into the realm of the dead to plunder the corpses of the past.” So the ‘Sage’, yes, they had been involved in this whole backstory for the Illuminator in some fashion. They seemed to have led humanity out of somewhere, which for the moment she assumed was the prison-lab place, and they had ties to the moon goddess naturally because of all of the chaos that went on back there it seemed.
Blargh. The more she seemed to learn, the more questions arose from it all than answers.
Why did the Sage lead them out of the prison complex? Was it because the others were idiots trying to entrap a goddess there? Why did they seek knowledge in the Underworld? Was he like Odysseus seeking Tireseas to-...wait. That was a potential thing, wasn’t it? She had no idea how old this world was, how much happened before, and if that lab was truly a lab before then likely many experiments or subjects and such had died there. In that vein, seeking someone or ‘someones’ in the Underworld who had the knowledge and such the Sage needed was a simple fact if that was the case. The inscription she was remembering about the Sage, the one she’d seen before, also came from the smirking statue and had been given to the hooded figure.
Wait.
Might the hooded figure actually be the Sage themselves? Mourning the loss of contact with the Moon after Delphiti turned away from humans? Without a moon in that sense, if not also very literally, then the world might’ve gone to hell in a handbasket. Literally. That would be something to mourn. Plus back then she did place the crystal necklace on the Hooded Figure statue, which came from the Tower! Yes, that made sense! The Sage had taken something with them in leaving the Lab with those humans who came along, but even so Delphiti had turned from them or on them and the Sage was weeping. Yet the heavy carved stone necklace from the Hooded figure was placed on the Smirking Statue in turn…
...The transference of a burden, perhaps? The Sage got what had been in the Tower, and the smirking statue got the heavy burden that the Sage had borne. Then the Crystal Orb, that hidden ‘secret’ in the vase of the smirking statue, was given to the Two-Faced Bust. If this represented the Illuminator, which she still felt was true, then that secret...son of a-....no it made sense as well. Was it a breakthrough though? She had to lay out the potential timeline at least.
Delphiti made humanity within the Lab, humans turned stupid and wanted to lock another goddess up there that was the Illuminator’s “Auntie” and at least potentially a or the sister of Delphiti. Said sister could be an ocean goddess, since moon and ocean make sense together. That figure might have been represented by the smirking statue who held the vase that had the crystal orb in it. So after the Sage and co left, Delphiti had turned her back on the mortal world and was likely in this causing immense suffering in the process and at least causing the Sage to mourn the loss of connection between them and the goddess. So the Sage sought out information in the Underworld, potentially to try to figure out how to fix the mess of a situation and maybe satiate Delphiti’s anguish and anger in some manner. So he ‘learned of the old’, and acquired something that someone wanted...maybe that Delphiti wanted actually. If
she was the one that wanted the ‘secrets of the oceans’, then did the Sage plunder this information and give it to Delphiti to make amends?
In which case Delphiti, who hadn’t had the secret before and was doing experiments to try to acquire it, came into possession of the ‘secrets of the oceans’ in return for restoring the world that had perhaps been devastated by her rejection of mortals? That and maybe sealing up the way to get into her Old Lab in the first place, to avoid humans and mortals making hte same mistakes the ‘heretics’ there had. That all made sense. And if the Sage was ‘beloved’ by Delphiti, then it would make sense she could listen to him and take the deal he offered. What she desired in return for restoring things and sealing up the path to the Old Lab. In which case, Delphiti in turn also took this knowledge she hadn’t earned but instead received as a gift to create The Illuminator himself. He did note the lab was ‘before his time’ when speaking earlier, so it made logical sense he came about after all of this just as in the inscription the timeline of events was like thus perhaps. Then at the end The Illuminator was finally made by Delphiti, his mother.
In that sense it all gave off the impression that “Knowledge isn’t free, and always comes at a price”. It made sense, as even in Earth’s history there were plenty of horrible things done that were learned from...and some of that information used for good or otherwise had come at a steep price in the process. Whatever the Sage had acquired was “[plundered] from the corpses of the past”, so all that came after was a result of what he did that wasn’t phrased in a rather pleasant manner. Like a tomb robber looting the riches of the past, the Sage had looted the knowledge and secrets of old to save the world at present. Delphiti had kept up her end of the deal, and likewise The Illuminator was created by it. That was how the surgical table also made sense in the main room! The Illuminator’s origins lied in the plundering of the past and the dead, and he was Frankenstein’s-Monster-style pieced together from what the Sage plundered and gave to Delphiti.
But who had he taken it from? Had The Illuminator’s “Auntie” died and passed into the Underworld due to experiments or what the humans in the Lab had tried to do to imprison her? Maybe they had imprisoned her in the Underworld? Either way, death or Underworld imprisonment meant that the Sage going there to get the information and veritable “Secrets of the Oceans” made a lot of sense. Either that or he had found old dead from before his and humanity’s creation, and plundered the secrets of the oceans from studying and basically defiling them.
Argh. She needed to get moving.
“Alright, alright, I get it! Unstable Underworld Journey, taking what had long died and looting the corpse, that seems to be the point of this.” Speaking aloud, the catgirl lowered her head in and, putting herself in a stable stance and gripping the floor for dear life with her left hand, looked down into the dark hold and cast the Light spell in her free right hand. She would see if this Illuminated anything else in the room, or at least made things clearer. That was step one of her current plan of action. Step two, she would do her best to ascertain the location of the highest-up floating platform underneath the dangerously loose floor of the room she was in. She would go back and forth to the hole the statue made, doing her best to mark out and grasp the correct spot of the platform as she tried to chip away at the specific area she needed to drop down through to land safely on the highest-up platform.
If this plan succeeded, and she saw the correct platform she was going for through the hole she was trying to chip in the floor (magic channeled to her arms alone would hopefully make this task a bit easier), she would do her best to lower herself in and only let herself drop down onto the platform itself to try to land as safe a landing as she could.
If none of this plan of hers worked out as she intended, then she would be looking into the hole again with and without using the Light spell, all to try to find some manner of lowering herself or something that would allow her to get down there safely enough.
The pit was deep.
Unreasonably so. Seemed like it possessed the explicit purpose of making sure someone couldn’t easily just jump down there without some sort of plan to also return to the area above. The platforms didn’t seem to start until several storeys down, though she could maybe feasibly do exactly that and just jump down, though she might not come out entirely uninjuried if so. As for illuminating the area, the orb of light was stable enough, thankfully and would illuminate the room below a bit more.
The closest platform was under the floor a few ‘tiles’ to her left, though it was still a fair bit down. The floor would give way rather easily as she chipped away at the area, as though it had been designed to be fairly weak and easily removed. Now was the simple question, did she have a way to slow her fall?
After a moment of thought, trying to ponder what she could do to lower herself down more safely at least, the catgirl seemed to perk back up as the memory of being back near the suspicious pool of water came to mind. Maybe she couldn’t move whatever was in that pool, whether it was ancient goodies or another ancient trap of some kind, but moving herself was another possibility altogether! It wasn’t a light spell tied to her cute-birb-goddess related gift, but it would still require all the same caution those spells required...if it would work that is. So a test was required!
Leannah began to channel her magical energy to the ends of telekinesis once more, but this time very carefully and in a controlled manner tried to move herself. She was standing on the floor, so something as simple as an inch off the floor and moving herself safely around was the goal. A simple test run to see if the tactic was viable. Then if it proved viable...try to lower herself down the hole she’d made to slowly land atop the floating platform closest to herself.
If it didn’t work...well there was going back to the drawing board before she effectively yeeted herself down a mysterious hole she made in the floor.
Focusing on simply moving her entire body seemed like it could work, in theory. She had felt something being moved by her earlier attempts at telekinesis, so it should be sound to try here...though maybe not over a pit. Moving herself was...a bit less successful than she may have hoped initially. She could definitely feel a ‘pull’ on herself, but it was like lifting an entire body of her own weight for an extended period - not exactly an easy feat. Maybe if she was fast, she could do it, but doing it quickly might also expend whatever energy she had faster, too...There may, perhaps, also be a more efficient way to do this.
Leannah’s brows furrowed in thought as she felt the pull and drain. After a few silent seconds, the catgirl then decided to try to improve on it. If she couldn’t lift herself fully...was it possible to cushion a fall then? Support herself from below using it, rather than try to lift her whole body? Or perhaps lifting herself by a particular part of her body, like her shoulders or mid-torso or both of those limited areas, rather than focusing on her whole body?
Over the safety of the floor, Leannah would try both of these approaches to see if one worked. Just not close to or over a hole in the floor. That’d be bad news. She likewise exercised as much caution and control as possible in her efforts still.
It seemed at least, holding her body in more strategic points was less taxing then say, just attempting to lift her entire body at once. A bit like a harness for rockclimbing, perhaps is a good way to think of it. Control was still slow, but it was at least easier to move, so she would be able to fairly easily move to the top platform.
Once she had decided to make the move, the underground area would reveal no more immediate secrets, aside from a now audible hum of something within the walls. It sounded oddly like a machine, or perhaps, a computer? Odd thought.
Either way, as soon as her feet touched the floating platform, it would shift slightly under her weight, before settling. The moment she did, what could only be described as some sort of ‘holographic display’ would pop up from a small blue light on the floor.
“The path through the underworld was not one for mortals or even other gods to tread. To pass, one must first travel through the Asphodel Meadows. Only those lost or invited by the Goddess of the Underworld can pass.”
The platform would shift again, as a bridge made of light would extend from it to another. It seemed simple enough to pass through, but...well, it couldn’t be that simple, could it?
The catgirl’s brows furrowed as she watched the path ahead, the fascination of the seemingly holographic display lasting only a moment before her sense of caution kicked back in. If she hadn’t been through what she had been so far, she’d have been ecstatic to just see this much. However, nearly burning herself alive was sobering enough as it was. With that in mind, she would step forward tentatively and lightly touch the light bridge with her foot to test how ‘solid’ it was.
If it was solid she’d begin to walk down it, but all the same would keep her magic ready to...ah...spirit herself forcefully to the next platform using the technique she’d maneuvered herself down to the first platform using. “Telekinetic Harness” she’d temporarily dub it. Still, at the slightest feeling of the path disappearing underneath her she’d essentially push her use of this new technique hard to safely get to the next platform. Otherwise, if the walk was safe for the most part, she’d keep an eye out for other...symptoms. One in no form of mythology simply walks into the underworld for free. Ishtar didn’t, Theseus and Pirithous didn’t, and heck even Setna walking into Neferkaptah’s tomb (might as well be similar enough to an underworld) had been on the short end of the stick and hadn’t come out unscathed by far when meddling with the dead.
The path was...solid. A solid wall of light she could step upon. It was smooth, like glass, but hard as stone. In fact, it seemed fairly stable. She could walk down it no problem, but perhaps she should keep what the above little tidbit of information had told her. Something about only being invited or those that were lost were welcome in the underworld. As she walked down the bridge of light, she’d find the path stable and solid as she moved down, and she’d reach the next platform easily.
Success?
...wait.
No.
Somehow she...ended up back on the one she started on? She could see it, it seemed like the path somehow looped her around to the back of the starting platform without noticing?
The catgirl blinked for a moment. Was this like some sort of video game maze, where she had to unlock the secret to progress? Some kind of illusory trap that-...wait. Wait wait wait. It was then a grin came onto Leannah’s face as she thought back about the phrase the display on the platform had shown her. Or rather, a specific part of it came to mind:
‘Only those lost or invited by the Goddess of the Underworld can pass.’
The answer was, if she was right, ever so poetic in a sense.
“Only the lost can enter? So...I just have to get lost to move forward then!”Leannah then steeled herself, before setting herself before the path downard...and closing her eyes. She would have no idea where the path led if she walked down it with her eyes closed, meaning if it looped back around or if she’d move forward. That was the truth. In that sense, she’d be ‘lost’ since she had no idea where her path would lead. A wanderer, lost along a path they knew not the destination of for a surety.
Maybe it would work, maybe not. Either way, the catgirl was mentally prepared to use her Telekinetic Harness to catch herself if needed.
Thus, with her eyes closed, Leannah carefully began to move forward down the path. She’d use her foot to tell if the path was solid ahead or not, and to be careful in her steps, but that was all she’d do. Not a peep, not a peek, not looking to see where she was going. And if she felt herself on a platform, she’d keep her eyes closed and feel out with her feet very, very carefully for a solid path to walk down. She wouldn’t know where she was or was going by then, truly and well ‘lost’ in a sense.
So, Leannah would close her eyes. It had some logic to it. If one couldn’t see where they were going, then they would effectively be ‘lost’. Would it work though? It seemed like something happened, at least. The path was far longer than she would remember it being, and occasionally her feet would miss the path entirely, before stepping down and feeling another part of the path beneath her. Occasionally the path would seem to turn, and at one point she felt something pass by her face.
In the end though, she would soon feel her feet hit the metal of the floating platform again...and if she opened her eyes, she indeed made it...and was completely on the opposite side of the room, on a platform that seemed cut off from the rest some distance down.
Well, she had no idea how she got here, but she was here. A small hologram would appear with more text.
”So the Meadows were passed, and the Sage would travel to the resting place of the Old World. The Goddess of the Underworld, however, would refuse passage. In order to complete their mission, the Sage would relinquish their name, leaving it buried in the Old World.”
Perhaps she would need to…’relinquish’ something here to pass?
Well, she’d managed the first part at least, but the obvious ‘something’ that came with underworld myths was staring her right in the face. Leaving something. To pillage what he needed, the Sage had to leave something behind
in the Old World he was seeking to take from. A price to be paid, giving up something of herself that had value to it...drat. That was the key to it though, leaving behind something of value in the past in order to take from it. But what? Her own name? Her gift? Knowledge? Past memories? Items? Blargh.
Yet this wasn’t the real underworld, just a recreation. A chance to learn. So if she was to give something up, what would it be?
...She knew just what to give. Even so, she seemed to lightly grimace as she mustered up the strength. It was just symbolic, but if the time came to give it up properly she’d have to be ready. Because this was something that held great value to her.
“If I am to give something up in the same manner as the Sage, or recreate the legend here, then let it be something of value. Something from the past that would be forever left in the past in such a case, yet which is still somewhat dear to me at the same time: ‘Stromhart’. My surname. My family name. A name that in my old life got me so much, by which in my Old World I was identified, and which led me to heights before...and still holds value to me.
So that distinctive secondary badge of my old identity I will relinquish to gain passage. The badge of my heritage, of where I came from before all of this. ‘Stromhart’....
...I also suppose in that sense that’s what the Sage did going into the Underworld. He gave up something to that Old World he went to pillage. His name. His identity, rather, I want to believe. Quite a lot to give for what he seemed to be seeking after.” The platform would shift after Leannah’s declaration, slowly starting to descend to the lowest floor of the put. Most of the other platforms would start to shift, moving away towards the walls before turning on their sides, connecting with the smooth blackstone before seemingly merging with them and disappearing completely. The one she was on would eventually slowly descend all the way to the bottom of the pit, where she could collect both the orb and the pieces of the statue should she desire.
“Among the ruins of the old, the Sage plucked the corpses of the Old Gods. A body of iron to withstand all. The mind of the universe to know all. The stars of old, to guide all. The hands of the Seamstress to weave the past. All were returned to the surface by the blessing of the Moon.”
Odd. Well, how was she to get back up? It was a pretty long ways and the platforms seemed to have vacated the premises. She could, however, hear the subtle sound of water flowing just under the floor thanks to her ears. Along the edges of the floor she could now see small grates between the walls and the floor around the entire area, and just behind her was a similar statue to what she saw back in the library, of the smirking woman holding a jar with a cistern at her feet.
Hmm. A fascinating verse to be sure, but it insinuated a very much cyclical nature of things. Old Gods giving way to the new in time, the world being reborn as the Old World fell away and died off. It made logical enough sense, and in a mythical sense was even more fitting and sensible indeed. So the Sage gave up something valuable, like their literal name and/or identity alongside it, leaving it in the Underworld with those remnants of the Old World. This allowed them to, if the verse was symbolic and/or literal enough, literally pillage the Old Gods’ remains to gather...pieces...for...and...oh.
A body of iron to withstand all. The mind of the universe to know all. The stars of old as a guide. The Seamstress’ hands to weave the past. There was a surgical table with what looked like body parts all over it in the central room. Each room had a statue. Each statue had an orb. The Smirking Woman Statue was even more likely to be Delphiti now. The Hooded Figure seemed more and more like it was the Sage. The Two-Faced Bust felt more and more like it was The Illuminator himself. The Tower represented the Old Lab, aka the “prison complex” herself and the others had woken up in. Hell, it all sent a literal chill up the catgirl’s spine as she thought about it and some things seemed to ‘click’ for the moment into a new and hopefully cohesive theory that was continuing to evolve and grow as her adventure continued onward.
Delphiti, Goddess of the Moon, created humanity in her lab. Among these was a beloved child or creation of hers, the “beloved Sage” who had been prior mentioned. She was experimenting, wanting to make something but not being able to achieve it…perhaps to ultimately try to create a child of her own, a god. Some of the humans turned and wanted to lock up a goddess in the Lab, however, whether this was some epithet of Delphiti or Delphiti herself or a sister or relation of the goddess whom the Illuminator came to call “Auntie”. Though given his potential means of creation...perhaps they wanted to lock the Underworld Goddess up in Delphiti’s lab? Was she the “Auntie”, given she is the effective ‘mother’ of the dead and he was likely made from the literal corpses of the Old Gods?
Gain mastery of death, as Sisyphus had chained up the god Thanatos to avoid dying, and yet the consequences would have been disastrous if such an event had occurred. The remainder of the humans rightfully rejected the foolish plan, abandoning Delphiti’s lab and the goddess mourning over the loss of the beloved Sage who left with them. She then turned on the world and humanity, or away from them rather, likely bringing about a dark age of untold horrors and bad things without her actions and presence. The Hooded Figure, the Sage, was crying over the matter as his beloved mother goddess was leaving so much pain and terrible ilk behind in her spurned rage. Likewise those humans buffet behind became accursed ‘toys’ in due time for The Illuminator himself. Thus he set out to appease her, doing so in the one way that would bring her presence back to the world: To make her desired goal a reality. Thus he descended into the Underworld, giving up his very name and/or identity to gain access to the literal corpses of the past...in particular those of the Old Gods. The deities who had come before, yet passed away and died somehow anyways. They weren’t perfect immortals. Even so, the Sage had cleverly maneuvered his way down there, and from the dead gods he took their literal powers or aspects and potentially even body parts.
So the burden the Sage took on in plundering this all was transferred to Delphiti herself, aka: The Carved Stone Necklace that had been on the Hooded Figure statue in the Library. A necklace that weighed far more than it should have. A burden of knowledge and power and things that hadn’t been earned but instead plundered and taken. These were handed over to Delphiti, who used these things the Sage had pillaged from the Old Gods to make things better again after having been appeased. Thus “This in turn allowed her to create The Illuminator himself, literally, via these things the Sage had procured for her. Thus:
“The moon wept once more, the cistern overflowing, and brought life back to the land”. But this weeping was for joy, perhaps, at acquiring what she’d sought for so very long and being able to do what she wished for after all this time. A selfish thing, but that was a trademark deity behavior for you.
Regardless, The Illuminator was created and, “which in turn gave birth to the desire for the secrets of the Oceans”. The Illuminator wanted to hold the same power Delphiti had, or rather knowledge since it was the “secrets of the oceans” and not the “power of the oceans”, aka: to create life. A natural thing given his very existence as the God of Knowledge. This desire was then granted by Delphiti, sealing something (likely the Old Lab/Prison Complex for all she knew at this time) away as a result of the deal they struck so Delphiti would give The Illuminator would be granted this knowledge he so craved.
In that vein the lesson of “knowledge isn’t earned, it is taken” would seem to be the goal of it all if she were to try to interpret the legend. One gains it or discovers it or ‘earns’ it somehow, and yet it is taken and used by others over and over and over as it is spread about. A cruel and mocking way to look at things in some sense, and yet a practical one if she were to try to look at it from a different perspective. Of course knowledge would always be discovered, but it wasn’t spread only by goodwill and smiles and flowers. Sometimes it was given, sometimes it was stolen, and sometimes it had to be pillaged from the past if the world had forgotten about it. Sometimes one was the person who invented the wheel by genuinely discovering it, and at others one was a Pharaoh who sought to pillage the secrets of the Egyptian Gods from a book buried under a riverbed and written by the God of Knowledge himself.
Leannah would ultimately let out a small sigh, slightly gloomy in tone, before gathering up the statue’s orb and the parts of the statue itself in her arms. She then turned to face the statue of the smirking woman holding a jar with a cistern at her feet, and began a prayer aloud as she spoke.
“Well, Delphiti, consider this a very unofficial prayer and a...statement of thanks to you from a mortal who once lived in another world.
I feel now the reason you sent us here makes a bit more sense, or perhaps I am full of crap and overthinking it all. Either way. A world grown stagnant, for all intents and purposes a dead one like the Old World before it. The mortal races regressed, Elder Beasts doing as they please, the Gods more distant in places perhaps or left forgotten and ‘dead’, and so forth.
So you wanted to make it live again, and sent us here to spice it up again for some reason. Then you had your son help you make our bodies in the Old Lab, but you couldn’t go back on the pact you made with him or whoever that sealed up your Old Lab and such. That’s why, at least in some sense if not for kicks as well, we were left in that Old Lab on our own there. Ancient knowledge, as you noted would be there well enough, weapons, other potential items or such of old were there to get us started. From there, however, we would naturally be on our own.
Heh...hell of an adventure and task you set us on, you know? Not even a few days in at least, and already I’m here playing a learning game with your son and trying not to die so I can get back to my group of current allies...all as my compatriots are out there with heavens-know-what that is going on. Life or Death risks, the journey, the learning, traps and old temples, and so much more beyond perhaps my wildest dreams from my former life. Scary, and yet somehow utterly exciting at the same time. Both. Haha!
So...Thank You, Delphiti, is what I’m saying. For the second chance, and the new life to boot. I mean, never did I think I’d have a chance to be this hot and get a quest for victory over an Elder Beast by a cute Sun Goddess who could kill me at any time with a snap if she wanted to! Not sure if anyone else will say anything, and hell this all sounds too sentimental even for my potentially crazy taste, but selfless or selfish or otherwise or not...Thank You all the same.”Wow. It really did feel sentimental to say it all, even if it was an oddly somewhat earnest prayer to Delphiti, and so soon at that. Of course if she got the wrong goddess or details wrong and ushc it could mean death for her, but that was the gambit she was taking just by existing and breathing in this new world in the first place! But still, she had to get back with these parts and to the center room. Then two more rooms to go, which would perhaps give more insight and clues by the time she got to try to give her final answer to The Illuminator about what she thought his history and origins were and such.
Still, she gathered the statue parts and orb and went back to the platform before turning back in the direction of the supposed-Delphiti statue.
“Oh, ah, yes. I still need a way out of this, to be returned to the ‘surface’ and ‘by the blessing of the Moon’.
So...ahem...oh statue of the Moon Goddess Delphiti, I beseech thine blessing to return to the surface once more!”Maybe that would work to get herself back to the proper floor and then the main room from there. The fact the platform she’d gotten to the bottom on hadn’t disappeared felt like a clue to “get on it and ask for the Moon’s blessing to gtfo the Underworld”. Of course if that didn’t work she’d have to try something else. Had to finish that quest and appease her race’s primary deity...and maybe get to talk to the cutie of a goddess again after that or something. She was going to take this one step at a time regardless. That much she knew for sure.
The prayer seemed to work. Whether it was just a trick of this room or the actual boon of the goddess hearing her remained to be seen. Regardless, something deep beneath the room would shudder as water began flowing in from the grates lining the floor. It seemed the chamber was filling with water at an extremely alarming rate, and the statue pieces did not float, nor did it seem like the platform she had come down on was going to be floating, either. It might be easy enough to carry the parts she needed, if she could figure out what she did need, but if she got creative there might be another way.
“Oh hell!”Well, whether it was her legitimately-said prayer or the statue, things were changing. Fast. The room was rapidly filling with water, and the statue parts would not float. The platform wasn’t floating either. In fact, it seemed to the catgirl that she herself was the only thing that might float in this whole underground spot! She had to think fast unless she wanted to-...hmm.
No, that might work. Or not. It was worth a try anyway.
Leannah would attempt to use the telekinesis once more, though in this case she wasn’t trying to pull some probably-a-trap thing out of a pool. Rather, she was trying to do something better than that. If the water was going to float her back up, she had to get the statue parts and orb back with her. Then why not use the telekinesis to ‘lift’ underneath the parts? Not by grabbing each individually with telekinesis, but using it to push ‘up’ from the area they all were sitting on? Like imagining a circular disk of telekinetic force pushing up from below. Like a platform! Just enough of a push from below in a more general fashion, just enough that the parts would be lifted up on the water rather than sink and would rise back up with her!
Though if this didn’t seem to work in a timely enough fashion, or was too exhausting,...crap. She’d grab the orb, head, and arms and use her telekinetic harness concept to try to make it easier to float back up to the room above.
It was all worth a try at least.
Success!
The effect was almost immediate. After having already somewhat practiced with it, this seemed like a fairly easy feat to accomplish compared to say, lifting a moving target. It seemed a bit counterintuitive - dead weight seemed to be somewhat easier to lift than moving or living things...and while it would certainly be exhausting, it would work. By the time she’d finish lifting the ‘disk’ of telekinetic energy towards the surface, she’d feel as though she had just run a marathon, but return to the surface area she would without much hassle. All she had to do then was bring the parts back to the table and choose where to go next, then.
The catgirl dragged the parts and orb and frankly herself out of the water, huffing and puffing as she moved them all into the main room. Her muscles and body burned from the exertion, begging for relief. Even so the still-dripping statue parts and orb were piled next to the parts of the scorched first statue, which for a moment brought a small smirk to Leannah’s face when looking between the two. Yet after getting the second statue parts and orb in the pile, she unceremoniously lied back on the empty floor nearby and decided to take a small rest for her body. Not sleep, but just not moving for a little bit as she decided where she’d go next.
Western Room: Done.
Eastern Room: Done.
The Northern Room and Southern Room were left. However…
The northern room -
Seems to be a rather simple room. A large stream of water runs through the middle of it, and one of the aforementioned statues is submerged pretty far in the stream. The stream moves fairly slowly from one end of a wall to another - a grate at one end while there's one at the other end. You'd need to enter it to see more of it.
The southern room -
Seems to be a room without light, save for the orb in one of the statues on some sort of elevated platform. Hard to see anything else in here as of now.
As much as the water would feel good for the burns if she took the Northern Room, unless the water had something funky going on with it that was, she didn’t want to go into there exhausted and try to swim. That was just asking for trouble. Meanwhile the room without light, save for the orb and state being on an elevated platform. That was suspicious as anything, and for all she knew was surrounded by pitfalls and giant rolling boulder traps. .
So naturally she would take the Southern Room next, at least after giving her body a bit of time to rest physically before she moved on. Recoup her strength and all. If she needed a rest after that room before taking on the last, then, it would be a simple enough matter.
