The Heart is a Void: Ashes to Ashes - Chapter 13?: The sound of the demon bell (I)

Chapter 13?: The sound of the demon bell (I)

Trivia The Hashin’s Guild emblem displays a thin, curved dagger with white wings. Written on the dagger’s black-grey hilt, in small, silvery letters, is the leader’s motto: ‘Fail to be great.’

The thick, partially eroded sandstone walls rose steeply around this large rotunda. As the night approached, these tan walls looked almost grey. Debris and fallen stone lined the ground in spirals, the remnants of a sky-high dome which had eroded and chipped away over time. There were still signs of the ornate pattern of finely-carved niches in the highest reaches of the dome, patterned like coffers in a circle around the dome’s underside and containing small paintings of ancient Kings.

A few large, stone slabs on the ground still showed signs of the precisely-cut circular hole, an oculus, which had originally marked the pinnacle of the dome and allowed light into the building. By now, the dome had broken and drained away until it almost looked like a crater, as if the oculus had been possessed by hubris and begun swallowing up the rest of the dome.

“So this is the temple,” [Dr1fter] said in a sombre but decisive tone, stepping slowly across the floor towards the centre.

The other Hashin members accompanying him remained silent, nervous about speaking in the presence of their leader. As he walked towards the centre of the room, they nervously followed.

“The paintings across the ceiling, you’ll recognise them,” Dr1fter said. “The Kings of this civilisation. They must have worshipped these Kings as gods. No wonder the relic we’re looking for was left in the Royal Mausoleum.”

“Are we quite sure it will be here?” Jin asked.

“You think I brought you here just for fun?” Dr1fter snapped, half-turning his head towards Jin and rearing his body up like a cobra.

However, he calmed down and smiled playfully as he saw Jin flinch back, and suppressed a laugh. He spoke in a more balanced tone, “Well, there’s no way to be sure. We’re like the Magi approaching Bethlehem, following a star but not knowing where it will lead. Still, all signs point in this direction, let’s keep following this path until we find what we’re looking for – or nothing.”

Dr1fter’s steps took on more definition as he walked towards a large, chandelier-like bronze ring, which had probably been originally placed atop the dome, above the edge of the oculus. Although badly broken from the fall, a few nubs of the small, gilded spires which had previously risen from the ring still remained. In the faint, muted evening light, the ring shone in a wan, golden-white shade, flickering like a star as Dr1fter’s shadow approached.

“He’s right,” [ImpalerVladislav] said to the others, as they all nervously hurried their steps to catch up with Dr1fter. “The signs do all point here: that map we found in Alamer, the small shrines near there all pointed in this direction, that sculpture of a King being hailed by sandstone men with bellflowers for heads, the small model building we found in a glass dome in the abandoned Mokra temple -“

“Ah, Mokra!” Dr1fter interrupted. “Did you hear what happened there?”

“Of course, a few Guilds are having a meeting about it now. I hear they’ll broadcast the ending of the meeting, with a public statement. Pity we’ll miss the fun.”

“Don’t worry, you can always watch a replay later, it should be available for the next few days. It’s an interesting story, since it was in the region of Kruxol I’d guess that DeathGang are involved. It wasn’t us, sadly, but it seems a lot more like us than them. You think getting trapped in here is making them crazy like us?” Dr1fter chuckled, and Vladislav joined in.

“Well, most of them seem quite the same, still skirmishing pointlessly with our hoi polloi. But attacks like this one and the killing of mourners above Kruxol do seem more like us, nomadic seek-and-destroy missions rather than the usual skirmishes that DeathGang prefers. And you said that the killing above Kruxol didn’t seem like DeathGang.”

“Yes, yes. Well, our intel had noted that DeathGang’s chain of communication after that killing was confused and anarchic, it seems quite plain that they didn’t know who did it. Typically, after events, their leaders set a line quickly and forward this to the membership. But here there was a lot of delay and back-and-forth, trying to figure out what happened. Besides, the top DeathGang members were in Kruxol at that time, planning out celebrations. I’d guess it was a lone wolf attack.”

Dr1fter had knelt down by now, and even as he spoke was carefully investigating the flowing patterns carved lightly across the outside edge of the bronze ring.

Vladislav knelt down on the other side of the bronze ring. “In the Mokra case, I think there were multiple people involved, probably DeathGang. And apparently a bear, but that sounds spurious. Not just a bear, a ‘demon bear.’ Likely!”

“Tales from scared people,” Dr1fter smiled. “You know the word ‘petrified’? Fear can make people give up, turn turtle, wither away. So it is here. The world recedes into a plaything of spirits and demons, and they are ever-more alienated from it. They see a demon-haunted world and hide from it, it’s not on their human plane, it’s a struggle better left for angels. But, ah, I should stop or I’ll sound like my countryman Marx. This horror festival around Kruxol is quite something. It does almost seem to demand a supernatural and demonic explanation. A watchmaker behind this watch… possible, don’t you think? But who knows.”

“You said that people will have a horrid awakening if we find the relic.”

“Yes, yes. Let’s do our part for this spectacle. The world’s a stage, we are but humble players.”

“But how will this work?” Jin asked timidly. “You said that the relic isn’t something that we can take as an item?”

“We cannot, no,” Dr1fter replied evasively. “I can’t say exactly what will happen – but I have a good idea. Anyway, you’ll see.”

“What are you checking for down there, by the way?”

“Ah, looking for a sign. See, there’s a turtle etched in here.” Dr1fter pointed to a light etching on the ring, and the three players accompanying him gathered near to look. “Now, who would be able to make out these etchings when this was on the dome? Probably no-one. Yet they all depict things falling or breaking. And are only seen once the dome has fallen, along with the civilisation itself. Well, we’re looking for a mausoleum, yes?”

“Clever,” Vladislav responded. “Well, most of these falling objects look like ships or moths. They seem to have broken wings. Wasn’t Darys using something similar to decorate a pillar near Kruxol, now that they have enough influence?”

“Yes, that was like an angel with bruised wings, from what I heard. I’d guess it’s a demotivational tactic, inundating the townsfolk with macabre, defeatist imagery to deflate them. Makes me respect the guy. I wonder how he heard of this symbol, I haven’t seen it before but it looks like the art-style used North of Kruxol. Anyway, it’s an interesting coincidence, but you sound like you have something more to say?”

“Yep, thanks. Well, the ships and moths look a bit similar, what unites them is the sails and wings, which take up most of the image and are very similar. There’s a broken flagpole to the right, and a few horizontal bars hanging from the wall which probably held banners. Do you reckon that could be what we’re looking for?”

“You’re quite amazing sometimes, Vladislav,” Dr1fter said with a smile. “Yes, indeed, let us look on that side of the temple. It would be quite a sight, if the flag and banners were still there.”

As the group walked towards the broken flagpole, a player who had thus far been silent, named [Crodel], spoke softly. “I can hear some noises from underground.”

Dr1fter stood still for a moment and listened. “Ah, yes, sounds like something moving down there. Maybe the Mausoleum is near! Jin, you’re the expert, do you recognise what might be making that noise?”

“Um, it’s familiar, I think. The sound of a player in level 30 [Heavy Plate Armour], probably a Knight. They’re just walking.”

“Yes, come to think of it, I have heard that sound often before. Most Knights use that at some stage, no? I remember when we were still doing highwayman duty on the path West from Sanra, intercepting all of these 30s players going to the next town. Why are all of these imbecile Knights just trundling around in the wild, and in heavy armour too? They’re loud and have no chance of fleeing. Foolish!”

“Yes, sad. Many such cases,” Vladimir laughed.

“But how could a player get into here? I’m fairly sure it’s too remote, nobody would have come here,” Dr1fter said, frowning slightly.

“There’s a dungeon on the other side of that wall of hills to the East,” Crodel said, pointing to a vast hillscape. “That’s kind of near Sanra. But there’s no path from there to here, you can’t WTW those hills, the only way to get here is from the cave complex we came through, and that is barred off from lower-level areas like Sanra.”

‘WTW’ was a standard abbreviation for ‘walk through walls,’ an abbreviation used often by the Hashin.

“Hm. So maybe they entered the dungeon… and now they’re trapped here with us?” Dr1fter laughed. “Alright, let’s try to find a way down, then it’s DEFCON 2.”

As the group examined the flagpole, Dr1fter found that it could be pushed like a lever. However, this only seemed to make a spot on the floor tremble slightly, without revealing a path downwards.

As he tried again, however, a ghostly, dark-purple flag appeared hovering high in the air above the flagpole. It billowed proudly in the air as if moved by a nonexistent wind, its centre wearing a golden crest decorated with a heraldic eagle which posed as if screeching into the sky.

For a few seconds, the temple building seemed bathed in silence as the uneasy Hashin members watched the flag billow silently in the air, with the dusky sky showing faintly through its semi-transparent folds.

Breaking the stillness, a raven, with black smoke rising from its wings like dry ice, flew out of the flag, and rose up by about a metre before elegantly arcing its flight downwards and then manically accelerating to plummet head-first towards the ground.

It crashed loudly on the spot which had shook the first time the flagpole was pushed. As the bird violently accelerated into the ground to end its kamikaze flight, it exploded into a plume of smoke that drained quickly into the sky and disappeared.

Where it had landed, there was a large hole in the temple floor, which led to a tunnel beneath.

“You can’t start a fire without a spark,” Dr1fter said wistfully. “This must lead to the Mausoleum.”

“Ah, yes, I see. Let’s go,” Vladislav said.

“Be careful, now.”

As the group crept down into the tunnel below, they heard a voice whispering, “Icarus,” from behind them. The voice didn’t have any clear source.

There was a loud sound of footsteps in a passage to the right.

“We should be quiet here, they could hear us,” Crodel whispered.

Dr1fter responded by laughing raucously.

“I know you’re there!” he shouted into the tunnels nearby. His voice echoed through them loudly.

Not waiting for a response, he turned into the tunnel to his left, with his dagger drawn. There, he heard the sound of metal scraping stone from a small passageway to the left of the tunnel. Following this sound, he found a level 32 Knight, clad in [Heavy Plate Armour], cowering in a corner and shivering.