Author's Preface
The Royal Watcher remained completely still, head bowed. Golden light flowed slowly across its damaged Azurite armor, repairing the breach from within - but its eyes stayed dim and inactive.
The scouting party had collapsed against the nearby wall.
Nassor rolled his shoulders with a low groan, muscles steaming faintly as excess Jiu evaporated back into the stale tomb air. "What a fucking fight, eh? I knew Constructs could be strong… but that thing almost turned me into paste."
"No kidding," Kazan muttered, rummaging through his pouch. "It took everything we had just to crack it open. And that Trial business?" He shook his head. "Super weird."
Leila leaned heavily against Arjuna's uninjured side, looking genuinely drained for the first time since they'd met her. "It even hurt my poor handsome Arjuna… That riddle was the only reason any of us are still breathing."
A quiet agreement settled over the four.
"Mhm." Nassor sighed, back firmly against the wall… until his gaze went to the side. Towards one particular Heiress.
Leila looked away quickly, fixing her gaze up at the ceiling. "... Yes, I knew what it was. I told you Daddy had a shipment. But I didn't tell you the other two Clan Heads were involved in building them too - it was a joint project. A hidden guard for the deepest Royal vaults. "
"That tracks," Kazan said. "Protecting royalty, they'd have to be tough. But…" A shrug. "Not THAT tough. Feels like The Captain could handle one on a bad day. Guess that's where numbers come in."
The group kept talking through the cooldown, slowly unknotting from the tension of the fight. The tomb itself stayed eerily silent - no skittering creatures, no wind, only the soft flickering of distant torches..
But one person hadn't said a word.
"Arjuna…?" Leila poked the archer’s cheek gently. "You've been staring at the ceiling for a whiiiile."
He blinked. When he spoke, his voice was quiet, almost careful. "It feels like too much of a coincidence. We're good. But not… that good. The Watcher was already damaged. The riddle was too convenient. And ever since we entered this place, I've been feeling…"
He trailed off, not finishing his sentence.
The silence that followed was a different quality than before.
Eventually Nassor pushed himself up with his spear, joints cracking. "Fuck it. We can overthink it while we walk. I don't wanna sit around in one spot in a damn tomb."
Kazan hauled Arjuna to his feet, smirking. "C'mon buddy. You've still got one good shoulder for the heiress to cling to."
"Hmph." Leila took her place in the middle of the group, chin up. "Ugh! We still have a job. This isn't a date, you know."
They started down the wide staircase leading deeper. The glowing sigils on the walls pulsed faintly as they passed, as if something beneath the stone was registering their movement.
At the top of the staircase, the Royal Watcher stood still… watching them leave.
Click. Tap. Thud. Thud.
The staircase held nothing of note - plain stone walls cracked with age, carved star maps fading into bare rock. The steps themselves became slightly uneven underfoot, as if weathered by more than just time.
The temperature dropped with each landing.
"...that steam coming off your body," Leila eventually said, eyes on the back of Nassor's shoulders. "What was that exactly? And during the fight you were glowing, and went like WHOOSH… "
The tall spearman rolled his eyes, then glanced back with a bemused grin. "It totally didn’t make that sound. But yeah. Part of my technique. Flow. The matron at our old orphanage helped me name it."
"I was watching it closely during the fight." She tilted her head, genuinely curious beneath the casual tone. "You were using the Jiu inside your body AND drawing from outside at the same time. Most people can only manage one or the other."
Down one more flight of stairs. The platform had nothing else but yet another flight, heading deeper into darkness. More wear and tear on the walls. More uneven steps. But…
Nassor's grin widened into something insufferable, as he slowed down to glance back at Leila. "Just another thing that makes me more talented than my little brother. Add it to the ever-growing list~"
"And doubles my workload," Kazan said flatly from behind them. "It's not just cuts and bruises with him. I have to repair his Jiu circuits AND his muscle tissue after a bad fight. Do you know what that's like?"
"Horrifying," Arjuna offered pleasantly, still keeping guard at the back of the pack.
"THANK you-"
"I meant for Nassor."
Kazan made a deeply offended noise. Nassor laughed loud enough to echo off the stone walls, the sound swallowed quickly by the dark below.
“Good,” Nassor thought to himself. “Nothing like some banter to get us loose. My instincts are tellin’ me there’s nothing ahead… yet.”
At the end of the second flight, the steps finally leveled out.
Two pairs of automatic torches flared to life ahead - the same pale blue-gold as the ones above. Back to flat ground, and the black tiles of that unknown stone had returned. Yet something was immediately, quietly wrong.
Kazan stopped walking. His grip tightened on his staff.
"Is it me," he said slowly. "Or is the light… not traveling as far as it should?"
He was right. The torches burned at the same intensity as the ones above. But their reach had shortened. The darkness at the edges of the corridor felt closer than it had any right to be. Thicker. Like something in the air was absorbing the light before it could get anywhere. They could faintly see another faintly glowing, large Azurite door at the end of the hall.
But just to the sides of the new elongated hall in front of them…
Grand murals spread out all the walls. The first one became much more visible as they approached, though the far end was still too dark to see.
“Careful,” Leila whispered. “It’s just a hallway, but just in case…”
The first mural was the smallest. Almost humble, compared to the architecture around it.
A family in simple desert tunics - a father, a mother, three sons arranged by height. The father had ink-stained hands, the lines of his fingers rendered with careful detail. Their home was modest mud-brick, a few goats visible in the corner, a date palm throwing shade across the yard. The youngest son was reaching up toward something just outside the mural's edge.
“This… I wonder the purpose,” Arjuna murmured. “So normal. Small. Yet the details… but I wonder what the son is reaching for...”
They then walked further, stepping lightly onto the tiles, just in case of a trap. Though they found none so far.
Second mural. The same father, older now. Out in the open desert with his wife. He held a simple wooden wand, and from its tip cascaded what looked like actual light. Beside him, his wife stood with a spear and shield, her posture easy and practiced. A warrior's posture.
Arjuna's eyes lingered on the mother's face for a moment longer than necessary.
“I’m getting an idea of what this might be,” he mused.
“And what’s that, little brother?” Nassor kept glancing into the darkness and the door ahead, not giving the murals his full attention just yet. Still the forward vanguard.
“It must be the first Royal Family, right? They told us stories about how he was a normal peasant, who rose up through hard work…”
Leila gave a small nod, and then held out her hand. “Yes. And I believe I know what the next two will be… here, for everyone~”
Flicker. Crackle.
Emerald light shone from her hand, Star Magic at work. Though… it still didn’t reach the end of the hall. But they crept onward, sticking close to the wall. Approaching the third mural now.
Three figures in sweeping oversized mage robes stood with the family around a low table. A feast - goat stew, aged cheeses, cups with a red liquid, presumably wine. Laughter and good smiles were on all the faces, including the mages.
But the proportions were off. The three mages seemed… taller than the family, even the father. Not dramatically, just a bit more.
“Not a big art guy, but I’m curious what’s next,” murmured Kazan. He even broke formation slightly to approach the fourth mural and final mural.
At last, the giant Azurite door was visible. Just like the first, it was sealed with inscriptions, likely needing to be picked. This also was the end of the paintings and the hallway. But all four scouts looked up in awe.
A grand, sweeping painting. Vivid colors. The difference in thickness and coloration of lines differed at parts. Yet it all came together to paint one grand picture. The same mages from earlier placing a crown onto the father’s head. But that wasn’t what got their attention…
“Three sigils,” murmured Arjuna. “The Three Clan Heads have existed since the beginning. And those mages are them… the original founders.”
All three symbols that they had seen earlier. Both on the earlier carvings, and on the Royal Watcher. The Al-Thuraya Family’s Geometric Star. The Weeping Eclipse. And the Horned Serpent.
Kazan nodded. “And then there’s THAT. Ain’t it…?”
Off at the rightmost end of the mural - a giant sphinx was watching the coronation.
“Yep, it’s exactly what you’re thinkin’,” began Nassor. “Just takin’ a wild ol’ guess. Gotta be when the Mage was crowned, becoming Solara’s first King, our first human Titan … under watch of Solara’s first ever Titan, Nefertari the Eternal Sphinx.”
“Oh?” Leila walked along the sides of the hall, her hand hovering above the lines of the ancient artwork. “Oh? The musclehead actually paid attention in history class~. Most educated children hear these legends. How a common man worked hard enough to become one of the Ten Titans, the very limit of mortal strength in our world…”
Kazan let out a whistle of awe. “Shit. Shoulda paid more attention in school… for the one year I attended, anyways.”
“Heh.” Nassor shook his head, but gripped his spear again all the same. His smirk slowly hardened into a serious look.
“Storytime was fun and all. History’s one of the few subjects I was good at. But… don’t let your guards down just yet. Still got this next ominous door. And we haven’t found the treasure rooms yet.”
“Right,” Kazan agreed. “Leila, you’re on door duty again.”
“Don’t make it sound so mundane… on it.” Leila nodded and immediately got to work. Her hands glowed with emerald, Jiu flowing into the door. It shuddered and unlocked soon enough, and the party headed through with observant eyes… except for one.
As Leila had walked through the door, her Star Magic lighting up the way - Arjuna saw it.
He stood still. Watched as the light flickered across the top edge of the coronation mural… and his blood ran cold.
Just at the very edge, a single small etching far less detailed than the rest of the mural…
Was the head of an otherworldly, eldritch, purple snake in a completely different art style.
Arjuna was visibly trembling. His right hand gripped his left arm, sweat beginning to fall, ears ringing. Eyes dilating
Heartbeat pumping.
Louder.
Louder.
LOUDER-!
“”OY! ARJUNA! Get over here, you have to see this…!!!”
Phew.
Arjuna felt like he could breathe again after hearing his older brother’s voice.
“C-coming! I’ll be right there!”
The slender archer made his way into the next room, closing the door behind him. Putting his discovery aside… until they had their next moment of peace.