NOVEL SIMPLE Book 1 – Lesson 62: “Knowledge Is Key”
“Come on, work, you stupid thing!” the nervous man breathlessly yelled at the small black jade. Occasionally, he’d glance over his shoulder or jump at some new sound. He had to hurry and inform the others before it was too late. Everything had gone to the nine hells and back, and nothing was happening how the Mistress said it would.
When the army of Iris appeared ahead of schedule, the conclave rushed to activate their sleepers and enact the plans already in place. They’d managed to destroy the communication arrays and several minor systems, but the temple was on high alert after some fools screwed up a simple assassination of a few interlopers. As a result, the walls were raised, and their easy victory was stolen from them.
To make matters worse, the Jadewalkers were somehow still coordinating without their arrays! Through interrogation of captured soldiers, the conclave had tracked the meddling insects (literal insects! Some kind of unidentifiable wasp) to a warehouse in the city, but the Guardians were one step ahead of them. The place was heavily guarded and covered in arrays they hadn’t yet been able to crack. How this backwater place even had something of that quality boggled the man’s mind.
Now, those interlopers that the conclave elders had dismissed as a hassle to deal with had somehow raised an entire city where the Earth Shrine was. The conclave had tried to stop them from activating the teleportation array at the shrine center, but the daughter of the previous high priestess had proven too strong. Now, he was stuck trying to contact the elders at the Prima Temple and warn them about the coming danger.
“Ahhh, so this is where you ran off to.”
The man froze, then slowly turned to face the source of the voice with a weak smile. “P-priest Tarkhan. I-I’m sorry for disappearing like that. Just… needed to get some air. I’m sure you… understand.”
Priest Tarkhan walked out of the shadows, his hands behind his back, and nodded. “Yes, yes, perfectly understandable, my boy. You’ve had a rough day. We both had, what with being strung along by these damnable cultists, right? It’s not your fault they tricked you and used you like they did. You’re just a simple temple messenger; you’re not trained to spot… deceivers like that.”
The man gave the priest a nervous laugh and agreed, “Y-yes, sir, it’s as you say. They r-really pulled the wool over our eyes. I’m just ashamed I couldn’t do… more.”
Priest Tarkhan laughed and patted his shoulder. “Don’t feel bad. They fooled even me. I must say, it’s been quite an eye-opening experience for me. Even someone such as I can be humbled, it seems.”
The nervous ‘messenger’ raised a brow, a slight smirk hidden by the darkness of the hallway. “Is… that so, sir? I’ll keep that in mind for next time. Thank you for the lesson,” he said. The messenger turned to leave but was stopped by Priest Tarkhan’s tight grip on his shoulder.
“Ah! Before you leave, let this priest pass on one last lesson to his junior.” Priest Tarkhan pushed the man against the hallway wall and said, “Deceit is tricky. Used correctly, it can be a powerful tool. If used foolishly, then all it does is dig your own grave. After all, no one enjoys being lied to.”
The messenger nodded, a cold sweat trickling down his forehead. Something was wrong. The icy smile of the priest sent shivers down his spine. Slowly, he reached for the [Black Blossom Dagger] hidden in his robes. The dagger was an artifact blessed by the Mistress herself. It was only a single-use item but was strong enough to kill even a [Earthly Transcendent] with a single blow. The plan had been to use it on the Head Priest, but he’d never gotten a chance. Using it on a senior priest like Tarkhan might have been a waste, but it would throw the temple into chaos for a while. That could buy them the time they needed to smooth things over and for him to escape.
The messenger smiled up at Tarkhan and said, “Thank you for the lessons, Priest Tarkhan. As always, your wise words have enlightened me. I’ll be sure to remember them… even after you’re gone.” The man’s smile twisted into something vile as he pulled the dagger from its hidden sheath.
Only to freeze mid-swing.
The messenger’s vision swayed, and the still-smiling face of Priest Tarkhan seemed to double. The sound of dripping liquid and sharp pain in his chest drew the man’s eyes downward. A thin stone spike protruded from the messenger’s chest, piercing his heart. Slowly, he raised his head, followed Priest Tarkhan’s free hand, and found it pressed firmly against the stone wall behind him, glowing with a faint, near unperceivable pulse of Spirit energy.
The messenger’s grip weakened as both the dagger and the black jade fell from his hands.
Priest Tarkhan straightened, and the stone spike retracted back into the wall, letting the body of the ‘messenger’ fall to the ground. Tarkhan reached down and plucked both items from the slowly growing puddles of blood.
He turned and bowed, presenting both items in open hands as he spoke. “I trust this is enough to prove my sincerity? Head Priest?”
Head Priest Erden emerged from the shadows, frowning as he spoke. “Honestly? No. Your mistake almost cost us everything, Tarkhan. But this is a start.” The head priest reached out and picked up the black dagger. He sneered at the evil thing before a pulse of energy turned the entire artifact into brittle stone. It crumbled away into dust in the next instant. Erden then picked up the black jade and turned it around in his hand, wiping off the blood stain. He carefully placed the jade into a robe pocket before turning around.
Erden then called over his shoulder, “Come, Tarkhan. We still have rats to sniff out and things to do. If we’re quick about it, we might actually make it out of all this alive…”
Priest Tarkhan bowed and quickly followed behind.
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Thump!…Thump! Thump!
The distant sound of the wall guns firing was strong enough to be heard even from here. As were the rumbling screams of the giant elementals as the massive projectiles slammed into them. Sometimes, the voices of the elementals, which sounded like a falling avalanche, were replaced by the soul-chilling scream of one massive undead or another. The giant undead were far rarer than the elementals, however. The danger of the undead came from their sheer numbers and the black-clad figures directing them.
A wild woman swinging a long monk’s spade sliced one such figure in two. A floating, phantasmal shield pressed the severed halves into the ground. They struggled for a moment, then burst into black flames. The surrounding undead fell into chaos, all sense of order lost as they fell back into their base, feral instincts.
“Charge!” Juatan gave the order from atop Alpha’s back. 50+ Guardians and one war machine slammed into the enemy lines. Dozens of forearm-thick nanite tendrils erupted from the sides of the TAWP and spearing trice as many undead at a time. They weren’t effective killing blows, but the Guardians who followed behind and destroyed each of the trapped undead’s cores ensured they stayed dead. Even the young Slatewalkers were doing their part, through watched over by Ulagan.
This was their fourth such engagement since leaving the teleporter node, and everyone was getting into the rhythm of things. Thanks to the support of the humans, Alpha had saved a ton of supplies so far. Pinning the enemy down and letting the humans finish them was far simpler. The big boys were handled by the stronger members of the group or Jīshí’s guns. So far, the only time Alpha had to step in was against a group of flying undead that were too numerous for the humans but too small for the wall guns. A quick round of turret fire had erased that problem before they could even draw near, and the enemy hadn’t attempted it again.
Instead, they seemed content at throwing more and more undead at the small, advancing group, seeming less to truly stop them but rather slow them down.
And for all they knew, it was working. The group had made slow progress through the city so far, and at their current pace, it would take hours, maybe days, to reach the pyramid at the center of the storm. Thankfully, that wasn’t their destination… yet.
Artemis lept into the air, landed on Alpha, and bowed to Jīshí. “Your plan is working, Lady Prima. The enemy is attempting to force us to take shelter in the library,” she said.
Kallik stared at the large building a few blocks away, one of the largest still standing in the city. She frowned and said, “It’s likely a trap. They’ve either booby-trapped the building or plan on pinning us in once we’re inside.”
Juatan nodded, “I don’t doubt that, but that’s all part of the plan,” he said.
“Why do you have a passage leading to the center of the most important location in your city, hidden under a library of all things, again?” Alpha asked.
Jīshí chuckled and responded, “You have it backward; the passage leads from the Heart to the library. It was created as an emergency escape route, while the library itself is designed as a bunker. The Heart can be an extremely dangerous place under the right circumstance.”
“And you’re sure I’ll be able to fit through?” Alpha asked.
Jīshí waved the worry off. “The passage was designed to accommodate hundreds of staff at once. You’ll be too big to fit through some of the side passages, but we only care about the main corridor to the Heart.”
“Good enough for me,” Alpha responded.
Ten minutes later, the small army was pushing its way into the library’s main building. As soon as the last Guardian crossed the threshold, there was a pulse of dark Spirit energy, and an array carved into the outer walls flashed to life. In an instant, the building was covered by a dome of deep, black fog. One of the nearest Guardians pushed their spear through the fog, only for it to instantly rot away. The Guardian dropped the weapon, and everyone backed further away from the fog-filled archway. Even the metal spearhead had corroded.
Artemis wrinkled her face and said, “Looks like you were right. That’s some nasty stuff. Let’s get gone before they pull out whatever else they’re planning. Where is this passageway?”
Jīshí led the group deeper into the building. It was a massive place, easily a square kilometer on the ground floor alone. Alpha could see how such a place might have been used to shelter civilians at one point. Now, most of the shelves were barren or covered in dust and rotting paper. Like much of the city, the library had seen little use from the current Akh’lut clans occupying the city. They much preferred the inner areas and the main temple, stripping the city of anything valuable while abandoning the rest. The Akh’lut may have been powerful, but they were too few in number to keep such a large city from falling into disrepair in places.
Nonetheless, it was still a place one could get lost in if they didn’t know the way.
A short while later, Jīshí led them to an open lounge area as large as a town square, sprinkled with the semi-rotting remains of hundreds of desks, chairs, and other seating arrangements. Jīshí gave the area a sad look before waving her arm to one side. In one motion, all the rotting furniture was pushed to the side, and the dust lifted from the tiles to reveal the intricate mosaic scene of four faceless beings.
In the upper left, a massive man with burning hair and more muscles than anything stood at a glowing forge, shaping metal with his bare hands. Weapons, armor, and various gadgets flowed from the forge to be gathered by the tiny men below.
In the upper right, a young girl floated in an endless ocean, her eyes closed as if asleep. Behind her, countless men and women stood in shining armor as they pushed back a billowing black tide into the depths. Black, crooked arms reached from the dark waters to grab who they could, only to be chained by the very tides themselves.
In the bottom right, a young boy flew through the air, grinning ear to ear. As he passed the land, black fog receded, blown away by strong gales and fierce rains, as fertile lands bursting with life took its place.
And on the bottom left, a woman wearing a dress of soil and grasses raised her hands to the sky. Behind her, tall walls and study buildings pushed their way out of the earth. An endless stream of people flooded into the walls, fleeing the chasing darkness.
Finally, at the center, there was… nothing but a blank square.
The middle of the mosaic was just a large, empty indent in the ground. As if whatever had been there had long been pulled up. The group spread around the area, some pointing at the mosaic and muttering, while Jīshí directed Alpha toward the center.
He stopped a few meters away, and Jīshí held out her hand. The obelisk appeared in a flash of light, hovering over the center of the mosaic, gently spinning. Then, in the blink of an eye, it expanded and fell to the ground, neatly slotting into the blank slot.
There was a pulse of energy, and four light lines pushed their way out of the obelisk’s corners. They swirled around the floor, following the lines of the mosaic, until they reached the pictures of the four figures in either corner. The eyes of the figures lit up with a bright white light, and the building shook.
Then, slowly, the mosaic fell away, piece by piece like crumbling stone, until two large, spiraling staircases were revealed, each wide enough to fit ten men standing shoulder to shoulder. The staircases spiraled downward into the darkness.
Juatan and the Scions began directing the Guardians down the stairs while Artemis walked closer to Alpha, her eyes never leaving the stairs. She shook her head, eyes wide as she spoke. “I… used to explore the city all the time. There are dozens of interesting places in these old ruins. Hell, I’ve been in this very building half a dozen times. How did we never know there was something like this here?”
Jīshí laughed and responded, “What use is a hidden passage if it is easily found?”
No. 7 folded their arms and stared. The masked figure had been awfully quiet since meeting up with the humans. Alpha figured they just weren’t much of a people person, so it was almost surprising when they asked, “Though that begs the question. If this was an emergency passage, why was the ‘key’ with a different ‘you’ so far away? Doesn’t that negate the purpose?”
Jīshí shrugged. “It’s supposed to be with the high priestess. Why she hid it with my other self, I don’t know. That ‘me’ was still asleep at the time. Maybe she knew the enemy was closing in on her and didn’t want it to fall into their hands. Or maybe it was her way of ensuring we could get past them. Either way, what matters is that we’re here now.”
Artemis clenched her fists at the mention of her mother. Her eyes burned as they walked toward the nearest set of stairs, and she called out over her shoulder, “Then let’s finish this. No more games.”
The others shared a nod, and Alpha moved toward the stairs as well. Despite the tight squeeze, the TAWP could still fit on the wide stairs, and they held surprisingly well under its weight.
Alpha was the last one down the stairs, and as he passed the threshold, the colorful mosaic rebuilt itself above them, piece by piece.