3 - Altar Cave
Byron first communed with the plane of Majaia when he was just ten years old. It had been a crisp autumn morning in the year 775 of the Yarthan calendar. On the academy grounds a small cottage and greenhouse had stood not far from Castle Levant. It was where the scholar Sara Wyse had once conducted her research as a botanist, though she and her husband were now dead. Her husband Algus Wyse had been a headmaster at the academy, and the two of them colleagues and friends of Byron’s parents when he was young. The Wyse and Levant families were both lines of former nobility and had maintained a kinship for generations, having even intermarried on occasion throughout the decades. They had a son named Albranth who was Byron’s age, and he’d been among his few companions growing up. In his adulthood Albranth had risen through the tiers of the city council in only a few years. He currently served as one of the five governors of Yartha- the city-state’s highest office. Byron silently resented him, as his father’s comparisons to the prodigy had plagued him throughout adolescence.
On that crisp autumn morning all those years ago, the residents of North Academy had awoken to a startling sight. The cottage where Sara Wyse had done her research was enveloped in its entirety by an alien plant life, a sparkling golden moss of unknown origin. It had happened overnight, outgrowing the small dish on a shelf where she’d stored it the night before to creep along both interior and exterior of the building. It blanketed the floor and climbed up the walls to the rafters. In its expansion it had killed all other plant life within, including rare flowers and herbs from the far reaches of Damursyn and beyond.
When Sara returned to her work in the morning a crowd had already gathered there. The glittering moss spilled from the windows and grew out from the chimney. It had transformed the cottage to a ruin of gold, otherworldly in its piercing brightness. The front door lay crooked and open, covered, its hinges busted and inside a darkened cave. Those gathered there said that upon close inspection they could see it still in its crawl, spreading between the cobblestones of the walkway and smothering the grass of the yard. While slightly unusual plant life was common to be found there on Sara’s plot of land, the likes of it had never been seen before or since, and word had spread fast.
As Byron’s father held lectures in the halls across campus, Byron and his mother had walked there to see the spectacle and found a large crowd of both lowborn and highborn. Everyone present, including his mother, had complained of a feeling of nausea when close to the moss, which only Sara had known was plant life, as it truly was mystifying. It had shone and sparkled in the sun like gold, and transfixed ten-year-old Byron. They congregated across the street to witness the strange phenomenon from a safe distance.
The bewildered onlookers had been in fervor. Byron’s mother had found Sara Wyse and the Yarthanguard, and while they convened young Byron snuck away to wander behind the cottage. He’d approached the sparkling moss and saw up close that its composition looked like that of tiny crystals. There had been no feeling of sickness in him. He was fascinated by the intricate swirling patterns within it, only visible when as close as he’d been; concentric circles of a richer copper color and varying depths that he knew were impossible. The patterns looked as if in motion, and Byron had sworn that he heard soft voices coming from it, or projected from it into his mind. He’d sat there in the grass at the back wall of the cottage, but his mind had been somewhere else. Finally he was dragged away by his mother, who after pulling him around the house and into the street, had gagged and vomited there. Byron had wept and begged her to go back. He’d wanted to hear what the voices were saying.
Eventually the Yarthanguard arrived to sanction the area, and after they’d gone home Byron had watched from his room in the tower of Castle Levant as Sara Wyse’s cottage was burned to the ground, the smoke billowing into the starry night sky. The lowborn folk would go on to say that Sara was a witch who had brought the moss from the realm of Majaia. A council voted against keeping any samples of the moss, and every bit of it had been destroyed, much to Byron’s horror upon learning so much later in life.
The event had been a catalyst for his interest in the faith of the Earth God, and the fact that both his mother and father had refused to believe that it had been magical in any way had only intrigued him further. Sara Wyse denied the claims of witchcraft and the accusations against her were never acted upon by the Towers. Before long the entire story was reduced to hearsay. Surprisingly fast, Byron had noted even then. The adults in his life had seemed more than content to leave it in the past.
Eight years later at the top of Ryli Tower Byron’s suspicions had been cemented. Upon graduation, the new scholars would climb to the very top chamber of the tower where certain historic relics were kept. In the folklore that had been spun by the commonfolk, the things there were said to have come from Majaia. Byron and the others had seen them, they’d been close enough to run and snatch up what was called the Key of Crowns from its ivory pedestal, though of course none had. Wooden troughs were set up before them and the recent graduates had eyed them and the simple objects on their pedestals with a wary fascination from their grouping at the far end of the chamber.
It was a rite of passage for all young scholars, and while ceremonial, it was not an altogether serious occasion for most; a lighthearted scholarly ritual. It was after all only a folk tale that if one were immune to the sickness of the key and other relics, it implied that they were a "warlock" or a "witch."
It was told to the students at the academy that in truth an immunity to the radiant sickness of the objects, however rare, was practically meaningless, and to Byron’s knowledge no one in the last half century had been immune. No one but him. Visibly to all, the Key of Crowns was nothing but an antiquated brass key, if not a bit large and clumsy looking, but as his former classmates had gagged and heaved in the room at the tower's apex, some of them spewing vomit into the troughs which had been set before them, Byron had again felt nothing, though he'd nimbly feigned the discomfort his classmates had displayed, however. His sweat and light-headedness had been genuine. There at the top of the tower he’d wanted desperately for all to know of his gift, his choosing from the gods, and although he’d felt as if he would burst from the keeping of it, his immunity remained a secret for three years now. One he would choose to keep until he was absolutely certain of the implications of its reveal.
The relics that still sat there at the top of Ryli Tower were each visibly unremarkable- an arrowhead, a locket, a wooden doll- trinkets, really, twelve of them in total, and each of them produced the same effect to the vast majority of humans: being within their vicinity would cause one to break into a sweat, a feeling of nausea to settle in the pit of the stomach, the same effects of those gathered at the cottage of Sara Wyse. Touching the relics would intensify the effects. For some, there was a loosening of the bowels, or vomiting. The symptoms varied from person to person in intensity; some were more sensitive to it than others, but it seemed to be nothing more than that, and it was so told that the effects would lessen over prolonged exposure. Throughout the ages, the forbidden relics had remained a mystery, even as Yartha's scientific revolution burgeoned. The most famous of them was the key, apparently discovered in the vicinity of the Springboot Mountains near what Byron now believed to be a magical portal to Majaia and the Earth God's domain, hiding there in the brush-covered foothills where an ancient civilization had once gathered. It was the place Byron now headed to, dressed and armed in traveling gear after storming away from his father’s castle.
***
He crossed the River Slybos at Quell Bridge, the northernmost, shortest and, in his opinion the most beautiful of Yartha’s trinity of bridges. Ivory carvings ran the course of its banisters like gentle waves. The sun was in its descent as he walked and a swarm of gnats hovered his odorous form, a cloud that followed him in the orange summer dusk. On the eastern half of the city after wandering through a district where more houses were in disrepair than not he hiked through a quiet wood of the vast parklands known as Hundred Trees; a stretch of wilderness in the city's northwest quarter where the Springboot Mountains, really only rocky hills and a crag or two, crept down into the urban sprawl of East Yartha. The area was over a thousand acres of parkland; hills and meadows dotted with ponds and lined with creeks, far more than one-hundred trees, and all the wildlife that hadn't been hunted to extinction all within the walls of the great city. Hundred Trees was considered its own district, and so also was the largest one in Yartha, preserved centuries ago by the Church of Slybbon whose worshippers occupied many seats of power in the city's government.
Byron thought that the rugged terrain suited Hyne of Earth more than it did Slybbon the Water Goddess, for although the land was prohibited from being built upon, it was said that the earth was un-lending to even the city's most skilled architects and engineers, scattered with caves and sinkholes. Byron’s destination on that moonlit night was a particular cave far north into the territory, fittingly called Altar Cave. It was one of the many sites of ancient ruins in the area, either built by a prehistoric people or by the gods and powerful sorcerers like himself, depending on one's belief.
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The glow from his ornate oil lantern spread to the thicket around him and cast shadows across the trees and underbrush. As he hiked on, his light became the only light besides the ghostly fluorescence supplied by the moon and filtered through the dense foliage overhead. Behind him somewhere was the city, its sounds and scents gone. Brambles cracked beneath his feet clad in the fine traveling boots he’d retrieved from his father's castle. He wore clean clothes but his face and hands were still marked with dirt. Other than insectile buzzing and chirping the woods were silent.
Byron thought of her instructions. Of the caves opening the witch had written 'like a small, upturned laughing mouth, between two high shoulders, spitting gravel down a steep and narrow slalom.' He'd been to the cave once, long ago and with a guide, but he doubted that the topography had changed drastically since then, or even in the centuries since Petrastyra's time.
Small animals scattered as he pushed his way through the dry and tangled underbrush of the wooded hills. His sense of direction was not good, and more than once he feared he’d become lost, but now even in the dark he felt that the cave was close as he attempted to re-trace her steps. He could sense doubt about the journal's validity creeping in but he refused to entertain it. I will need sleep soon, he thought, but not until I have stepped upon the altar and spoken the words. Not until I have at least tried.
His trail of thought was broken as he saw through the trees a wide-open clearing of tall grass bathed in moonlight. On the other side where the tree cover resumed were the low mountains against the blue-black sky, and what he was sure were the two small peaks, the "shoulders" the witch wrote of. He giggled softly and began to hike faster, wading through the grass to leave a trampled path behind him as he entered the clearing. He strode through the field and hummed a discordant tune, the melody louder and louder until he raised his arms in the air and made a howling noise at the moon that was shrill like his voice. His upturned face, filthy, scratched, and gleaming with sweat, the moon reflected in his eyes. He howled again, and when he was finished saw movement in his periphery.
"A madman," said a voice. "A highborn madman."
Byron turned and saw them at the edge of the clearing- rows of blurry forms. groupings of men and women. There were more than he could count in the dark, possibly more behind them. They carried no light source. The one who spoke entered the clearing slowly and silently through the tall grass and the others followed. Byron’s upturned lantern began to catch in its light their features; some dressed in animal hides, others in torn tunics and breeches in the styles of the city.
The heavily-bearded one in front carried a crude wooden spear. He was covered from head to toe in what Byron initially mistook for blood in the moonlight. For a moment his breath had caught in his throat before his mind exposed it as red river clay, a custom from the old ways. The man with the spear shielded his eyes from the light with one hand and held the weapon in front of him. They were the followers of Hyne. The Cult of Earth.
"Praise be to the Earth God, Hyne," Byron said, not embarrassed in the least, expecting them, even. "Well met, brothers and sisters. I was searching for you, but it seems that you have found me, instead.”
There was an awkward moment when none of them spoke, and Byron cleared his throat and tried again. “Pray, follow me to the sacred cave, and I will show you that I am no madman. Tonight will be a night of magic and wonder. I shall go to Hyne's domain, the place the witch Petrastyra called The Lowlands, and I shall return with the ingredients to make rain. Rain the land so desperately needs." He laughed. “Isn’t that wonderful news?”
The people shared looks of incredulity. The man with the spear finally spoke. "Who are you? What do you know of Earth?" When Byron did not answer he went on, "Many have come to this place over the years, claiming to be blessed. None were."
Byron gave him his approximation of a friendly smile. "I am a scholar, my dear brother. It is my job to know! With whom do I have the pleasure of speaking?"
The man squinted at him, the mud cracking at the creases of his eyes. "Xander,” he said shortly. “I was unaware that Petrastyra’s history was a written one. It has been passed by tongue for centuries by the People of Earth."
Byron smiled and nodded. "All will be explained," he said.
The man called Xander gestured with his spear to Byron's ruby-hilted dagger in its scabbard. "You are armed."
"As are you. As is our right. My blade, however, is for the beasts of The Lowlands, of course.” Byron cleared his throat again and addressed them all. "Follow me, I beg you,” he called, beckoning with one arm. “All will be explained. Come, everyone."
He began to walk without them, and to his partial surprise they did follow him, but only after he’d left the clearing. They kept a safe distance behind as he hiked through the woods to the bones of a shallow creek, then up an incline that became a small ridge. The cave was some distance from the creek- a small black opening in the granite between the two points, just as her writings described it. Its entrance was triangular where the slabs of rock leaned, total darkness in the space between them. What she had written of as a slalom of gravel had since been made into a tidy dirt path and set of timber stairs, presumably by the people who currently followed behind him or their forbearers.
Now there was no doubt in Byron’s mind, no consideration that it may be the wrong cave, or worse- that the magical wormhole he believed to be inside had disappeared or faded. He could not afford to dwell on such things. He was on a roll, as his gambling colleagues in the mathematics department would call it, the degenerates. The insects and other night noises called, and there could be heard a gentle swish of the trees in the light breeze.
He was all nerves, humming and softly giggling. He saw the fresh remains of a campfire on the other side of the creek bed and hiked over to inspect it, then waited there for the cultists to arrive. He would require an audience. He grunted as he slid the backpack from his shoulders and set the lamp on the ground by the dead fire, the only semi-level spot of ground on the hillside. Looking out he could see far away the twinkling towers and steeples of Yartha rise against the night sky.
One-by-one the gaggle of mud-camouflaged figures made their way up to him. Eight in total. Five men and three women, all of varying ages. There were whispers among them. The bearded man with the spear came to the front. Xander, Byron reminded himself. Some of them stared at the gas lantern with wonder, ignorant in their seclusion to the advances of their own city. He beckoned them to follow him up the wooden steps to the cave and there was no objection, but the one called Xander peered coldly at him and was the first to follow behind.
At the top of the stairs Byron ducked his head inside and bent his tall frame further over. He crept toward where the cave opened up. Once in, he slid down a steep but short incline and stood. It was cool inside. The sounds of his boots on the stone were thin, flat-sounding.
He raised the lantern. The ceiling of the chamber rose maybe thirty feet in diameter and was shaped like the inverse cap of an acorn that sloped downward to the stone ground. In the center was the altar. Its base was a smooth, perfect circle ten feet in diameter, not stone but something else. The base of a crumbled statue stood behind it, weathered or vandalized long ago. According to Petrastyra, it had once been a representation of a moon person, commonly described as a tall, broad-shouldered humanoid with a wide mouth and small, beady eyes, but all that was left of the statue were its feet.
One by one the cultists traversed the decline. They helped each other down and soon they were all gathered around the pedestal. Byron stepped up onto it and walked to the center of the circle. He took a deep breath. Holding the lantern with one hand he checked his person with the other, to make sure all was accounted for. This better work, or I am going to appear quite the fool, he thought to himself, and suppressed a laugh.
"Await my return," he muttered, then took a deep breath and said the words in a clear and loud voice free of his usual missteps and muttering. "Lytum-Sytul."
His eyes rolled into the back of his head and he fell limp to the pedestal, his face smacking across its hard surface. A tooth dislodged from his mouth and skittered across the altar with a splattered trail of blood. His lifeless eyes stared at nothing, pupils still in dilation.
The people in the chamber gasped, then the lantern's flame was snuffed and they cried out in surprise and fear. Finally, his body began to burn with a ghostly, smokeless, heatless white fire, and their illuminated, shared masks of shock turned to terror. They screamed and fled the sudden pearl-white bonfire that erupted from the altar, scrambling madly up the incline to leave the cave, but Xander stayed holding his spear as he watched the madman's fine green cloak go up in mystical white flame.
It was followed quickly by the breeches and backpack on the corpse. Its contents spilled out- an old book burned to nothing in the heatless but all-consuming flames. A jar shattered on the pedestal and the glass caught fire and disappeared. The links of his chain shirt melted together and did the same. Soon, all that was left was a glowing white skeleton and a pool of bubbling metal.
The man with the spear sat down and watched it until the final piece of bone had disintegrated, the last flame flickered out and the chamber was pitch-black again.
