Evalyce: Worldshaper Vol. 1: Mother of Wolves

Chapter. 4- The Temple of Inari

Temple of Inari, Deep Forest, Argoth, Year of the Golden Hart, 2013 CE

Aleister set off down the corridor, thankful for the magelight that Kalla had tagged to him, since he didn't have a torch handy. Keeping a watchful eye out for traps and other hidden dangers, he followed the path until he came to an intersection. Trusting in the instincts that had made him such a good thief, Aleister headed down the left-hand path. Several intersections and an uneventful thirty minutes later (save for the simmering anger from his still absent mage), he was stopped by what appeared to be a dead end. A pair of giant stone frogs flanked the corners of the blank wall.

The Arkaddian frowned. The statues looked like the smaller stone frogs known as 'prosperity toads' to the Argosians. Melaric had kept one. But these frogs didn't have the coins in their mouths common to the smaller ones. He leaned closer, running his hands over one of the stone frogs. There was a groove in the mouth, as if disks might have once been there. On a whim he reached into his coin pouch and fished two coins out. At the very least he could leave an offering in the hopes he might find a way out. He pushed a copper coin into the mouth of first one frog, then the other. As the second coin slid home, the ground rumbled and the 'wall' before him slid up, revealing the continuation to his path. Beyond lay a vast room, barely illuminated by the ball of magelight. Water trickled in the distance. As he stepped into the room, the door slid shut behind him, sealing the exit off.

Kalla snarled angrily, pacing around in tight circles before the doors to the Temple of Inari. Though she had been right behind Aleister when he'd entered, she had found herself back outside. Each and every attempt she had made to enter the Temple resulted in her being cast back outside the doors.

Likewise, her attempts to teleport to Aleister met with the same misfortune. The Temple would not let her enter and she'd drained a great deal of energy trying to reach her magister. Through the bond she could feel that he was a bit anxious, but other than that, his mind was occupied. A few times alarm shot through the bond, never lasting very long.

Kalla sighed as her stomach growled. The mage had been pacing outside the doors for several hours and her body was letting her know she needed to eat and to rest. Grudgingly she set a camp near the Temple, fixing a simple soup for dinner. Afterwards, she drowsed near the fire, wondering how she was going to get to Aleister. As she thought of him, a feeling of loneliness filtered through the bond. Wherever he was, she could tell he had at least eaten and that he was tired and grumpy now.

Aleister sighed and trudged his way down yet another dark corridor. From the vault of the stone frogs he'd had only one option to leave. He'd taken it and followed his previous habit of taking every left turn he'd come across. There had been a few traps along the way, but those he avoided easily. More stone frog doors had taken more of his coin, yet he was still trapped in the Temple.

He'd been here for several days and his food was running low. He felt sure his bones would end up gracing the Temple in a tribute to a treasure hunter's folly. He wondered where Kalla was and if she would be affected by his death. He could still feel her, though the bond seemed to be getting weaker. She was tired, angry and frustrated. Aleister came to a halt before another blank wall guarded by stone frogs. He grimaced as he fished the last two coins out of his pouch. Shrugging, he shoved the coins in the frogs' mouths. The door rumbled open and he stepped through.

Kalla sank to the ground in frustration. She had spent the previous day making her way around the Temple, trying to find another way in, but the only entrance to be found was the one Aleister had gone through. She bit her lip with worry. He had grown more and more dejected over the last two days. She sensed that he'd given up hope of getting out. More disturbing was the fact that the bond between them seemed to be getting fainter, which could only mean they were separated by a great distance. She perked up as a sense of sudden fear came through the bond. It faded, to be replaced later by an intense sadness, leaving the Mage wondering what her Magister was going through.