Siren's Elegy Volume 1: Orphans of Ashen Earth

Chapter 65: What Lies Within

October 12, 4021 06:06 [Sunken Forest- Kingdom of the Polar Star]

Indra brushed his hand along the crumbling stone wall, letting the fine silt-like granules slip through his fingertips. It was damp and cool to the touch, hidden from the sunlight by a small grove. Many such structures populated the area, scattered and incomplete, their remnants lost to the tides of time and the elements.

Intricate designs of regal figures, gods, and stories untold could be found throughout. Majestic statues of horses and rulers lay splintered yet unmarred in their beauty; a testament to the artistry of the kingdom's stone masons. Deep in the center of the capitol resided the skeleton of a modest castle; the remnants of Altan gadas vant uls's final royal family.

An overgrowth of vines had taken hold of the man-made architecture, reclaimed by Mother Nature. In observing the forlorn ruins of a once great kingdom, Indra felt a strange yearning to see it in the days of old, at the peak of its glory. Even still, he couldn't deny the beauty of the forest. Civilization had perished here, but life still flourished, bountiful and free.

The steady chirp of cicadas was almost deafening, though Indra learned to tune out the sound, growing accustomed to the noise. The flutter of wings could be heard as birds flew high above the treeline. Indra stared at them, wondering if he could simply fly away with them. Butterflies rested on hibiscus petals, which had taken root at an even greater concentration than the forest outskirts. Still, their presence here seemed gentle, almost as if the flowers were asleep, their animosity towards the intruders nonexistent.

What do you make of it?

"It seems they are dormant, for now. Do exercise caution. I cannot say for certain what will happen if they awaken," Usha replied.

Indra nodded, eyeing the flowers curiously. The red and pink hues were deeply mesmerizing to him, their allure almost hypnotizing, though Indra did his best not to disturb the flower beds.

Do you think they did this? Destroy the kingdom, I mean.

"It is possible, although there are many more plausible reasons I could think of for a civilization to collapse..."

Maybe an internal conflict?

"That would be more likely. Regicide, fratricide; royalty has a way of undermining familial bonds. Ambition, envy, ego, and greed cloud the mind. They thrive in the wake of loyalty's death."

If that's the case, they could take a page from the brothers of Ursa Major's book.

Usha grunted in agreement.

Deer-like animals grazed near a stream, flicking their tails lazily as they went about their morning. They raised their orange-antlered heads at the crunch of boots on stray twigs. Their eyes darted and their ears twitched nervously as they surveyed their surroundings, promptly taking off as the expedition teams drew near.

"You scared them!" Indra frowned. He turned, only to be met with an apologetic face, causing his own to soften.

Prasanna sucked her teeth, frozen on the broken branch of wood she had just snapped. "Sorry!" she whispered.

Indra opened his mouth to reassure her, his expression souring again as a horde of Crawlers trampled through the foliage, interrupting the tranquility of the moment. The hiss of hydraulics escaped the large frames of the powerful machines as they uprooted trees and large boulders in their path, forging onward.

Their scanners whirred and whistled as they gathered data from the ruins, archiving the information in their memory banks before starting the upload to Manzhouli's Aegypius Lab. The signal to the outside world was thankfully still intact, though it continued to weaken the deeper they ventured into the Sunken Forest.