The Princess and the Blood of Eternity

Chapter 28: The Sanctum of Xomreus

Lilith had to bite her tongue to keep herself from crying out and reacting to the surprise of the palace door slamming shut. The dark, wide-open space came equipped with the stale stench of death. The mix tricked her into imagining they had buried her alive.

How big was the space? Where was she supposed to go? She waved her arms, holding them outstretched to stop herself from colliding into a wall. Instead of a wall, she ran smack into a net of cobwebs.

Screaming and nearly hyperventilating, she scrambled to pull sticky, stringy filaments off her nose and tongue, and she was all too conscious of the prickly feeling of the webs getting tangled in her hair. A puff of air swirled along the floor, making her think the spiders were climbing up her legs.

After a couple minutes of stumbling in the dark, her eyes finally adjusted to the palace's interior. What she had originally assumed to be pitch black had slowly morphed into something closer to a dull gray. The entrance turned out to be a vaulted hall that soared high overhead. The slanted ceiling's surface was decorated with windows that were so dirty and caked in dust—they let in almost no light. She hadn't even realized they were windows at first.

To her right, she noted a tall, stone statue of a human dressed in what would be fine clothing and bits of ceremonial armor. He towered several feet over her. Too tall to be a direct copy of a human, the features were pensive and regal with stone eyes that stared off into the distance. In his hands, he carried a large scroll, which was decorated with glyphs and strange writing.

Across from him stood another statue of a similar design, but of a different person. The entire hall appeared to be lined with statues. Further down, she noticed a few had shattered from a harsh impact with a blunt object. Rubble and sharp pieces of rock littered the ground. Strange, she wondered what could've shattered a solid statue in an enclosed space, safe from the elements.

With only one direction to go, Lilith moved forward along the tall corridor. Not having footwear, saw her carefully picking her way past the broken statues. Carved reliefs covered these walls, artwork similar to the stuff she'd seen on the outside of the door. Most of it reminded her of a religious ceremony. There were people lined up in large, baggy cloaks, offering homage to a central being seated on a dais with a picture of the sun floating above his head. The people had their heads bowed in a kind of reverence to this person as they raised their arms and offered what looked like gifts.

This palace, the artwork—Lilith didn't understand what any of it meant. Was this really the home of the Nobles? She was slowly coming to the assumption that it was a crypt and not a palace at all. One thing was obvious—the thick stone walls had muted the sound of the storm outside. All she heard now was her loud breathing and the quiet echo of her bare feet on the stone floor.

On more than one occasion, she was mid step when she swore she saw color in the corner of her eye. Like a cloud of green, but turning revealed she was mistaken, a trick of the shadows. That was, until it happened four more times over the next couple of minutes.

Eventually, she thought it best to ignore the oddity since it was out of her power to stop it. Gholand was an odd city. What was one more thing added to the list?

She lost track of how long she'd been standing there, but she nearly screamed when a voice began echoing in the surrounding space.

"Princess, if you would please continue moving forward," said a grandfatherly voice.

She searched the passage, only to find no one, not a soul. "Hello?" she said. Worried about the punishment for deception, she came out with the truth. "I'm not a princess, at least not anymore."