Villain's Second Chance

9 - The Secrets Beneath The Sand

She effortlessly hopped down the hole, gracefully landing on her feet.

"Wait, Princess!" One of the guards leaped down, landing with a roll. The next guards followed the first, with the servant going after them and being caught by a guard.

"Prince Kori!" One of them extended their arms. "I'll catch you!"

"Move." I demanded. "I will descend myself."

I gripped onto the edge of the hole, lowering myself down as much as I could before dropping. I copied the movement of the guards, rolling as soon as I hit the ground. It was an effective maneuver and I stood up without difficulty.

"He's come so far." One of the guards smiled.

"Light source." I ordered.

The guard in front snapped their fingers, a flame appearing in their palm. The flame grew to a decently sized ball within his hand, lightly illuminating the area around us.

A second guard set a light in his hand as well to further light up the area. We looked around us, seeing we were in a hallway of cracked, ancient stone walls.

Princess Sun Ying looked around in wonder, tracing the rock with her hand as she meandered down the hallway. We followed her head, the two guards with the astral fire standing near the princess. I stood behind them, the servant behind me, and then the final three guards in the rear of the group.

"There's a mural here..." I heard her gasp.

She stepped back from the wall as the guards moved their fire-filled hands forward, illuminating the wall in front of us. The wall was cracked, with pieces weathered and missing, and with faded images upon the wall. But nonetheless, it was a mural indeed.

One which depicted a circle of six entities of equal distance from each other. At the top was a bird made from flames. Then, from right onwards following the circle, was a young girl, and old man, an adult male, an old woman, and an adult woman.

But that was about all that could be told. With the faded design and the cracked and  weathered wall, I couldn't even tell who those beings were.

That flaming bird can only represent either the legendary fire Astral, or one of the great five gods themselves, Yataghayar. And my intuition leads me to the latter.

But the five people? I cannot tell whether they are Almakira or Qitat. In fact, they might not be either. You simply could not tell the details on each person, having been faded and lost to time.

Whatever the meaning of this mural is, it was lost upon me. Lost to an untellable number of years ago. Whatever civilization laid here, our ancestors or otherwise, are long dead and forgotten.

Truly, a tragic fate.

"What could this mean...?" Princess Sun Ying looked at the mural with sparkling eyes. She quickly turned towards me. "Prince Kori, any ideas?!"

"I am unsure." I replied. "But the flaming bird is likely a representative of Yataghayar."

"Known as The Flaming Phoenix of Rebirth." She gasped softly. "With five people in a circle..."

She mumbled to herself. "A prophecy? Of the future? Or maybe it's an analogy of a cycle? But a cycle of what? Or is it a story? A story of the creation of this civilization?"

"If only I brought something to document all this!" She started biting her nails. "How did I not think of that?!"

"It's alright." I sighed. "I doubt this will be the last time we visit the ruins."

"Really?" She turned towards me with a wide grin. "Then next time I shall bring an empty book to fill."

With that she turned away and started moving forwards once again. We followed her lead, silently agreeing to her whims as she went at her own pace.