The Mark of Aether

The Lost City~Part II

'But what glass should we choose?' I asked, eyeing the endless pieces of metal that reflected the lights like mirrors, feeling helpless once again. 'There's billions in here.'

'Maybe we should start looking for something related to the god.'

This was another missing point; we did retrieve the riddle, but it was not complete. Whatever details there was still to discover were taken away from us.

'I think I saw a statue of Areles somewhere in the northern side,' I remembered, retrieving the details of the demolished monolith. 'It is from here.'

I led the way through the passages and crumbled columns, figuring my way throughout the darkness. Finally we reached Areles' stones.

The upper head was laying somewhere, covered with algae, probably, and the snake was nowhere to be found. What was left of the once supreme statue were the legs, one of the hands, and one toe.

And it was then I saw that the hand was holding the glass we'd seen at the well. We both plunged deeper until we reached it, each of us studying one side. The glass' container was adorned with a crystal stem and intricate loops that looked like rings.

I peered inside the huge container, entering my head, trying to find some clue. My hands ran across the heavy etchings lining the rough stones, searching for anything.

'We can't fill a glass if it's already submersed in water,' I complained, remembering that we had to fill it to the brim.

The entire city was underwater, how on Ardoria were we supposed to fill it?

I continued running my fingers on the old, rough stones consisting of the statue, tapping aimlessly on it, hoping to come up with something. Carter stopped swaying around and turned to look at me, his bronze eyes veiled in wonder.

He came to where I was floating, his hands knocking on the construction. 'It is hollow,' he stated, making my brain go numb.

'What?'

'Like the statues at the eye. There is nothing on the inside.'

'How are we supposed to use this information?'

He didn't answer; instead, he roamed the glass with both his eyes and hands. He abruptly stopped, ushering for me to get a better look.

He pointed at the flat, circular bottom of the crystalline stem before merging his thoughts with mine. 'This piece is unstable, it can be twirled.'

Taken by curiosity, I grabbed the bottom, forcefully twirling it. It merely budged, but the fact that it heeded was enough of a sign to start with. The Arelesian lord grabbed it, too, his grip firm like iron, before we started twirling it. It took us tons of strength and power to slightly move the rocky stones, the wheel getting less firm the more we moved it.

Finally, the task became easy and so suddenly the flat bottom started moving by itself, twirling as though guided by magic. We let go of it, moving as we watched how the movements created an underwater whirlwind.

The heart of the tornado seemed to be the glass itself, all the waters in the sea moving to enter it. Not that the entire sea was absorbed, only the surface centered inside the lines formed with the golden items.

Like being controlled by thirstiness, the glass gulped the entire water before the stones started crumbling. As the pressure of the water disappeared, I found myself screaming as gravity pulled me down. But, before I could hit my head with the stones, a flat, horizontal barrier of magic alleviated my fall. I glanced at Carter, who had summoned the floating boards, saving us from several ugly bruises.

Standing with shaky legs, I guided the magical platform that swayed underneath my feet, flying to the glass.

The surface covering the loops around the stem started crumbling one after the other, but one specifically caught my full attention.

I wasn't sure if I was imagining it, but I thought I saw the lightest shade of gold.  I was guided to the rocky ruins that the water had left,  standing straight and dusting the sand of my face. I made my way carefully, jumping from one stone to the other before I was finally face to face with the enormous glass.

With my fingernails, I scratched the surface of the intriguing curve. It fell easier than what I firstly imagined, revealing a golden circular bound. The metal started glowing, detaching itself from the statue and flying away above our heads.

Movements from the corner of my eyes caught my attention. Everything that could be called a diamond or precious gem started floating in the air, coalescing together, forming an undefined shape.

Altogether, the jewels started colliding with each other, a flash of light according all of them together.

Once the stones stopped coming, the mass finally took shape, a magnificent serpent standing in front of us. Blue fires erupted in the crevices left on its head before the divine creature opened its maw.

Before I could precede it, the snake had pulled us in its open mouth, my hands tightly clutching one diamond fang, observing the immense ring that floated out of the sea, us following it. The serpent emerged from the emptied part of the sea, sizzling on the water before reaching the wet sand of the shore.

The scales glowed underneath moonlight, casting hunting colors around us. As the ring flew above us, its size diminished respectively, until it took the shape of its brothers. The rest of the rings flew from my fingers and fixed next to the aquatic key.

Once the three were perfectly aligned, two symbols glowed in each of them.

I jumped out of the snake's mouth and joined the flabbergasted Mayra and Leon who had shock written all over their faces.

"Nevora,'' read the shadow out loud, signaling the home of the sleeping fourth key.

The magnificent reptile hissed once and was about to launch for the ring when I shouted out.

"Stop,'' I ordered the snake, extending one hand forward. The snake did obey and turned to look at me, moving its head in wonder.

Everyone was staring at me, as though I'd just lost my brain completely.

"Can you give us a ride?''

To say the situation wasn't comical was a lie. There I was, taking to a creature I wasn't sure was real in the first place, asking for a ride. But when things turn desperate, we would need desperate measures to get to our aim.

The snake stood frozen, staring at us and I wondered if it was the one thinking or if it was Areles who was weighting his decision.

Breaking the silence, the snake came closer to us, propping the four of us between its fangs. The two first rings rested again around my fingers while the current one kept flowing between my hands. Cherishing the silence of the night and coolness of the water, the snake hissed before it slid on the glistening surface, its enormous size covering endless miles of distance as it took us to the next point of our journey.