Aeronwyn slept for a day and a half. When she finally awoke and Keri asked how she felt, she said, with a weak smile, "Like I have been pressed between two ships then wrung out to squeeze me dry!" NalMora had shown them where to gather fungus that, added into a broth, would aid the restoration of strength. Keri had tried to use magic to aid Aeronwyn but, as Moiril explained to her, she wasn't ill, merely tired.
Meanwhile Alt'ker and Shi'mie had done some scouting and returned with news that the cavern and the ruins were much larger than Aeronwyn had initially realized. In addition to the east/west path Aeronwyn had taken from the Western Kingdom to Forsyth, there were openings north and south that seemed to go deep into the mountains.
"Of course they do," agreed NalMora. "We dwarves once travelled extensively all through the lands through roadways that no uplander has ever seen. Although we are but a pebble of what we once were, now that we are true again, we will grow again."
"Weren't you trapped here when the old world was destroyed?" asked Keri.
"Trapped? Not at all. When we saw the destruction we hid in the downroads. When the change came upon us we came here hoping for the few surviving mages to aid us. They couldn't. Although they lived they had no magic left. Human lives are short but we cared for them as best we could while they lived." NalMora explained.
"What will you do now? Will you trade with the surface again?" Aeronwyn asked.
"In time. We must rebuild ourselves and our village. There are also some of our pets that have grown rather large and, well, rebellious that we must deal with to make the downroads safe again. When that is done, we will seek out the surface for trade." NalMora smiled at Aeronwyn. "Or rather, we shall seek you out, Queen Rhiannon."
"You know who I am?" Aeronwyn asked, surprised.
"I am a prophetess of Berialus and while he may not speak to me as he once did to his servants, the gifts he gave us still work. One of those is the True Naming. Can't be a God of the Hunt if you can't name your prey, can you?" NalMora laughed a deep, earthy laugh.
Once camp was cleaned up, Aeronwyn said to the others, "We need to check those doors and see if any of them have anything useful. Keri, I noticed a magic on them like the one in Althene's temple. Shall we go?"
Aeronwyn took out the key she had found and considered what it might be for. The doors themselves were all flat, with no opening for a keyhole. They opened with a push and even though they were heavy stone doors weighing hundreds of pounds, the cleverness with which they had been set into place allowed them to move even with a fairly light touch. When Keri tried the doors sealed by magic, none of them would open.
"Well, that's that. I don't see any way of opening these doors," said Moiril.
"Neither do I," agreed Aeronwyn.
Lenck looked like he wanted to speak but was being silent in the presence of his Masters. Keri noticed it and said, "Come on, Lenck. You have an idea, so spit it out!"
His face went red. "I, well, I was just thinking," he said.
"Thinking what?" asked Aeronwyn.
"Well, if Keri opened the door at the temple of Althene and this Academy is protected by Berialus, not Althene then..." he was interrupted by all three women at once.
