Summoned to a Shattered World

Birthright Chapter 19 - The Darkness Within II

Before us, spread out in the large chamber, lay three formations. Formed of yellow stone, they were made up of many delicately curved shapes, like the petals of a flower. Inside the outer layers was an oval of some dark yellow substance. Partially transparent, they reminded me of glass. Whatever was happening here, it seemed like a lot of effort for some glass eggs. There must be some greater purpose beyond them, almost certainly a magical one. "I'm guessing you have no idea what these are."

Elmidath paused in her inspection of them. "Not exactly. They're definitely an accumulation of mana, I'm just not sure what they're intended for exactly."

An accumulation of mana? Like a mana battery? "So they're used to power magical things then?"

"That would be my guess. They're usually intended for some specific purpose but I don't know what these are made for."

"What's the rock around them for?" It was far too uniform and complex not to serve some purpose.

"To filter and concentrate mana."

"How long do these take to form?"

"Not sure, I've never made them. I'd say at least a few weeks though."

I bit my lip, deep in thought. "Does your uncle know about this place?" He had to. "If he does, then why is he leaving them down here? They must be useful, right?"

"You have a point. Either he must not know what to use them for, or more likely he's saving them for a specific purpose."

"Should we take one?" I reached out toward the centre of the nearest stone flower but stopped to wait for confirmation. However harmless they might seem, I wanted a second opinion before touching one.

"Can't hurt. There's always a chance it'll come in handy later."

I stopped again, my fingers hovering above the egg-shaped mana battery. "This isn't going to melt my hand or anything, right?"

Sarinknell scoffed. "Of course not, don't be such a coward."

I closed my hand around the rock. It was warm to the touch but not unpleasantly so. Slipping it into a belt pouch, I moved between the flowers. From there it was just a short walk before the ground levelled out and we found another room. This one was circular and far more cluttered, with four passages branching off from it. Benches extended from the walls, leaving a narrow walkway between them.

Tools, pieces of rock and paper were strewn throughout the chamber. As strange as the world I'd found myself in was, this had to be the work of a human. Or, well, a sentient humanoid. Someone had clearly been here recently and made an awful mess of the place. And this had to be a workroom of some kind, though I had no idea what they were trying to produce.

The pieces of stone were on the ground or off to the sides and looked more like debris than something being worked on. I picked up one of the papers. It was a covered in a series of strange symbols, they looked much too large to be writing but I figured it couldn't hurt to ask. I held it out to Elmidath. "Any idea what this means?"

"Not a clue. Maybe the plans for something? Or some sort of design?"

It seemed as good a guess as any. So, whoever was down here was some sort of craftsmen? "Do you know who else came down here? Other than your father."

She shrugged. "A few of the servants. Why?"

"If someone's living down here, I was thinking they must need food brought down. Unless there's some sort of underground farm down here." I could think of a few other potential food sources but none that I particularly wanted to contemplate.