Tales of PulchraGea, Vol. 1

15: The Children Yearn for the Mines (Final/2034)

There are various metals and minerals throughout PulchraGea. Often they're extracted through traditional means. However, nestled in the Northern Barricade range are several facilities millennia old. These deposits were considered sacred as there was a mine containing a single solid crystal of impossible size for each tribe of PulchraGea. Each of these enormous ingots had been mined to create the pieces of PulchraGean currency, the Argentum.

Each had various inclusions and shades caused by various impurities that made them shimmer in the sun when polished. The ruby shone in every color of fire, red orange, even pink. The sapphire gleamed like rippling water. The green tribe's emerald shimmered like sunlight off leaves in every shade of green, with even some red and yellow inclusions not unlike fall foliage. The diamond was as clear as glass and rainbows flared from it when held in the right light. There was an ingot of gold metallic glass, much less ductile than traditional gold. Finally, the one Katy and I had come to see, an expansive floe of silver carved over thousands of years by both natural and artificial means into incredibly deep caves.

According to Katy, legend had it that in the deepest recesses of the Narakh-sirtan (literally translated as Silver rock-house) there was a bright light that would reflect off the pure silver and permanently blind anyone who discovered it. The map of the stones' locations showed one to be there, and if that didn't sound like a keystone challenge I don't know what would.

***

Once we got to the silver mine, Katy insisted on doing all the talking, not that I minded. They let us in with no questions or hassle. I wasn't well known at that time, but Katy was and she knew exactly what to say, what authority to invoke. The trip was uneventful even deep into the caves.

Ordinarily it was perfectly safe to take light into the Narakh-sirtan. Silver has a tendency to develop a patina in contact with oxygen, after all. Katy brought her glowing necklace, which she called a sunstone. I brought some cheap single use, but recyclable, flashlights.

It took a full day's hike and there was still plenty of tunnel leading ever downward. Eventually we couldn't walk anymore and stopped for the night. Even in the wan light of the disposable flashlight and Katy's sunstone, I could the telltale swirls of gold. Whatever natural process had created these geological impossibilities had caused the silver and gold to swirl together. Here, what gold was here was still in crystalline metallic form and amalgamated with the silver to form an expansive electrum deposit. It was beautiful.

We made camp, cooked supper the traditional way on a hotplate instead of from a self-heating pouch, then settled in for the night. Katy reached into her travel pack and pulled out a tent, which assembled itself at the push of a button.

"Expecting rain tonight?" I teased. Katy rolled her eyes, but not as unkindly as before. I wrapped myself in my travelling cloak to insulate me from the cold metal floor and slept.

***

Everything was white. There were no walls or ceiling and I only knew there was a floor because I failed to fall through the infinite space. I had no shadow. Neither did the entity before me.

Its features were indistinct, genderless, amorphous, yet clearly had a distinct form. A human-like face and body contrasted by the fact it was dressed in robes of light and had closed eyes.

"You are here for the keystone," it said. "I have been bound here for a very long time, unable to move, until the one destined to take it from me comes."

I was still stunned for a few seconds. "What?"

"You have brought the sacrifice," it said. "The princess even."

"What sacrifice?" I asked.

"A king must be willing to make difficult sacrifices for the sake of his people," it said. "An offering to receive the blessing of the Keystone. It is to test your worthiness. If you are not strong enough to take the path presented to you then it shall remain closed to you."