Conjunction

"What is this?" Kadal gasped. She approached the statue, reaching up to place a hand on the stone, her frill rising. "It looks like...me."

Caden turned on the spot as he examined more of the sculptures that adorned the interior of the arch. There, another one. Where the leftmost support pillar joined to the curved ceiling, there was a relief depicting another battle. These Alfar were not fighting alone, they had reptiles among their ranks, the fearsome creatures charging their enemies with spear and sword in hand. He found another statue, a masterfully carved depiction of a reptile warrior sitting upon a pedestal, some kind of banner or standard draped across its broad shoulders as it knelt with its spear clutched in its claws. It was so lifelike, every scale carefully chiseled from the rock, every crease in the fabric lovingly depicted.

"Kadal," he whispered, "could it be that your Gods were the Alfar?"

"If you have some insight into these mysteries, then do not hold your tongue," she replied. "I do not understand what I am seeing."

"Your ancestors were tasked with protecting this city by your Gods," he continued. "Based on what we've seen so far, I'd say it's safe to assume that the Alfar built this place. Their statues are everywhere, the pointed ears are unmistakable. These sculptures depict your people accepting weapons from them, fighting alongside them, being honored by them. If this arch is some kind of war memorial, then your people seem to have played a very large role in their history."

"But...how would such a thing be forgotten?" she asked, gazing up at another of the statues. "We know nothing of the sacred city save for that we were tasked with protecting it. We have dwelt in the Coral Sea since the dawn of time, we never lived in giant towers of stone."

"Maybe you didn't forget it," Caden replied. "At least, not entirely. Maybe the Alfar found you living in the Coral Sea when they arrived here, maybe they recognized your natural strengths, and sought to leverage them. They made of you auxiliaries, warriors, guards. Could it be that your people still carry on that tradition long after your former masters have disappeared? Their orders to defend the city have passed into myth, the original context lost to the ages."

Kadal was steeped in thought, her scaly brow furrowing as she stood in the shadow of the arch. Caden had never seen her so contemplative before. He had to wonder if these revelations were undermining her faith, or whether it was being vindicated. After all, few religions could claim to have physical evidence of their Gods, proof of their favor.

"All my life, I have obeyed the will of the Gods," she finally said. "I never questioned the words of the Shaman, I never doubted our history, I merely did my duty. What cause did I have to do otherwise?"

Caden prepared to console her, but she was not yet finished.

"Now, I discover that our Gods were as real as you or I, divine or not. That they really did entrust us with their protection, that the order to defend the sacred city came from their lips. My kin have been keeping this tradition for untold generations, doggedly carrying out our duties, even in their absence."

"Are you...alright?" he asked, still struggling to gauge her reaction.

"I feel as though the Gods have descended from the sky to stand before me," she replied, gazing up at the statue again, her yellow eyes full of wonder. "To learn that a people capable of creating such wonders once honored us so, that we have remained loyal to them after all this time..." She glanced down at him, a wave of relief washing over Caden as he saw a smile brighten her face. "If they were divine or not, it changes little. They chose us to be their protectors."

"I wonder what happened to them?" Caden mused, a sudden dark thought coming over him. "Could it be that...the last time this calamity happened, they were able to correct the problem, but too late to save themselves?"

"What do you mean?" Kadal asked.

"The scroll that my Master discovered tells of a calamity identical to the one that we now face," Caden said, scratching his stubbly chin. "Of an age when the sun grew ever brighter in the sky, when the crops failed, and the land grew parched. The magi of this city, the Alfar sorcerers, were able to create some kind of artifact that somehow corrected the problem. The black stone from your vision must be that same artifact. But what if they were too late?" he added, his tone dour. "What if they were able to correct the problem and save the world, but not themselves? All over the known world, we find Alfar ruins abandoned, deserted, with no sign of what happened to their occupants. Could it be that their entire civilization collapsed?"

"And my people endured long after," Kadal added, her frill fluttering. "We do not fear the sun, the desert is our home."

"Your ancestors may still have been affected if they left the city and forgot huge swathes of their history," he replied. "A population bottleneck, maybe. But yes, you are certainly here while the Alfar are not because of your affinity for dry climates. While the Alfar succumbed, perhaps your people returned to a tribal lifestyle of subsistence living, one sustainable enough to see you through the calamity."

"What if we are too late?" she asked, tearing her eyes away from the mural. "What if it happens again?"

"There's no way to know," Caden replied, "we can only do what we can."

She nodded her head in agreement, the two of them continuing on through the arch.

***

"That is a large pyramid," Caden muttered, standing beside Kadal at the base of the massive structure. The blocks of polished sandstone that made up its face must have weighed two or three tons each, and their number was uncountable. Its peak was four hundred feet high, maybe more, towering above them like an artificial mountain.

"What makes you think that this is the resting place of the black stone?" Kadal asked.

"It's the biggest structure after that dome over there," he said, gesturing to the castle surrounded by glass spires. "The other buildings that we passed on the way here were bathhouses, open-air theaters, nothing of importance. In my kingdom, sorcerers reside in towers, so maybe this is the magi equivalent of that. It certainly looks like it was built using magic, I don't see how else they could have shifted blocks of this size."

"Look," she added, pointing to the arched entrance. It was held up by a pair of sandstone pillars, decorated in the ways that Caden had come to expect of the Alfar. There were runes chiseled into the stonework, perhaps denoting the name of the building or its purpose. "Can you read them?"

"Well, they're not caked in verdigris like the plaque on the fountain," he muttered as he took a step closer to get a better look. "We have a pretty good understanding of the Alfar writing system, but this...doesn't look familiar. Some of these runes are recognizable, but as for the rest, I cannot say. If only I had a book on Alfar runes and symbology with me, maybe I could make some sense of this."

"Which ones do you recognize?" Kadal added.

"It's hard to say," he began, examining the strange symbols. "This could be a language closely related to those of the Alfar who once made my kingdom their home, or the resemblance could be completely coincidental. There's no way for me to be sure without some kind of cipher."

"Can you use magic to translate it?"

"Not that I know of," he replied, shaking his head. "The spell that lets you and I communicate works by conveying our intent, it requires a mind to draw from, but the people who left these marks are long dead. Only study can reveal the meaning of their words."

"What of the statues?" she asked, gesturing to one of the sculptures that had been carved into a pillar. "Could they convey a meaning that transcends language?"

Caden faltered for a moment, embarrassed that he hadn't thought of that first.

"That's...a very logical assessment," he said, Kadal giving him a grin. He walked up to the carving, examining the oversized depiction of a robed figure in sandals. His head was shaved bald, his pointed ears all the more prominent because of it, and he seemed to be wearing some kind of eyeglass. In his outstretched hand was clutched a collection of measuring tools. There was some kind of ruler with numbered notches, a set of scales hanging from small chains, what looked to be some kind of sundial or compass. The natural sciences were this man's domain, that much was obvious, but he might be an architect or a physicist as much as he might be a magi. Every society's professions overlapped in different ways.

"This is the only lead we have, so we should at least check," Caden said. He moved over to the towering doors between the pillars, these ones hewn from heavy slabs of white marble, so large that he doubted whether a normal person would have been able to open them on their own. They were engraved with more Alfar symbology, a series of concentric rings projecting from a large ball in the center that had been recessed into the stone, its meaning unclear.

He waved for Kadal to stand back, then braced his hands against the doors as he prepared to push them ajar. To his surprise, they opened easily, swinging on their hinges with scarcely a push. He gave his companion a shrug, then raised his staff, preparing another spell as he stepped over the threshold.

Beyond the marble doors was a short passageway, the walls, floor, and ceiling all lined with the same white marble sporting veins of grey and gold. Hanging from the ceiling like some kind of chandelier was a sculpture in shining silver, suspended from a slim chain, another depiction of concentric circles arranged around an orb. Could this be the symbol of their order, or something more?

Before taking another step, he waved his staff, a shower of glittering particles revealing what lay behind the slabs of stone. After how heavily defended the gate had been, he would take no chances. More pipes in the walls gave him pause, but they were different from the ones that had spewed flame in the murder hole, they seemed to be carrying fresh air into the chamber from outside. There were no pressure plates, nothing under the floor, no obvious enchantments.

"It seems safe," he said, continuing into the passage. Kadal followed after him, her claws clicking on the polished marble, the ceiling high enough that she only had to duck to avoid the hanging sculpture. They came upon a second set of marble doors that led deeper into the building, these ones barred by a mechanical locking mechanism. In its center was a lock with the complexity of a timepiece, about the size of a man's clenched fist, intricate clockwork visible between the gaps in its metal housing. It was attached to a pair of thick steel bars that slotted into deep grooves in the walls to either side of the doors, creating a formidable barrier.

He examined the mechanism for a moment, Kadal peering over his shoulder.

"It seems that once this lock is opened, these two bars will slide out of those grooves," he mused. "It can't be forced, this machinery looks far too delicate to be subjected to any stress. It's quite clever, really, combining the subtlety of fragile clockwork with the strength of these bars. Any attempt to destroy or dislodge them would certainly damage the lock in the process."

"How will we get inside?" Kadal asked.

"There's no lock that magic cannot pick," he replied confidently. He set down his pack and fished for his spellbook, taking a moment to flick through the index until he found the incantation that he required. This spell would gauge the wear on the lock's pins, determining which ones had seen the most use, thus allowing it to raise them. The mechanism could be as complex and as elaborate as its designer wanted to make it, but if it had been used at least once or twice, it could be breached.

After a fairly long incantation, Caden holding his leather-bound tome in one hand for reference, he gave his staff a final wave. He snapped the book shut, walking up to the doors.

"That should do it," he said, giving Kadal a triumphant smile. He waited, but nothing was happening. Perhaps there was some way to activate it manually? He set his book down on the floor, then began to prod at the lock, reaching over to see if he could move one of the bars. Nothing.

Caden stepped back, feeling a little embarrassed, turning to give his audience a shrug.

"That should have done it," he said, reaching up to scratch his head in confusion. "Did I...perform the incantation wrong?"

Before trying again, he performed another spell, more glittering dust filling the air with a wave of his staff. It revealed the intricate inner workings of the lock, along with the swirling strands of magic that wound through it, tangled in its gears.

"That explains it," he grumbled. "This lock holds a powerful enchantment, one far more potent than anything that I can conjure. This is the work of the magi, there can be no doubt."

"Does that mean we are on the right path?" Kadal asked.

"Possibly," he replied, "but any building important enough to require this level of security could likely have called upon a magi. We might be breaking into the king's treasury, or maybe a tomb. The symbols on the doors and the statue outside give me hope, however. No mathematician needs to lock away his abacus behind a mechanism like this. Maybe..."

With a wave of his staff, he commanded his magic to concentrate in one of the steel bars, beginning to heat it. The metal soon started to glow a dull red, but before it could start to warp, the enchanted lock reacted. From the mechanism emanated strands of its own, counteracting his spell, the hot steel quickly cooling again.

"It's no use," he sighed, shaking his head. "The magic of a novice isn't strong enough to overcome this enchantment. Perhaps if the Master were here...or maybe several masters..."

"You cannot have come so far only to give up now!" Kadal insisted, her raised frill flushing crimson to outline her eyespots. "You have never faltered, I have seen you break through every obstacle that fate has placed in your path, including me. There must be some way through, some other way to get inside."

Her words of encouragement reached him, and he straightened up, gripping his staff with renewed determination.

"You're right," he said, "there's always a way. Maybe I'm thinking about this all wrong. Complex problems often have simple solutions."

If the lock was impervious to magic, then maybe he could find another way to breach it. After all, magic was only one of the tools in his arsenal. His eyes widened as an idea occurred to him. The lock could seemingly detect and counter hostile spells, but what of other enchanted items? They were very rare and powerful artifacts, at least in the modern era, and their creation was not a straightforward process in the least. His hand wandered down to his hip, where the enchanted knife that the Master had entrusted him with was still sheathed.

"Take a few steps back, Kadal," he warned, leaning his staff against the nearby wall. "I don't know what might happen if this doesn't work."

She did as he asked, Caden drawing the blade from its leather scabbard with all of the caution that it warranted. If he was careless with it, he could slice his own fingers off as easily as chopping a carrot. It had severed an enchanted artifact before, Kadal's axe, so why should it not be able to do the same again? The weapon shone in the sunlight that bled in from the entrance behind them, the vein of blue ore that ran down the groove in its curved blade glittering like sapphire.

Holding it in both hands, he stepped closer to the door, poising with the blade hovering an inch above the rightmost steel bar. He aimed it a few inches from the lock, then slowly brought it down. As soon as its razor edge touched the metal, it began to part, the knife gliding through it as though it had the consistency of warm butter. There was almost no resistance, Caden stepping back as the piece of severed steel slid out of the groove in the wall to his right, clattering to the marble floor below.

"You did it!" Kadal exclaimed, Caden catching the rest of the lock as it fell. It was almost too heavy to lift, but his staff responded to his needs, strengthening his muscles. It seemed that the entire assembly was a single unit that could be removed when not in use, the bars attached directly to the locking mechanism.

After lowering it to the floor, he carefully sheathed the knife, retrieving his staff and his pack. With a nod to Kadal, Caden swung the heavy doors open, revealing a shadowy space beyond.

"You know what to do," he said, glancing back at his companion. "Follow behind me, and touch nothing."

They emerged into total darkness, the only illumination spilling in from the open doors to their backs. Caden could only see their long shadows as they extended across a stone floor, a few indiscernible objects glinting in the distance. It was a cavernous, open space, that much was obvious from the way that their footsteps echoed. It was like standing in a pitch-black mausoleum.

As he raised his staff and began to whisper the same incantation that he had used to light their way in the caves beneath the ridge, something started to happen. As though responding to their presence, a great, echoing noise began to fill the room. It sounded like the grinding of gears, the shifting of long-dormant machinery, Kadal gripping Caden by the hood as she made for the door.

"Wait, wait," he said as he fought her off. "I think it's alright..."

She stopped by the threshold, releasing his cloak, the two of them watching as a blinding shaft of sunlight bled in from the ceiling. His eyes adjusting to its brightness, Caden lifted his gaze, seeing that the cap of the pyramid was opening up. Like a music box the size of a building, its lid lifted away, the whirring gears and giant support beams powered through unseen means. It revealed a square hole perhaps thirty feet wide, the azure sky visible beyond.

"What...is this place?" Kadal whispered, her awe overpowering her fear.

The chamber was vast, far larger than Caden had anticipated. He had expected to enter a series of rooms, maybe a library or a museum. Instead, almost the entire interior of the pyramid was hollow, the slanted walls meeting high above their heads. Motes of dust that had not been disturbed in an age floated through the beam of light as it illuminated the space, revealing a sight that set the scholar in him salivating.

At the base of the four walls were wooden shelves stacked twenty feet high, overflowing with books and scrolls. It was a library of immense size, dwarfing the one contained within the Master's tower, wrapping all the way around the chamber. There were dozens of tables strewn with all manner of scientific and magical tools, sitting exactly where their owners must have left them, as though they had abandoned the pyramid in a hurry. It was a workspace that could have accommodated an entire guild of magi, Caden had never seen its like. Each table held something new and exciting, artifacts that were in the process of being examined, brass implements and measuring devices that he didn't recognize.

The library wasn't the most impressive feature, however. Occupying the space in the middle of the chamber was a sculpture of immense proportions. The sunbeam that poured in from the hole in the pyramid illuminated it, what looked like polished gold shining brightly, the light bouncing off it to cast shimmering reflections on the sloped walls. The symbol that he had seen on the doors made sense now. They were a depiction of this...mechanism. A ball of shining gold almost as wide as a man was tall stood at its center, supported by a single gilded column that held it high in the air, paradoxically thinner than something that could support that kind of weight should be.