Familiar Faces

Frustrated by not being contacted by the The Dreamkeeper, Shen Po demands more out of Mordax.

Mordax repeats much of the same information as before. Shen Po demands to see the contract. With a defeated sigh, Mordax procures the contract. Shen Po snatches it and peeks at the contents. I didn't think his face could look any grumpier, but after a quick second of looking at the scroll, Shen Po's face furrows even more. Then he looks to me.
I sigh. Shen Po holds the contract out to me and I take it. It unrolls further as he passes it to me. And keeps unrolling. I kick the bulk of the rolled scroll to unfurl the rest of it. I give Shen Po a hard stare. "You can't be serious," I say while nodding at the insane length of the contract.
"We have to know for sure why he's here," Shen Po pleads. "Please."
With a huff, I find a chair and settle down, dragging the length of the scroll behind me. I take in a breath and focus, channeling my thoughts to the foreign scrawl on the contract. The words begin to make sense, translating as I read them.
It takes hours to sift through the contents of the contract. Someone sets breakfast down next to me at some point. I idly munch on it as I continue reading. Most of the document is devil legal language, or at least I assume. I've never read any other document created by devils, but I had read legal documents before.
I finish reading and toss the end of the scroll to Mordax. He begins rolling it back up, slightly irritated.
"Well?" Shen Po asks.
"Same as what he told us," I report. "The devils noticed increased demonic activity around you, so they assigned Mordax here to protect you. And kill demons." Shen Po frowns and opens his mouth to speak. "But," I cut in before he can say anything, "there's some fun news in there." I pull a little smile on my face. "He has to do whatever you say." My smile drops for a second. "Well, except leave you alone."
Shen Po glares at Mordax, still rolling up the contract. Before anything else can be said, the rest of the group returns from gathering information about the now dried up river, and any further information about the attack. I see the look on Feng Da's face and gather my things.

---

The forest thins out and eventually gives way on our third day of traveling north along the east bank of Onann River, or rather, riverbed. The sight before us immediately puts us on edge. Slaadi corpses litter the area. Strangely, there's not a lot of blood or viscera around here. Just a lot of slaadi corpses.
Across the riverbed is an even more unnerving sight. A slaad pyramid lays in ruins, the top completely gone from it. What happened? Was it an accident? Or did something else do this? Luban grabs everyone's attention and points out a small ledge continuing into the mountain with the riverbed.
We keep a careful eye on the corpses and pyramid as we cross the riverbed to reach the ledge into the cave. The tiny ledge gets even narrower as the light fades further in. Eventually, a dim light illuminates the tunnel. A lit sconce. I peek around to look ahead. There's a light at regular intervals. We're not alone.
The air warms up and the path slopes upward until, finally, the area opens up into a small cavern. A huge, empty basin fills most of the space. Hovering over the basin is a shirtless man. The levitating stone he's meditating on is close to the back wall of the cavern, and the end of the ledge. We continue forward, getting close to the man.
Feng Da hails the man. There's no reaction. Embedded in the wall behind the man is a strange piece of stone. Myself, Luban and Mildred go to investigate it while Shen Po and Feng Da get the attention of the monk meditating in a stream of frozen water. I take a second glance. It isn't ice, but a waterfall that isn't moving. I leave that mystery to the others to solve as I turn to follow Luban.
I catch snippets of the conversation behind me while Luban pokes and prods at the abnormal stone section. I hear the man introduce himself as Apprentice Bu. I get a closer look at the segment of wall in front of me. I frown. Up close, it looks too smooth to be stone. I tentatively touch it. It's glass; glass painted to look like stone.
Luban notices my frown and reaches to touch the wall himself. His fingers approach the glass and it darkens. He halts and looks to Mildred. She shrugs and Luban presses his palm onto the glass. It disappears and he lurches forward, going through the open section.
My surprised yelp draws everyone's attention. The glass reappears before anyone can move. Mildred quickly reaches and touches the glass section. It disappears again as she moves through it. Quick looks are exchanged between the rest of the group and Apprentice Bu. The group moves closer, but Bu makes no move and instead returns to his meditation. One by one, we move past the glass section.
I enter into an empty, lit room; though I can't tell what's giving off the light. On the opposite wall are two more glass doorways, a section of wall darker than the rest. We enter through the one on the left.
This room looks like a chapel. On the back wall is a red, illuminated symbol of an "x" with a horizontal bar on the top and bottom. I realize, and shortly after everyone else as well, that the symbol must represent an hourglass. Luban goes and touches the symbol and a deep grinding sound emanates around us as the symbol fades. Feng Da "opens" the door we came in. The doorway doesn't open to the room we had just been in mere minutes ago.
Everyone exchanges puzzled looks. Feng Da backs away from the doorway and leads us through another door on the right wall of the chapel into what appears to be a kitchen. Nothing seems like it's been used in here, and the doorway on the opposite wall doesn't open for us. We go back to the chapel and through the last remaining doorway to an ascending staircase.
Luban disappears behind a doorway as I reach the landing. A second later, my feet lift off the ground. I begin floating, as does everyone else. The room around us flips, rotating so that our feet plant on what was the ceiling. Feng Da steps into the doorway after Luban, but instead of the half-orc, there's another staircase. To our right, one of the two doorways opens and Luban steps into the room with an excited smile. What? He steps to the other door in this room and "opens" it. Flames lash out and he quickly backs out again, patting himself down.

---

We follow Luban through the doorway he came from, taking a sharp right turn and emerging into another room with two doors. Both open to descending staircases, but one turns to the left and the other is straight. We opt to take the straight one.
The stairs end in a cylindrical room. The walls are washed in a mural, gleaming blackness on my left. I begin on that side of the room.
I walk slowly while examining the glass wall. The blackness fades to a scene with a red and bronze dragon locked in battle. This is... The battle over Darastrixethe? It must be. This scene fades into a group of dragons leaving Darastrixethe and flying elsewhere, armed for battle. This is a historical mural, I realize. I continue. The art swirls and blends into a black city surrounded by fire and darkness. This fades into a light blue city sitting on water. I keep moving. Then, yellow towers rising high into the sky greet my eyes. West. Home. Of course. The first city depicted is South, then North, then West. Then next should be... I shuffle quickly to examine the rest of the mural.
But I'm greeted with a blurry, white wall. I frown, everyone else already staring and disappointed. Something ripples on the white. I squint. Colors start bleeding into the whiteness. I take a sharp breath as a reflection of myself is imprinted on the wall. Only, it's not me currently. The image of myself is mid-strike, saber poised and stance nimble, and tricorne hat on. Everyone's image, including those not present, fades into visibility. Feng Da with an inquisitive look. Luban with a lot of red tassels fluttering from his hair. Shen Po looking as beat up and grouchy as the day we met; no unsettling eye. Wander looking down the wall at the rest of the mural with a look of awe. Spark next to Wander with much the same expression. Mildred's soft face manifests behind Luban and Wen, her hands resting on their shoulders in a motherly way. Between Wen's hands is a magical symbol of Lune, and his expression is of utter confusion. Mordax appears behind Shen Po, back facing us but his head turned to smirk at us. Alto stands under Shen Po with an open book. Kunsaw, with a long and short sword—held in front of him in an aggressive posture—on the left of Feng Da; his determined stare penetrating. Behind me, Fwip appears holding longbow. Magic crackles around Yawei, near the front of the group. Zyon appears with an intense look of concentration, holding a scrap of paper. The white background changes to green ground, a dark blue sky, and black scattered stones around us.
I frown. Everyone was here; except for Arslan. Why is he missing?
Then, colors begin washing in above the group. Encased in dark energy, it's Arslan, arms outstretched, with one grabbing his sword. For a moment, the mural stops its gentle swirling and I begin contemplation. What does this mean? Is this some sort of metaphor about East? And why is Arslan singled out?
Then, the swirling begins again as red seeps in around Arslan's eyes. His expression changes to evil delight as the dark energy sweeps down upon those of us below. The mural freezes and moves no longer.
I swallow hard. Arslan is in danger. Everyone around me begins to leave the room and head for the other staircase. My mind swirls more than the mural had been. Is Arslan being manipulated? Where is he? How can I get to him? What if you're too late already?

---

I'm unsure of how many rooms we enter and exit as I blankly follow everyone. We enter a new room that pulls my attention out of my thoughts. The ceiling and floor are shattered, allowing us to see Apprentice Bu below. The "frozen" waterfall goes straight through this jagged vertical shaft. Someone shouts and points out a secret door on the other side. We step through into a small cavern. In the center of the floor is a magic circle. Feng Da steps into it and before we can do anything about it, he disintegrates like grains of sand blowing in the wind, and vanishes.
Panic and disbelief ripples through the room. What just happened? Then, Feng Da suddenly appears back in the center of the circle in the same manner he disappeared. Only now he's covered in blood and visibly exhausted.
Between gasping breaths, he explains that he was teleported to the tunnel system below the hospital in Ulaanbaatar, right into the center of the bridge made of corpses. He grasped and pulled himself out to another symbol like the one here. Feng Da and Shen Po seem to have the same suspicion as they look at each other. A link to the hospital and a fire trap in that room, much like the one back in A. R. Xew's desk. Could Xew have been holed up here? Is he here now? Do I still need him? Possibly.
We leave the pillar of water and walk to another doorway. It opens to a chasm with an alarmingly narrow bridge to a ledge on the other side. Luban leads the way across, with Feng Da, Shen Po, and myself close behind while everyone else anxiously waits. The ledge is cramped with even just the four of us. We circle around a fancy pedestal with a glass cylinder. Behind on the pedestal on the wall is the same symbol that was in the chapel. My head tilts. This is much like the pedestal where we found the hourglass. I suggest to Luban that he place the hourglass on the pedestal. He does so.
Cries of alarm sound from those still across the bridge. I turn to see their weapons readied and aimed at a specter standing on the center of the bridge. Its humanoid shape is blurry, with a black and yellow checker pattern where clothes would be. Gibberish noise spills from it, yet I understand what it says. "Thank you for all you've done for me so far. I'm sure we'll meet again, even if you don't remember me just yet." The specter fades and a few more words reach my ears. "Remember time heals all things."
The sound of flowing sand pulls my attention back to the hourglass. I blink. The sand inside is flowing from bottom to top. As soon as the last grain reaches the top, the "x" shape of the symbol on the wall falls. Luban retrieves the hourglass as Feng Da approaches the two metal bars on the ground. He gingerly picks one up. As he lifts it, it changes, turning into a sword. Feng Da reaches to pick the other bar up, but it slides away from him. He frowns and Luban tries to pick it up. It slides away from his as well. I take a step forward and reach for it. It doesn't move. I pick it up.
I hold my breath as the bar quickly forms a hilt made of silvered steel. The blade shimmers into existence as a slightly curved, beautiful translucent sky-blue substance, the same as Feng Da's. I let out my breath and touch the blade. It's glass, as far as I can tell. I give it a test swing and twirl. It feels incredible. It feels right. I look to Feng Da as I feel something...more to the saber. "Are you getting the same feeling I am?" I ask. He nods. I shift my short sword around a bit to make room for the new blade.

---

Luban uses the hourglass to fix the broken glass shaft around the pillar of water. The glass shards fly back into place, encasing the pillar. As the last piece embeds itself in place, the water begins flowing again. A muffled, surprised yelp comes from Bu down below.
Luban excitingly runs back to the room that was engulfed in flames. We follow on his heels. He opens the door and quickly flips the hourglass. We watch in amazement as the smoldering room grows into roaring flames, and then the flames vanish, leaving the room in pristine condition. Luban dismantles the trap and steps into the room, heading straight for the nightstand. He picks up a red leather book and brings it to us. I hover to his side to read the cover.

"Doctor's Notes
Plague research
Do not steal"