The Donkey and Ruins

"Sally won't move!" said Stieve. "Something's spooking her." "I'm not surprised. She can probably feel the fear of all the wildlife that witnessed the cataclysm all those years ago," said Feydra, "They were all terrified as their whole world was literally crashing and none of them could have escaped." She grabbed a bud of holy. "They're still too scared to drop vigilance." She pats the donkey's flank, "She can stay here Stieve. We can carry it out here." Toltive jogs up from the cart. "The haul will be small today, but the turnover will be twice its weight in gold," he said, "Also, recovery of an immortal gem from the fallen cities is historic, which means we'll be more reputable contractors." He grabs his set of charts referencing the layout of the city's southern keep. The remains of the city buried into the earth like cannon grapeshot embedded into the flesh of a ship. Hundreds of years let the earth heal over the wounds, consuming the shrapnel of the city and repurposing them into hills. Some larger fragments of the old cities survived the plummet. Skimmerian artifacts could be recovered from the remains. "A recent scrapper found a door in the side of a hill. An investment of coin loosened his lips and a surplus was enough to keep them shut for a while. We should have exclusive knowledge of its location for about a week," said Toltive. "Is that enough time?" asked Stieve. "Hopefully. Most of the subsequent stragglers won't know what to look for anyway. Most ruin raiders are looking to grab anything that could be sold on the street as a souvenir. We're aiming for a more reputable market." They began excavating the side of the hill matching the description and location of the scrapper. He mentioned a window along the southern side of the hill that led into a mostly intact keep. the scrapper had picked up a few knickknacks from inside but had not the manpower or knowhow to travel deeper into the keep. After an hour of prodding the side of the hill, they break through a thin layer of mud that coagulated over the hole in the recent rains. Toltive lights a torch and peers into the ruins. "The scrapper has nearly picked clean the first room. The hooks are cleared of their rods and tapestries, the floors missing a rug, and I'm sure there are some candlesticks looted from the premises," he said while stepping down into the stilted hallway, "hold unto my torch Fey," he pulls his map. "So where exactly we find this gem?" asked Stieve. Pulling out a torch, "you said it was a power source? So it's attached to a machine of some kind?" "You could say the whole city was a machine. And it needed several contingencies to ensure it stayed afloat," Toltive said. "Obviously they weren't that successful," Feydra jested, "but I guess all constructs are fated to fall to time and be reclaimed into the hills." "Indeed history is full of things thought eternal abruptly ending," said Toltive "However, we would not have a job if things lasted forever and I rather like finality. It gives meaning to time." "As much as I'm enjoying your philosophical ponderings, you still haven't told me where we find the gem," said Stieve. "Right, so we should be heading towards the center of the keep. An apparatus should be suspending it over the magical engine that kept the city afloat." Toltive led his companions through the halls. The mustiness of the centuries crept into their sinuses and mogged their minds. Feydra's chestnut hair stuck to the back of her neck and curled in the dank. Sprouts of life had sprung from the stonework, choking the air with their pungent spores. They arrived in a large, square chamber with a circular pit in the center of the room. An arched stone bridge connected the outer walkway to a central pillar made of steel. The pillar was pinched together like a giant hourglass except rounded along the center. Near the center pinch of the pillar, angular, golden designs were fitted around it. The golden strips lead to levers at the base of the bridge. "It is most fortuitous that it buried right side. We might be getting our quarry before the days up," said Toltive. "It would have been laborious to rig up a pulley system to carry us up to the inverted bridge. We would've been praying for gravity to invert," jested Steive.  "So the gem's in that pillar?

Relations

Protagonists

Toltive and Stieve are childhood friends. They grew up in the same town together. Toltive is the youngest son of a family of traveling merchants. Stieve is the second youngest of five. His family are millers. Both of them were not fated to inherit the family business, so they went off to travel the world to seek their fortunes. Eventually they split and led very different lives, but they still get together occasionally.  Toltive and Freyda met during his travels. He was looking for abandoned druid sanctuaries and she happened to be going on a pilgrimage to visit the ancient sites seeking enlightenment.  Freyda and Stieve don't know much of each other. They get along finely, but they have no real history. Both travel along with Toltive because of loyalty to him. He will usually ask for help or companionship on his longer expeditions and he prefers to ask people he knows.

Plot type

Chapter