💾 Archived View for emisocks.com › stories › echo › 1i.gmi captured on 2023-11-04 at 11:41:03. Gemini links have been rewritten to link to archived content
⬅️ Previous capture (2023-03-20)
-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Ian woke up to the distant sound of someone calling his name. He reached up and rubbed his eyes with both hands.
"Mmmmh... what is it...?"
Whoever was poking at his shoulder responded quickly.
"Ssssssh!! Not so loud! Come on, get up!"
Ian complied, yawning and stretching his arms as he sat up.
"Echo, you're being louder than me..."
"Just grab your spellbook and come with me! I think I hear someone out there."
He turned his head to look at the girl by his side. It was dark inside the tent, but the bright pink of her hair was unmistakeable. They stared at each other for a moment, with serious expressions on their faces. After a moment of silence, Ian heard the sound of rustling outside. He nodded to Echo, then they both reached for their respective weapons and slipped out of the tent.
A small lantern just outside the tent lit up the area, a clearing surrounded on all sides by trees, bushes and tall grass. Echo raised her greatsword in preparation, while Ian opened up his spellbook, and they stood back to back, waiting in silence. Again, the faint sound of rustling could be heard from one of the bushes; with mechanical precision, Echo pointed in its direction, and they both quickly turned to face it just in time to spot...
A small white creature, with long ears and a pair of folded wings, jumping out of the bush and staring at them.
Ian and Echo looked to each other, then to the creature again.
"Oh."
"Well then."
It hopped around the area, curiously inspecting the tent and the lantern. Echo crouched down, leaving her greatsword on the floor, and it hopped closer to smell her hand.
"Hey, little guy. You scared us, you know."
Ian closed his book. "I'd say YOU are the one who scared me. And all because of a wabby."
"Hey, I didn't know it was a wabby! It could have been bandits, or a bigger creature. We have to be prepared."
"Yeah, yeah, I know. Since when are you the responsible one, anyways?"
"Since Lena let us go on this trip. I don't want to have my exploration privileges revoked." She lightly rubbed the wabby's back with one fingertip. "Again."
"Right." Ian crouched down as well, getting closer. "Hey, aren't wabbies supposed to be really easily scared? I've never seen one so-"
The creature quickly turned its head towards Ian, then hopped back, spread its wings and flew away in the blink of an eye.
"... friendly."
"Aw, look what you did!" Echo stood up, crossing her arms in indignation.
Ian shrugged. "I guess it didn't like me."
"In any case." She looked up at the portion of the sky that was not covered by trees. "Looks like the sun is coming up soon."
"Yeah, maybe we should get going again? I don't think I'm going to get any more sleep."
"Sounds good!"
Echo picked up her greatsword, put it inside the sheath on her back, then grabbed the lantern from the ground. Meanwhile, Ian took a quick look at his spellbook, then traced a pattern in the air with his finger, leaving a trail of light as he drew an intricate circular shape. When he was done, the shape glowed a light blue color before evaporating into the air, and the tent very quickly compressed itself down to a tiny size, enough for Ian to pick it up and put it inside his pouch. They both walked out of the clearing together, with Echo leading the way.
---
"There it is. The temple of Ominos."
"Oneiros", Ian corrected.
"Yeah, that. Although it's not that big for a temple, is it?"
In front of them was a white building, seemingly made out of some kind of marble. Two large pillars supported the entrance, but the rest of it was surprisingly modest in details.
"I guess so. Temples dedicated to minor gods weren't usually very large though. Just enough to hold a little ceremony every once in a while."
"You and your history facts. I bet I could mention any place at all in Mystal and you'd be dying to tell me a fact about it."
"And you'd be acting all annoyed but secretly love it."
"This conversation is over."
Ian smiled to himself as they approached the temple's entrance. After crossing the door, they found themselves in a big room, littered with stone benches, some of them knocked over, and others still had some vines growing through them. Four big pillars supported what was left of the ceiling, as sunlight slipped in through the cracks. At the end of the room was a taller stone bench, right in the center of a circular shape on the floor. Echo walked right up to it.
"This must be where the people did the thingies that you said people did here."
"You're spot on. Many thingies were conducted here."
"I'm very perceptive, thank you f- oh!"
Ian raised his head from the bench he was looking at. "What is it?"
"Something moves down here. This is... probably a puzzle, isn't it?"
He quickly walked closer to take a look. Under the bench were four small buttons, each with a strange symbol on it. Ian tried pressing each of them, but nothing happened.
"Yeah, seems like it."
Echo nodded, and started looking around the room for clues. Ian stayed at the bench, studying the symbols.
"If Lena has already done these puzzles, she could have at least given us a hint", Echo said, examining one of the pillars.
"She probably wants us to get some practice so we can go adventuring with her sometime."
"Yeah, that sounds like her." She user her hand to wipe the side of the pillar. "Hey, check this out."
"You found something?"
"Yeah, I think it's one of the symbols on the buttons, right?"
Ian looked closer. "Yep, it's the one on the first button. Do the other pillars also have symbols on them?"
Echo quickly ran to check.
"They do! One on each. But... they're all at different heights. This one is close to the ground."
"Different heights..."
Echo snapped her fingers. "Oh, I got it!"
Without another word, she ran over to the large bench, with Ian following behind her. She pressed the first button once, the second three times, the third six times, and the last four times. She then stood up and proudly put her hands on her waist as a whirring, mechanical sound came from under them, and the circle they were standing on started to slowly descend into the ground.
"Hah. The number of notches from the bottom up to the symbol on each column is how many times you have to press the button."
She put up her hand, and Ian gave her a high-five. "Very nice."
The architecture around them changed as they descended into the lower floor. The faded white walls gave way to a dull orange, with some symbols on the walls, similar to the ones on the buttons.
"It's getting pretty dark here, even with the lantern."
"Let me fix that." Ian waved his finger in the air, tracing a circle with an X inside it, and a ball of light appeared in front of him, instantly lighting up the room. A corridor in front of them led to some stairs.
"You didn't even have to use your book for that one, huh?"
"Lux is a really basic spell. I bet even you could do it with some practice."
"Dunno about that. You know how many times you've tried to teach me magic. I'm just really bad at it."
They stepped off the elevator, walking towards the stairs, and started descending, with the glowing orb of light floating in front of Ian. "Doesn't mean you should just give up."
"Eh, maybe. I'd rather keep up the sword practice."
Before long, they walked into a larger room full of strange devices. Their expressions became very serious as they looked to the markings on the far wall. Echo stepped forward and ran her fingers over it.
"So... this is where Lena found me."
"That's what she told us, yes."
Echo stared at it quietly for a moment, then looked around the room.
"Anything ringing a bell?", Ian asked.
She shook her head.
"Figures."
"I guess there wasn't much point to this. Sorry to make you come all this way, Ian."
"Hey, if there was any chance of you getting your memory back, I'm happy to help."
She smiled. "Thanks. But I still feel kind of bad that we have to go back empty-handed."
Ian looked around the room. "You know... maybe we don't have to."
"You're not thinking of taking any of this weird mechanical stuff with us, right? Even if we could carry it, we might break the elevator and not be able to get out."
"No, not that. The writing."
Echo looked at the symbols dotting the walls. "You can read it?"
"No, I have no idea what language this could be. But that doesn't mean we can't ask someone else."
"Oh! You're right!"
Ian took two sheets of paper and two quills out of his pouch. "You want to help me copy it?"
Echo nodded enthusiastically, took a quill from his hand, and they both got to work.