“Why did they write in coooooooooode?!” Momo groaned, for the tenth ti that hour, for the hundredth ti that day and the thousandth ti since they had begun the project. “I am translating pre-Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs into English and then I have to do that while rembering that I am dealing with a code, that only makes sense within Ancient-Ancient Egyptian…”
“You an you are trying to translate,” tra needled their archaeologist.
“No! No! No! Don’t you dare! I am doing it! I am solving this stupid riddle… WHY IS THAT CROCODILE NOT A ‘SH’ SYLLABLE?! IT SHOULD BE A ‘SH’ SYLLABLE!?”
“Is she… usually like this?” their guide whispered.
Lorelei allowed herself a light laugh, trying to hide it behind a raised hand. The gesture felt clunky. Everything felt a bit clunky. The desert climate did not agree with Lorelei. It wasn’t too hot, if anything, it was a bit chilly in western Iraq this ti of year, but sothing about the condition of the air simply did not sh with her. Perhaps it was the particular taste of the dust, irritating her throat?
“She is usually more composed,” the seer responded.
Momo let out another annoyed screech. The annoyance in her soul rippled outwards, but there was a mild disconnect between what the chancellor of Fusion truly felt and what she was putting out. She liked to overact her emotions for the entertainnt of the onlookers at tis.
Initially, Lorelei, tra and Ehtra had simply watched Momo study so of those ancient tos she managed to acquire whenever they weren’t looking. Lorelei truly found it astounding how much work the fairy got done. Certainly, having her multiple dozens of bodies allowed her to do more than most considered feasible, but there was a difference between having ability to and actually acting.
To Momo, the act of expanding her knowledge appeared to be her form of resting. She was proverbially devouring every morsel of it that she could get her hands on. She did it while fulfilling her duties as chancellor with the grace only the great of history could claim.
“AHA!” Momo exclaid. “So that’s a ‘Ji’ in this context, not a ‘Sh’… which ans…” She muttered so phrase under her breath that Lorelei could not understand. “Wait a second… that’s not Egyptian at all that’s…” The annoyance drained from her tone. Rather than explain, she sunk back into her work for so ti.
After Momo had deciphered what she could from the pyramidion, she had a confident guess about the location of the hidden archive. Flying there imdiately, however, would have gone against their stated goal. They wanted Remus to be lured in at a ti of their choosing. Instead, they were investigating other locations hinted at by secondary revelations.
When the Firefly moved, the eyes of the world’s knowledge seekers were drawn in. Lorelei could see this vision clearly. The guide with them would spread the word. From the mountains of Galicia to the jungles of Vietnam, students of history were in anticipation of her next discovery. Those with the ans were going to make their attempt to find what she sought before she did.
Lorelei smiled to herself, a light, graceful thing, born from years of training in the Lady’s proper manners. That study felt a bit ironic at tis, considering the goddess’ preferred, quite… opinionated avatar. Alas, the seer did not trust herself to walk the line between endearing and annoying. She was comfortable in the boundaries set by the expectations on A rather than THE Lady.
Anything she found restricting, she was free to shrug off around her beloveds.
“You know,” tra began to chat, “this place doesn’t ring any bells for . Were you ever here, Ehtra?”
“No.” The First of Hatred raised an eyebrow, first at her sibling, then the massive structure before them. “I did not know we had built a ziggurat in this area.”
“That’s because you haven’t,” Momo told them. Her hands, covered in black gloves, glided gingerly over faded indentations on the tall wall in front of her. “This wasn’t built by Akkad.”
“Babylon then?” Ehtra asked. The empire she had served had gone through several nas as its dynasties and ruling caste changed. Lorelei wondered if Fusion would change similarly. Even Romulus’ empire had transford several tis, authority shifting according to the permissiveness of the Apex. “It doesn’t look like it's from the Babylonian ti.”
“Right, Sargon loved his tower braziers,” tra remarked, gesturing at a massive tal dish that had co to rest among the rubble of a collapsed corner tower. Though the isolation of the Illusion Barrier had preserved much, the Lorylim and simple ti had eroded parts of the structure all the sa. “Feels like an early Akkadian structure to .”
“Because it is… Hey, did Sargon ever have… elentals at his court?” Momo asked.
“He was in the habit of summoning them for certain spiritual events, why?” tra asked.
“Because these are Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs carved on an a Akkadian structure, spelling out Old Elental,” Momo reported. The fairy took a step back, taking several photographs of the wall with the Harem Comms. Scarlett or John would transfer them to a hard drive. “Do you know who else we encountered recently who spoke Old Elental?”
“The Tzitzimih,” tra remarked, then glanced at the guide. “Sure we want to discuss that in front of him?”
“Fair point.” Momo turned around on her heels. “Wait here. The girls and I will inspect the inside of the structure now. If you follow us or eavesdrop, there will be consequences!”
The wag of her finger was downright playful. The distortion of reality behind her was not. The archfae’s intent manifested in fractal, tree-like shapes, ford from eldritch light. Jagged edges surrounded her like the maw of a creature that she was rely the tongue for.
“Of course, of course!” the guide from the Great Sultanate was swift to agree. In his soul, the mixed colours of ugly, yellow greed and silver loyalty were overpowered by an ocean of orange fear. Neither for money nor honour would he follow them.
Momo smiled then led the way into the main gate of the ziggurat. Lorelei, Ehtra and tra were swiftly behind her.
Inside the ziggurat, marks of the Lorylim corruption were readily apparent. Entrails mutated into mycelial carpets had withered into dusty, lifeless roots. There was no trace of Tiamat’s touch left, not even a spark of magic through which the sealed goddess of chaos could re-assert herself. These roots were dead, so were the mounds of flesh that they found, and so were the fruiting fungal bodies that grew from several surfaces. They were as much Lorylim as ash was still a tree.
Lorelei suddenly stopped. Her aggressive footfall caused the other three to turn her direction. A series of flashing images within her mind’s eye overpowered her own thoughts for several seconds. After all this ti, the seer no longer feared this temporary loss of control. She embraced it and the Lady’s ssages.
It was clear this ti. A series of snapshots of the corridor ahead, leading her to a great library, frad by twin priestesses, one black, one gold. The outstretched arms of the two won overlapped at the wrist, two hands turned into one. Together, they clasped sothing. “I have been granted clarity,” she whispered, swaying slightly as the visions receded. “May I guide our way?”
“By all ans,” Momo agreed.
Four won of Saintly love cast light on walls that had not known it for centuries, perhaps even millennia. Their steps echoed upon the ancient stone. Remnants of the Lorylim were trampled into dust without a care.
“Think there’s another one of the miniature IBMAs sowhere in here?” Momo asked excitedly.
“No clue,” Ehtra responded with a simple shrug. The question of how this Illusion Barrier remained up weeks after the Lorylim inside it had perished was not one of import to the two tracanas. “We can look for it later.”
“Oh, I will!” Momo promised. “And then- Wow.”
They stepped through an ancient gate, into a large chamber, The floor was a patchwork of differently coloured stones. Walls and ceiling were light brown, utilizing the usual stone of the area. The far wall, however, was different.
A massive slab of stone, eight by five tres, had been set into a split fra of black and gold. Gold hieroglyphs were set into the black and black symbols into the gold. Carved into the rock, painted with long faded colours, was an astoundingly accurate map of the Middle East, from the western reaches of the Iranian mountains to the edge of the Nile Delta. Rivers had shifted and the topography slightly changed, but it was still incredibly clear in its outline.
All but one detail was carved in. A singular pyramid instead rose up, so small that lesser eyes would have missed it. To Lorelei, the spot shone with significance while Momo’s Fireflies were still busy scattering around the room, gently providing multi-coloured light.
“The location of the forbidden archive,” Lorelei declared. “There is no need to guess past this.”
“You… sure?” Momo asked, her voice reflecting the reluctance of the unenlightened.
“The Lady grants clarity,” Lorelei repeated, allowing herself the rare treat of faithful certainty. “If I may ask, what scatters the seeds of doubt in your soul?”
“It’s just… the Library of Alexandria was founded around 300 BC and if this temple is from the early Akkadian era, it would predate the structure by about… 2000 years,” Momo told her. “Though… I suppose that then ans that the forbidden archive itself must have been older than the library…”
“If this is a map, we should smash it.” tra already summoned Rex Magnar to her side. The weapon sent out a series of tallic cords, lusting for blood. When it realized it was going to scatter dust, it changed its tune to sothing less enthusiastic, though still gleeful. “No reason to risk anyone else finding the library before us.”
“No, no, no, no, wait, wait, wait, wait!” Momo imdiately got in front of tra, backing away as the First of Wrath advanced. They both stopped when the archfae had her back pressed against the map. Obviously, the blonde was just ssing with her fellow harette. She would not have acted quite this swiftly. “Now, you do make a good point-“
“My sister creature makes an excellent point,” Ehtra weighed in. “We need only the pictures of the map. Leaving this here for the guide to tell others about is a hazard.”
“We’re supposed to lure Remus, not to actually give him access to the archive… not until after we are done grabbing what we want,” tra stated.
“All excellent points… but its ancient history!”
The two living pieces of history were not swayed. “It’s a rock.”
“It’s a gorgeous rock! Just sll it!”
“…You have problems, Momo.”
“YOU WANT TO SMASH MY ROCK!”
“When did it beco yours?”
“I saw it first!”
“No, Lorelei did.”
“She’s dically blind, she doesn’t count!”
Usually, Lorelei would have chuckled at their exchange. Instead, she slowly strutted forwards. She wandered past copies of Momo, the hivemind busy at work transcribing everything about the room. ‘Clutched between their hands…’ Lorelei thought, eyes locked on the point where the gold and black halves of the fra t.
Crouching down, she suddenly leapt with superhuman strength. Power granted to her by the mark of the Saint upon her allowed her to act upon the Lady’s vision. Another piece of proof to add to the list, concerning John’s status as a chosen of the divine.
The bickering banter below stopped just as Lorelei hit the wall. Her hands glided over the smooth gold and black, finding a miniscule edge to hold onto beneath them. This close, the previously masked presence of sothing shone through the materials. Filled with faith, she slamd her fist into the eting point of black and gold.
“NOOOOOOOOOO- Ooooooooooooh!” Momo’s dreaded scream turned into excitent. Rather than shatter, the application of force caused two seamlessly integrated plates to swivel on hidden hinges. Lorelei’s hand opened up, seizing sothing within the hidden compartnt. With it, she dropped down to the rest of them.
It was an elongated spiral, sowhat like the tusk of a narwhal, ford by grey and silvery-white tals. It was about the length of Lorelei’s forearm, a third as thick, and ca to a sharp point on one side and a rounded end on the other.
“Astrotium and Mithril?” Ehtra remarked.
“And a sizable chunk of it too… John will be happy to hear we found sothing this valuable.”
“It yearns for purpose,” Lorelei stated. The piece of tal in her hand was not enchanted beyond the properties that created these tals. It needed that to change. Threads of fate squird around it like coiling worms, forming an ever-shifting cocoon of white, gold and black. Her mind’s eye took hold of one thread, tugging at it.
“Uhhhh, Lorelei… you have a halo right now.”
“Proof of the Lady’s approval,” the seer muttered. Such visible showcases were unimportant. The Lady’s benevolence would be enacted, seen or not. As she untangled the golden potential, a vision flowed into her mind. “The sphere of silver that rose from a dragon’s mind has a black dot in its centre,” she described what she saw. “On a steed of rust and scars, he rides to lend his hand to the undead shaper of stars. Together, they assist the Saint’s won. Many hands deliver one weapon to the proven candidate.”
“Sphere of silver rising from a dragon’s mind… obviously Enki,” tra spoke with barely veiled disdain. “If we have to, I guess we can deal with him again. The rider is obviously War.”
“Can we contact him?” Ehtra asked. “The Grim Reaper prefers to be difficult.”
“Sounds like he’ll co to us… to make a weapon? For… the ‘proven candidate’… could be Lu Zhi or Layla?”
“For all we know it could be the dancing creature,” Ehtra stated.
“Esralda is not proving squat at the mont. She’s mostly hanging around Lucifrena.”
“The Dancer has wisely recognized that she would annoy if she were to push too much at this ti.” Lorelei finally gave the ‘horn’ to Momo, whose greedily wiggling fingers had been steadily encroaching.
“Oh, you deliciously mysterious chunk of tal! What secrets do you hold? Ehehehehe…” She inspected the material in the prismatic light of her Fireflies. “Can I at least scan it before you put it under Hailey’s hamr?”
“That’s a question you have more ti for later, first-“ tra’s words were interrupted by the Harem Comms opening up next to Momo’s head.
The white-haired woman was in an archaeologist’s high. “Ehyee nu’un kadishtu uh'eor cahf f' ah nafl kadishtu. F'la j’ney ot gn'th'bthnkor r'luhhnythog l' don n'ghft'drn ep frn ephainafl ah'mglw'nafh mgep shgoth l' frn ahorna ah'mglw'nafh,” Momo read out. “I definitely butchered the pronunciation of all of that.”
“And what is ‘all of that’?” Ehtra asked.
Momo pointed up to the fra and the symbols that marked the gold and black in black and gold. “The inscription. I transcribed it for Undine while you tried to smash my beautiful rock. She just got back to with the possible translations.” She muttered as she scanned over the different versions the water spirit had sent her. “Thank Master we have soone capable of speaking Old Elental around here…”
“Did you just use ‘Master’ as a stand-in for ‘God’?” tra teased.
“N-no… maybe… shut up!” The archfae blushed, then took a deep breath. “So, ready for a cryptic prophecy?” A gesture by the First of Wrath bid the chancellor to continue. “’The Twin… nuns, priestesses, faithful, idiots...? Harbour the knowledge of… absence? No knowledge? Each other… together…? They lead the one… the red… the bloody…? Witch… spineless woman… or thing? To the… revelation? Epiphany? Hidden face? When that which… will not… refuses to… rises from… death or die…? Surrenders to that which… cannot die… find peace… be at ease…?”
“That is cryptic,” tra agreed. “Really fucking cryptic. Not sure if that’s owed to the text though.”
“Cut so slack, reading hieroglyphs is an art to start with and then I have to translate Ancient Egyptian into Old Elental and according to Undine, this is so weird-ass dialect I am throwing at her. It’s a wonder we’re getting any words out of it at all.” Momo scratched the back of her head. “This is Undine’s favoured interpretation: Twin Priestess know that they do not know. Together they guide the Spineless Witch to the death of her ego, when that which refuses to die ets that which will not die.”
“Twins…” Lorelei muttered. “I saw twins in my vision. A golden and a black one. They stood guard over this map.”
“Then we’re on the right track!” Momo squeaked. “Master, I love mystery so much!”
“You did it again.”
“Nuh-uh!”
“I’ll tell him all about it – right after I smash this map.”
“NO, PLEASE! I CAN FIX THIS!” Momo hurriedly stuffed the Astrotium spike into her inventory, then slapped the wall. With a comical ‘Poof’ sound, the entire stone block suddenly shrunk to the size of a tablet. Left behind was an empty wall of brown stone, indistinct from the others. “There! Now I can take it along!” Momo imdiately placed the tablet in her storage space as well. “No smashing required!”
Lorelei wasn’t sure what she had just seen. The otherworldly spike in magical activity had been so short that the dense weave had obfuscated everything from her. Ehtra managed to put their collective confusion into two words.
“Fairy bullshit.”
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