Upon hearing Pittman’s words, Amber instinctively glanced at Gawain, who said proactively, "I can leave—if you don’t want others to hear this."
"No, I don’t mind," Amber shook her head, "You have a sharp mind and always provide unexpected insights. I want you here, and you can also look at this notebook."
Gawain silently glanced at Amber, without refusing, he just nodded slightly.
The fountain wasn’t suitable for unearthing these hidden mories, so the three left the overly bustling courtyard and entered a lounge on the first floor of the Silver Castle. Amber solemnly placed the notebook on the table, carefully opening its worn and fragile cover in front of Gawain and Pittman.
There were no patterns or crests on the pages, none of the usual decorations found in most handwritten books of this era’s nobility—just a plain, simple line on the yellowed paper:
"To my daughter—hoping when you see this, you have grown up happy and safe."
"Still so much nonsense..." Amber pursed her lips, but her actions beca even more cautious as she slowly turned to the first page.
This is a diary, written under special circumstances:
"...The third day after entering the Shadow Fortress.
As a royal shadow guard, I shouldn’t leave any written records during a confidential mission, as it’s against the confidentiality rules, but the current situation is special. I might not exit here safely, so to leave warnings and experiences for successors, I’ve decided to docunt part of my journey.
My na is Sali Randolph, a royal shadow guard. I was ordered to the Dark Mountain Range in the southern borders to find ancient legacies on this forsaken land by both man and god.
Unfortunately, I’m trapped in this place called the ’Shadow Fortress’. I believe this is the hiding place of ancient legacies...
...According to the information I had, the Shadow Fortress is not located in the real world we know. It’s a territory created by the ancient Gondor Empire using advanced lost technology, floating outside the real world, without a stable connection to the shadow realm. It’s a free-floating space that can only be entered through specific doors and rituals...
So of my information was correct—the Dark Mountain Range indeed has a spatial node leading to the Shadow Fortress. I perford the initiation ritual at this node and entered successfully, but the error was in the Shadow Seal Ring used to open the door—it’s a one-ti use only, or I can’t find a way to recharge it.
The King gave one of the two rings he had. Obviously, he didn’t expect it to be a single-use item when opening the Shadow Fortress.
Having just read these few passages, Amber couldn’t help but lift her head, exchanging glances with Gawain, who also looked up.
"The Ring of Shadow Seal..." Amber instinctively grasped the thin chain around her neck, from which hung two old-fashioned rings—one still glimring with magical brilliance, the other dim and lifeless.
The ring retaining magical brilliance was obtained from Francis II, while the dim one had been with Amber since childhood. Now, the origins of these two rings were finally explained.
She lowered her head and continued reading the subsequent contents of the diary:
...Even though I’m trapped here, I must admire the ancient Gondor Empire’s advanced technology. The Shadow Fortress is an incredible place—the entry process is also astounding. Standing at the right confluence of magic in the Dark Mountain Range, all I had to do was inject magic into the ring to open a door to the shadow realm in normal spaceti. I suspect the ring simply sent a signal during this process, and the actual door-opening was done by a facility within the Shadow Fortress, yet I haven’t found any clues...
This magnificent structure is cast from so artificial material, stronger than rock, floating in a void with no land connections. There are no luminous celestial bodies in the sky, consistent with descriptions in writings about the shadow realm...
My current location should be at the forecourt of this ancient facility. I can see a large door, outside of which is pure void darkness, making one doubt the door’s purpose—yet I’ve found so curious pillars on the limited platform in front of the door. I suspect they were used to anchor so form of transportation or mounts capable of traversing the shadow realm. The ancients of Gondor might have had the capability to explore that void darkness, for they were, after all, the omnipotent Gondorians...
The other end of the courtyard is the main structure itself, a vast palace or fortress. I’ve explored a small portion of its entrance, and its size overwhelms . There are countless corridors and rooms, as well as empty halls and storerooms... I can’t fathom how many used to work and live within this facility located in the Otherworld... Its size is so enormous that I suspect many could live here for a lifeti—and if a newborn were to be born here, without anyone instilling the right knowledge, he might not even know of the outside world’s existence...
Ah, my rich imagination is only useful for amusent and doesn’t help escape this damned place.
Amber flipped the pages, and for a mont, only the sound of rustling paper and the three’s even breathing filled the quiet lounge.
...The fourth day being trapped.
Over the previous three days, I pondered whether to delve deeper into the fortress’s depths, which could an additional risks: ancient facility defenses might still be operational, and dormant relic guardians could be awakened by my intrusion.
It’s said that the Violet Kingdom’s magic puppet guards can operate for six hundred years after their master’s death, and those legendary Gondor Iron Soldiers might last even longer...
But maybe I should take so risks—I’ve searched the courtyard and outer corridors for three days, and there’s no device to open a spatial door, while my food and water are in a dangerously precarious situation. Between dying of thirst or hunger and having my head chopped off by ancient guardians, the latter might be more rciful.
I’m going to enter the inner corridors.
The sixth day, still trapped.
Damn this fortress—why is it so massive!! How many corridors are there, how many rooms, how many halls! Did the Gondorians throw a city’s worth of people into the shadow realm?
How advanced Gondor Empire’s technology is—they could construct such a fortress in the shadow realm, enable thousands to live in this Otherworld long-term, yet I, a royal shadow guard from centuries later, can only wander about this ancient facility without any clues, which is truly a mocking situation.
By the way, my water is finished, and my food is also depleted.
The seventh day, I discovered an empty room, which might have been so sort of research facility previously. I saw platforms with magic symbols and inconspicuous pipes and containers, sadly all devoid of water.
I must begin considering my remaining affairs.
The eighth day, today’s keyword is moss.
Yes, moss! In this isolated fortress for centuries, moss exists! In such a place like the shadow realm, moss actually exists!
They grow in what seems like a laboratory room, with large, tube-shaped containers fixed to the ground, all empty, yet one container’s outer wall, the nearby wall, and floor were filled with these cute little plants. As with other things in the shadow realm, these mosses appear in shades of gray and black, almost mistaken for ordinary stains at first—thank heaven, I lingered in this room for a bit...
The presence of moss indicates moisture, and moisture ans water.
The moss tastes sowhat bitter, with a strange, almost gelatinous texture, possibly detrintal to my health, but at this point, I can afford little concern. Without them, I might never again worry about my health in just a few days.
"The moss restored so of my strength, and the moisture within them was enough to boost my spirit, but this little moisture is clearly not enough to sustain long-term survival. I collected all the moss from a nearby pipe, squeezing the juice into my canteen. With this small supply, I intend to start exploring the surrounding rooms centered around this chamber.
"On the ninth day, I didn’t find water, but I... saw a human figure!
"I can’t put into words the shock I felt at that mont. I saw a human figure, but it flashed by a corner of the room... I’m not sure if it was real.
"Could it be that the moss contains hallucinogenic components? But I must rely on them to survive...
"On the tenth day, I found water! In a place that looked like a dining area for several people, one of the pipes actually still had water flowing from it! And it was clean water! I think I can survive here for a long ti now!
"The appearance of this clean water—does it an that so purification devices are still operational here? Are more devices still running?"
Amber focused intently on every line of text recorded above, unconsciously biting her lip, as if she were witnessing her foster father painstakingly exploring in such an isolated ancient fortress to maintain survival. When she saw Sali Randolph finally finding a water source, she couldn’t help but softly exhale: "He might have found a cafeteria still in use..."
Gawain nodded slightly beside her, speaking in a low voice: "I’m more curious about what the shadow he saw was."
"He ntioned it here—" Amber turned to another page, glanced over it, then pointed at the content above:
"...I saw the shadow again, and more than one this ti. I can confirm it wasn’t a hallucination, but what followed left even more shocked and confused.
"Those shadows are ’Shadow Inhabitants’.
"They are just like what’s described in the treatises; they appear ghost-like with no form, wrapped into human shapes by so tattered ’shroud’, traversing freely in the shadow realm, and clearly noticed , the uninvited guest that intruded.
"I prepared for battle, but it didn’t happen—all academic records state that shadow inhabitants would attack all material beings that enter the shadow realm, yet those shadow inhabitants rely observed coldly. I can affirm they were observing, even though behind those ’shrouds’ was only hollow darkness...
"After an unbearably tense standoff, the shadow inhabitants left, with no communication between us.
"I have no idea what happened."
Amber furrowed her brow, and she too found the shadow inhabitants her foster father encountered sowhat peculiar but couldn’t explain them; she had to press those doubts in her heart and continue reading on—
On the new page, Sali Randolph’s writings continued to record his experiences in the Shadow Fortress:
"...On the fourteenth day, I discovered a room where so devices... are still running.
"I struggle to precisely describe what I witnessed; those things are indeed beyond my realm of knowledge—around a massive pillar, I saw nurous pale yellow, semi-transparent egg-shaped containers fixed on stands. The size of these egg-shaped containers is roughly equivalent to a fully-grown cow...
"Many pipes extended from that large pillar, connecting to the surrounding egg-shaped containers.
"Nearly all containers are damaged, cracked, tilted, fallen to the ground, with their contents dried up, and inside those broken containers, I saw many small skeletons.
"This sent chills down my spine—as a royal shadow guard, I’ve seen many tragic scenes, seen many death scenes, but the small skeletons within those containers were stranger and more terrifying than anything I’ve ever witnessed, making question what the Gondor people were doing here back then.
"With shock and tension, I examined this room and then discovered her.
"The only complete container, the only living individual.
"She curled up in so liquid, floating inside a semi-transparent crystal container, all of which looked like a piece of amber.
"I can’t describe my feelings at this mont, and what made even more at a loss was that these crystal containers match entirely with the target items described in the mission, which ans... the ’thing’ inside the container is the ’ancient heritage’ I am to bring back.
"My mission can be completed, but only if I manage to find a way out, and also carry this unwieldy container out—if I rashly open it, will the little girl inside die imdiately? This is a tricky situation."
Amber’s eyes were fixed on the paper in front of her; even after reading the content on this page, she didn’t turn to the next page until a minute later when Gawain gently tapped her shoulder.
Amber snapped out of her trance, took a deep breath, and flipped the page—
"...On the fifteenth day, I have yet to figure out what to do, but suddenly I realized that it makes no sense for to ponder: I’m still trapped here.
"A person who can’t even manage to live out can’t be thinking about fulfilling a task; it’s overly wishful thinking.
"I’ll put aside the currently unresolvable issues for now and refocus on finding a way out.
"Considering that probably for a long ti to co, the only company I will have is this little one inside the amber, I’ve given her a na, Amber.
"But I guess she must have had another na—every base of the egg-shaped containers here is inscribed with a line of letters; each container’s letters vary slightly. Perhaps they are the real nas (though I also suspect if the Gondor scholars working here at the ti truly nad a batch of experintal products). But those are writings from Gondor a thousand years ago, which are quite different from today’s standard alphabet, and my ancient linguistic skills happen to be a weak point.
"I can only replicate those letters; maybe one day if I actually get out alive, perhaps the scholars in the royal capital could decrypt my doubts, could let understand this little one’s real na, or at least let know how the Gondor people called her back then."
At the bottom of this page, Sali Randolph left a large blank space, where he wrote a line of letters in bold, a sequence nearly no one in this era can comprehend.
Amber stared at those letters, lifting her head monts later to look into Gawain’s eyes: "What do these letters an? What was I originally called?"
Gawain withdrew his gaze from the letters, silently looking at Amber for four or five seconds before softly sighing and slowly speaking:
"Artificial Human No. 36."
(Double bonus period woohoo . seeking monthly votes!!!)
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