Devil's Descent [Zach/Elesia]

[Elesia]

Elesia's theme of the day

Elesia took a deep breath, trying to stabilize her breathing into perfect harmony with the world around her. It didn't work very well, but it did serve to help keep her attention from wandering as she tried to keep her attunement to the bobbing motes of fire floating before and around her. She didn't know much about spirits academically, which was to say at all, but somewhere during the last year or so she had realized a need to actually get some modicum of control over her magic, and in the last few months something had finally clicked, letting her understand... something about the nature of her magic.

It was more through her senses than her mind, as ever, but nonetheless she had in her own daft way managed to at least figure out how to create them, or summon them, or - she wasn't actually sure if they existed without her or if she was actually going crazy or if she could just finally see them or what, but they were familiar in a weird sort of way. Like voices in your head, except they didn't talk, and as far as she could tell they weren't actually particularly smart, if at all. But the connection to them was familiar, something she could finally recognize even if she didn't understand them, and it DID look pretty cool to be able to make them pop up.

Plus - it was surprisingly relaxing. Elesia wasn't sure if they were some sort of fancy representation of her power, or if she was theirs, but it felt calming, almost stabilizing, to have them around. Something else she didn't really understand, but it didn't matter that much in the end. It felt like she was... slowly understanding magic more, not quite as explosively as she had started out, not as quickly either for that matter, but it made her feel more like a real mage than a girl with magic hands, and honestly, she liked it. Heroes were supposed to be dashing and skillful and powerful, and while she had power down and was clearly incredibly skilled, even she could see that she could use a little more finesse. So yeah, it did make her happy.

Which was good, because she was going to need a lot more calming if Zach's dumb butt didn't show up NOW. She had gone to all the trouble of writing him a fantastic letter with her best cursive, made sure he knew exactly where to come and when, and even drawn him a lovingly crafted map to make sure he wouldn't get lost in the mountains surrounding them! Making a lady wait was unacceptable behavior when adventure was involved. Also, treasure. Lots of treasure! That nice man back at the inn, who smelled like some weird drink, had told her all about how much treasure there must be in there, but in his wisdom and kindness he had allowed her to have a head start on him before he marched out there and took it for himself. So if Zach didn't show up soon, she wasn't giving him ANY treasure. Not even sharing the phenomenal cosmic powers that were doubtless locked away deep within the confines of the ruins!

[Zacharia]

Overhead, if a denizen of the mountain town looked carefully, they'd see a weird bird-shaped thing growing bigger and bigger.

"Around here, sir?" The Rebel soldier called over the wind. "Y-Yes, thank you very much." The rebel eased on the reins, and the wyvern corresponded with slower flaps of its wings. "When we land, it could be a while before I come back. Feel free to check in at the tavern and wait for me to come back." Zacharia adjusted the braid in his hair as he mulled the command over, strands of blue warring with the breeze that flew by. "And um, by that I mean, DO that. It'll probably take some doing to convince her to stay away."

"Yessir, can do."

There was an audible silence for a minute or two as the wyvern knight piloted. "Pardon me for askin', but who is 'her'?" The young soldier asked innocently enough, but there was a tinge of humor in his voice. "A friend 'a yours?"

"Ahaha, yes, we're good friends."

---

The beat of the lone wyvern's wings came to a halt, it and its passengers safely gliding downward. Though they had arrived in record time, no words could describe the hot embarrassment Zach's face was bathed in. In his hands he clutched a letter and a map, though they could've been the scrawlings of a madman, but then again, knowing their sender, they probably were. Just to make sure that this was actually a thing he was doing and not just a fever dream from sleeping too little at night, the mage glanced at the papers again. And then again, one more time.

"deer zak lm at rOln com fl d trezur wlth me!

Luv eLlsea!"

~♥~❤~♥~

Underneath Elesia's message was a picture of what Zach could only assume was a crude drawing of him and Elesia-- as well as some other unfortunate kid that looked like him with purple hair --holding hands and smiling. At their L-shaped feet was a crude approximation of how a chest looked, overflowing with gems and coins.

On the other page was a picture of a castle(Macendew?) with a dotted line that traveled in a swirling pattern to a mountain where a red X marked the spot on top. The paper had a mixture of what could've been spiders and more valentine hearts bordering the edges. And to put the icing on the cake, the letter had arrived covered in soot, torn and crinkled, and dipped in an fluid that definitely wasn't water.

At first, Zach had been stumped on what or where the spritely woman had gotten herself into. But after receiving reports of a landslide uncovering ancient rooms with unknown contents, the rest fell into place and the mage was out on the first wyvern available. Not to go and explore with Elesia, no, but to keep her from doing anything stupid dangerous. He'd seen Elesia in action before. In her eyes, nothing was off-limits. But what if the ruins had some terrible monster inside that ate tiny green haired people for breakfast? Or an ancient cosmic power with attacks incomprehensible by mortals? Zach had only known Elesia for a few months-- he didn't want to lose his friend and fellow mage so soon.

Besides, she was kinda fun.

---

"Elesiaaaaaaaa!" Zach called out, scaling the mountainside forest at a brisk pace. With every step he could see the gaping hole marking the spot of the ruins. But still no response. Zach sighed. "Oh, Gaea... did she leave without me already? Elesiaaa! Where are yoooou?! I got your letter a few days ago! I don't know how you sent it, but I got it!! Can you hear me?!" The mage kept walking, coughing his poor lungs and throat out all the way.

[Elesia]

Normally, Elesia was pretty happy with the Great Outdoors. They were green, and had furry creatures, and bears lived there. So it was basically three for three on everything she wanted. Oh yeah and food, so 4 for 4. Bern on the other hand seemed to be locked in an eternal battle with its greatest rival: brown. The rocks were brown (or greyish-brown), everyone was depressed, and there were giant spiders. She didn't really see why anyone would want to live here, much less fight about it, but maybe they really REALLY liked being depressed. Whatever the case, Zach lived here so she had to visit occasionally, and obviously that meant adventure time! C'mon and grab your friends, it's time to DIVE HEADFIRST INTO PERIL.

Or at least they would if Zach would SHOW UP. Slightly disappointed at his tardiness - and maybe a touch that she hadn't gotten to show off - she quit messing around and viciously kicked a daisy, arms crossed in the hatred and rage of a thousand worlds. She might not be much of a lady, but he was no gentleman! In fact, Elesia might have done something really dangerous, like finding a different flower to kick to double her deforestation efforts of the day, or maybe set fire to a Bernese forest and not told anyone until half of it had burned down, if she hadn't heard someone's voice nearby, at which point her brain basically flushed all previous thoughts and she moved on to being excited (people!), disappointed (no explosions yet), and excited again (Zach's voice!) in rapid succession.

The bear mage hesitated for a moment before flying off to meet him though, partially because she couldn't fly, partially because she was worried that if she left her post for even a second, some miscreant or hooligan would enter the ruins and ruin the adventure for everyone. Heh. Ruins and ruin. She hadn't even planned that one. Just more proof she was the funniest! Thoroughly pleased with herself, Elesia drew in a mighty breath in her vast and voluminous lungs - she didn't know what that word meant but a book said it meant big - and steeled her nerves for blood and thunder.

"ZAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAACH!"

The sonic shockwave of aural apocalypse ripped the whole mountain apart, or at least scared a few birds, basically the same thing. Phew! All that screaming practice was really paying off. Assuming Zach hadn't internally combusted from sheer awesomeness, he would totally know where she was now, which was clearly at the ruin-CRAP she should have ambushed him instead. "Mrgrgr," Elesia articulately grumbled to herself at the realization of wasted opportunity, but switched back to endless glee when she remembered that adventure time was, clearly, about to start. "OVER HERE! There's no spiders OR fire this time!"

"...Yet," the whisper came, so quiet that it hardly even reached her own ears. A foolproof plan; he would never see it coming when there actually WAS fire! There definitely weren't any spiders though, at least not big ones, she had very carefully glanced through the door but not gone inside since that would be spoiling the surprise and she had great plans for adventure and excitement. She had the whoooole thing planned out, with little regard for whatever was actually in there, and if the stupid dumb ruins had a problem with that they could just fix themselves and go along.

Waving madly at the direction Zach had definitely probably been yelling from, Elesia continued to eagerly await his arrival, chained to her post by the bonds of responsibility - or stubbornness, she got the two confused sometimes.

[Zacharia]

Almost immediately a response to his call came from just up ahead. In that same ever-cheery pitch she was famous for, Elesia's cry shook the mountain to its very core. Or at least scared away a few birds. Whichever one it was, the sudden noise froze him like a deer in headlights. He had been climbing down an overturned tree, but he was relieved of his duty by gravity. Moments later, Zach was dusting the pine needles and dirt from his face as he picked himself off the ground. The only thing wounded was his pride, but the world could burn for all he cared, now that he knew his friend was okay. "I'll be up in a second!!!" He yelled.

Boy, this mountain side was long. And steep. After just minutes it felt like Zach's chest had been drenched in sweat and it seemed like he was no closer to his destination; a testament to the rugged terrain stirred up by the landslide. Uprooted evergreens as large as Elesia's ego had been scattered everywhere, and the boy had to climb over every one in his path unless he risked moving slower. How had the girl gotten up here so fast? And another question: Couldn't he have just flown to the top of the hill with his wyvern ferry? Probably. Had he forgotten to consider it? Possibly. Was he kicking himself for it? Absolutely. The boy scrambled faster.

Little did either of the kids know that when Zacharia said he'd only be "a second", it was actually somewhere closer to fifteen minutes by the time he dragged himself to the other mage. "I'm impressed..." he heaved, falling to one knee. "You actually...hah..waited for me. I kind of...thought you'd be long gone by now. It's...hoo..good to see you again." There was no simple definition for the emotion swirling in his chest. He was mostly still mad at her, but he was happy to see his friend again, yet they were intermingled with feelings of resentment and... maybe even something else. Jealousy? Jealousy of what? Zach simply smiled, beads of sweat dripping from his face.

"I'm, um-- Hey. When I heard you were out here after the landslide I came running, but... I don't think either of us should go inside the ruins. They're not safe for anyone to go spelunking inside, especially if they opened up after a landslide! They could easily come crashing down on top of us, or...or...there could be monsters or traps inside, snatching up any living soul that wanders in. Besides--" Zach gave Elesia a very obvious once-over. Same old sundress, same old arm ribbon. Not any ropes or rations or anything. And the other mage had nothing but his spellbook and a useless medallion. The only thing that stood between them and the untimely death of two idiot children were their wits. Chances of survival were grim.

"Neither of us are prepared to go diving into just any dark pit you find in the countryside. Please, let's go back to the village. It's not safe here."

[Elesia]

The bright heart of a maiden burned hot within her - or maybe she was on fire, Elesia got confused which was which sometimes - and yet despite its siren song, the daft mage held firm against tenptation. As much fun as it would be to waylay Zach or at least bear hug him, if she left her post, it was possible some ne'er do well would sneak into the ruins and find the treasure ahead of them, and as par tof being a responsible adult, it was her task to make sure no one did that so her and Zach could do it instead. He was the watchful protector of Bern after all, a dark knight. 'Cuz dark magic, and... yeah anyways.

For some reason Zach was tired after only climbing up half a mountain, whch confused Elesia a bit. That was pretty normal though, so she didn't really notice. He was also oddly resistant to going inside the pit, which REALLY confused her. Why had he come out all this way if he wasn't going inside? Clearly it was some sort of clever ruse, a trick to confuse her into doing... something. Unfortunately, she wasn't as smart as Zach, so she didn't know what he was trying to trick her into doing. Obviously he should have picked someone more easily bamboozled.

But honestly, she didn't really care. Elesia brushed aside those thoughts to sweep forwards like an Elesiacane and hug Zach, uncharacteristically remembering to slow down just enough to keep it from being a tacklehug, though calling it a 'gentle embrace' might be pushing it given there was still a bit of a jolt. Her body was maybe a little less rigid than it had been, the few months of living at Hal's mom's house having put what some people might consider something resembling normal body fat on her also puberty. "Zach!"

There was an enthusiastic trill to her tone that belied Elesia's simply joy at seeing her friend again, completely obtuse to him possibly being mad at her. As far as she was concerned, he had actually come, which was more than she had expected and all she had hoped for. Exploring ruins alone was boring and it meant that - eh, she didn't really know what it meant, but he wouldn't have come if he didn't care, right? "Heehee."

Releasing princess Zach from the jaws of death with a flourish and a pirouette for good measure, Elesia was all smiles as she surveyed her friend. "Of course! I had to guard the doorway against nero... ne'er did... bad people, so we could have our adventure proper like!" It didn't occur to her that maybe most people were smart enough to not go dumpster diving in barely-unearthed ruins that no one had even heard of until very recently, much less outside of the immediate vicinity.

"But ZAAAACH," she plaintively wailed, "that's exactly WHY we need to to explore it! Danger means treasure! We can share it and get rich! Plus the torches inside are like, alive or something." The hype was still building, but Elesia took a second to try to continue more calmly, using the real big guns of logic and reason... or at least as close as she got to understanding either of them. "Zach, I don't think these are normal ruins. They look really fancy, and the torches inside are -" she gestured vaguely, stuck for a moment on remembering what the actual word for having torches be on fire was, "well, they're still on. They've BEEN on since this place was discovered, maybe longer, I heard some people say these ruins might be centuries or even millemnains... millnums... thousands of years old! Like, back when dragons and stuff were real!"

The excited grin was threatening to consume her whole face and collapse into a black hole of sheer excitement, but Elesia barreled onward without a concern for Zach's ability to get a word in edgewise. "I didn't go any further in 'cuz I was waiting for you, but one of the workers said he'd never seen anything like it. If there really is magic in there, maybe it'll help us get stronger, or learn some ancient magic that was forgotten a zillion years ago, or powerful artyfacts." She didn't know how art could be a fact but that was the word the guy had used so whatever. "Even if it IS dangerous, what if we made it be not dangerous so other people could come here safely? We'd be, like, heroes! C'mon, it'd be an adventure! I got better with my magic too so I probably won't set anything on fire that isn't supposed to be on fire!"

There was just the wrong length of pause somewhere in that last sentence that sort of inverted her whole claim, but at least she had the sense not to set her arm on fire to prove it, which was probably a step up from the usual.

[Zacharia]

To his surprise, Elesia bounded up and gave him a tight squeeze, forcing all the air the mage had desperately tried to collect from his lungs. Oof. She had really gained some mass since the last time. If she really put her back into it, the elder mage was willing to bet that she could deadlift him.

Zacharia wasn't nearly as vocal about his excitement as Elesia was it was literally impossible, patting her on the back with a familial "It's good to see you too." It'd only been a few months since his return home, but they passed him by like the boy had waded through a lake of molasses. A few months had been much too long. The thought of exchanging letters HAD crossed his mind after seeing her letter, but he wasn't sure if she even had an address to write to. And he was also pretty sure Elesia was illiterate.

Even though Zach was cross with her, he couldn't help but crack a smile as Elesia danced away in her typical Elesia-like fashion. She had scaled a mountain waiting for Zach and was still raring to go. "You did a great job of defending the place. Good work, soldier."

"Er, I mean!" Remembering why he had came here in the first place, Zacharia's back stiffened and his smile flipped upside-down. "We don't have anything to carry treasure out with," he said, his tone stern. "But... if anything, we should probably close this entrance so that people from the village don't start wandering in. Or, uh, things start wandering out. That'd be bad." The boy's voice trailed off as his eyes shifted from Elesia to the very clearly magical fire. The young bear cub was right. And that wasn't a trick she could've cooked up, either. Or would've. He glanced back to Elesia, and watched the gears in her head start to smoke as they turned.

Zach put his hand to his chin. "Well, I guess they DO look pretty old... and there could be a lot of knowledge to be gained from ancient artifacts-- No! No. Going in there is bad news, Elesia. I've gotten better with my magic too, but that doesn't mean I'm looking to waste all of our practice. We could die in there!" Now that he was closer to the entrance, he could feel magic power pouring out in waves. It was dusty and ancient, the best kind. And worse still, it was enticing. Looking downwards, he had taken a step forward unconsciously. Beads of sweat were forming on his forehead for another reason now. "H-Hey, if, um, if we leave now..." Zach's voice quivered. Trying to hold back the childish excitement rising in his throat was difficult when he had to be the voice of reason for two dumb children. "I can take you wyvern riding! There's a wyvern down in the village, just waiting for us. It'd be just like old times, right? You know, when you took that monster for a flight?"

Good Gaea. Between the magic of friendship and the magic in the ruins, he was getting played like a fiddle.

[Elesia]

No no no no no NO this wasn't how it was supposed to go, her and Zach were brave explorers who would discover the secrets of this mysterious dungeon and totally get rich or smart or strong off of it, or maybe all three. Elesia placed her hands on her hips, her brow furrowing in a mix of confusion and lack of understanding. She wasn't even mad, just disappointed. "But- but - there's MAGIC in there, Zach! Don't you want to know what magic was like a zillion years ago? There could be whole new kinds of magic in there and we'd be the only people in the world who knew it, and even if there were traps or something, there's gotta be a way to get there, otherwise what's the point of a tomb or trial or whatever?"

The (self proclaimed) Bear Mage simply didn't understand what the problem was. There was magic in there, they were the first people here, and by the rules of nature, that meant it was their sacred duty and right to investigate. That was just how the world worked. Only boring people didn't think like that, and Zach wasn't boring, so maybe he had another reason? "Cmon Zach, it's just the two of us again like old times," it had been a few months at most since they met and they'd spent half a day together and it had been one of the worst of Zach's life. Somewhere along the way Elesia dimly realized that. She also remembered him talking about Bern a bunch at the time. "And besides, if you want to help Bern, isn't it just being responsible to check it out yourself? YOU know about magic, but what if someone goes in to investigate and doesn't, and so they end up hurting themselves, and you could totally have saved them by checking it out yourself?"

Unfortunately for everyone involved, Elesia had learned more than Hal realized from his mom. Luckily for everyone involved, her approach was a little... unrefined so there was definitely room for improvement, but she figured if she tried everything, something would eventually stick. "And we don't have to go super deep or anything, just check it out, cmon!"

Ok, granted, Elesia had literally no plans whatsoever of leaving the instant she got Zach inside that door, but HE didn't need to know that, and more importantly she was pretty sure he'd be excited too after they got inside and wouldn't want to leave. So it wasn't REALLY lying if he never found out, just, uh, embellishing the truth a little? It wasn't a crime if you never got caught after all, and Elesia was the absolute best ever at not getting caught. It would be Zach's idea to keep going after all and that meant he couldn't be mad at her. Foolproof!

[Zacharia]

Was this being turned around on him? This was totally being turned around on him. The older mage scratched his head in silence, unsure of how to respond. She didn't even respond to his wyvern ruse! And he thought that was pretty clever, too. The boy was really in a bind here. On the one hand, he didn't want to feel responsible for disappointing her, but on the other, he didn't want to feel responsible for her untimely demise. Either Elesia had been obfuscating how clever she actually was this whole time, or she'd picked up a few new tricks from the art of persuasion. Of course, knowing her, it was totally both.

"Well, I do want to help Bern, that's true. But I've never really been the adventurous sort of person..." He trailed off, his argument growing flimsier by the second."A-And magic should be something that everyone has the right to know about. It's not meant to be hoarded or locked away from the people. Besides, it's been so long since the original creators built this place that the entrance molded into the mountainside. The framework must be on the very verge of collapse itself, never mind anything magical inside. Who's to say it wouldn't just come toppling down on our heads? I know a thing or two about places that stink of old magic, and they never have anything pleasant inside. Trust me."

Despite his outward reluctance, the tiny mage stood firm. Well, if she was so dead-set on this, it couldn't be all bad, right? And Zach wanted to explore it too, right? That was what he wanted to believe, but the small voice in his head kept shrieking how bad of an idea this was and how they were both going to die horrible deaths and how their bones would lie in the temple forever. That was probably just the pessimist in him talking... right?

Man, being the mature one sucked.

Zacharia shut his eyes tight and pinched his brow. Inevitably and rather embarrassingly, he had to admit defeat to the bear mage. "I suppose it'd be alright if we took a quick glance inside... but nothing more than just a glance! We look, we leave, we block the door off or we come back prepared for actual spelunking. Alright? You should lead the way, since you've been waiting so long for this."

[Elesia]

"YYYYYYYYYYYYYESSSSSSSSSSSSS!"

As if her girlish gyrations of giddy glee were not enough to express her none too subtle pleasure with Zach's agonized answer, Elesia punctuated them with a shriek of joy that would have made the average evil mastermind with a penchant of loudly saying YES blush. Doing a third pirouette for good measure, Elesia grabbed Zach's arm with the furious force of an entire army of bees. Which happened to be a pretty strong grip all things considered. "You're right, everyone should know about magic, but WE should be the ones to find it! Just to make sure it's, you know, safe for everyone else." She wasn't even hiding the abrupt about face from her earlier statement, at this point Elesia would have sworn to be a rebel or a loyalist or both at once if it got Zach to come in... or if she actually understood the difference between the two. She didn't, incidentally, so it was probably for the best that she hadn't tried.

"Besides, we can go wyvern riding later, they'll still be there, this place might not be!" Object permanance was a fuzzy subject for the bear mage, unfortunately. Dragging Zach along whether he wanted to change his mind or not, Elesia aboutfaced and made her way the last few meters to the door. "Oh man, imagine what's in there! I was hoping there would be dragons but I looked and there weren't, and I don't think they would fit anyways. The doors are too small." It was almost incongruent with her being, well, her for Elesia to speak so matter of factly and almost sensibly. It didn't last. "I didn't smell any dark magic so I'm pretty sure it's safe, um, reletaterly... retardively... compared to arm wrestling a bear anyways."

The insides of the grand temple were... well, she'd already seen them from peeking in, but it was still pretty cool. Not as big as a temple should be though. Honestly the first room was reasonably spacious and not soo special otherwise, kinda dirty and grimy and... old looking. The twin braziers on the wall flanking the entrance, only really ivsible from inside, were something else though - spectral flames burning brightly, the flickering blue glow illuminating the area surprisingly well given that they had no apparent source of power and, if Elesia was to be believed, had been going since before she arrived - possibly hundreds or thousands of years.

That or she had lit them the instant she arrived.

The fact that she wasn't smart enough to think of that plan kinda killed that theory though.

The actual walls weren't anything particularly special, but the hallway up ahead was really interesting, in much the same way that everything new was 'really interesting' to her - mostly because it was dark, looked kinda fancy, and there was some sort of brownish bundle leaning against the wall a good thirty feet down the hatch, far enough out of range of the light that it was hard to see what it actually was.

Oh yeah and there was some big fancy tablet next to the hallway in what Elesia assumed was complete gobbledegook, but actually happened to be a (partially) legible but very old dialect of Common.

[Zacharia]

"So, uh, I mean, that is to say how have you been? It's been a few months and we haven't talked and I--" The man's voice trailed off, his mouth forming into an un-vocalized "Oh." From how much Elesia had been hyping the cave up, Zach was almost surprised that it wasn't just a hole with a single candle inside. "This is... incredible!" Such an ancient building-- and so neatly laid, too! Whoever had previously run this place must've really put a lot of care into keeping it clean back when. Sure, now in the present it had been plastered in grime, and it stank of that "rotting magic" odor, and the walls tingled with a prickly, dangerous feeling, but he was too excited to care about the negatives now. His first real life, in the flesh, spelunking! In a magical hall! Once Elesia's back was towards him, the man rubbed his hands together with an almost insidious glee.

First, he examined the candles. "Ghostly fires that burn without wicks nor wax melting..." he spoke in a reverent hush as he peered into the light, like he was trying to please some unseen entity hanging in the air. "Ah! Must have an old rune implanted in the candle basin. Do you think the reason why their fire is blue has anything to do with the way I channel the Nether? Oh, if only I had some ink on me, this would be great for my own notes." Zacharia glanced at Elesia, who was having a field day all on her own, noteless. Ah, well. Recording all of this could probably wait for another time.

Then onto the walls. Though grimy from centuries of disuse, even to an untrained eye it was clear how delicately the ridged patterns lining it had been chiseled with every tap of the hammer. He ran his fingertips across the earthy dips, letting his hand brush the dirt aside. Again, as he put his hand to the wall, he could feel the powerful din of magic behind it. But it lay... dormant. Quite literally. Like a slowed pulse, it pushed out a swelled beat of magic at a constant interval. "Just what was this place, do you think?" he remarked, running his hands across the walls until they laid to rest at the side of the giant tablet. "Goodness, is this ancient writing? I.. think it is!" An orb of magic sprang to life in the dark mage's palm, fully illuminating the tablet in its alcove. Zacharia put a dirty finger to the text eloquently scrawled on the stone and furrowed his brow. He was a bookworm, but it'd been years since he'd actively studied any dead language. Not to mention, half of the word indentations had been caked with dirt so badly they might as well have not been there. How on earth was he going to clean a priceless old tablet? The placed his hand on the tablet and hung his head in resignation. It could take weeks to make this comprehensible again.


As if in response, the ancient framework seemed to moan. Then again. And again. "Wait, can you hear that?" Zach perked up. "What's that noise?"

A deep monotone replied from out of his sight. "You."

"Me??" It was scratchy yet baritone, like an old man on his last legs, but it carried a certain weight to it that simply commanded the boy's attention. And there was a certain... unnatural lilt in its inflection and repetition that begged the question of just how human their host was. "You." The mage backed away from the tablet, whipping his head this way and that, but the utterance's owner could not be located in the darkness. All the while, he failed to notice the faint purple glow that the tablet had taken on.

The voice shuttered to a stop. A tinny "Y-Youu s-h shfff." were its final words, if its garble could even be translated into any known language.

"I didn't just imagine all of that, did I? You heard that too, right? Where did that come from? So many questions..."

[Elesia]

Elesia's initial enthusiasm tapered off when Zach started talking about super fancy crap she didn't know anything about, like runes (fallen down buildings?) and nethers (wasn't that like, a butt?) and wicks. She didn't even have any guesses for what that last one was. But it was only a minor tapering, barely even noticeable to her much less Zach, and she had PLENTY of excitement to go around. She hadn't actually gotten to go in here much after all! Well, at all, but that wasn't important. It was all even cooler than she remembered, and that was already pretty cool.

Unfortunately she had already stopped paying attention by the time Zach started mucking about with the tablet, carefully inspecting what was either an arcane symbol or water leakage on the wall, when the ghastly voice picked up and Elesia, in all her bravery and level headedness, screamed like a banshee with a megaphone.

f**k**g ghosts, man.

Slowly lowering her hand as the ball of currently mixed teal-and-magenta fire dissipated into nothingness, Elesia casually whistled off-tune as if nothing had happened, but only after she had confirmed there were no ghosts, at all, anywhere in the vicinity. She hadn't the foggiest idea of what was going on and had only realized a bit late where the sound had been coming from, but that only made investigation paramount, and obviously that meant that Detective Elesia was on the case! Her spirits rekindled, though still flagging a little low in the wake of abject horror beyond the ken of mortal man, she cautiously made her way over to the purple glowy tablet thingy that Zach had been playing with, more than ready to set it, and anything else in the vicinity, on fire if any ghosts did emerge. Hypothetically speaking. They weren't real, obviously, but on the distant chance they were, it paid to be prepared.

"So... why is the rock talking to us?"

The diminutive mage was pleased that her voice hadn't cracked or sounded too worried, and perhaps bulwarked by that and Zach's presence, her natural curiosity took over a bit, leading her to palm the tablet herself as well. As if THAT would do anything.