Chapter 10: Echoes of the Past

The sun was too close to the horizon in the sky, and too weak to pierce the thick shroud of fog that hid the mountains. Vale of Lost Echoes lay outside of time, a land beyond the world beyond its brink. It was heavy with unnatural smell of pine and earth, and there was earth silence—silence that somehow was deep and foreboding.

Kael, Reika, and Finn had dressed up as well when they had gone down to the depths of the temple. The vale was a nightmare, with each step further into perils not even conceived. That beautiful forest had become an arena of deformed trees and crawling vines whose dark arms reached up like skeletons.

The further they traveled from the clearing, the denser the air became, as if the world was exhaling.

"Feel it?" Reika swallowed hard, gazing in horror down the road in either direction.

Kael snarled, palm resting on the hilt of his sword. His hairs at the nape of his neck stood on end in a most unpleasant manner. Something was wrong, something he couldn't quite identify, but there was substance to the air that had no intention of being measured.

Finn trailed behind him, bow held tightly in his fists. "This is totally freaking me out," he told her, attempting to find a steady voice for a human being, because fear had migrated to his chest. "Do we know where we're going?

Reika didn't respond immediately. Her eyes remained focused on the twisting path ahead, her expression unreadable. Finally, after a long pause, she spoke, her voice laced with a grim seriousness. "We're close."

Kael gazed out at the distant mountain peak ahead. There was the temple, some distant cave in the mountains. But with how far they'd traveled it, the strange noise filled their lungs. It was first so distant like humans' voice in the wind. Then so piercing it would cover the ears as this abnormal echo that would cause resonate by the rocks beneath their feet.

What's that

Finn said the words on his panting breath.

Reika paled, and Kael noticed the first true fear of her life in her eyes. "The Vale. it has a memory. It remembers what was done here years ago."

Kael's heart stopped. "What was done here?

Reika did not answer at once. She accelerated further in, pushing them at a more frantic, desperate speed that left Kael gasping for air. "It was a war—a centuries and centuries old when the Core was sealed off. There was strife between the old kingdoms. The temple. it was built as a last resort to keep the power of the Core contained. But sacrifices—innocent lives lost along the way."

As they thrust into the Vale, the whispers thickened, until they did not whisper any more. They were spells—softer than threat, menace itself—whispering amongst trees, along canyon walls. Kael's eyes narrowed to the edge of a knife, tension in this instant a smoulder between his ribs.

"What do they say?" Finn whispered.

Reika's face twisted with pain. "It's an old language. one that has not been spoken for centuries. They're invoking the spirits. the ones who are in the ground. The ones which were slain here, beneath the temple.".

Kael's gut roiled. He'd done such things—a ritual of the ancients, bleeding dead powers into the world, specters that would haunt for centuries. But this. This wasn't a memory. This wasn't his head tricking him. This was real.

"We must go towards the temple," Kael said, his voice cold. "Before it is too late.".

The path climbed, the sounds more singing. They parted the veil of mist, shaking the earth with each step placed upon it. And then, past the veil of mist, Kael saw it.

The temple.

It loomed before him—a temple of the passed centuries, weathered to shine like sheen through the ages, its stony facade vines and moss-gouged. It was a peculiar form to anything Kael had ever beheld. Tree-pillars forced the earth upward, and dainty statues of fantasy creatures and vanished hieroglyphs ornamented walls. The temple itself radiated outward, as though it were a natural outcropping on the forehead of the very mountain upon which it was perched, its stone blending into the boulder-like outcroppings surrounding it.

But a bit too brief. The air outside was heavy, heavy, as if whatever material life was made of where they were was seeping out of the temple itself spewing out some nasty energy.

When they made it to the front, Kael felt a chill of fear crawling up his spine. The temple itself appeared to be alive—such that it seemed to put them in their place—like it had been waiting for them to attempt to move again.

Finn held his bow tighter within his hand. "Something here is not as it should be," he snarled.

Reika stood to the side of it, her eyes looking up at the enormous double doors of the temple. "It can't be done. It's a trap, Kael. A prison for the power of the Core."

The door towered over them, grooved and studded with symbols that sent out an unearthly, rainbow light. Kael could feel the power that came from it, a power which would devastate him with shattering force.

We have no choice," Kael went on. "It's here it's done."

Before the door, it swung open of its own accord to let them in.

Cold and coldness within, twisting darkness like things with a wormy texture. Odd symbols on the walls of the temple, carved into what purpose none had used for centuries. Behind the door was a massive stone altar, top worn smooth by centuries of rubbing against old runes. And in the center of the room, and looming heavenward above the pedestal stood a figure—a worn stone man, arms raised, arms spread out, frozen scream on the face that was screaming.

A chill ran down Kael's spine. Something was off. Air in the temple was heavy, as near as anything ever choking with despair.

"It's here," Reika gasped. "The prison is here. And the truth too."

Kael's racing heart, he couldn't swallow. Whatever this was, they weren't getting out of New Tonal today.

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