By David C. Daoust
Page 10 of 10
Efreet realized what was left of the temple, was probably much older than the ruins of the keep he had found above. The black altar room, buried and hidden under the keep that now lay in ruins, stood before the ancient temple. A temple once devoted to this oracle. The black scrawled writing, that seemed defacement, was made by those priests that freed the oracle. The light stone and bronze works, were decorations left by the captors.
“Your reasoning is sound small one of Aveen,” the fish again answering Efreet’s unspoken thoughts, “The keep above was built to hide what was left of a temple, that was far larger before its fall.”
“Many died to my view of the light,” the voice continued, “At first I did not know the harm I caused, for I thought, somehow, I helped. Though as the blood spilled, the future grew darker, and I knew the balance was being shifted unnaturally. One side knew too much, and as the power grew, the civilization of my captors became corrupt, and the possible futures became bleaker and bleaker. Many avenues exist in time, many choices, as one is chosen, the others fall away. Some avenues hold darkness, some light, as I watched more and more became darkened. Until finally, the only path I could see that held light, was for my complete removal from the light.
“While yes, I may speak so much due to the thousand years of seclusion and darkness,” Efreet could only call the noise that followed a laugh, as the fish put the gnome’s unspoken thoughts to word, “but why I tell you so much… is that you need to understand this… There is a small chance that this ‘smallest of lights’ that you brought into my domain has returned a darkness to this world, a darkness that was meant to be sealed away with my sight. “
And so I must delve further, to find the path of the light,” the voice explained. “And then I need you to walk it.”
“I beg you to walk it, for I have given thousands of years to keep the world safe of the darkness I wrought.”
The shiny metal disk appeared above; attached to a chain, the small timepiece hovered in the air before Efreet. This is a small portion of my power”, across the back of the clock was engraved a fish, “It was once a symbol of my order.”
Efreet took it, snapping the latch at its side he found a clocks face.
“I name you my new High Priest,” the fish seemed to laugh again at the title he’d bestowed upon the thieving gnome, “Walk the path of the light I give you, protect the world from darkness.
But most of all, I beg you. Never return here.
The light flashed around him and Efreet fell into darkness, unconscious. His last conscious thought a nagging itch that he never saw what was ‘left’ of the stairway.
