The Heirs of Death

34. Mountain's Heart

MOUNTAIN'S HEART

 
We were greeted by howling winds and falling snows. And the scenery, despite the darkness and the snow, was indeed what I'd spent long minutes staring at. A piece of land lost somewhere in the world, on a steep mountainside that was shielded by a chain of humungous alps. The entrance was not easier to see, and we would have never found it, had I not memorized the edges of the peaking rocks, jutting out of the façade. They pointed, all of them, to the center of the grey, white-covered wall of rocks making the mountain's exterior.

There was not a scratch past the fissures left by time's hand. But the voice was clear here, and loud, and urging. Come come come come…

I obeyed, almost capable of touching it, of feeling its invisible hands on my skin. Leon had been at my side through every step, his hand still holding mine, easing ever so slightly something within me. But that talk would come sooner than later—it was well overdue.

This place could not be found, not randomly, not through expanded researches. And it wasn't truly because of its hidden, remote position, or the hard journey to reach this point. But because the wall had cracked and opened for us, the mountain groaning, the rocks sliding down. A lair opened by an invitation, by a call.

We went inside, the very air between the walls cold. And running, despite the absence of any opening as the door sealed back, not a line to hint that it ever opened in the first place. Gentle winds came from the inside, from somewhere deep down, perhaps born from the very heart of this mountain.

The tunnels were dark, the runes etched to their walls barely seeping a faint, grayish glow. Sometimes, it became so pale it was white, and the glow didn't dim even when Aedis had conjured a sphere of glowing white above heads. The sphere almost did nothing, as though his magic was quenched, compressed by the powers in this place.

We walked the steep descent, each step careful, the place narrow enough that Aedis had been in front of me. Slowly, the descent straightened, and golden lights started stretching into the darkness, glowing with an other-worldly shine. I knew that light by heart, knew to whom it belonged.

We rounded the last corner, coming to full view with the lights, with the man from who it seeped. The face that met me—the most beautiful face I'd ever seen—the golden hair, the golden eyes, the warm glow to his skin, the body sewn of sunlight, I knew him.

It was Téors, but this face—him. It was the face of the man from Earth, the man who had come for me, who spoke of a time I didn't understand.

The same face, and yet the eyes, they were gold, not emeralds—

Emeralds.