Chapter 16: The True Temple
It was my fault you fell
It was your fault I couldn't catch you
It was our fault we never shared our truth
Trembling Terror
We stayed near the garden temple for almost a full moon as we both recovered to full health. There was no need of weapons or special gear. Just the long walk to the river and back, good fish, and great company. Each sun, the path we walked got a bit greener and more lush.
And each sun, Micah still had no cold-flame.
I woke up several nights each sevensun to them gone from my side, only to find them desperately fighting themself, pushing with all they had to get even a spark. Nothing ever came. They simply gave up at some point and returned to the tent and their bedroll.
More than a few times, they lay awake sobbing. I reached my arm around them and pulled as tight as I could. There was no way to understand how Micah had felt, but I provided all the comfort I could manage.
Each sun at meal times, they disappeared for a bit as I prepared the food. I couldn't fault them the absence. Their pride could hardly take another hit, especially not the hit of me being able to take care of us in ways they used to.
As healed as we could possibly be, it was at last time for us to make our way to the next destination: the lake off the deimward edge of the cliffs. It was to be a harsh journey even without the land stealing our strength, and both of us knew it. But if we couldn't make it that far, then our journey would end.
"Why, Nyx," Micah asked when I proposed the plan, "are we going there instead of taking the shortest path out of this place?"
I knew the question was coming, but something had stuck in my mind since I awoke in the great pentagonal garden atop that cliff. "This place isn't the real Crucible, Micah."
"What do you mean? Of course it is," they were trying to sort something around my claim. "It beckoned me, saved us. How the hells do you mean to tell me this isn't the place."
"That's just it. I thought so too. But what do we know about the Crucible?"
"In the eveward region, it's the garden of Nara."
"What else?"
"How should I know, Nyx?"
"Eveward drips the life of Nara's Riddle, peace befalls the faithful." Hearing the line from the Quintet of Sacred Gardens, Micah's eyes went wide.
"A snare before the Crucible," they muttered. "This is the snare. The real Crucible is somewhere in the valley."
"Precisely, my precocious pal. Perhaps we proceed past and peruse the prominent pond?" Micah rolled their eyes at me. "What? Too much?"
"Come on, Nyx. We're burning sunlight."
I lifted my pack from the ground, to which I'd quietly attached both our weapons and much more than half our gear. Micah started to protest, but as they lifted their own pack with a struggle, they gave in.
"Until you have all your strength," I said with a gentle smile, "I'll carry the burden for us both. You've been doing that this whole time. Don't think I haven't noticed."
"Fine," they said with a pout. "But the moment I'm healthy again, we're levelling this out, you understand."
Our descent on the deimward cliff face was the easiest climb we'd done in our travels to date. The ground around the base of the cliff was already growing green, much like the paths we'd been walking, and I found the colour welcoming.
The lake was at least two suns' travel if we took breaks and risked stopping. We weren't willing to risk it in the deadlands, so we started the journey just after breakfast and went without stopping. The weight of my pack started bearing down after eight hours, but by that point, the water was visible from one of the rolling valley hills, so I grunted through the task.
I'll admit, if I hadn't been so dead set on carrying so much weight, I might have noticed the sounds of sniffing and shuffling before we were surrounded. I might have noticed the smells of wet fur and rot if not for the copper building up in my sinuses. But we also wouldn't have made it to the water's edge in a single sun's gruelling effort.
Unlike the two sickly beasts we found in the chasm, the pack who were circling us had found a way to be thoroughly healthy despite the lack of obvious food sources. Their night black fur had an unsettling green sheen I couldn't place.
But what alerted us to them was the rumbling growl they let out.
Mountain landaax have a growl that sounds like a dry millstone running against itself. Plains landaax, by stark contrast, sound like the earth is trying to open its maw and swallow you whole. And were they just half again as big as they were, they might be able to do it. Their jaw certainly opened wide enough.
To their credit, Micah leapt in between me and the beasts unarmed. They were ready, and I loved that, but there was no way they could stand against one of the things, let alone the seven readying themselves to pounce.
"Micah. You need to rest," I said, grabbing them and pushing them behind me. That was a mistake. I heard the warhammer slam to the ground just as the first of the beasts charged me and tried without success to knock me off balance from the right.
I moved to throw the thing into the next two that were coming quickly at my left as Micah tried uselessly a second time to lift their own weapon from the ground. The yelp of the landaax as they collided told me I had a moment to handle the remaining four that had already decided to join in.
My hand was on Lysandra's warhammer as quickly as it could be, and I did just as I'd practised back in Ivory, putting every bit of cold-flame I could muster into the swing, crushing two skulls and throwing both their owners into the other two beasts.
"Are you okay, Mic?" I didn't take my eyes off our assailants as the first three finally righted themselves and worked their way toward us from the left.
"It won't move, Nyx," they shouted from behind me as the next swing of my weapon connected and tossed one of the beasts into the lake behind us. "Nothing I do is working."
"Don't worry about it. Stay down. Stay safe. Stay —" The weight of one I thought was down for good slammed into me, taking me to the ground and leaving Micah defenceless. "Micah!"
The shout was too late. They were too focused on what they couldn't do. I wrestled to get the one that had tackled me off, but its weight was just enough to hold me. The three unoccupied beasts went straight for Micah.
It was all over in an instant. One moment, three plains landaax were charging at Micah. The next moment, everything exploded in a flash of white and black, sending the beasts recoiling then limping away. Even the one on me was horrified and did all it could to escape whatever it was.
For a second, Micah was engulfed in white flames that seemed to be edged in black, but they fell to the ground as the flames extinguished themselves. Love's Paradox sat exactly where it had fallen moments before.
"Micah!" I rushed to their side, immediately setting into triage mode. "Micah, please." Were they hurt at all? Were they breathing? "Micah, are you —"
A half limp finger interrupted me. "I don't care for Mic, but Micah seems a bit much after that, don't you think, Nyxara?" They were barely there, but they weren't gone.
"Tell me what you prefer once you're feeling better."
"Deal."
Tested Tranquility
We definitely should have taken a shorter route out of Elder Valley, but if we had, we would have missed a far more important discovery. Vaelis hadn't set up her temple up on a high cliff, hidden from all her people, desperately trying to control everything. It was a lakeside pavilion, welcoming any who needed her, and it was more modest than any of the spaces of the other goddesses by far.
I couldn't say for certain if she used the smaller temple as her home like Lysandra or Salora, as I had yet received any memories of the Crucible. But the lakeside temple stood proud, triumphant against whatever horror the Fiend had worked on the rest of the eveward region.
The columns and roof were pristine. The five altars were at waist level instead of atop grand stairways. All of them equal.
It reminded me of the goddesses' pavilion in the Grand Temple in a way. Small, subtle, safe. A haven for the burdened traveller. Upon the eveward altar sat two flowers. One was Draethis's voidstem, perfectly matching the one we'd found in the Aerie. The other was, beyond all odds, a bloodleaf flower. That shouldn't have been possible, since the last three were given to Gormlaith so long before.
And yet.
Micah had passed out after promising to get better, and I carried her gently into the temple when we at last spotted it. How it managed to conceal itself from the cliff would likely remain a mystery, but I was grateful to have found it.
While Micah rested, I scoured every surface, looking for some message from the goddesses past. There had to be something, and yet I found nothing. Perhaps Vaelis hadn't managed to leave a message. Or perhaps it had been found and removed long before we arrived.
I prayed the temple would be safe in the same way that Lysandra's temple in the Aerie had been, but there was no way to know until the landaax returned.
Nothing left but to sleep – it had been a hellishly long sun, after all – I retrieved my bedroll and pulled Micah close, sharing the space with them. Desperately, I hoped they would wake quickly and tell me I'd worried over nothing. They would be okay. I was sure of it. Or I tried to be.
"Nyxara," the voice was cool and smooth, familiar to me in a way I couldn't place. "I am sorry for making this so very difficult. I would not if it were not necessary."
I opened my eyes to find myself seated on the floor of Vaelis's temple. When I realised Vaelis and Salora were with me, I knew this must be another dream. Neither goddess looked herself, but somehow they were just the same.
Both women stared at me hesitantly, awaiting some words I was meant to say. When I opened my mouth, the voice was silk. "Sisters," I began, "this is my last time meeting you both. I am sorry, Vaelis, that I could not save her."
"You tried." Vaelis gave a weak impression of a smile. "But she was too far gone by the time your words reached her." Her hand thoughtlessly found its way to one of the tied ends of her hair. She'd taken to wearing it like her Mavi after everything fell apart. "And now, they are both gone."
"They are," Salora said, "but we are not. So the time has come to leave the message, sister. What will you say to the one who is coming after?"
"She has my name and will not take it," I said fondly, "and she has her Mavi. Now she must take her weapon in hand and tether the enemy to its cage." A broad smile stretched my lips. "That way the sapphire and silver one can do her duty."
"You are terrible at this, sister," Vaelis said as she stood to look out over the lake. "Tell her that it is going to be okay. To stand with her loves. That we all believe in her."
"I think that is a bit too spot on, Vaelis," Salora said, standing and offering me a hand. "Simply tell her to live," she continued as I took her hand and stood with them. "That will be sufficient."
"Em," I whispered as I awoke. "Short for Ember. The spark of life that saved me." When I opened my eyes to meet their gaze, Micah's own eyes were already open. "I hope that's not too much pressure on you."
"It's a bit sentimental," they said, "but that sentimentality is why Dee calls me 'Doll', so I can't say I dislike it, Nyx."
"You let your wife call you 'Doll'?" I was confused. That name seemed too feminine.
"And our daughter used to call me Dolly. She would scream 'Mommy and Dolly' from across the house to get both of us," they smiled at some far off thought, "because I wasn't a mum or a dad, so I had to be something else. And I suppose if you must call me something, Em is a reasonable fit."
"Perfect." I pulled them closer. "Let's go back to sleep, Em. It's still dark out, and I need more time to process something."
"Fine by me, Nyx." They leaned their head into my chest, sharing a warmth with me I'd never felt from them physically or emotionally. "I have a lot to think about myself."