Mountain King

***By Rosaria aith Syl-Andomus***

## **Chapter One**

After careful though, I had decided that I had taken a much longer rest from my journeys than I should have, and as such, finally after having packed my gear and prepared thoroughly for the journey ahead, I’ve contacted my parents and a few other good fellow historians on mine to notice them that I was going on a journey to the top of the Nixian mountains, a self-funded investigation of the Meridian ruins and civilization. During this whole arduous journey, which most of was spent in carriages, I had delved into their culture more and more, investigating an ancient tome I had received previously from a Meridian friend of mine, which, of course was in their ancient language.

I was halfway through the book when I had finally arrived at the doorstep of Arcenix, its imposing walls begging to be researched, its architecture very remaining of Khollic architecture, whereas instead of creating everything from scratch, Nixians have incorporated the terrain into the creation of their walls, shaping it along the mountainous rocks instead of removing them or simply building on top of such rocks. Ingenious, considering their strategic advantage on terrain, being on a high ground, narrow pathways leading to the city which bottlenecks any army, the harsh climate at the mountain’s base, as well as the rough terrain around the city which prevents attacks from any other sides.

However, moving back to the topic, I’ve made my way up the snowy mountain, freezing my feet to an almost frostbite to talk to Academy’s mages, for I had heard their scholars were the ones to research most of what happened to the Meridians, as well as keep some researchers up on the mountains. “Tome seekers” they were called, almost always scouted by one of their Magicians. Speaking to their mages led me to be granted permission to climb the mountain, where they scouted me into what they call “Scholar’s respite”: a large cavernous structure inside the mountain which was overlooking the beautiful Nixian waterfall.

## **Chapter Two**

While at the Scholar’s Respite, I took two days to rest properly from my long journey, however it wasn’t all rest, for above the very place I was laying my head to sleep there were magnificent and very ancient Meridian ruins, which were practically begging for my study. Upon arrival, their architecture already surprised me, for - somehow - after that many centuries exposed to terrible weather, avalanches, blizzards and lightning, as well as the mages from the nearby Academy, the Meridian ruins were in quite the good shape. Granted, this good shape wasn’t anything new per se, their constructions and monuments were built with the purpose of lasting as they do, however seeing those never ceases to amuse me. Inspecting their stone revealed their preference for Metamorphic rocks when building anything from normal houses to their biggest castles. These kinds of rocks are not of easy extraction or transportation, which means they had probably extracted from a nearby source - and most of their buildings being made out of stone led me to believe that even although ancient, their civilization was prosperous and smart enough to be able do construct their buildings out of pure marble or slate, as monoliths. Perhaps most of their civilization was composed of Terramancers?

After going back to my camp and packing all of my serious gear up, it was time to delve into the nearby cave, where I suspected their stone was extracted. The cave’s entrance was rather narrow, however the rock patterns upon the walls I had to squeeze myself through showed that these were not always like so, perhaps the cave had collapsed or been simply closed off by a Terramancer. Hundreds of years of weathering however weren’t helping in asserting what exactly had happened, and thus, I made it into the cave’s large chamber, the answers to where the stone had come from were now finally answered for this truly massive chamber was clearly created by sentient hands, probably the meridians I suppose, due to the patterns and markings on the wall, as well as the architecture and proximity to their old ruins.

This main chamber expanded upwards until the summit of the mountain, being hundreds of meters across and up, almost as if the mountain had been hollowed almost completely. Due to the lack of any ruins or buildings, I’ve come to deduce that this place held some sort of high importance to the Meridian civilization. Looking down while walking the sides of this chamber however made me realize that I could not see the bottom of the pit. I then held the torch out, and dropped it into the darkness below, counting the seconds it took for it to hit the bottom. However, the torch was completely enveloped and engulfed by darkness, and no sound was heard. It is possible some higher magic is at play at the bottom of that pit, though investigating it would prove a terribly difficult task, as no one dares venture into that shroud.

Walking on the clearly crafted walkway, spiraling down the cave, I have found several other entrances, narrow pathways that all connected into the main chamber. I chose to follow one of them, which led me to a ravine with slippery side stones. I had to unpack my gear to attempt a crossing. It was dangerous and scary sometimes, however upon reaching the other side, I was faced with a wall, pebbles and rocks stacked upon one another, clearly not Meridian in nature, however ‘man-made’ as some would put it. This wall though was impeding my advancement into the next chamber, chamber which I had spotted an ominous blue glow coming from, as well as a draft of wind, which meant there had to be another entrance. This draft however wasn’t freezing cold, but warm, soothing and almost revitalizing.

My journey out of the cave and around the mountain was perilous, the weather had worsened and I had one fieldish climb ahead of me. After dodging an avalanche, finally it was time for me to climb to the summit, the side-effects of which I still feel while writing this paper. Upon reaching the mountain’s summit, more ruins awaited for me, as well as the Academy’s campsite, and their small wooden cottage overlooking the mountain. After inhaling the rarified air, having to rely on desert bitters to keep active I thought to myself two things: The first being that anyone from the academy must’ve been as hell bent as I to choose to live up at that mountain merely on the name of research and knowledge, and the second being that the Meridians had an entire settlement atop this mountain, their civilization was accustomed to this sort of environment as I am to the warm summers of Aridam.

## **Chapter Three**

At the summit, I had found yet another cave entrance, not to my surprise anymore, since now I had a mental image of the cave being as a honey-bee hive - where the cave was completely hollowed out in several pathways going wherever the Meridians wished them to. However, this one cave was different, as from its entrance I could see the same blue glow from previously coming from deeper within the cave. I followed this blue glow up until the point I felt the hairs on my arm stand upright, the pressure and temperature around me both changed into a very pleasing one, and finally, ahead of me I saw marble steps, a staircase descending into an impossible feature: a large cave chamber atop this mountain which supported life of all kinds, trees growing around, vines, animals coexisting in peace, even predators. And at the very center of this rocky walled chamber with grass on the ground, there was an ancient tablet, emanating what I could only describe as vitor, as well as the blue gigantic crystals all around the roof of the cave, which alongside vitor, seemed to be emanating light. Perhaps they were composed of Solarium, however even Solarium must first absorb light to then release it…

The whole cave was truly remarkable, and I had brought alongside myself a piece of parchment and charcoal, as to copy to perfection the glyphs written on said stone tablet in the middle. However, moving on to other details: The cave seemed to have moving, living cocoons, which were warm to the touch, and carried within a great Vitor potential, as well as it had indications of previous intelligent life habitating it not too long ago. My theory is that the tree I saw inside is actually either an Ent or Dryad, the cocoon is their offspring being generated. As for the rest of the cave, I truly have no idea, and further research is very much necessary with a much larger team than just one woman.

*And with this, I bid my readers farewell, and safe explorations.*