079 – Steven Goes Exploring 2

He found that every door he tried was either so rotten that the latch came off in his hand, was unlatched, or most often completely gone. The wind had already bashed many to pieces. The rooms looked similar to the rest of the city: the unvaluable things strewn about with a few skeletons here and there, anything of value long gone. As he left each room, he marked an ‘X” beside the door. After a morning of methodically searching corridors and checking each room, he found the throne room on the third floor. But it was also stripped bare. Not a throne on the dais, or a hanging on the walls.

Most of the walls wherever he looked were bare even of hangers. Only the fittings that held the walls together were left. The fortress had been thoroughly looted. Leaving the throne room he entered the area with guard dormitories. But these were also empty of anything but rotting debris. For a moment, Steven thought he could sense the building’s soul sagging in depression, from lack of care and use.

Turning into another hallway and sub-wing, Steven entered a series of apartments. These were different than the rest of the structure, having arched windows and doorways. The courtyard these apartments looked out onto was at ground level here, while being on the third floor from where he had entered. These were laid out with more internal walls and partitions than other sections of the building. Steven soon realized these were divided by public area, sleeping area, dressing area, and access to an indoor privy.

The first two apartments were mirrors of each other, with nothing remarkable about them. Continuing his ‘left-hand search’ Steven entered the third apartment that occupied the end of the wing. This room had a stair case on the internal wall to the immediate left of the door that went up out of the meeting area. The meeting area occupied the left corner of this area of the building and was almost square with windows the length of both outer walls, with a door out opposite the door into the hallway. The room was barren, save for debris played with by the wind over the years. Out the windows and doorway as seen from the hallway, the palace church could be seen across the courtyard. On the last internal wall to Steven’s right was an archway through which was a short hall and then the apparent dressing area. To the left was the archway into the corner room of the structure, which was the apparent sleeping chamber. Continuing around clockwise was a windowed outer wall. A door at the inner part of the last inner wall led to an indoor bathroom that compared to what Rox had in Veradale for its size. The tub, sinks, and stalls were fixed and arranged for privacy. All the doors in this apartment would have been double doors, wide enough for armored men to march through four abreast, or two flanking in escort of a third.

As Steven rounded the rooms, he noticed the courtyard outside the dressing room and privy was significantly lower than the other side of the building. And it appeared to have an entrance to an underground structure. Something about it beckoned.

After marking the wall outside this largest apartment, Steven backtracked to the closest downward staircase and went down two levels, then made his way to the one passage that went out in the direction he wanted to go.

As he went outside, Steven realized that the ground within the battlements had no vegetation on it. There was dirt over the cobblestone pathways, but these did not grow anything. This courtyard looked like it had had several trees but these had been cut and removed, the stumps just moldering piles. Steven guessed this meant the ground had probably been salted, or worse. That way nothing would grow up, and this place would stand as a memorial to the conquerors. Steven quickly found the small hill that was the entrance to the tombs.

The wall of the structure to his left went the length of the nearly square courtyard and over to join the wall of the church about a hundred paces away. On the other side of the yard, maybe a bit more than 100 paces away, was the battlement wall and unseen beyond it, the moat. Looking up at the three story structure two stories above he picked out the arched windows for the apartments, and the ones on the end told him he was in the right place. This was an area he had not seen before, as these grounds were only accessible from within the building, and none of the rooms that might look out this way in the part of the structure Steven had searched had windows facing this way.

The tomb entrance had once been surrounded by a garden. It went down into the ground like a bunker or storm cellar, toward the outer walls. He got to the doors, and found them barred by a large timber on solid hooks. This was very odd, as no other door in the place was secured, with most having been removed. He pulled the bar out and tossed it aside, and pulled the old doors open, their hinges groaning from disuse. Behind these doors a passage about six or seven paces wide went into the hill then descended to a second set of doors. These were also barred. Steven pulled the two timbers from these, and opened the doors. The pungent smell of stale air and contained decomposition assaulted his nose, and caused Steven to gag. He quickly put the timbers in place to hold the doors open, and went back up the stairs and out.

Steven took several minutes to catch his breath and let the tomb exchange fresh air for stale. In the process he tied a bandanna around his mouth and nose to as a dust mask. He readied his torch, and lit it. He then put his gloves on, and drew his sword. Something about tombs spooked Steven, and he wanted to have a weapon at hand. He wished for a battle rifle and N.V. Goggles, but the sword and torch would work. He went back down the stairs and past the second doors. The passage here was as wide as the upper one, and a bit taller than wide. It was carved into the stone of the bedrock. Braces were set into the stone at regular intervals. A wispy layer of cobwebs covered the upper surfaces.

Right past the doors Steven found a sad sight, about 20 bodies decaying like the rest, but these were dressed and still wore what had been finery. The bodies up in the city were just bones. These still had some dried flesh to them, with their clothes over that. About half were guards, still in armor. Steven looked the bodies over. They did not show any weapon marks, but appeared to have died where they had stood. None appeared to be the king, so Steven was not interested in these bodies for long. The six women still had their jewelry, so this place had not been looted.

Steven thought a moment, and then decided to leave everything be. If he wanted it, he could get it on the way out. He checked the swords of the guards. But these weapons were not what he had been told to look for. They were too ornamental. The sword he was looking for was functional.

Steven continued on, his torch in his left hand, his sword in his right. He began using the torch to burn the cobwebs from his path. He found a torch in a wall sconce, and touched his to it. Surprisingly it lit. Steven examined another opposite it, and found it to still have oil in it. So Steven quickly settled on a pattern. He would use his torch to burn the cobwebs, and light the torches as he went. But he left everything else unmolested. He found two doors opposing each other about ten paces in. These chambers were well carved and smoothed. The bodies within were of varying size, mostly adults with a few children, but very old. Steven would later conclude them to be the oldest in the complex. No grave robbers had been here. Many of the bodies were finely appointed. The next several rooms were the same, but of progressively newer age, judging by decomposition. The last room on the right was different. All the bodies here were children. The appointments were more childish in form. There were other children in the other rooms, but this one was full of them.

Again the thought came to him. The elves sent him here to learn of his heritage, as well as get the sword. Steven thought again about the warrior’s heritage: what did a warrior do that others did not? To fight and destroy indiscriminately? No. Thugs did that. To kill people and break things? No. Bandits did that. To preserve peace by preparing for war? Something stuck there but refused to come clear. But he was already a Marine, so why did he need to answer these questions? Steven decided to move on, and just let the answer come. But what did a ruined city, an empty fortress, and a tomb have to teach him?

Here he felt a pang of grief for all the children, and for the parents that had laid them here. One section alone was infants. In this room Steven remembered one reason why he had become a soldier. He had done it so that other people would have the freedom to raise their children as they chose, and not as someone else chose. He wandered the whole of this room. Thoughts of his own children came and went; as did the long dormant memory of his oldest brother. Steven had not thought of him in a long time. His oldest brother had died before Steven was out of diapers: he fell out of a window, shattering his skull. Steven had to flee the room to avoid being over come.

He left the room and it being the last room on the right, Steven turned to his right to the end of the hall furthest from the entrance. Slowly a form began to take shape in the dark. At first it spooked Steven, but since it did not move, Steven quickly regained his composure. As he lit the torches and introduced more light, the figure became more distinct. It was a statue, with three figures in heroic proportion: a man in armor, with a sword at his side; his arm was around a woman in a dress; she held a baby in her arm next to her husband. Her free hand rested on her shoulder where his rested. What did the statue mean?

The statue stood at the end of this hall, where it intersected another.

Looking at the statue, Steven realized that part of why he was a soldier was to defend a society where children did not have to die young, or go to war at the whim of some person. The heritage of a warrior, Steven concluded, was to fight the last war, and go home so that no more children would have to grow up just to go to war. Secure peace so the children won’t have to fight.

Steven put his torch to the cobwebs on the statue, and let them all burn off. Once it was clear, he turned to his left, and went down this passage, and down some stairs. The passage was as wide as the first, but did not have any doors. He went the depth of the rooms he had been in, and the passage went down some more stairs. These went down to the floor of a large hall with its roof lower than the floor of the passage and rooms above.

as tim�� o���g. He looked up at the flags above the fortress. Then back at his fellow guards. The only things to do to end this were unthinkable: Kill the King, or lower the flags. 

The dream faded.

Steven slept dreamless the rest of the night.

He awoke as the sun came over the horizon, the light bubbling across the ruins, as if hesitant to look on the scene of destruction yet again. Steven made himself some breakfast, and set about fashioning a torch from a long table leg, with oil soaked cloth he had brought with wrapped around the end. He finished the torch and went to the fortress. As he went his mind was consumed with what he had dreamed, remembering the ideas clearly even if he did not remember the images.

He crossed the bridge over the empty moat, careful to avoid the rotten timbers. Compared to the rubble of the city, the fortress was fairly clean. No bodies anywhere. No major structural damage. No rubble, save by collapse from neglect. The layout of the structure was straight forward, from a simple time and mode of thought. The front entry was a hub for the halls that led off to the left and right, and straight ahead. Stairs went up to the second and third floors of the wings. The building flowed with the hills it sat on, and a few wings had levels higher than the others.

Unlike the other places he had been to in this world, the ceilings were closer to the height he was used to. Though the place breathed well the stale smell still permeated, Steven soon acclimated to it and no longer noticed it. Digging a piece of chalk from a spare pocket, Steven started down the hall to his left, intending to conduct a ‘left hand search’ and methodically work his way around.