Grave of the Ancient

“Dear, take a look at this.”

“What is it?”

In the Kingdom of Kaltahr, the survey of the Grave of the Fire Ancient is proceeding apace. The most talented archeologists, astronomers, and sorcerers from the world over have gathered together to assist in efforts to analyze the ruins.

Nanalie’s mother, Mimilie, is among those working in the ruins. As the world’s top scholar in studies of the Ancient’s Graves, she is well-known to her colleagues as a skilled archaeologist.

The Grave of the Fire Ancient was discovered at the base of a volcano located in the distant reaches of the continent, within the Kingdom of Kaltahr. Many scholars had come to this volcano looking for the Grave before, but none had been successful.

The man who had first found the Grave had been a mere sorcerer from Kaltahr, sent to this area to look for a certain type of magical creature. By chance, he had stumbled upon this cavern. Thinking that his quarry might reside within, he had ventured inside the tunnel entrance, to find not a magical creature but a massive Grave.

Talented scholars from all across the continent had been summoned to examine it. There are now over one hundred individuals working inside this cavern to uncover the secrets of the Grave of the Fire Ancient.

There is a reason such a large-scale survey is being conducted.

Demons have been increasing in number everywhere in recent years. Not only that, but a Devil has terrorized the Royal Courts in every country, bandying about the name “Städal.” The general public is not aware of either of these facts. The rulers of each Kingdom, however, have given orders to their top scholars that they are to discover the cause of this increase in demonic activity, and answer the most pressing questions presented by the current circumstances:

Who is “Städal?” Can demons be permanently exterminated? Is there any way the almost-certainly coming demonic catastrophe be avoided?

The scholars have a reason for looking to the Graves to answer these questions. Until now, every other Grave besides Fire and Ice has been found, and at each of the others had been a stone slab engraved with ancient runes.

“ði eɪʤ əv ðəˈʃæˌdoʊ kɪŋˈkænɑt biˌfɔrˈstɑld— ‘The Age of the Shadow King cannot be forestalled.’ That’s what it says.”

“Hey, everyone! Come over here!”

The grave site is lined with large holes, wherein magical flames flicker and spark, lighting up the whole cave. Scraggly and pockmarked as the volcanic stone is, they can’t even be said to fulfill their apparent function as the “walls” of the grave—any sort of impact would send the whole structure crumbling.

Graves of the Ancients appear to be like the altars found in cathedrals. All have been found to be surrounded by large stone slates, as tall as doors. The scholars have been examining dozens of these stone slates, engraved as they are with ancient runes. Mimilie, however, had been looking over a small slate, only a fourth the size of the others.

At her side and assisting her in the work is her husband, Kaurus Hel. Kaurus had accepted a work assignment at Harré, a request that had asked for sorcerers to come and assist scholars in their survey of the ruins.

“Please bring me the slates found at the other Graves of the Ancients.”

At Mimilie’s request, several men carry over slates brought here from the other Graves. Magic doesn’t work on the slates; they must be carried by hand.

“It looks like the slates fit together to form more runes. The order must be...Earth, Lightning, Air, Water, then Fire, so it comes out like this.”

Mimilie ties her dark brown hair back, then arranges the slates on the ground in front of her. The other four slates had been found by scholars at the other Graves, and they had discovered in their previous investigations that the slates would fit together, forming sentences from the runes written on them.

The runes told of the Sin committed by the Ancients, all those years ago. It had been thought that when all of the slates were joined together, a way to eliminate all demons would be revealed. Only these five, however, appeared to be needed in order to read all that was written. Each slate was in the shape of a rhombus, carrying a slice of the message. Upon joining the five slates together, the designs on the outer edges fit together perfectly, confirming that the combination was true.

“I shall read it out now.” Mimilie traces her fingers along the grooves and edges of the runes.

“We have committed a grave Sin.

For peace can be banal,

Banality can be suffocating,

And suffocation of the soul

Is but another name for madness.

We spilt our blood on banality

And so consumed each other.

To we who knew not fear,

At us were fangs most fearsome bared.

The seed sown by us

Bears now a sinister hue.

The Age of the Shadow King cannot be forever forestalled,

For his name is Städal.

Oh beloved Ice, sleeping deep beneath the sea,

The key to his destruction lies within you.”

“‘Städal’! It’s written right there!” An old gentleman with a great white beard points to the slate.

“Just as we feared,” Mimilie says. She turns away from the slates to look at the scholars gathered around her. “The legends of Genesis may in fact be true, which means the First Demon truly was created by the Ancients. Everyone, what are your opinions on the matter?”

“If ‘Städal’ is the Shadow King, then we can assert he may also be the ‘demon chief’ that strange Devil spoke of.”

“But what does ‘beloved Ice’ refer to?”

“The ‘key to his destruction’ must be Ice-type mages. In the Ice-type Guardian Spirit incantation, isn’t there a line about summoning the ‘Key of Eschaton’? Are not ‘destruction’ and ‘eschaton’ synonyms?”

“If only we could find the Grave of the Ice Ancient...”

“I have heard of demons across the continent as being weak to ice spells. Perhaps those rumors are true.”

“There have been reports suggesting that demons fear the power of Ice-types and have actively sought out and killed them, leading to an even smaller number of Ice-types in the modern era.”

“Based on what is described in these glyphs at the end, the power of Ice is necessary to destroy the demons. The runes around this glyph can also mean to ‘gather,’ or ‘absorb.’ This one means ‘to break,’ or ‘rupture,’ which means...”

“The demons might be trying to absorb the power of Ice to a degree that her power is ruptured, leading to the annihilation of all Ice-types...?”

Mimilie had been quietly listening to the conversation between the scholars and the other researchers. Upon hearing this last implication, however, her brow furrowed with worry, and she stepped away from the group.

Seeing Mimilie separate herself from those around the Grave, Kaurus follows after her. He sees her trembling back and embraces her, arms wrapped tight around her waist.

“Calm down, Mimilie.”

“Yes, yes... I need to calm down.” She sighs, and shakes her head. “When our little girl told us she wanted to work at Harré, I had no idea what to say to her.”

Kaurus remains silent, listening.

“I knew instinctively that—no matter what she or I might want—her magic type would be affected by choosing to work there. Even knowing that it might be dangerous, however, I just wanted to let her do what she wanted to do. I wanted her to live out her dreams in this wonderful world of magic.”

Mimilie recalls that moment when Nanalie, still very young, had come up to the two of them, full of hopes and dreams and declared, “I want to be a receptionist lady!” She’d been so happy to watch her daughter grow up to become a talented receptionist, achieving her dream—but she’d also grown to worry a good deal more about her only child.

“I met Her, you know, deep in the sea. She encouraged my little trysts with you in that Sheeran bay. It sounds incredible, I’m sure—but I did meet Her, in spirit and power, even though She no longer had a body.”

Mimilie holds her husband’s arms tighter against her waist, thinking back on when, long ago, she left home.

Her words had been clear as crystal: “I, too, wish to be with someone on land. There is a hand I wish to hold. Even if he and I no longer possess our original forms.”

So saying, She had granted Mimilie’s wish and turned her into a human. But She, who lacked a vessel for her soul, had done so in exchange for Mimilie allowing Her to reside in her womb. The trade was made, and Mimilie and Kaurus had finally been able to be together.

Mimilie regrets none of what she did.

“I always believed that if She had a Grave, then surely the Others did as well. I’ve always been the curious, adventurous sort, of course, but that’s why I became an archeologist—I wanted to travel the world to find the other Graves. After all, She—”

“She knew demons would terrorize this world once more, right?”

Kaurus knew this story, having heard it before when he had led her away from her home.

“I searched and searched for any other way besides using Her power, Ice’s power, but in the end, in the Graves were written only confessions of the committed Sin.”

Mimilie recalls that when Nanalie was born, she had felt something else leave her body as well.

The power residing within her daughter would surely become necessary in the near future. But once that power was used and gone, what would happen to her daughter?

“If the others find out the truth about Nanalie, she’ll be drawn into the battle against the demons. Before that happens, we should go back—”

“Everyone, run! The volcano’s freezing over!”

Several of the scholars that had been working outside the cave come running inside, foreheads dripping with sweat.

“The volcano is freezing over?” Several of the people inside peek their heads outside the cave mouth, only to find icy plains as far as the eye can see, as if the Season of Distant Skies itself has suddenly and completely blanketed the world around them. Covering the land is not snow but ice, creaking and cracking its way up into the cave, edging towards the Grave.

Kaurus took one look at the strange ice spreading out before them and grabbed his wife’s hand. “Mimilie, we’ll talk later! We’ve got to hurry back to Nanalie—!” He tries casting a levitation spell to send them flying to the borders of Doran, but that’s when he realizes something even stranger.

“I can’t...use magic?” Kaurus stares down at his right hand, dumbfounded.

“What? Why?” Mimilie asks.

Kaurus incants the spell once more, to no effect. Not even a flicker of magic slips from his fingertips.

“Karomagia Zohon!... I can’t summon either! What’s going on—whoa, my body—”

The Grave itself is freezing over. Unable to forestall its advance, all those within the cave can only scream and shout as the ice creeps ups their legs.

All of the spell-flames Kaurus had cast to illuminate the cavern go out with a poof. At the same time, Kaurus begins to show signs of anemia. Unable to use magic and dizzy from the chill stealing through his blood, he collapses onto the ground.

“It looks like they are far cleverer than we had thought them to be.”

Glaring out at the frosty world beyond the cave, Mimilie hugs the fallen Kaurus tight against her chest.