The System Seas

As soon as the door closed behind him, the woman’s forehead hit the tabletop.

“Marco, you sure do bring me interesting problems,” she said. “I don’t think you realize just how close that was.”

“I got a sense. What are the normal rules of parlay, anyway?”

“It’s an obscure law,” Elisa explained. “Parlay with a stationary target, like a settlement, comes with some risk for the island. When parlaying, they have to allow a certain number of troops on their shores, and it gives the ships time to maneuver and prepare. So the other side has to go a certain distance away directly after the meeting. It’s pretty far.”

“It would be further for anyone but Frisk. Remember that ship of his eats up distance very quickly.” The old woman stood. “We probably have about four hours, and I want to save an hour of that. Three hours. That’s not much time.”

“Time for what?” Riv said. “To dig our own graves?”

“Nothing that serious, I’d say.” The old woman opened the door as she strode out into the open. “But there is some digging involved. We are going to see your temple.” Updates are released by novelꞁire.net

The old woman marched out at a clip they could all keep up with, a brisk walk that seemed to promise to wear her out before too long. That promise was not kept. After ten minutes were up, the old woman had only increased her pace as she took them over increasingly challenging terrain. Her stride never broke no matter how the steep the slope got or how overgrown the ground became, and no matter how much the kids behind her tripped over themselves to try and keep up.

“Don’t worry. We’re getting there quicker, even if it doesn’t seem like it. I’ve had to walk up and down to this damned thing plenty since you left on your little trip. This is the quickest way,” the woman said.

That turned out to be true, and they were in sight of the temple long, long before Marco thought it was possible. Even more impossible-seeming was how much of the temple was unearthed now. A good two stories worth of building had been uncovered with the promise of more still hiding beneath the earth, and it seemed the hill they had found it in would be more than halved by the time they were done.

“It’s huge.” Aethe looked at the temple with wide eyes. “It’s not Elvish either. Who else has been here long enough to build something like this?”

“We have no idea. I’ve asked my scholars the same thing, and they say there must have been someone here before humans were. Before civilization as we know it, someone else slapped this up.”

“Is that true?” Riv asked. “It sounds like the kind of pile someone makes up when they just don’t know.”

“It’s possible.” The old woman walked up to the temple and touched the side of it. “But it is old. Very old. What’s more, we have a bit of an idea of what it’s for. Any time one of us touches it, we get this message.”

She unrolled a parchment and handed it over to Marco. There, in a handwritten mockup of a system screen, was a message.