2998 Inner Garden (Part 2)
'On my mark.' Lith said without moving a muscle or waving a spell. 'Mark!'
The Tiamat Fear spread out, flooding the world energy and the patches of ground with Lith's energy signature and willpower. It caused a ripple in the mana currents of the Garden that the Ears couldn't predict, scrambling all of their readings.
For one moment, Maergron was blinded. He couldn't perceive his enemies and the Ears only gave him static while adapting to the interference.
For one moment, the barbed vines were without direction and it was enough. The Awakened easily dodged the initial attack and exploited the paralysis of the vines to destroy them in a fell swoop.
Lith didn't move, letting Bytra block the attacks aimed at him and focusing on keeping the pulses of Tiamat Fear short and irregular.
'I bet that the Ears of Menadion can read my mana flow as well, but only if it lasts long enough to become another current in the Garden. The artifact can't predict where and with how much strength I'll "throw a rock" in the world energy.
'On top of that, if I can undermine the fucker's trust in his ace in the hole, he will think twice before trying to escape.' He thought.
***
"What the fuck was that?" Maergron cursed when the Ears reestablished the connection with the tunnel and the situation was already resolved.
The members of the Hand of Fate had resumed their advance and there were no patches of ground for a long while. Even worse, the intruders had learned the trick and wouldn't fall for it a second time.
"This doesn't make sense. Master Pharek had the Ears since they were forged and not once did they malfunction." The Redcap cast his best Forgemastering spells, trying to find an explanation but without success.
"Was it just bad luck or am I cursed?" He looked around the lab, but there was no one in the room with him. "Master Pharek, I'm sorry for killing you. You gave me everything and I threw it in your face like the stupid brat I am.
"Please, forgive me." No one but the ghosts conjured by his guilty conscience.
***
'Nice trick, little brother.' Zoreth said. 'I wish I could do that too.'
'Thanks.' Lith replied. 'Don't lower your guard. We are getting close.'
Even though the tunnel seemed to go on forever, according to the Eyes there were only a few hundreds of meters between the group and his mark. The Shadow Dragon confirmed Lith's readings, Maergron's smell grew stronger and fresher with every step they took.
'Solus?' Bytra asked, scared by the prolonged stillness of the membranous bundle.
'I'm fine now. Thanks.' She had woken up for a while, her body had completely recovered and her strength was back to its peak.
Without the burden of holding Solus' body together, the tower had drawn upon the Garden to fix the damage and replenish her mana. She had yet to come out only because she wanted to preserve her strength and take care of the Eyes for Lith until he needed her help.
Strider still found their relationship weird, bordering on creepy.
After witnessing the care Lith had for Solus, the fondness with which he spoke of his wife and daughter, and him saving the Hand of Fate's asses, however, the Zouwu was willing to admit he had been wrong.
'Abominations are not just monsters.' He thought. 'The way Bytra cares for the Shadow Dragon and Solus, a complete stranger, proves that Verhen isn't just an exception. Once the mission is over, I have to give them a proper apology.'
One more turn to the right and suddenly they could see the end of the tunnel. The passage opened in an underground cave so large they couldn't see the end of it and with its domed ceiling over 200 meters (660') high.
At least, that was their best estimate since the upper layer of the cave was eclipsed by what looked like a multi-colored starred sky. The world energy was so dense that it took semi-physical form in clouds of the six elemental colors.
Sometimes the different flows mixed, creating shiny gatherings of one element surrounded by a different, sparser, element and giving the impression that a bright yet small sun shone from behind a cloud.
The elemental flow moved through the ceiling as if carried by an invisible wind. The members of Lith's group knew they were deep underground but the spectacle gave them the illusion of having stepped inside a wide open space.
The elemental clouds lit the cave as bright as day, revealing the majestic structure of the temple. It was built with earth magic from the rock of the cave itself. The naked temple was shaped like an Earth's ziggurat and carved from a single block of stone.
It was comprised of ten rectangular floors, one on top of the other, those above smaller than those below forming what looked like a stair for giants to reach the sky. Each floor showed no sign of the hand of builders and its straight walls were too perfect to have been cut by a mortal hand.
The entire structure had been designed by a genius and built by one or more powerful mages by channeling the power of the mana geyser.
The temple was surrounded by luscious vegetation that stopped just a few meters before the tunnel from which Lith and the others had emerged. Even from the entrance, they could see at least five more tunnels that started from a different point but led to the temple.
The green covered the floor of the cave and each of the levels of the ziggurat, giving it the shape of a pyramid. There were water ponds everywhere, flower bushes, and trees of all species growing on and around the temple.
"Those are Lotus Dhalias." Strider pointed at a bundle of aquatic plants in a pond whose flowers had thick violet petals like a lotus flower but were shaped like a dahlia's. "They are a very rare sight in Zima and are not supposed to grow anywhere else."
"And those are Dandedragons of the Empire!" Zoreth stared in amazement at fluffy flowers that looked like an Earth's dandelion but were oblong like a snout and with two red straight petals resembling horns right behind them.
"They only grow on our tallest mountains. How the heck did they end up in an underground cave in the Kingdom?"
"What about Verendi's Moonroses?" Bytra turned Zoreth's head toward a bush flower filled with snow-white roses with large and flat petals arranged in an almost perfect circle. "Or Jiera's Sunbirds?"
They were bright orange bellflowers with two pairs of petals each.?One pair was curved, giving the impression of spread wings, while the other was as straight as an arrow, giving them the semblance of a flying bird.
"And those are Fire Orchids! Grandma's favorite flowers!" They looked like orchids, but were crimson red and glowed in the dark.
The people of the Blood Desert loved Fire Orchids and had made them their Overlord's symbol because they only grew near a water source. During the night, their luminescence was visible from afar, guiding the lost travelers to salvation.
