Chapter 396: The Seal
Laz was feeling better and decided he needed some air. Nora and Celes had come with him because, as they put it, he needed protection. While Laz seriously doubted that, he didn’t say anything against them doing so, happy for the company.
As it was, Laz felt a draw, something that wanted him to go a certain way. He had felt this kind of draw before and knew that there was no use denying it. Therefore, he just relented and went where his feet wanted to take him.
Strangely enough, Laz ended up at the field where the ’guests’ of the order were digging for stones. As Laz looked on, the ’guests’ ate away in various holes in the ground, grabbing the shinning stones and delivering them to the assembled guards. In the past, the women guards wouldn’t have been nearly as careful as they were being now. Now, with the rule change that had been implemented after Laz demonstrated just how valuable these stones were, the workers would only be allowed to keep so many on them before they had to bring them over for registry. While that might have seemed like a pain, doing so earned the ’guests’ a drink of their choice and a half hour break from digging. In this way, the workers would work harder while digging, just to get their rewards sooner. This was also a suggestion Laz put forth in order to expedite results.
And the results were exceptional.
Thanks to this, more stones were being brought up every day than ever before, or at least it seemed that way. Truth be told, there wasn’t nearly as much attention or focus on this project before so no one really knew just how many stones had been lost or discarded before the change.
Either way, Laz looked at the guests and couldn’t help but sigh, remembering his short time digging.
Still though, he kept moving, letting Celes and Nora deal with the guards who came over with questions. They all knew Laz, but that didn’t mean they were comfortable dealing with him. Thanks to their training, they had respect for Laz, but also a subtle fear of him as well.
Celes and Nora quickly got the guards to go back while continuing to follow Laz, themselves wondering where he was going.
It didn’t take long before Laz stopped at one of the strange iron markers that ran along the edge of this particular field. He never had time to study these before, but had guessed they were important somehow.
This time, he wanted to fully understand them. It also helped his drive because he could feel that this was where he was being directed.
Seeing the first iron maker, Laz got down on his knees to take a closer look. The iron looked old and rusted, having long been exposed to the elements. Despite that, the writing was still visible on it, although not as clear as the day it had been made he decided. While there were still bits that were legible, there was a lot that wasn’t and Laz felt that was the key to figuring them out.
Reaching out, Laz tried his best to move the stake from it’s ancient resting place, only to find it locked down tight into the ground. Even when Laz used all of his strength, pushing his feet into the ground and causing the ground to crack with his effort, it still refused to budge. While the iron itself was heavy, that didn’t explain Laz’s failure. While the stake did wiggle, it just couldn’t be removed from the ground. If pressed, Laz would have said it felt like the stake was attached on the underside like a magnet.. but that didn’t make any sense.
"I didn’t really notice these before..." Nora said, looking at the hunk of iron in front of Laz.
"We felt they were weird, but since they were so old, we just left them alone. Is there something special with these?" Celes asked, her eyes turning a black as she tried to study the piece closely.
Seeing this, Laz figured he should try the same thing and used his Heavenly Gaze skill, trying to see what secrets were there. Interestingly enough, doing so made the faded letters burn in his vision, as though the wording itself was carved with fire. While it was bright and glaring, it didn’t hurt his vision.
Celes was another case though, closing her eyes quickly as she spoke,
"Yes. Yeah, I know. Don’t do that. The fire element isn’t our friend. Not the regular stuff anyway," Celes said to no one but was probably speaking with that female shadow who was always around her now.
’Fire huh?’ Laz thought to himself before bringing out the black flame within and bringing it to the stake. As the piece of iron heated up, the rust and signs of aging fell away while the once faded writing came back into view, as clear as the day it was carved into the iron stake.
"I have no idea what this says, Laz decided after a moment of careful attention. He looked over to Celes who was equally confused before turning to Nora. Unlike Celes, Nora seemed engrossed within the writings while she mumbled to herself things only she understood.
"It’s not as old as you may think," Nora said as she looked over the text.
"So how old is it?" Laz asked, his gaze not leaving the markings.
"A couple hundred years, give or take. Maybe as much as a thousand, but not much older than that."
"Ok. First, that is old. I mean... a thousand years? That seems pretty far back. And second, how do you know this? I didn’t think languages were in your area of expertise?" Laz asked, surprised by how sure she sounded.
"Well, I just kind of do. I don’t really have an answer. It’s like, I’m recalling information from somewhere, but I know I never learned it myself," Nora answered, just as confused as Laz.
"Ok. So. What does it say?" Celes finally spoke up to someone other than herself.
"It doesn’t really say anything. Well. Ok. It does say something, but it’s not a sentence or anything like that. Just a string of words with no translation only because the words are... original words? I guess that’s the best way to describe it. The words are words without meaning because the meaning is the word itself."
Now everyone was confused at what Nora was saying and try as she might, she didn’t have a better explanation than the one she was giving. Instead of trying to understand, Laz instead stood up and using his skill, located the next iron stake. Repeating the process yielded no new results. Once again they had meaningless words and a stake which couldn’t be moved.
Despite this, Laz kept on, finding five of them in total. As the last one was unearthed, Laz then noticed something he hadn’t seen before. While the stake itself was the exact same as the others, right down to the fact that the symbols were the same, using Heaven’s Gaze, Laz noticed a small light, thin enough to be practically invisible, running from one stone, to another to another. If one could see this set up from the air, they would think it was shaped like a star.
"Strange," Laz muttered before sharing his findings with the girls. While they couldn’t see it, they trusted Laz and believed him.
"So what now?" Celes asked, wondering just what Laz wanted to do by finding these things.
Just as Laz was about to answer, the ground shook, stronger than the last time. Since they were outside, there was nothing they needed to watch out for so the three of them just sat down and waited until the ground stopped shaking.
As they were doing so, Nora’s attention was suddenly drawn to the nearby stake. What she saw almost caused her to scream.
Instead of doing that though, she pointed to the stake while trying her best to grab Laz’s and Celes’ attention. She succeeded when Laz finally turned his head to see what she was pointing to.
The stake was moving.
Up and down, slowly. Deliberately.
As Laz looked on, the stake came out and then got sucked back in, over and over again.
Laz stood up and quickly reached for the stake, but as he did so, the shaking stopped. As the ground quit moving, so did the stake.
Luckily, Celes had seen it too, she just froze in place unlike Laz.
"What was that? What the fuck was that? Why was it moving?" Celes finally got out as Laz continued to stare at it like it was going to reveal it’s secrets as long as he didn’t move.
Neither girl said anything, instead focusing on Laz. Laz closed his eyes, spreading out his sense under the ground in the hopes of seeing something. But once again, as he went around one hundred feet past the surface, all he saw was darkness. Whatever was there, he couldn’t make out.
Opening his eyes, Laz was about to suggest they all go inside for a bit until something flashed within his mind.
"Convince that sleeping god to join us."
It’s what A’ruya had said to him during their brief meeting that somehow suddenly took root within his head.
Shocked, Laz looked down again used his sense to check the ground. This time, instead of trying to pierce the blackness, he went around it, following it as far as he could before his brain started throbbing with the effort.
Laz then started to walk while doing so, Nora and Celes’ following. Laz walked until the reached the dead center of the space the five stakes were placed, right in the middle of where all the tiny strings of energy connected. Once he got there, his eyes went wide as Laz fought to keep his balance.
"Fuck me..." Laz finally said, not able to believe what he was seeing.
"What baby?" Nora asked, looking down.
Laz didn’t answer but instead, reached a hand out to grab her wrist. Laz then reached out his other arm and took hold of Celes wrist as well. As he did this, the red ring became clear behind him as the eyes of both girls went golden. Seeing things that they had never seen before, they quickly got themselves under control and followed Laz’s gaze.
There, at around seventy five feet underneath the ground, was a massive tangle of black and green fuzz, like a wall of moss that had just been growing bigger over the years. But as they knew this wasn’t something Laz would bother them with, they kept looking, suddenly realizing that the moss was attached to something. As they scanned it, they finally understood why Laz had reacted the way he did.
It was a giant, humanoid head and that mossy collection was actually it’s hair. More than that, they were able to see the lengths of iron stakes that extended all the way down from the ground and pierced into the head of this massive creature.
Once they understood this, they suddenly had a horrible thought.
"NO!" Celes cried out, opening her eyes as Laz let go of her wrist.
"That... that can’t be..." Nora said, herself a mess with understanding.
"That’s exactly it. The earthquakes were caused by this thing moving around. As for those stakes? They are pounded into it’s skull. The reason they were moving was because this big thing here started breathing."
"Why would someone pound iron stakes into a man’s head? Assuming it is a man..." Celes said, her thoughts a mess.
"To seal it. To shut off it’s brain. It’s a old thought, an old study.... but it did work," Nora answered, regaining her composure.
"So what happens when it wakes up?" Laz asked Nora.
"If those stakes are still in it’s head? It will be scared, confused and probably very angry. Basically? It would be like King Kong, except far more dangerous."
"Great fucking fantastic...."
