[center][h2][color=8B0000][u][b]Empire of Matathran[/b][/u][/color][/h2][/center]

The orders were given and the group split up. The two mercenaries accompanied two Seekers back towards the World-Hauler with all the knowledge they got from the Totem of Lucrore. But not before Lee brought the fear of the Gods into these men's hearts. Should any of the Seekers not return, Ittain would search for them. Ittain would find them and he would kill them in the same, horrible manner as he killed their compagnons. Should they succeed though, their mates' shares would be theirs. The group remained united until they were nearing Chalice and then they split.

Lee, Ittain and one more Seeker headed for Hyperion's Way. A strange place nested in the mountains. Several myths and half-truths gleaned from talks at the inns down south spoke of a flower that somehow brought forth a weapon. Ittain seemed to mumble something about the Flower of Stars. Lee had grown to respect the man but also fear him. He wasn't just a mere old man. Still, the promise of this the Celestial Flower (as later merchants named it) was too great to pass on. So they marched on, into the mountains.

The trek was somewhat arduous - though there was a foot-path leading up to their destination, it was poorly maintained, and near the top Lee was stopped by Ittain just in time to prevent him from setting off a tripwire snare that would have set off a rockfall trap had he broken it - they would have company more disreputable than last time, it would seem.

When they finally reached the plateau set in the mountainside, the site which the map labeled as Hyperion's Way became apparent - it was modest, by the standards of the vale. A round plaza made of weathered bricks, with a single stone slab in the middle inscribed with ancient, unrecognizable text - and, set into the side of the mountain was a single natural cavern passage.

More recent additions to the area were present in the form of two tents, a few racks, a campfire, and a number of leather parcels lain out in stacks - along with three individuals, armed, and unlikely to be Matathran officials.

"Well, look who got past the rockfall snare." One of them declared nonchalantly as all three men rose, drawing their weapons - crude, improvised blades that looked as though they had been made from the remnants of plows. "If you came to take the trial, you came just in time. Come noon, the last piece of meat will either succeed or fail - and you'll be next." His expression was jovial, and his eyes filled with greed as he slowly approached, his two companions circling around to flank Ittain and Lee.

“Ittain, maybe it’s time you show them that blue flames spell of yours again.” Lee said rather tentatively to his master. While he and the other Seeker pulled their much sharper blades. But Ittain turned to Lee and said: “Oh, even I don’t know what spell that was.” He said as if it was just to mention it like a small detail. But it was the fact Lee had counted on. With their official protection gone, he thought Ittain could just blast them away. “Wait so… you can’t protect us?” Lee asked surprised, if not a little frightened. “Oh… suppose I can. I think. Maybe I should sit down and think about that spell. It could pop up again. It had blue flames you say?” Ittain said as if the group of bandits were standing in front of them. “Damn, now is not the time!” Lee said, pointing his dagger at the one who spoke. Ittain turned to them, showing his bandaged eyes.

“Oh, that little trap? A nice work really. Using your environment. Saves a lot of time I’d imagine. Trial? Oh look, Lee, they’re already performing a Trial! Wait, what Trial?” Ittain just spoke as if nothing was wrong. Lee on the other hand: “Are you not seeing those damned blades!? They’re going to kill us!” Meanwhile he held his left hand behind his back, forming an illusion spell with it.

"Oh no, we won't kill you. Not unless you you make it inconvenient for us. No, I imagine it will be the wasps what kill you." The bandit's leader chortled as all three of them began to encroach on the seekers. "Now, put down your blades, or we'll kill the gibbering old fool first - slowly."

“Excuse me did you just call me [i]a fool[/i]?” Ittain asked, as if he only took offense of that fool. “Listen, you drop your weapons and we promise you can just go away with your lives. Think about it man. Our blades are clearly a lot better than yours.” Still, maybe they had trained with theirs? It was something Lee though only briefly about as in his mind he was shaping the giant serpent for the spell. It was almost done.

"You only have daggers, and from the looks of your clothes you are all some of those weird blood-caste foreigners. You've probably never had to use them a day in your life." The bandit leader said, his smile finally vanishing even as he took another two steps forward - just inside of lunging distance. "Last chance. Drop 'em, or else there will barely be anything left for the wasps."

Lee didn’t answer. Instead he held up his left hand high and let a purple flash fill the area. He hoped the illusion was convincing enough. He had woven quite a few of them already in the past. But never under stress like this. In the leader's eyes, a giant snake would burst out of the rocks behind the group of bandits, showing it’s giant fangs before it rushed towards them. It couldn’t hurt them. It wasn’t even real. The falling stones from the serpent bursting out couldn’t even touch them. They just weren’t there. The illusion though, wasn’t flawless. Some rocks falling had no sound and on parts of the serpents body scales were missing. Still, people of lesser wit could believe it was a real monster.

The illusion worked, in part - the bandit leader and one of the other two did not even hear the illusion with its inconsistent sounds - but the third did, causing him to turn back in surprise and subsequently panic. The man screamed in terror, jumping backwards awkwardly directly into Lee and his waiting knife as the bandit leader recoiled in shock at his comrade's action. The third, turning to look at what had spooked the first, saw the illusion and also fell for it - albeit, with unexpected bravery, charged headlong as the serpent with a roar and a swipe of their blade, only to fall flat on their face for their effort.

“Oh, Dire Serpent. A little inconsistent though.” Ittain said. “Is now really the right moment to criticize me!?” Lee rebutted. “Well whenever else?” Ittain returned. “When we aren’t threatened by someone with cold hard iron!” Lee was getting fed up. But Ittain barely realized in what situation he was. Lee barely understood the inner workings of the old man. In fact, he shouldn’t even be able to see the Dire Serpent. “Oh him? He’s no-one. Look at him, holding a sharpened shovel like it’s a weapon. Now you be careful sir. That’s a very dangerous object you’re holding. Now, if you would be so kind, maybe you could be our guide into this cave. There are coming all sorts of interesting energies from it.”

The bandit leader did not comply, instead snarling and lunging for Lee with his crude weapon out-thrust, even as the third bandit behind him began to get back up on their feet.

Lee could dodge the attacks, but in the act the leader passed Ittain. “Well that is just rude.” In the meanwhile, Lee was fighting. He was barely able to say: “Would you help me here!?” The action almost cost him his ear. Ittain just sighed. “Very well, I suppose I will.” He held out his hand out towards the nearest rock wall. A red-hot glow burned a strange, glyphic circle in it. From it, a pitch black portal appeared and out came a large, black, human like arm with claws on its fingers. It grabbed the leader and pulled him back into the black portal. Above the bandit that was just getting up another glyphic circle formed in red-hot lines drawn in the very air. From it another black portal appeared, dropping the bandit leader on his mate. Both black portals then closed themselves. On the rock only a handful of glyphs remained burned into the rock. Ittain walked up to the two bandits, saying: “Now that we have that little, petty skirmish out of the way, how about you tell us a little about this place?”

The bandit leader simply swore, and with a surge, leapt to his feet and fled back down the mountain trail, having lost his blade in the portal. His compatriot, stunned from having the hefty man dropped on him out of nowhere, was groaning and rolling over onto his side, his own blade abandoned by his side. He did not seem inclined to speak up.

"What's all the comm...o...tion..." A fourth bandit started as they emerged from the cavern passage, seeing the three seekers standing over the bodies of two of his companions. His face blanched, and without a word, he turned and ran back into the depths of the cavern passage.

“Really just all so rude.” Ittain complained. Lee on the other hand was quite out of breath from everything that just happened. “That one isn’t going to talk.” He said looking at the groaning bandit. “Guess we’ll have to ask the one who ran inside.” And so Ittain and Lee went into the cave. “Hello? Young man! We’re not here to hurt you. We’re pilgrims.” Ittain yelled through the cave, as Jacob held his hand up and cast a light spell to brighten the cave up.

The cavern passage went on a ways, and while unlit beyond the magical light Jacob had cast, its length was even, the walls generously proportioned, and the ground level. They shortly came to a tight curve in the passage, and turning it, they found the chamber of Hyperion's Way.

They stood on a perilously short ledge overlooking what, for all intents and purposes, might well have been a sheer drop for a bottomless chasm. There was a single hole in the ceiling of the cave through which the sun's light shone, but even with the addition of Jacob's light the dark depths remained veiled in shadow. The pit was filled with the sound of a distant humming, like a vast swarm of flying insects. Around the walls of the room were carved alcoves of stone recessed into the cavern's structure, inaccessible by foot, each containing an exquisite marble statue of an ancient figure, looking into the chamber with passive, stoic expressions. Many of them wielded implements of various natures, instruments, weapons, tools - some wore crowns and robes, whilst more were naked or armored. Their proportions and features were apart and alien from any species of hominid, so it stood to reason that most of the statues represented Primordial figures. Above them, the cavern roof formed a hemispherical dome, with a single aperture at the top where a ray of daylight shone through.

A number of pillars rose from the darkness below - most of them thin, and supporting seemingly randomly proportioned stepping-stones that could have been chosen from amongst any of the large rocks that had lined the mountain trail on the way up, all of them leading to the larger, central pillar, which supported a large stone plinth - a vessel, filled with earth, upon which coward a single naked and decrepit figure covered in oozing sores and lesions, strips of their flesh having fallen away, signs of their waste and their rotting flesh scattered across the top of the plinth. The bandit they had seen retreating into the cave was hopping hastily across the stepping stones towards the central plinth.

“Well this looks interesting.” Ittain just looked into the distance, at the statues. Finding them much more worthy of his attention than the bandit. Lee hated the situation he was in, but he couldn't ignore the single light, the stepping stones, the wrecked victim in the middle of it all. It all just formed a greater whole. “Hey, you there! Stop!” He yelled to the bandit. Though not daring to get on the stepping stones himself.

The bandit set foot on the plinth then turned back to face the seekers. "No! All of you lot had better throw your weapons down into the pit here and then [i]leave[/i], or else I'll be putting this sad heap out of their misery!" He called out at the seekers - his face had gone stark-white, he was trembling all over, and his fists, which were clenched tightly, were trembling. The prone form of the figure behind him only curled further in upon itself in response to the bandit's intrusion upon the pedestal.

Lee really didn’t want to drop his weapon. Though he knew that in the end, he had the upper hand. But he didn’t want the upper hand. He wanted information. Then it reached him. He pulled out one of his coin purses and held it up, shaking it slightly. “See this? It’s all yours if you tell us about these Trials.”

"How about [i]fuck you?!?![/i]" The bandit shouted back, drawing his own plowshard sword and gesturing it at the prone, rancid heap of flesh behind him. "You heard me! Weapons in the pit, then back out! No more words, just [i]get[/i]!"

“Well you’re just a terrible guide really. We’re offering you good gold here just for you to open your mouth and in return, you’re threatening some poor sap.” Ittain said from the side. “Besides, we don’t really care for that guy. He ain’t with us so why should we care if you kill him?” Lee added, keeping the coin purse out and in sight. “You don’t really stand to win anything no matter what you do.”

"Shut up! Just shut up!" The bandit pressed the tip of his sword into the quivering figure behind him. He paused abruptly, his face contorting in fear and anger as the sound of the humming swarms below started to slowly grow in intensity.

“Ittain, maybe you should cast the spell again.” Lee told his master. Who was still distracted. “What spell?” the old man asked confused. “The arm and the black portals!?” But Ittain just looked confused. Until he finally got it. “Oh right! No. That wasn’t the spell.” He began to speak to himself, pondering upon it. “Was it the… no, no that one has irridiscent portals. Maybe it was.. No that doesn’t work with the moon as it is.” Lee just groaned and put the coins back away. “I’m done. Kill him.” He just said, being rather tired. What did he care if some random guy died? He would probably die of his wounds anyway. “But eventually you need to come off that pedestal as well and then I’m going to kill you. So either you come off it now and tell us what we want to know. Or you eventually come off it and we kill you. Either way I’m done with this.” Lee was getting really done with Matathran.

It was then that flickering lights began to dance within the darkness of the pit below. The approaching hum of innumerable insects grew even closer - the bandit peered with a terrified expression over the lip of the plinth and then, making a decision, yelled at Lee at the top of his breath and started charging across the stepping-stones towards the truth-seekers, his plowshard sword raised as he quickly leapt from stone to stone. Then, just as he reached the stepping stone right in front of the ledge the truth-seekers stood on, the horde arrived.

Untold hundreds of thousands of wasps filled the entire charmber, their wings a glittering, dark iridescent shade that blazed with glimmering light when they flew underneath the centermost column of light. Most of the swarm focused on the wounded figure still prone at the center of the chamber - but many of them swarmed around the truth-seekers, sensing their presence as a potential threat -

And then, with another roar, the bandit threw himself from the last stepping stone at Lee, having deliberately timed his charge to take advantage of the swarm's appearance and take the seeker off-guard. Even as he flung himself across the abyss, hundreds of the iridescent wasps angrily reacted to the bandit's erratic movements and began to rapidly sting him - but he was already flying through the air, and they could not stop his momentum.

Lee was too late to evade the man. Though it appeared that the numerous stings were more important than trying to stab Lee. Who crawled from under the idiot. Eventually kicking him off the ledge down into the abyss. “Run!” He yelled to Ittain, who finally realized that the insect’s were forming a beautiful colored piece of art. They both got out, Ittain suspiciously free of stings. While Lee had a few scabs and wounds on his arms. “What happened?” the Seeker outside, guarding the last bandit asked. “I don’t know, a swarm just appeared. Gods that did not look good.” Lee felt exhausted. But Ittain was strangely calm. “So when do you think the buzzing will stop?” 

Nearly a minute passed, and then finally, the sound of the thronging swarms within the cavern subsided, no longer audible from without.

When the buzzing stopped, Lee slowly walked back in the cave. The bandit and the wasps were gone. In the middle sat the same guy though. “Oh look, he’s still alive.” Said Ittain. As if he was just pleasantly surprised. “You alright!?” Yelled Lee. Suddenly the unimportant victim became their single, last source of information. So Lee decided to just play it friendly now. Even though he admitted that he didn’t care for the guy’s life mere minutes ago.

The victim - seemed no more damaged than before the swarm had risen from the depths. They still huddled, prone, in the center of the plinth - though now, fresh blood, pus, and phlegm flowed freely from the sores and lesions upon their back, arms, and head. They were trembling faintly, but did not move in response to Lee's inquiry.

Lee looked back at Ittain, who once again was entranced by the many statues far away from them. With a heavy sigh he began his journey over the stepping stones, dreading the deep abyss below him even more now. Once halfway he repeated his question: "You alright?" The answer was obvious though. Whoever it was, they looked far from healthy and Lee was not trained in any healing arts.  They could hear their heavy, ragged breathing from halfway across the gap. As Lee stepped onto the plinth, the figure visibly flinched away from them, scrambling towards the edge of the platform - revealing what their hunched form had been concealing.

A flower. A beautiful, gleaming flower with white petals, glowing beneath the sunlight, shimmering black lines dappling across its surface. Its stem seemed crystalline in nature, and its five drooping stamen seemed to be holding aloft between them a sparkling cloud of pollen. Lee, with his years of studying the most ancient of manuscripts and texts, took a moment to recognize exactly what it was. An Astral Flower - thought to have been extinct for thousands of years, and pollinated by a species of Iridescent Wasps.

A gasp left his lips. In the scriptures it was said the Flowers were destroyed. All of them, for they brought forth a weapon too powerful to exist. Yet here it was and within it, the weapon. Whatever it was. Legend would tell him. The myths would speak. It would become another powerful relic for the vaults of Vallenguin. He reached out, towards the flower. His fingers carefully going to the cloud. Exhiliartion was replaced with dread as he felt nothing. Shocked, mad and confused he shot right up again. Looking down at the flower as if it had betrayed him. Or had something much more conscious stolen it? 

He turned to look at the victim, trembling as they lay on the ground just by the edge of the plinth. Their body and features were so heavily damaged by wounds from constant stinging, too lathered with sweat, blood, and vitriolic fluids, that Lee could not even determine what gender they were. Their hair had all fallen out some time ago it seemed, and every part of their body was swollen with ruddy and pulsating blue hues just beneath the surface of their skin. Looking to their hands, Lee could see - one was open, lain flat against the ground. The other - their other hand was clenched, as if grasping something, even as blood soaked through their fingers. The extremity lay right beside the open pit.

"Now that is an interesting thing." Ittain said, having somehow appeared behind Lee. "Who would have thought the Gods would allow those things to exist?" the old man followed up. Lee, on the other hand, was in no mood for cryptic texts. The thing, the still-living-corpse before him held what he wanted. "Open your palm, hand it over." he said with a stern voice. The voice he used against slaves back home.

The gruesome figure shuddered, drawing their form up somewhat, their hands coming together beneath their prone body as they rocked lightly back and forth on their heels, right by the edge of the drop. [sub]"Everything..."[/sub] They whispered.

"Easy now. Just hand it over." Lee extended his hand, though kept another on his dagger should the man try anything. He was too weak though. Everyone could see that. He wouldn't live until dusk. That didn't bother Lee all that much now. He had a craving for the weapon the flower had spawned. "Just hand it over and we'll make it quick." Lee added, letting the cold steel of his dagger reflect in the sunlight.

[sub]"'He wasps..."[/sub] The victim's hoarse voice was barely intelligible. [sub]"They 'ook...ebbery'hing bah you bid no'...all for wha'...?"[/sub]

"You wouldn't understand." Lee argued. Obviously, this was a lesser man. Someone of little wit. A farmer no doubt. Someone who had few cares about the land beyond his own. "Maybe he would." Ittain interjected. Lee let out a deep sigh. "For what, you ask? For greatness. For something beyond petty human lives. It's for something greater than one man or even a group of men. It's for a greatness that eclipses a city! Power so dreaded that dared to rise up against the insects. Power that made people despair so hard that they burned those beautiful flowers. Hand over whatever the flower produced and maybe your name might just live on in the history books." Lee held his hand open once more.

The man stretched his clenched hand out over the abyss, the thronging Iridescent wasps below still audible - and open his hand, palm-up. Resting in the center of the victim's hand - was a pearl. What must have been a pearl - there was no other way to describe it. Approximately the size of a man's eye, it strained Lee's ocular senses, gleaming with impossible coloration and an iridescent sheen. The victim turned their face up to Lee -

Their visage was nightmarishly grotesque. Their lips were twisted in a crooked line, blending in with that jagged wounds criss-crossing their face, all of them oozing mortal fluid. Their eyes were but faint shining lines of a sickly grey above the prtruding lump in the center of their face. It was possible they were partially or entirely blind, and was just following the sound of Lee's voice as they turned their head to look at him.

[sub]"...All 'or greed and lus'?"[/sub] They choked out.

Suddenly Ittain took a step towards the man. In his eyes there was a shine Lee had not yet seen. "It... should not be..." the old man whispered. "The Impossible Color." The fact that this tiny object could entrance Ittain did not comfort Lee. Who held the man back. "You are holding something beautiful, my boy. This place of trial, it has weighted you. Please, I beg of you. You're holding something so beautiful yet you cannot see it. You cannot sense it. Please, let me show you. Through my eyes. So you may at least die knowing you have seen something that might just have been worth it all." Ittain spoke softly. With the common grandfatherly tone filled with genuine care.

[sub]"I habve seen enough."[/sub] The ruined figure's cracking voice managed to nonetheless convey a sense of finality. [sub]"...Jus' anober bauble. Jus' anodder preddy 'ing. Jus' anodder remnan' ob primordials."[/sub] Their ruined voice was barely comprehensible, though the gist of it got through. 

"No no, please. I beg of you. Your pain, I understand it. You are dying, please. Let me make it worth something. Let me make it worthy. I can help you." Ittain maintained, as he slowly approached the man.

[sub]"'Hab's your..."[/sub] The figure slurred something neither Lee or Ittain could make out. [sub]"...nodding wert id. Nodding."[/sub] Their whole body began to shake. Their hand, still clutching the impossible grandeur of the pearl, trembleded dangerously over the pit. They raised their other arm as if to shield themselves from Ittain as the man approached.

There was a pained look on Ittain. "You will forgive me." He outstretched one hand, almost touching the man as Ittain turned his vision towards the pearl. Sending the sensations towards the man. Sending him visions of what Ittain saw.

The entirety of the world was shadowed and dusken-hued. The plinth that the three all stood upon was nothing but a collection if writhing shadows. Lee had been reduced to a pale shade, barely perceptible but for the suggestion of his silhouette. The statues along the rim of the chamber were all blurred, waxy in structure and inchoate. But the pearl -

In the victim's hand, the Ammacre Pearl was a tiny star, emannating deep, rippling waves of iridescent and impossible light. Its brilliance was beyond what the mortal senses could withstand - the thing was more brilliant than the sun, but its light was not harsh, and to look at it was to feel an overwhelming sense of profound clarity, as though the entire rest of the start world were less real than the tiny, immaculate pearl clutched in the victim's hand. In the center of the glow, the pearl itself was like the spark of life, seen only in the eyes of others, incomprehensible but beautiful despite its intangible nature - an ineffable sense of wonder and promise.

[sub]"Oh."[/sub] Was all the victim said.

Without another word, strength fled them. Their arm slipped through Ittain's grasp like leaves in the wind or powdered snow, the fluids from their injuries making it impossible to keep hold.

They fell into the depths below, carrying the grandeur of the pearl with them. Neither Lee or ittain heard them reach the bottom - though as they looked down they could barely see, between the flickering, shadowed darting forms of innumerable iridescent wasps in the darkness, a small patch of [i]something[/i] blurry and indistinct, a shade of nothing that could not be - and now that they looked...

The pit was full of them. Full of corpses. Full of a multitude of pearls of impossible color. All decomposing in the darkness, hidden from the world, watched over only by the apathetic iridescent swarms, blind to the tragedy of one and the brilliance of the other.

"No!" It was ittain who screamed when the Pearl was lost. Almost reaching over the edge before Lee got a hold of him. "Let it go old man! Let it go!" the youngling screamed. Knowing full well Ittain would jump if not stopped. The two struggled on the plinth. Lee holding the old man down, Ittain trying to get down. But eventually sanity returned to the old man. Who just went numb. Lee and Ittain walked out, somehow a little more broken than when they entered. "We will return. I swear it to you. Even if I have to sit on that plinth myself, we will get us a Pearl." Lee rarely swore, but the words he spoke then could as well have been written in blood.