Bel nodded, brought her hands up to her lips, and slowly exhaled into them. The light around them grew brighter, though it didn’t seem to be coming from her hands anymore. With the intensity of the light turned up threefold, the two youths could finally clearly see the inside of the room around them.
The room was about the size of the town hall in Mintas though much taller, with the ceiling hiding somewhere in the darkness far overhead. The walls were made of some sort of white stone that seemed to have an inherent sparkle. Part of the room , the section farthest from the main door, was raised higher than the rest by about three short steps. A single piece of solid black stone, about four feet square on the side and eight feet wide, sat in the center of the dais, a massive crack running the length of it.
Two doorways, one with a shattered wooden door still stubbornly clinging to the hinges, sit on opposite sides of the back wall, just behind the shattered black stone. Kre assumed that was where Bel had emerged from, since she didn’t follow them in through the main doors. Piles of rotted wood and rusted metal braces have been pushed against the walls around them, possibly the remnants of furniture from ages past.
The room was otherwise clean, with no sign of dirt or dust, as if it was routinely swept clean. Kre briefly wondered if Bel performed routine dusting or if she had known they were coming and prepared for their arrival.
“Well, that’s silly…” he muttered to himself, startling the two ladies with his sudden outburst. He looked up and blushed, “I’m sorry… I was just thinking that the place seems so clean.”
A visible shudder seemed to roll through Kitalia’s body as she glanced around with nervous eyes. Kre held back his instinctual desire to step forward and help her, knowing that he would likely only receive physical punishment for his efforts.
“What’s the big deal with the Ylveryan and the Ancients? You never answered that before.”
Kitalia waved a hand dismissively and turned her attention to Bel. “I take it that we are in a temple of sorts?”
Bel nodded, “A very old temple dedicated a very long time ago. There is still power here, which is why I brought you here of all places in this lost city.”
“What sort of city was this? Was it a capitol like Sandort?” Kre seemed genuinely interested, though he admitted to himself that he rarely cared about history while he was in school.
“Even I don’t know the legacy of this city, but I do know that it was named Gashun. That much, at least, I was able to learn from my explorations down here.”
“Sounds like somebody sneezed,” Kre muttered again, not able to keep his inner thoughts from being verbalized.