Soon we reached the entrance into the pyramid where we had left our things. Getting down went much faster than going up and took just a few hours, but it still felt not fast enough. Knowing that a world is approaching its end is normal – entropy and whatever, natural course of the universe. The disturbing thing was to personally see the process in its late stages.
While we were gone, the campfire had died out. I just had to pick up my huge bundle I carried on my back and Eala grabbed her helmet and armor. I had no idea how, but obviously she was is no way feeling hindered by the heat, even with the thick jacket worn under the armor. And even with the high humidity beneath the eaves of the jungle, her jacket somehow remained dry. Unfortunately, she could not explain what it was made of, as it had been traded from some other distant world. She hung her helmet and gauntlets over the sack that she carried on her back, though.
Then, we set off towards the supposed Bial.
—
At first, I estimated that we will reach the city in no time. As it turned out, I was mistaken. Trekking through a jungle with no paths or roads turned out to be a time-consuming and definitely non-linear process. And while I did not get tired and Eala’s agility put her far above any human, she still needed to rest.
And after we had passed an approximately twenty-kilometer boundary from the pyramid, we could finally see the return of the wildlife. First, only some insects could be seen. Next came the snakes, birds and mammals. What was surprising, I thought I recognized some of the species. Resplendent quetzal and rainbow-billed toucans were easiest to notice and recognize thanks to the memories of Animal Planet TV, and that placed us geographically into an equivalent of the Central America.
—
We also kept conversing about various topics. Mostly, we discussed the science. As Eala explained, due to Clann Taistealai travelling across the worlds, they had no uniform education – some worlds had different basic laws of nature, making most of the prior knowledge obsolete and sometimes, even deadly. And while the transition between the dimensions enabled the person to slightly adjust to new conditions, if differences were too incompatible, the organism would be unable to adapt and therefore die. Or in some extreme cases, utterly cease to exist is physical, metaphysical or both senses. Taistealaithe had special methods to confirm the habitable dimensions, which generally tended to surround the First World, as they called it. As much as I could guess, First World was the world the original clan of Nemed lived in and where Taistealaithe and Tuatha Dé Danann originated from. Was it Ireland from the Earth I knew? I had no idea and no way to check.
However, while the elves of Clann Taistealai rarely got organized education, Eala was greatly interested in all the topics I could remember. And thanks to modern, twenty-first century education and my perfect memory, I could accurately quote over twelve years worth of textbooks about physics, chemistry and biology. Mathematics was more tricky, as it was difficult to explain while on the move. Eala had a good head for mathematics. Much better than I used to have, in fact. Now, however, I could keep counting the digits of Pi pretty much endlessly. I shrugged, as I thought about the uselessness of that particular skill.
—
One supposed evening, campsite, rainforest, unknown location.
“Victor.”
“Mmm?”
“You told me about mesoamerican civilizations on Earth where you are from?”
“Yes?”
“You said, they believed in numbers?”
“Well, I read that they were really into the numerology, yes.”
“And they had special belief in five?”
“Hmm, yes. Stability, completeness, vigesimal numeral system. Why are you bringing that up?”
“There are five pyramids around here. Vigesimal?”
“Based on twenty. Hm, five fingers, five senses. Perhaps. But, there was a ton of civilizations in mesoamerica, you know? And that knowledge is not very helpful here. You said yourself, that original inhabitants of that world disappeared and then other people came and lived here.”
“Well, you kept staring intensely at these pieces of stone we keep encountering, you know?”
“I do? Seems I have watched too many Indiana Jones movies.”
“What is that?”
“Oh, let me tell you about that. One of my favourite movies, you know.”
“Movies?”
“Argh, now I have to explain what are movies. First, let’s see, remember I talked about physics of light…?”
—
I had sensed moving presences in front of us a few minutes before Eala hissed: “Stop!”
“What is the problem?” I asked, as I turned to face her. We had seen some huge snakes and something, that was very similar to jaguars (but bigger) before, but these tended to stay away from us, and did not warrant such reaction.
“These are not animals. These are what attacked us.” – she shook her head.
“Oh.” – I initially did not pay much attention, but as I focused, I felt that the approaching presences were somewhat different from the usual animals. Most importantly, they felt wrapped up in foreign power, or magic that did not belong to them. That prompted me to ask Eala: “By the way, what are these? You said your group was attacked when travelling, and most of your horses were killed by them? Back then, your English was insufficient, and later on we did not return to that. But now…?”
“Different things.”, Eala recounted what she knew – “We met several things. There were a lot of different, very weird creatures. They had metal and stone attached to heads. And then, big creatures made of stone, metals and wood. And also, very weird, shadows. Like people, but shadows – very cold, very difficult to kill. But they did not cause much damage, just annoying.”
I arranged the information: “So, you met mind controlled monsters, golems and ghosts? Peachy. Anything else?”
“We were in hurry, so we mostly ran. Don’t know if anything else.”
“So we got a magic monster wonderland going on here. Welcome to Chachacha, School of Shamanism and Spiritism, duh.” – I grumbled as I adjusted the grip on my poleaxe.
—
The several presences of unidentified “something” were approaching. The complex patterns of the wildlife in the surrounding forest and the coiling magic around the approaching beings made it difficult to analyze their exact shape. Except for their height being around three meters and also having a significant bulk, I could sense nothing unless they got close enough.
I dropped my pack on the ground, while Eala fixed her helmet and gauntlets. Then, to my surprise, with a flick of her hand, she created a thin, clear sword from the water. I had actually forgotten to ask her about her weapon – all other members of her group had something, except for her. Now I clearly saw that she was rather proficient in creating a high-pressure, high-frequency oscillating water blade. It had no fancy shape, just a straight blade with no crossguard, curves or anything, slowly coming to a sharp tip at the end. And I fully expected her to have more surprises up her sleeve.
Meanwhile, the presences were approaching.
200 meters…
150 meters…
100 meters…
75 meters…
60 meters…
50 meters…
40 meters…
And then, when they approached to the 30 meters mark, we could finally glimpse a look at them from between the trees.
Circle of Shards 