The Eye of Kythlekh

<font color='#000080'>|:| O O C |:|

This thread is private for Jules (Katrina). Julia, I hope I didn't play for your character in the last paragraph - I had no idea how to end it

<ul type=square>
<li>Day: 25
<li>Month: Mia
<li>Year: 81378
</ul>

|:| I C |:|

Late afternoon shadows were beginning to sift through the courtyard, creating bizarre mosaic patterns on the ground. A thin layer of grayish slush coated the ground, trodded and mushed up by thousands of feet. Clouds covered the skies in an iron drapery, occasionally letting the faint Mia sun penetrate them and splash a puddle of beige in the courtyard.

Being Midwinter, it was an official "No school" day and the Janardan Academy was positively deserted. It was the kind of lazy afternoon when everyone dropped dead, preferring to scratch and stretch in the warmth and coziness of their dorms. No one cared to venture out into the draughty corridors, much less into the dull outside.

Ronnica was an exception. She was being bored to death, since most of her classmates were gone somewhere or had different plans for the day. The fog-colored skies reflected in her scales as the pale pendragon wondered across the empty courtyard, getting her feet covered in molten snow. She was wearing a hazel brown cloak for protection against the whims of the weather, and she huddled into it, her paws thrust deep into its pockets.

She stopped outside a bolted side door a huge sign saying "STAFF ONLY" plastered over it, the corners peeling off. The doors were shut, but Ronnica was sure that the slightest tug would pull them ajar, allowing her to enter. She leaned her back against the wall, whistling and toying with a clasp on her cloak. Meanwhile, brown eyes scanned the windows, checking to see if there were no prying faces hidden behind the glass. Yet there was no one. In a flash, the pendragon pulled the door open and slid inside, slamming it behind her. She chuckled in excitement, then opened the door yet again and peered through the narrow crack. Nobody around.

Wait. Was there really no one around? Ronnica frowned, trying to squint at the potential witness of her wrong-doing. In the end she managed to see their face; a sigh of relief escaped her lips. For outside, in the courtyard, was standing a female pendragon that Ronnie knew well from the Healing class. The pale girl allowed the crack between the door and the wall widen, and stuck her maw out.

"Katrina!" she hissed, "In here! Quick!"</font>

 

<font color='#000080'>|:| O O C |:|

XD. I'm your Internet Stalker, remember? And I still have to give you back your knives. The umbrellas tend to get torn when I tie them on.

.:looks up from reading Katrina Sull's profile:. A kitara? Cool! Anyway, just wanted to share that in czech, "kytara" means "guitar" LoL

|:| I C |:|

She closed the door as soon as Katrina was over the treshold, leaving only a little crack so the door could be opened. She frowned through the gloom, detecting a hint of worry in her classmate's face. That made her work a quick change of plans. Originally, Ronnica had just planned to blurt out "Let's go and explore!" and dash into the corridor behind them, but looking at Katrina, she had her doubts that it would work. She could always go exploring on her own, but it was more fun if there were more trespassers.

"Hi Kat!" she said cheerfully, "Sorry to pull you in like that. It's going to be boring at the school today." She gave a small sigh. "Everyone's either out or has work to do."

This wouldn't do much good, but Ronnie had to start the conversation somehow. She took her paws out of her pockets - where they went stright after she closed the door - and rubbed them together, luring at least some warmth into her clasped palms.

"I was wondering if you would like to go exploring," she suggested at last. No beating around the bush. "There's never anyone around here and it's bound to be interesting. I've heard that this place is where all the stuff that keeps the school running is kept. The machines and stuff." Despite herself, Ronnica was becoming excited. It showed on her face as she glanced over her shoulder into the passage, noticing a staircase leading somewhere down. The bowels of the school.

"The only reason why it's forbidden to go there is probably the machines," she shrugged, "And stacks of books and equipment. They're surely scared that someone will steal the things, or that someone will get lost. They wouldn't keep dangerous things at school. I mean," she rubbed her thumb against the rough surface of the door, "This door is so frail that it would take one shove and anything that needs to be kept secret would run out into the public."

Her paws travelled back into her pockets, because the air here was not much warmer than outside. She looked at Katrina hopefully, her face a dull gray in the darkness.</font>

 

Ronnica could hardly hold herself from jumping up and down in joy. She had, for a moment, been sure that Katrina would refuse the offer. When she agreed though, the pale pendragon almost heard the weight fall from her mind. It's great, there's going to be some decent exploring at last.

"That's great!" she said softly, a smile flickering across her face, "And don't worry about that. We'll get out by a window if we need to. As a matter of fact, there's a nice one just over there, though it's sure we won't need to use it." She pointed towards the far wall, and there was a small window all right, set in the thick wall and offering barely enough light to illuminate the corridor. It was wide enough for a pendragon to slide through, and Ronnica guessed that it was probably used to deliver coal to school. If they still used coal, that is.

"Let's go!" she said and made for the stairs, walking a few steps downwards. then she had to stop, because it was so dark she couldn't see anything. Sliding her paws over the walls and ceiling of the low area, she managed to find an automated torch, resting peacefully in its bracket. With one quick sweep, it roared ablaze with orange fire, giving of enough light for both of them to go by. Ronnica whistled the victory song quietly, getting the tune wrong. She never had an ear for music, and she soon realised this, ceasing to make any sound. Instead she checked the torch over, making sure the battery was full. It was. These automated things resembled real torches, except they were made of plastic. They used energy and plasma to make "fire", and didn't burn down. That was very handy, since you weren't in the danger of getting your fingers burned. And no sap dripped on you hands either.

The stairs leveled out into another corridor, the air stale and unstirren with age. It was pitch black here, save for the small circle of light that their torch cast on the ground. Whispering shadows danced around the edges, not daring to venture forward, but, on the other hand, not bothering to melt in the darkness behind them.

 

"True, true," mumbled the fog-colored pendragon, "If they just made another library, or a new set of dormitories, or something like that here, they'd save and awful lot of space down here, nuh?"

She trod forward, pretending not to hear the irritable sigh that Katrina had let out behind her. They'd better find something soon. Or Katrina will bore herself to death, chuckled Ronnica in her mind and she quickened her step, poking around the occasional corner and trying different doors they passed. In vain. Everything was locked, locked and sometimes the sound of a bolt could be heard as Ronnie shook the door.

"Ouch!" the pendragon cried, tripping over something and narrowly missing a long slide down a rusty iron staircase. She managed to catch hold of a railing though and hung on with some kind of grim satifaction, trying to distinguish the things that lay below them. It was aparently some kind of a engineering room, with huge metal objects sticking out from the ground below.

"Wow," whispered Ronnica, eyes wide, "I think we've found something at last..."

She hurtled down the staircase, each of its steps creaking and swaying slightly as she lay her weight on them. Her paw was red from the rust that had eaten through the railing, and Ronnica was rather glad when she reached the ground. She twirled the torch around, her gaze taking in and trying to understand what this all was about.

She was about to take a step forward, when an odd creaky sound broke the suffy silence. The torch fell out of her hand, and Ronnica bent to pick it up, noticing the floor that she was standing on. It was made of big stone tiles, and ever though all of them were squared, the one she was standing on appeared to be a star-shape.

"Kat? Come and have a look at this!" she called out to the other pendragon and took a step back to have a better look at the star-shaped tile.

It had seven points and each one appeared to hold an intricate design. Ronnie crouched down to check it out and after a moment of concentrated staring, she realised the design was infact a letter. A letter of the alphabet.

"This is amazing!" she breathed out, then began mumbling each letter as she worked her way around the star, "L... H... Y... K... another K, this is weird, a T... an E... and another H. It looks like some kind of secret message or something. But what does 'lhykkteh' mean? Katrina, can you speak Ramathian?"

 

|:| O O C |:|

.:blush:. Have you seen the Sydney Fox series? I was inspired by one of them in this little matter.

|:| I C |:|

"Oh..." Ronnica's face contorted into a frown, "If it was 'Kythlekh', we wouldn't need to translate anything. You've heard about that legend about the creation of the Ramath-lehi? About the Nothingness, or Kythlekh? But I do wonder... what is the purpose of this thing?"

She put one paw forward and gently traced over one of the letters. It was cold and unmoving against the the bottom of her index finger, almost burning with cold. Ronnie shivered. She glanced around, noticing for the first time the things in the room. There was a huge dark shadow on her right, opposite to the staircase they had come from. She squinted through the gloom, managing to make out a couple of wheels and pedals, small round glass measuring utils glistening on the walls. The whole machine was silent... actually everything here was quiet. Whatever the stuff was, it was either broken or useless. It wasn't being used anyways.

"Why would they stick a decorative tile in here?" the pale pendragon muttered, returning to the star. It was exciting and mysterious in its own way. One moment Ronnica felt a faint urge to jump down on it, but that brief second passed almost as soon as she was aware of it.

"Let's say it was meant to say 'Kythlekh'," she said merilly, putting one paw down on a 'K' and putting her weight on it, "I'll just... oh!"

She cried in surprise, because the letter sank five centimetres into the floor, creating a very shallow depression. Ronnie withdrew her patte, looking shocked.

"Oh dear," she said, her eyebrows knotted together in an anxious grimase, "I hope I haven't done anything. I would hate to ruin it."

But nothing happened. The whole room remained silent and intact, except for the gray cavity that extended itself at Ronnie's feet. A spark of a sudden idea passed over the female's face, and she hesitatntly stuck her paw over the star again.

"Let's try something..." she said slowly, then pressed her hand down onto the 'Y'. The engraved stone followed it's brother and sank a little, creating a new, grotesque symetry. Ronnica grinned, glancing at Katrina. Then, slowly and deliberately, she pushed down one letter after another, the 'T', the 'H', the 'L', spelling the name of Nothingness as she went... As soon as the last letter, the 'H', had been pressed into the ground, the whole room shook. Or maybe that was too far-fetched. Ronnica felt her legs sway and buckle underneath her, and she fell down to her knees, staring at the strange perfomance that was taking place in front of her eyes.

For the star-shaped tile had divided itself and, powered by a secret mechanism, no doubt, moved away from sight, leaving a square hole with hewn stone steps leaving downwards, into the dark.