Prologue
"I don't know what it is, my friend."
There was no doubting it, whatever they had found was unlike anything either of them had seen before. Sian, the woman who spoke, and Grayson, the man she spoke to had been working together for a lot of arcs. They had seen a lot of things, many of them unusual, some of them impossible. But this? This was like nothing else. Grayson smiled and nodded. He didn't speak, because he could not. Grayson had been unable to speak since the trial of his birth; a fact which had caused many to dismiss him but yet he had an amazing and quick mind.
They had found this item and they had done all the things that they needed to do first, in the initial recording of their findings. They had drawn it, measured it and written descriptions of it. Now, they would take it and transfer it into the area where it could be examined more closely. Grayson put down his notes, picked it up and took it over to the small chest where they kept the samples.
Sian didn't look at him, but lowered her head to examine the ground where the item had laid for so many arcs, lifting her pencil to record what she saw.
Then, Grayson chuckled.
Looking around, Sian saw the dreadful transformation which had overcome her friend and colleague. Her mouth opened to scream, but the scream never left her throat. His hand, covered as it was with the condition spreading rapidly, wrapped around her throat and as she heard her friend speak she considered that Grayson had a beautiful voice even as he snapped her neck as a child snaps a twig.
Looking down at Sian's body, which had already begun its own transformation, the thing that had been Grayson smiled and repeated the only two words it currently knew.
"I live."
20th Ymiden, 717
There was a woman waiting on the docks, a tall human woman with dark hair and caramel coloured skin. She had intense brown eyes and she looked at them each. "My name is Reza. I am overseer of Immortals' Tongue. You are here only because I speak yes when asked." Her accent was thick and her eyes did not seem entirely pleased to see them. Standing with her, however, was a woman who seemed much more prone to being friendly, at least. She had long red hair and might be recognised by some of them. "Hello. I'm Jo'ne, I'm the mayor of Scalvoris Town and I'm here representing the council, the military and the university. Thank you for volunteering your time, we are very grateful."
Looking around at the people gathered, she handed out a piece of parchment to each of them. If they looked, it contained a detailed map of the island with the location of all the shrines on there. "You'll see there, there are ruins near the shrine to Chrein and Ziell. Those were the ruins the first team were exploring when they disappeared. The ruins up more to the north by the shrines to Treid and Vhalar was where the second team was. There is literally no trace of them, it's like the people simply disappeared."
However, Jo'ne explained, the equipment and so on was still there. It was as though the archaeologists had been there one trill and not the next. "So, what we're going to do is we've split you into two teams. Flora team, you'll be in the southern ruins. That's Pash, Padraig and Lakia. Fauna team, in the north. That's Amaris, Kali, Arwel and Tio. Each team will have an archaeologist and a guard with them. Both sets of ruins are above and below ground, so you're going to be in dark places."
She looked around and smiled, then Reza spoke up again. "The Immortals. This place, this ground is sacred. Here, they walk. They dream and they speak. If they speak to you, listen. If you disrespect them, you die." It didn't sound like a threat, more like a statement of fact. "There are monsters here not found anywhere else. Take weapons, do not be afraid to fight. If they look diseased, try not touch. Medical supplies with guides."
Without further ado - and with a little bit of a feeling of trying to get them hurried along (and maybe of shutting Reza up), Jo'ne split them up into their teams and introduced them to their guide and companion.
