The Forest Deep
Part 11
Having notified Medah of their absence through her niece, the two men made their way through the forest via a slightly different path than the day before. Instead of proceeding directly towards the cairn, Menzo first showed Yavan where the long lines faded away. A sign, perhaps, of the limits of Mirrhe’s powers? Yavan pondered this. Black moss could be found so close to the village though… But indeed, it must have some significance.
From there, they marched in a mostly straight line, diverging only to circumvent trees and other obstacles. The knight determined that Menzo’s instincts were even better than he had hoped for, as it was quite obvious that this line, as all the others, was unnatural.
When they finally reached the clearing, Yavan stopped in order to take it all in. He noticed how tree branches extended unnaturally far into the clearing, no doubt to reduce the area touched by the sun. He also noticed how the stone from which the cavern was made seemed to have been torn upwards from the ground. In all of his travels, he had never seen its likeness. How powerful had this creature been? The Vigil felt unease tighten into a ball between his shoulder blades. The more he saw, the less he liked not knowing what had become of Mirrhe’s spiritual essence.
Slowly, they moved into the cavern, lighting the lamp Menzo had recommended bringing despite the sun shining outside. Here, Yavan took stock of what he had described; tall smooth wood shelving units affixed to the walls were filled with bottles and boxes of varying sizes, as one might find in an apothecary shop. Under an area overlooked by several lamps there stood a desk which, upon closer inspection, appeared to have been kept meticulously clean. That in and of itself appeared to be quite a feat considering the dust that likely floated in from the cavern’s opening or lifted from the several grinding stones that seemed located for ease of access, and the ashes from the oven dug in the opposite wall.