The Lost Ruins, Chapter 1

It was the kind of day that would depress even the most determined of optimists. Thick clouds managed to suck all of the color out of the air without having any kind of definition, making the sky seem as grey as the rest of the world. Rain did not fall, rather, it hung in the air as a thick almost-mist that drenched weary travelers in minutes without hope of stopping it. Adding to the misery was the road, which had long since reduced itself to a lengthy mud pit that threatened to suck boots off with each step. No break in the weather seemed imminent, no end to the grey colorless existence seemed forthcoming.   Of course, that was an ordinary day in Eisen.   Elena Hunt walked in the middle of a stretched-out column of men and women, the members of her expedition. She was slowly making her way back to the front of the group, having completed her quick inspection and attempted morale boost. She doubted that her attempts to cheer her group up had accomplished much, but it was the thought that counted, or so she hoped.   As she passed the center of the column, she spotted Marcus Cunningham trudging along with a determined air to his posture. Elena increased her speed as best as she could in the deep mud, reaching his side without losing a boot or falling over. He noticed her arrival and turned his head to face her. His brown hair was plastered to his head to his head by the rain, and she knew him well enough to know how much that would be bothering him.   “Lovely weather, isn’t it?” Marcus quipped as she drew near.   Elena allowed a scowl to replace the determined smile that she had fixed in place while speaking to the others in the expedition. “Bloody mess is what it is.” Marcus was one of her close friends, so she had no problem letting her true feelings leak out while the two of them were relatively alone in the middle of the mud. She futilely attempted to squeeze some of the water out of the tail that she kept her long brown hair tied in. “Everything about this country is determined to be gloomy.”   “That’s Eisen for you.” Marcus grunted as he forcibly yanked a foot out of the mud.   Elena allowed a soft, but genuine, smile return to her face. “Thanks for coming.”   “Didn’t have much of a choice, did I? I had to keep an eye on my investment!” Marcus smiled to put the lie to his words.   Elena joined his grin. “No, really, I mean it. Thanks for believing in me. If it wasn’t for you, none of this would be possible.”   Marcus waved his hand dismissively. “You’re the one who paid for all of this. All I did was organize everything. Besides, if anyone is going to actually bring back Syrneth artifacts from the Walder, it’s going to be Ellie Hunt.”   Marcus was one of the few people that Elena allowed to call her that. She had known him for years, since just before her mother had left on that voyage that she had never returned from. It was Marcus that had gotten her through the dark months following her father’s death. He was her closest friend, and it was safe to say that no one else knew her as well as he did.   “I’m glad that you believed,” Elena said. “Practically everyone that I talked to said that I was crazy, or that I had a death wish. How did you get so many people to come?”   Marcus was the organization half to Elena’s passion. She used the massive mercantile fortune that she had inherited to fund her wild dreams, and Marcus handled all of the logistical concerns that always seemed to go over her head. Thanks to Marcus’s organizational skills, Elena had been able to leave the Glamour Isles more than once in search of old ruins and the Syrneth artifacts that her father had been so interested in. In fact, when she thought about it, it was really indirectly because of Marcus that Elena had been able to join the Explorer’s Society, which was the only thing in her life that consistently held onto her attention.   “In a word? Money.” Marcus glanced around them at the other members of the expedition. “This group is pretty much all mercenaries, or people who have been on an expedition with us before.” He glanced around idly. “How did you manage to find our guide? I thought everyone in Eisen thinks we’re stupid for trying what we’re trying.”   “I didn’t realize how deeply the fears of the Walder go. No one is willing to go through a haunted forest to explore a set of ruins supposedly guarded by bloodsucking creatures.”   “I wonder why,” Marcus chuckled.   “Well, apparently, there is one guy crazy enough to do it. A colleague in the Explorer’s Society told me about this guy. Nicola Raeder. Goes by Nic. She tracked him down for me, and he agreed to lead us through. He didn’t give a reason why.”   “Speaking of our guide, here he comes now.” Marcus nodded forward, and Elena followed his gaze. Nic was walking towards them, a hulking Eisen man wrapped in a thick traveling cloak. Beside his massive frame, Elena’s slender physique seemed even smaller than usual. People often accused her of carrying too many weapons, with her two climbing axes, bow, and knife, but beside the man walking towards them, her armory was positively conservative. Even with the concealing cloak, Elena could see a bow and two swords slung on Nic’s back, and below the cloak were two knives and a pistol that he was somehow managing to keep dry despite the drizzle. As he drew near, he fixed her with those pale blue eyes that she would’ve found attractive if they weren’t so… hollow.   “The good news is that we’re making good time despite the weather,” Nic said without preamble. His Eisen accent lent his words a flavor that Elena rather enjoyed listening to. “The bad news is that we’re not making good enough time.” He turned to fall into step beside Elena and Marcus. “We will not make it to Kummerholt before night falls.”   Elena glanced up at the slate-grey sky, wondering how in Théah he could tell what time of day it was. The day had not changed in brightness since what she had to assume was sunrise in the morning. She knew better than to question him, though. He knew Eisen better than she ever would. “What do you suggest?” she asked.   “We should find a drier place to make camp for the night. With the weather as bad as it has been, it will not be a good idea to be traveling at night. If we find someplace where we can set up camp without sinking, we will be able to set up a defensive perimeter and avoid most of the dangers out here.”   “I thought we wouldn’t have to worry about the dangers until we got into the Walder,” Marcus protested.   Nic laughed. “There are dangers all over Eisen. We’re less likely to find a Horror out here, but they’re not the only dangerous things out here.” He glanced over at Elena. “With your permission, I’d like to start looking for a place to camp.”   “Go ahead,” Elena told him. “You should know by now that I trust you to lead us to the ruins safely.”   Nic’s grin was somewhere between weary and dark as he said, “Right. ‘Safely.’” He walked away, somehow making the slog through the thick mud look effortless. Elena thought she heard him mutter something in Eisen, but she was too far away to make out a language that she was mildly unfamiliar with. She had a relatively good idea of what he was muttering, though. It was the same thing that everyone else muttered around them.   Back home, safe in her mansion and hundreds of miles away from Eisen, this idea had seemed like so much more of a good one. The largest unexplored set of Syrneth ruins in the known world lay in the northwest section of the Walder forest, there for the exploring. The potential of what might be hidden in those ruins made Elena’s blood sing with excitement, and the thrill of the unknown called to her so strongly that she had made the decision to go to the ruins almost immediately after her return from her last expedition. It was too great of an opportunity to pass up. So what if most of the others who had attempted such a feat had disappeared along the way? So what if everyone was too afraid to join her? It just meant that whatever bounty of artifacts and knowledge in the ruins was truly untapped.   Now that she was actually in the dismal country that held her destination, slogging through the mud and rain with a group of mercenaries and a guide who gave no reasons for joining her and who had demanded what was really a paltry sum of money for his services, Elena was starting to wonder if she should have listened to any one of the people who tried to warn her off of this expedition. Her pride and heart would not allow her to turn back at this point, but she would be lying to herself if she didn’t admit that some of their doubts were beginning to rub off on her.   Then she thought of the looks on the faces of the other members of Queen Elaine’s court when she came back with cartloads of Syrneth artifacts. No longer would they be able to look down at her as just an undeserving scion who failed to live up to her father’s legacy. Her name would go down in history once this expedition finished.   That simple thought was enough to bring a real smile to her lips as she moved to follow Nic towards the front of the column.