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Zorial sprawled backwards on the grass, looking up at the murky green sky and sighed. It seemed no matter what she tried, she just couldn’t capture the right… essence, today. Maybe the angles were all wrong, or the breeze wasn’t blowing the right way, or maybe quite simply she hadn’t been in the natural light for far too long while at the Everlight… But she just couldn’t seem to capture the beauty and exquisite nature of the tower on her canvas.
She longed to capture it the way she’d first seen it when she arrived, evoke the feelings it had made her feel. She’d tried flying all around it, taking in by rote memorization every contour, ever hard edge, every perfect imperfection of the gargantuan light house. She hated that so much of her memory was lost to her, but being here had made her just… so happy. Even with her slight memory recovery upon her first glimpse of the flames, she felt there was so much she could learn, and capture – not just about herself, but the history of her people, the trials and tribulations they faced on this strange and fascinating new world.
Sitting up as her hands gently dug at the soft grass and mosses beneath her, she let out a beleaguered sigh. Maybe if she had some sort of… reference? Someone who had painted it before, surely someone must’ve? It was just too majestic and too beautiful to not have been depicted before the fall.
Abandoning her easel for a moment, she decided to have a short fly around the digsite, hoping something might inspire her, spark her interest. She loved being here, there was no doubt, but even Icyene had bad days on occasion. If all else failed, she might go visit Silvy at his tent, see if he had any leads for her to chase up on.
Circling around the very back end of the site, something began to stand out to her as she looked over all the interns and guild members busily excavating away. On the far eastern end of the acropolis, there was a door that still hadn’t been opened. Swooping down over the sunken remains of the Dominion Games area, she purposefully flew through one of the golden loops.
“Three points!” she thought as she smiled to herself, quickly beginning to control her descent, and touching down just east of a small cache of stars of Saradomin.
There was just something about this door that bothered her. Clearly it was some sort of entrance to under the acropolis… But to what? The fires just outside of the doors were ever-lit, seemingly powered by some sort of magic that she wasn’t privy to. When she’d first examined the area on her arrival, after her maiden flight to just soak in the history, she’d noticed that the sconce was broken, but it appeared as if someone may have fixed it!
She looked around for any nearby interns or laborers, but saw none.
“How strange…” she thought, but brushed aside the worry for the time being.
Examining the repair, she let out a slow whistle. Whoever had fixed it did an immaculate job, it looked brand-spanking new! And what a time to find herself without a torch to place in it… Is what she would’ve thought, if she hadn’t spotted some interns excavating a whole cache of old dominion torches just across the water.
With a quick flight and some sweet words, she’d quickly obtained one, and flown back over, a bit giddy. Normally she wouldn’t break protocol like this and muck about without anyone else, buuuuut the temptation was just too great.
Who knew what she’d find in there!?
Lighting the torch upon one of the ever-lit fires, she carefully ascended the stairs and placed it in the sconce. As it slowly depressed, she heard and felt an ancient rush of salty air zoom past her, ruffling the feathers in her wings.
She couldn’t have been smiling wider as the door to the area swung open just the teeniest bit.
Holding out her hand as she pushed the door all the way open, she peered into the surprisingly well-lit cave, and was disheartened for a moment. Whatever had been under there, was most certainly buried by now.
But, then she reconsidered. Was she not here on an archaeological dig? Perhaps things from above the acropolis had fallen beneath!
With some renewed energy and optimism, she walked into the cave, and began exploring in earnest. Hopping down a small ledge outlined by the usual marble pillars she’d come to be used to seeing during her stay, she found herself in a decidedly much more natural looking cave, with some absolutely gorgeous glowing mushrooms and coral. Maybe some sort of reaction from the Everlight raising out of the water?
Coming upon a small pile of detritus at the base of the landing, she tried to ignore the skeletons as she picked through the pile. With one heave of a heavy rock, she felt like she was going to explode from excitement from what she saw underneath.
Art! Tonnes of it! Paintings of Saradomin, paintings of an Icyene she didn’t recognize but who was decked out with dominion medals from the games and – She had almost started crying happy tears as soon as she saw it.
Paintings of the Everlight. Damaged, some worse than others, but there they were.
This was exactly what she’d been looking for!