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It was morbid curiosity, and Mey knew she would pay for it with nightmares, but she couldn't shake the urge to listen to those tragic echoes.
Was it Kalugal's doing?
Was he compelling her somehow without actually saying the words?
As far as she knew, that wasn't possible. Compulsion didn't work like thralling. He couldn't reach into her mind and command her to do something she didn't want to do. He had to verbalize his command, and he hadn't.
He had left the choice to her.
The thing was, no one else could bear witness to the lives lost in this dark place, and Mey felt like it was her obligation to do so because she was the only one who could.
As her companions moved aside to clear space for her and the chamber fell silent, she sat on the floor in the lotus pose and closed her eyes.
She didn't even need to meditate to hear the echoes. The walls vibrated with the intense emotions embedded deep within the rock. At first, the whispers were indistinct, a cacophony of highs and lows, but as she attuned herself, the emotional pitches became clear—sharp cries of fear, the authoritative shouts of orders, the low murmurs of desperate pleas.
The language was foreign, and Mey couldn't make out the words, but emotions transcended the barriers of language. The terror was palpable, the suffering deep, and the finality of the cries indicated a tragic end. The vibrations spoke of a massacre, of lives violently and abruptly extinguished within these very walls.
The intensity of the emotional imprints was overwhelming, and with a gasp, Mey opened her eyes and severed the connection. Her heart was racing, her breath shallow, and with a hand on her chest, she shook her head.
"I shouldn't have done this. It was a slaughter. So much fear and pain..." She trailed off, unable to continue.
Yamanu knelt next to her and wrapped her in his arms. "It was a very long time ago, love."
"I know." She lifted her eyes to him. "But tragedies like this still happen today. We think that humanity has evolved since those dark days, but it hasn't. Not really." She turned to look at the two gods. "When I was still human, I believed in God, the creator, the divinity, and I held on to that belief even after turning immortal, only adding the Fates to my arsenal of entities to pray to. But after witnessing things like this, it's difficult to believe in a benevolent force."
Negal looked lost for words, and Dagor regarded her with sympathy in his eyes. "We don't have any answers, either. Perhaps the Kra-ell have it right, and their Mother of All Life is a merciless deity that rewards the brave and punishes the cowardly. Who knows, right?"
Mey offered Dagor a sad smile. "Apparently, no one. We are just specks of nothing on the enormous tapestry of the universe."
"I prefer to think that we are everything," Kalugal said. "We are the creators of reality, and therefore, we are all divinities. Each one of us." He grinned. "Well, the good who create are divinities. The bad who destroy are monsters and demons, and it's a never-ending battle in which the good eventually wins."
Mey didn't know whether to laugh at Kalugal's bombastic statement or to actually ponder it, but in either case, it made her feel a little better.
Rising to her feet, she dusted off her jeans and leaned on Yamanu for comfort. "I don't know if that's true, but it's definitely a more positive outlook. Thank you."
"You're welcome." Kalugal tilted his head. "Now, the question is whether you learned something useful from these walls."
"Only that this chamber was used for sacrifices. If the amulet is nearby, perhaps we shouldn't touch it. What if it induces a killing spree?"
"Or turns people insane," Jacki said. "Did anyone think to bring gloves?"
"I did." Jin produced a pair of latex gloves from her back pocket. "I thought that Kalugal would make us dig for the treasure, and I didn't want to get my fingernails dirty. They are a bitch to clean."
"Good thinking." Mey clapped her sister on her back. "If we find the amulet, we will use the gloves to pick it up."
"Where to now?" Jacki asked Kalugal.
He consulted his map again, turned in a circle, and pointed toward a length of the wall that didn't seem any different than the rest except for the symbols carved on it.
"I guess we need to decipher the riddle of the symbols again."
Jacki peered over his shoulder at the map. "It doesn't provide the sequence for this entrance."
"It doesn't, but I think I can figure it out. If not, we can always blow a hole in the wall to get in."
Rufsur patted his huge duffle bag. "I have all we need for that in here."
Frankie
