The monastery's gate spread in a mix of rusty screeches and dust gliding. Before entering, Zho spoke.
"The art above the niche. What do you think, William? What does it mean to you?"
William frowned, observing the symbols; the eroded statue, the kneeling figures, the sun, moon, those moths… He was unaware of whatever that mural meant, though what they previously said gave him some ideas.
"Eh, something important, I guess? The statue is Okkos Zeimey. Those kneeling figures must be the liches and those Yikkhs I don't know about. You said he was their leader and guide them to prosperity."
"What else?"
"Eh… the sun and the moon. They must represent Lord Sekera, god of dusk and dawn. Cycles? Yes… the dusk and the dawn are cycles. You said liches are… we are blessed by him. Okkos Zeimey was his harbinger, or whatever that means."
"Was, is, there is no way for us to know that. And maybe it's how Lord Sekera wants it. What else?"
"Eh, I don't know. Those moths, I saw them before when you transformed. They must mean something. They seem to be connected to liches in some way."
"Notice how there are many, William. They are all flying around the carved stars. This mural was built many hundred years ago. Maybe it had a different interpretation back then. What does it tell us now?"
Maybe the answer Zho wanted was more abstract than concrete. William glimpsed better, feeling the pressure as everyone stared at him.
"You said liches were many and great back then, people worshipped them as heroes. They are in this mural when they were many and great…"
He looked at the white sky past their semi-cavern, varnished by unbreakable layers of clouds. The words that Artur told him the previous day kicked into his mind:
'People say they have forgotten how the stars look like, it's all been covered by clouds in the last years...'
"What else? is that all?"
"You said we liches are about to go extinct. It's a dark era for... us. The sky in Reniram is currently all covered by clouds, and there are no stars at night. There are almost no liches either, compared to what the mural portrays."
"Well, there are many ways to interpret it. Our ancestors thought differently. Don't you think it's interesting how we can learn and look at other possibilities just by looking at ancient art like this one? Let's get inside."
Zho walked through the stairs that led to the iron gate. Miris grinned at William with impressive surprise. Artur grabbed his shoulder and kindly made him hurry up.
Maybe it was going to be harder getting answers about what happened on that coast. Analyzing Zho's words was like analyzing that mural. There were no straightforward answers.
William felt like an adventurer exploring an ancient catacomb inside the monastery. Crossing the gate, the room inside was as tall as eight meters and as wide as 15.
The walls were made of sand-colored hexagonal bricks. Pink and orange lanterns twinkled, hanging through chains from the arched ceiling above.
Four meters from the gate, another pair of short stairs raised into an elevated platform that made for most of that space. That first narrow rectangular area they were in before was about ¼ of its size.
Two statues like the one of Okkos Zeimey outside were on both sides of the stairs. The one on the left wore a combat skirt and a chainmail vest without pauldrons, a horned helm resting on his skull head. He held a thick spear missing half of its upper part with both hands.
The one on the right was covered by a saggy, hooded cloak with the single exception of his hands, raised like a glorified saint. One held a sculpted hanging item, similar to a pocket watch. The other missed everything past its wrist.
The pedestals at the feet of both statues had carved many undecipherable characters. William frowned as he stared at the right one, remembering the shrouded figure of his nightmares.
It was too similar, though he could swear the other one counted with both hands. Maybe it was just his imagination.
It was not like that kind of cloak could be an uncommon item among ancient necromantic magicians…
"What's up, Will?" said Artur. "Impressive, isn't it? Wish I could sculpt something like this one day. All I can do is clay animals. Once I tried sculpting a rose for the daughter of a Sunian noble. That didn't go well. Let's say her guards pursued me through the roofs of the slums around while shooting fire arrows at me. I still have the scars up my ass."
"Pig. Be serious now," Miris rolled her eyes.
William saved his chuckles. Zho stepped between both of them doing an 'ehem' sound, demanding their attention. He faced the shrouded statue.
"That is Seir Lemnek. Listener and first deacon of Lord Sekera after Okkos. He shared his wisdom with the rest of the mortals as a great scribe. It's through his writings that we know most of what we do about those ancient times. He was one of Okkos' right hands, though most have forgotten about his deeds."
"....who is the other one?" asked William.
"He is Akko Khugazid. He fought many battles next to Okkos. Before disappearing, Okkos left him with one mission: to build this monastery, dedicated to his memory and the honor of Sekera. Alongside Seir Lemnek, they would train and give home the incoming generations of liches."
"What happened to them? Were they the first in this order?"
"No. Our order is even older. They only built the monastery and continued with the legacy here in Sukhuul, what you call Reniram today. Things didn't go as planned but that's a lesson for another day. We should continue."
Everyone followed Zho through the stairs after. To think those statues represented ancient great figures, forgotten today was something that almost made William sad.
They advanced, the next section holding even more interesting things…