Despite moving at a very high speed, he was falling for more than three minutes. As he went the dome got wider and he saw a lot of other slaves climbing their chains and trying to fight off the Scurrilings. Some were already just mounds of decimated flesh, bones, and viscera. Some were also falling off the chains just like him, but he was less worried about them and thinking more about when he was going to hit the ground and die. Fate had something else in store for him.
He got to the end after at least five minutes of falling but instead of meeting solid ground, he found icy cold... blue waters. It was not what he expected, and he had not prepared his mind for it. The impact of colliding with the surface of the water and its extreme coldness both played their strong roles in almost knocking him out and disorienting him. Right was up and up was down.
He could not think straight.
He tried to breathe, forgetting that he had just fallen into the water and it rushed into his throat, choking him. Instead of closing his mouth, he tried to force out the source of his agony which only made it worse for him. Then he remembered that...
'I can't swim'
That was when he came to his senses. He thrashed and refused to open his mouth further as his lungs burned with aching ferocity fighting for the need to breathe, knowing that inhaling would be stupidity.
The world grew dim, and his struggle started to cease. The silence around him became deafening and the burn in his chest started to give way to peaceful numbness. But before he was consumed in the total darkness, he felt something on his chest and the next moment, he was propelled out of the water.
"Now, you owe me one" A masculine voice said.
He could not hear it very well but after a few slaps and squeezes, he came to. He was unsure of what was happening but when his blurry vision went back to normal, he saw that it was the man he met when he first opened his eyes in this place.
"You're awake right, you owe me one," The man said again.
He looked at his surroundings and saw that he was not in the water but on the edge of... he looked up... the sky-tearing pyramid.
"W-What happened?"
"I told you to survive the Prologue and already you lost a hand at the beginning, that's what happened" The man replied.
"I fell from up there," He said, pointing upward.
"Yeah, you're lucky I happened to see you when you fell"
He was still disoriented and confused from his fall but he realized that he was not the only one that was down here. The man was talking to him about survival. How could he be here if he did not fall too?
"You must have also fallen or you would not be here" He retorted.
"No, I was already on the lowest level. It seems like those Scurriling creature thingies don't like this water for some reason"
"I fell from the highest level"
"Wait, really? You're lucky to still be alive"
"Besides, don't you want to take care of that?" The man said and pointed to his severed hand.
That was when he remembered and all the pain his mind had unconsciously locked out permeated his entire being. He gave a pained scream and gripped it tightly. It felt like a thousand needles hitting him at high speed on the same spot. The man walked over to him and ripped a part of his shirt off so it was like a strip. He raised his head and looked at the man and the man looked back.
"What, you thought I was going to use my shirt?"
The man tied the strip around the wound and squeezed it very tightly to try and stop the bleeding. He could not bear the sight of raw human flesh poking out at him so he tore another strip, but from the leg this time, and used it to cover up the wound nicely.
"There is nothing I can do about the pain so you're going to have to manage"
"But why did you help me, you don't even know me," He said.
"I like it when people owe me favors" The man simply replied. "That aside, as a Seeker you can see those fiery texts, right"
"Fiery...texts?"
The man's face suddenly went dark and inquisitive, he was suspicious whether this person he had saved was really a Seeker like him or he was just playing along. He noticed this and immediately responded to the man.
"Oh, you meant those texts that appeared out of nowhere. I can see them, but I can't read them"
The man scoffed "Unlucky you, I can"
He noticed that the man was looking at something invisible in the air and wondered how it was exactly that he could read that rubbish that appeared before them, now his trust in this man was waning. But he also considered that the texts might have been different for the man so he decided to ask.
"You really can read them?"
"Yes, this is Ogham, an ancient script and it says here, my name, species, and inheritance, though I have no idea what that means" The man replied, "Do you want me to help you read yours?"
The fiery texts suddenly popped out of nowhere in front of the man and he saw them.
"Here we go. Now, can you see them?"
He stared at the man and nodded "How did you do that?"
"I don't know, I guess I just.... uh, what's the right phrase to use...yes... I willed for it to happen. Something like that" The man replied. "Can you do the same?"
He tried but there was no result "I don't think I can"
[A Seeker has returned to The Light. His spirit shall forever be remembered]
"We'll focus on that later but right now, we have to find a way into this pyramid"
"Why do we have to get into the pyramid?"
"Do you see any other way to go?"
"Uh... no but-"
"Then get moving, we don't know how long we have"
The man rose to his feet.
He looked at the man with a hint of admiration in his eyes. Even in a situation like this, where they did not understand what was going on and death was one of the options on the table, he carefully analyzed things and moved forward like he was not bothered. If this was a book, people like him would definitely be the main characters. The man could even read the weird language that was appearing before them.
He had to stick to someone like this.
[A Seeker has returned to The Light. His spirit shall forever be remembered]
"What are you waiting for, get a move on"
"Oh sorry"
The pyramid was not as wide at the bottom as he expected but it was still very big. The duo walked around it checking if there was a door that they could access and the man even pushed some parts of the wall to see if they would cave in but they got no positive result. Other slaves were sitting on the bottom of the pyramid already but not once did the man pay any attention to any of them.
When they had spent over half an hour circling the giant pyramid, the man stopped moving.
While they searched for a door he had hoped that his fear would not be the case but now the man stood and stared at the water like it was some kind of gold mine.
'Please no'
"Looks like we might have to swim"
'He said it'
"Hey, you fell before so I wasn't sure but I want to ask. You can't swim, can you?"
Looking a bit contrite, he answered "No, I can't"
The man crouched and looked into the water like he was searching for something "Well that's a problem," He said.
After staring at the water for several seconds he sighed and spoke:
"You have to wait here for me. I'm going to go under the water and check the pyramid. I'll come back to the surface between every one and a half to five minutes on each side of the pyramid. If for some reason I don't come back, well... you're a dead man then"
He felt a bit irritated by that last part. Was the man calling him a burden?
With that statement, he leaped from the lower point of the pyramid on which they stood and disappeared into the water, leaving his unknown guest by himself for a little while.
He sat down, waiting for the man to come back up with trying to decipher those fiery texts as his only way to pass the time.