We weren’t far from the box. In better lighting, I determined that it was... a box. Not a treasure chest, not a coffin, not even a wooden crate. A box. It had no obvious seams, cracks, or keyhole. I couldn’t even tell what it was made out of.
I could see the cage a little more clearly, too. No prisoner inside, but there was something... a statue of Tenjin, the Visage of Inspiration. She was at the center of a fountain, with water descending from her uplifted hands into the basin below. I thought I caught a glimmer of something metallic near her feet, but it was still too dark to see.
The torch itself was wrought from blackened metal with a glass-encased top, almost like a lantern, but with a visible sphere of orange fire swirling within. I felt fortunate the fire spell had worked. If I’d seen the strange torch more clearly before I tried the plan, I would have assumed the glass would have blocked the spell.
Upon closer examination, I found a piece of fiber. A wick, maybe? It led right into the enclosed glass. That meant the torches could probably be lit through mundane means, too. I hadn’t actually brought any fire starting supplies in my bag, but I’d have to think about that for next time.
“You got enough mana to light the other torches?” I noted five more of them around the room. With some light available, I also turned off my attunement. Keeping it on was going to give me a headache, as well as drain my mana supply.
Patrick grinned, looking visibly more confident now that we had a bit of light. “Yep, I’ll get started.”
He walked over to the next one, put his hand over it, and repeated his incantation. A brief flicker of flame, the torch was lit—
And the room went black.
There was no bell to accompany this event. It was a hiss in the air, a sound of something being torn apart, followed by the growl of something bestial.
At that point, I was no longer merely concerned. I’d made the leap straight to terrified.
Something slammed into me with battering-ram force. I flew backward, smashing into the wall, my shield sigil absorbing as much of the impact as it could. I sunk to the floor.
“Corin?” came Patrick’s uncertain voice.
“Reshing relight the other torch, now!”
I turned my attunement back on just before it hit me again, a clawed hand the size of my torso tossing me along the wall and sending me skidding across the floor.
“I can’t see where it is!”
The beast was fast, nearly on top of me again before I had a chance to reply. It wasn’t truly visible even with my attunement active, more of a blur of disruption within the things I could see. From the blur of movement streaking toward me, I pictured a lion the size of a carriage, trailing multiple spine-laced tails.
I raised my demi-gauntlet and focused my will, pressing raw mana into the device. A sphere of gray mana flashed from my outstretched hand, blasting into my onrushing foe. The impact didn’t stagger it much — I was using the attack function, not the knockback function — but it let out a roar of pain at the impact.
The blast had also briefly illuminated the room enough for me to get a better look at what I was fighting. It wasn’t a lion... it was utterly, horribly worse. It looked more like a horned panther with draconic scales the size of my fist, each of the tails I’d seen before a serpentine tendril that extended from the creature’s spine. The tendrils moved independently and several of them were raised above the creature’s back, looking poised to strike like a snake.
I wanted nothing to do with that thing, but it seemed to have a difference of opinion.
Tendrils descended like spears from the sky.
I focused again, sending mana into the other rune. There was a sharp burst of pain from using so much of my power in rapid succession, but the blast of kinetic energy that ripped out managed to knock the creature back a few steps, throwing the tendrils out of position. They ripped into the stone floor, and then it was dark again.
“Just throw a fireball at it, I’m under attack over here!”
“Oh, goddess! Um, flames of, no...”
Something hit my left shoulder — a smaller impact than the claw had been. I heard a crack and felt a jolt of agony, letting out a roar of my own at the sensation.
I twitched my head to the side just as something else whistled past, intersecting the space where it had been a moment before.
Then there was light, a chime, and the creature retreated, passing right through the wall at my side.
Patrick had relit the first torch he’d ignited. Now that we could see a little more clearly, I groaned and pushed myself into a sitting position.
My left arm was numb, but the pain had largely faded. A glance didn’t show any visible injuries. The shield sigil must have stopped it from piercing through me.
Patrick rushed to my side. “You all right?”
I rubbed at the arm; it wasn’t just numb, it felt cold. “I think so, but I might need to find a healer after this. Nothing urgent. Don’t relight that other torch.”
“No kidding. What do you think that thing was?”
I tried to shrug — and that hurt. Okay, no more moving that arm for a while.
I started to push myself to my feet, and Patrick knelt down and helped haul me into a standing position without prompting. It was a little awkward, but I was grateful nonetheless.
“Not sure. Something related to barghensi and behemoths, maybe, but of a shadow variety? The flames seemed to scare it off. Light probably hurts it.”
Patrick pointed at the wedge I’d seen with my attunement on. “This thing has some writing on it, maybe that’ll tell us.”
He had better eyes than I did. I couldn’t see any writing at that distance. We approached cautiously, but there were no other obvious monsters in evidence.
As I got closer, I saw that my companion was right; the wedge was a stone tablet, floor to ceiling, with tiny letters etched into the surface near the middle. Said middle was slightly higher up than my head. With the low light and the distance, I had some trouble reading it, but I managed to piece it together over a minute or so.
Six visages of goddess see,
The light of mortal destiny.
Two to keep our bodies strong,
A pair to keep our hearts from wrong,