Teth stops abruptly in her tracks. “…Oh. Or maybe this is it.” She tilts her head at the statue. “Uh… Kovi said we had to meditate at the shrine, right? And this looks like it… who volunteers to talk to a deity? Because I don’t.”
Resh looks at the statue, then looks back down at Teth. “I’ll do it. I think I’m the least likely one here to fuck this up.”
Teth nods. “Yeah, fair enough. So I guess you gotta just… sit down on the floor like the statue is?”
Resh looks a bit nervous. “Probably.” He slowly walks over in front of the statue. He looks back at Teth and Tsadi, then sits down on his knees, mimicking the statue’s pose. He takes a deep breath and closes his eyes. I hope this works.
There’s a long silence.
And then, Resh is transported to somewhere else. At least in his mind. Like a dream or a vision.
It’s the same circular platform from before, this time in a starry abyss. And instead of a sitting statue, the woman stands in front of him, towering over him by several feet. She holds in her hand a large hammer.
Resh opens his eyes and looks around, then looks up at the woman. That must be this world’s Teth. He stays silent for a while trying to find his words. “…Hello.” That was horrific, dumbass-
Teth seems to look into Resh’s soul with her stare of glowing eyes behind her stone mask. She seems the slightest bit surprised at Resh’s greeting. She crouches down on one knee, still looking down at Resh. ”What has brought you here, Resh Corvus?” Her voice echoes through the abyss until it fades to a whisper.
Resh seems a bit anxious. He shudders slightly, Teth seems to creep him out a tiny bit. “Uh… me and my friends have been sent to this world, against our will, and we have no idea what caused it. We need to find a way to get back home, to our own world, and we were told that you might be able to help..?”
Teth sighs, closing her eyes. “Never before has this happened. I am not the Elder of Knowledge, and therefore I am not the one you seek. I am… sorry that I can be of no use.” She opens her eyes again, looking down at Resh. Her gaze is less harsh than before. There seems to be more she wants to say.
Resh looks a little disappointed, but quickly masks it. “…Oh. Alright then. I, uh- sorry for wasting your time.” He’s curious about what else she wants to say, but doesn’t say anything.
“Time is only a factor for mortal beings. You have wasted nothing.” Teth’s voice changes to a kinder tone when she says this. She also seems to sense Resh’s curiosity. She stands up, using her hammer to aid her. “I will tell you this, Resh Corvus. Something has gone very wrong to have you and your friends brought here. Something unnatural. I can only assume forces beyond natural may be the ones to help you return.”
(✨it’s me, hi, I’m the problem, it’s me✨)
(Careful she might hear you /j)
Resh nods, then tilts his head. “Where… uh, where would I find this Elder of Knowledge that you mentioned?”
Teth nods, and with a gesture of her hand some of the stars—or rather, tiny glowing orbs—around them coalesce into a map in front of Resh. It seems to be of the world they’re on. She points to the upper-right part of the landmass on the map. “You will need to travel to the Starlight Desert. At the top of the main vault is the Temple of Lamed. The Elder of Knowledge.”
She then points to a different part of the map, on the opposite side. “You are here, at the connecting point between the snowy mountains and the Forest. At my temple.” She looks back down at Resh once again. “You have a long journey to go, young one. Be careful who you meet along the way.”
Resh looks at the map, then looks back up at at Teth, smiling slightly. “Thank you.”
Teth bows at Resh. There’s a hint of a smile in her eyes. “You are very welcome. Now, I think you should be getting back to your friends.” She crouches down once again, holding out a hand to Resh.
Resh nods, then takes her hand, closing his eyes again. We’ve got a lot of wandering to do- hopefully we can find a way home…
(I know that technically, portals exist, but also I want them to wander around the realms-)
The vision ends, and Resh is brought back to his own body.
In front of him lies something that wasn’t there when he first sat down—a scroll of paper. But it wasn’t really paper, anyone could tell. It had a dark blue, nearly black coloration.
The statue had changed too. The eyes were open now, and glowing just like the other ones. And Teth herself, as Resh knew.
(Just this once there’s way less portals in the world and also even though they still exist no one tells them about the portals because they just assume “everyone knows about the portals”)
Resh looks around, then looks at the… paper? Is that paper? No, that’s not right. He picks it up, narrowing his eyes slightly.
Teth and Tsadi watch as Resh starts looking around. Teth gives him a small wave. “Welcome back to the land of the living.”
Resh looks at Teth. “Hello-“ He looks back at the scroll-thing as he stands up. Wonder what this is.
It’s the same map of the world that Teth showed him, glowing dots and all. A map made of stars. Only, it was smaller. And the borders of the map have words in an unrecognized language all the way around.
(The map of forest is a bit useless if they’re uh, leaving forest-)
Resh tilts his head. “Ohh- it’s the map. That’ll be useful.” He looks back over at Teth and Tsadi. “She told me that she couldn’t help… but there’s this Elder of Knowledge that can. We just need to travel all the way to the other side of here-“ He points to where they are, then drags his finger in a straight line across to where Teth had told him to go. “This is gonna take a long time, that’s for sure… oh- she also said that we’re at the connecting point between the forest and the, uh… snowy mountains. Yeah. So I’m pretty sure that door over there leads to the mountains.”
Teth tilts her head as she listens to Resh. “Snowy mountains? That sounds right up your alley.” She grins, then looks over at the door. “Well, we should probably get going if this is gonna be a long journey, shouldn’t we?”
Resh nods, and the three of them all head to the door on the other side of the temple.
